Twinkle's Story: Chapter 44

*I'm finally back with a new chapter!*
*Aww... Man... Ahem, I mean it's been a while.*
*Well, hope you enjoy this chapter. Or not. I don't know what you'd think, so.. I'll be quiet now.*
*Hopefully, my writing has improved.*
*Is it just me or am I sounding nervously awkward typing this stuff before the chapter up?*
*Okay, now here's Chapter 44. ^-^'*
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TWINKLE

I won't stop, I won't stop, I won't stop. Not until I can see you, feel you again. I'd do whatever it takes to be within your reach again. I'd gladly do anything for you. Anything at all...

When I spot Dawn's mountain, its peak a dusty brown on the navy blue horizon, I pause. Through short breaths, I look up at the sky watching the last remaining stars in the sky fading away to prepare the approaching dawn. I ran for the whole night.

The whole night. What has gotten into me? 

Despite my mind telling me to stop and rest, I end up jogging in place and then closer to the mountain. When I gracefully leap over a rock in the middle of the path I made myself, I hear that voice in my head again. That soothing voice like silk. I'd recognize it anywhere- it's the winged fox.

"I know why you won't stop running for him," she murmurs, her lips carefully brushing the inside of my skull. I shake my head in both surprise and disgust after she finishes that vague sentence.

I feel her cold yet calming breath inside me again. Her voice alone can let anyone know how beautiful she must be. She breathes, "You're not the only one."

I think hard and speak to her in my head. "Not the only what? Why can't you ever explain anything to me?"

What she says next, makes me stop in my tracks immediately. "You're running because you always were, always are, the true. You're growing desperate to see him because you're the eternal match. You're also a reincarnation that has a connection to the Zios' son, Fierdan, but you're the right eternal match. You two are connected to each other in so many ways it's unimaginable."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up, hold up!"

She completely ignores me and continues. "You are the right destined match in this tale of eternal love. Ice and fire are the true, not nature and fire. Fire and nature combined will just result in a burned down forest, a destroyed world; fire and ice combined will result in the world's balance and peace. Dawn has always been a fake; she's just in the way. There's a reason your love exists the way it does."

 "Who exactly are you?" I say, her words still mesmerizing me. Reincarnation? Me being the true eternal love match? Connections, destiny... What is going on?

Oh, don't tell me--

I feel her entire body inside me now, her paws giving the back of my shoulderblades a gentle squeeze. "You'll find out soon enough," she replies.

I feel her spirit weaving around all the parts of my inner body. I can sense a glowing, bright blue aura filling up my insides. Then the necklace, now Mira's wings, glows more brightly. Before I can think of anything else to do, I see these tiny turquoise doves each one the size of a claw escape out of the zipper of my black jacket. They flap their glossy wings up and down as they form a tight circle around me in level with my waist. My fingers on the top of my zipper, I pull it down to open up the jacket. The turquoise buttons on my shirt from before are now vanished. It doesn't take a genius to know that those buttons are now these tiny doves. Without thinking of anything else to do, I completely take the jacket off, letting it fall right behind my feet.

For some reason, I can sense her grinning at me. The glowing blue light still wrapped around me on the inside finally escapes outward. Two fairly large wings show where the two glowing blue lines in my shoulders escaped to exit my body. Like how a bird's wings have bones, hard, thick silver ice serve as the "bones" for these wings coming from me. The rest of my wings are made up of the familiar bright blue color, it connected to the ice "bones" that branch off like branches from a great tree. Just like how Duke's wings are made out of flames, mine are made out of ice.

However, unlike Duke's wings that can easily flap up and down in the breeze, my wings feel too sturdy and solid to easily move them. I just stand there awkwardly with two ice wings frozen in place spread out on my left and right.

"Aerial connection from originators- check," the voice suddenly says. After she says that, I feel her presence inside of me fading away to nothing.

When I'm sure no one else is inside of me, I close my eyes and chuckle. I know who you are...

I open my eyes, my brightly glowing blue eyes.

... You are me.


DUKE

Despite being locked in this strange grand bedroom, I can't lay my head on the pillow and sleep. Instead, I just sit in the middle of the bed looking down at my legs that hang off the side of the bed. I sigh and say aloud even though I'm alone, "Why are they doing this? Why do they care so much about me? What have I done to deserve this?"

Oh, right. Because of her. They probably want me to look my best when we supposedly meet up with her. 

The two government fakes who are the cause of all this have done a great job with it too. Mysterious, abandoned mansion, fancy meal, this room, even fixing up my hair. What the heck are they doing- treating me like royalty or something?

Not that I hate that or anything. I'd take the scents they put on me rather than the stench of week-old dirt, grease, and sweat. But it just seems like too much. Like Twinkle. She could use some of this stuff too- a shower at least.

Not that she's terrible for not being cleaned up like me. After all the time we spent in this desert-like climate, she never lost her beauty. Not fake beauty like in makeup, true beauty. The twinkling sparks in her eyes, her soft, flowing hair, her smile, the way she looks right after she cries for me...

Tears that have been welled up in my eyes for hours finally let loose and fall down both sides of my face. Why do we always end up separated? We're supposed to be together, not like this.

I sniff. "Why does everyone I love get away from my reach? Why do I cause everyone to go?"

What the heck is wrong with me? Earlier today, I could only think of ways to kill Dawn. Squeezing the life out of her, burning her, her blood splattering my entire body, kissing her lips softly before watching her slump to the ground... 

What is wrong with me?! Wanting to love her after brutally killing her? Why do I keep on having these messed up thoughts?!

"It's because you're broken just like me, Duke."

I feel shivers crawl down my neck and back at the sudden voice. Fierdan, blasted Fierdan who made me messed up. Of course it has to be him. 

When I turn around toward the source of the voice, to face him, I stare at him surprised.

He doesn't look like a powerful, evil killer at all. Even the stuff that makes him look intimidating as a spirit isn't there. He's just... there.

I eye the slumped fox form curled on the bed suspiciously. He's covered in this black goop-like substance, but it doesn't fall off of him. It just stays there attached to his body.

Finally, I speak aloud. "Why are you here, Fierdan?"

 Despite the hatred in my voice, I feel guilty for speaking like that to him. Him here, right now, on this bed. I cringe when I hear his voice that sounds shockingly weak and soft again.

"W-We're both broken, Duke. But I have to... have to ask you something. O-Okay?"

Before I can say anything else, Fierdan sits up on the bed, his arms tightly hugging his legs. He looks up at me with a child-like innocence in his dark brown eyes. Not red, not purple, not black. Just normal, brown eyes. But looking at the rest of his face and body disturb me greatly. In addition to the black goop that covers a good majority of his body, scars in red, black, and purple cover the parts of his body that aren't covered in the goop. Some of them even crisscross; the purple and black lines of two scars crossing over a thicker red line of another scar. They're everywhere too. All over his face, down his neck, a web of the three colors on his chest, down his legs, all the way to the tip of his raggedy tail.

Without caring that much that he's naked on my bed, I ask, "What happened to you? Did all your horrid deeds come back to you?" I snicker.

"Actually," he starts in that haunting innocent whisper, "Most of these came from me not killing. Not killing when it orders me to," he takes a quick pause and continues, "The rest come from your very existence."

Annoyed that he blamed me for looking the way that he does, I snarl, "Have you ever thought they came from all the blood you spilled? The blood of all the innocent people you murdered for fun? You deserve--"

"No," Fierdan says weakly but in a firmer tone. "No. I know who caused these scars- there are no whats. Oh and I never murdered for," he moves a finger on each paw in a quote motion, "fun."

I glare at him, resisting to give in to his poor, fragile appearance.

Fierdan speaks again. "Please, Duke, please. Why did I have to create you for you to only torture me? Why was I forced to create you to remind me of my past, who I was? Why do you have to hurt me so much for simply existing the way you are?! Why?!"

I stand up and look down on the bed, blindly. Staring into Fierdan's wide, fear-stricken eyes, blindly. Why can't I feel any form of sympathy for this guy? He's crying, breaking right before my eyes, but I can't comfort him. Why am I so heartless? What the heck is wrong with me?!

Before I can argue with myself in my head any longer, I hear a long, very high-pitched, petrified shriek.

When I reopen my eyes after closing them when I heard the shriek, I see Fierdan lying on his stomach on the bed, his face buried in the bed sheets.

With a fresh new red scratch running down his back.

And just like that, Fierdan disappears with not any proof that he has been there.

But despite all that, it's not the thing that disturbs me the most. It's what he cried before he disappeared into the air.

"SOULLESS FORCED ME TO, SOULLESS FORCED ME TO! IT'S ALL SOULLESS! SOULLESS FORCED ME TO MURDER EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM! IT WAS THE ONLY CHOICE I HAD- THAT OR DYING. BUT NOW I'M BEGGING TO DIE AND END THIS MADNESS! PLEASE LET THIS ALL END!"

With another petrified shriek, he left the room.

Oh Fierdan, only now do I realize how broken we both are.