Twinkle's Story: Chapter 69

*content may be disturbing*

DAWN

Must please him. Must be a people pleaser. Must make sure he's happy. I will only be liked if I act that way. 

No, no, no.

I sit up in bed when I hear knocking at my bedroom door. Glancing at the clock on my nightstand, I see the numbers 4:36 am. 

I must have imagined it. No one's really here. 

When I'm about to lie down again, I hear Duke.

"Dawn? Can I come in? I want to talk to you," he says. 

I sigh when I get out of bed. While I open the door and he walks into the room, I rub my eyes.

"What do you want, Duke? It's four in the morning. Go back to sleep," I say and then yawn. 

He paces back and forth near the door. I go back to my bed and sit on it.

"I just had the weirdest dream," he says. "You told me that you and Fierdan are half-siblings."

I arch an eyebrow. "That wasn't a dream. I really did tell you that."

He approaches the side of the bed. He laughs but it's only making things more awkward. 

"That was only a joke, right? You were just joking, right Dawn?" 

I press my paws together. "Look, I'm not completely sure if it's true. Believe me, I would feel a lot better if I know my theories are false. But, well, I don't know, Duke. These human memories Fierdan and I have recently gotten back just seem to add up that we could be halflings."

Duke joins me on the bed. When he glances at me through the corner of his eye, I bury my face in my paws. 

"Well, quit thinking that ridiculous theory. You and Fierdan don't have the same father. You look nothing like him, so you two can't be related."

He looks directly at me. I close my eyes.

"I'll make you some of that tea. I hope you're okay, Dawn."

I feel water trailing through my fingers. Am I really crying? 

"That won't be necessary. I'm fine," I say. My voice sounds so muffled. 

I feel his right paw on my left shoulder. He's trying to comfort me. Nothing will comfort me. Nothing ever can.

"Besides, we kissed. Fierdan, you, me. We can't be--"

I remove my paws from my face; my claws dig into my palms. My knuckles make markings on my thighs. 

"I know that! We kissed; Fierdan and I kissed. So many times. I... I..."

I move over so his paw isn't on my shoulder anymore. I feel more tears.

"Don't touch me!" I say, raising my voice a little too much. 

Duke takes a deep breath. "You're so creepy and weird. Do you know that, Dawn? I can barely trust you and my full self. This thing is on a whole new level of creepy." 

"I didn't know until a few days ago. Back when I lived with Fierdan and when we kissed, I didn't know that there is a small chance that we could be related. About that kissing thing though, I was brought up in a way that taught me some pretty nasty stuff. Zios taught me that the only way for people, especially males, to like me was if I... if I..."

"If what?" Duke asks. 

"If I please them. I was taught that the only way for me to be loved was if I acted flirtatious around new people. That the only proper way for me to greet people was if I gave off the vibe that I was lustful and had to kiss people," I say and bury my face in my paws. "I was just a little girl. He- I mean Zios- manipulated us into thinking certain ways. He was so, so evil. I was lost and confused. I had nowhere else to go. I woke up to find my parents were gone. Zios took me in. Danny was so nice to me." 

"Fierdan was called Daniel or Danny in the human world, right?" 

I nod my head. Then the flashbacks come.

Fierdan and I are in the castle. We're in our late teens or early twenties. 

"Do you know why I pronounce my name the way that I do?" he asks me.

I answer him. "You want others to fear you. You want to be feared. Fear Dan. Fear Dawn. Fierdan."

He places his folded paws on the table and smiles. "I see that I have taught you well. I will make Zios fear me. The whole world will fear me. I even fear myself." 

Then another flashback.

We're a few years older. We're definitely in our twenties here. 

It's late. I confront him in a room that's like an office. 

"You have to stop this. You're getting out of control," I say.

Fierdan places a sword on the shelf. He doesn't even face me when he asks me why.

"You're killing innocent people. None of them know about the hell we went through. They don't know that Zios was a terrible person."

He faces me. "That's why I have to kill them. I always hear people outside glorifying Zios as if he's the god of Jamaa. That's not acceptable." 

"Zios is dead! Your father is dead! D-e-a-d dead."

"That doesn't mean anything."

"You killed Zios, Fierdan! He can't hurt us anymore. You had your revenge on him, so there is no reason for you to let out your anger at other people." 

I take a deep breath before saying, "Do lives of people mean absolutely nothing to you? Are people worth nothing? Lives have value, Fierdan! You can't just continue throwing people's lives away!"

Fierdan approaches me with a look of mad hysteria all over his face.

"Father taught me that people's lives are meaningless. People live only to die. You sure are one to talk. Zios threw our lives away and left us to die!" 

The flashbacks drift away from me when I hear Duke calling my name. 

I rub my eyes to find Duke wiping away the tears that stain my cheeks. 

I don't bother to push him away this time. I decide to continue my explaining. 

"Daniel- Fierdan- always looked more similar to his father than his mother. Think of yourself, Duke. You look more similar to your father than your mother. Fierdan and you both hate your fathers, but you both look more like them than your mothers."

I pause before continuing. 

"You don't know how different his mother looked as compared to his father. She looked nothing like Zios. What I'm trying to tell you is I think it's possible that Daniel and I have the same mother but very different fathers. Because of our fathers, we look like we couldn't be related. But we really could be." 

"Why didn't you ask Zios why he took you in? Why didn't you ask him why he called you 'daughter'? Why didn't you question anything?" Duke asks.

"How was I supposed to know that we had the same mother? Before she died, I never heard of Zios and his children. Zios never told me or them that I was their half-sister. That she left him behind his back to be with another man." 

I watch Duke close his eyes and say, "So Fierdan has a long-lost brother and sister then? How... interesting. What does his human mother look like, anyway?" 

I close my eyes too, so I can focus on concentrating better. "She had paler skin than Zios. She had gray-hazel eyes. She had dusky brown hair- the same shade of brown that mine is." 

We open our eyes. 

"That still doesn't explain why you acted so creepy and lustful when we first met each other," he says.

I sigh. "You were acting creepy and lustful back at me, Duke. I just told you that I grew up learning to flirt when meeting new boys. I think I might have influenced Fierdan to do the same. Well, with girls. I mean... I don't know. And besides, I never was actually interested in you romantically or anything like that when we first saw each other. You equating kissing to romance made you believe that I was creepily obsessed in falling in love with you. Haha, blame society for that. I'm isolated from society here because of its stupid ideologies." 

"You sure are a mystery, Dawn."

I laugh. "Haha, that's right. Add the fact that I have magic abilities in addition to my Elemental Power, and I wouldn't blame you if I was seen as creepy. Fierdan didn't explain anything about his magic abilities and the things he did to you, so I must have been a very weird girl in your eyes."

"About magic, how do you know Fierdan also has magic abilities like you do?"

"We use magic in very different ways. I use simple and less harmful magic while Fierdan uses very complex magic that could have painful consequences. This might have nothing to do with anything, but I'll tell you anyway. Zios, no matter how evil he was, lived as a genius. You, nor I, know how complicated it must have been to create a whole new world. His children were like child geniuses. All three of them were very smart individuals. Just in different ways, that is. When I hung out with the brothers, I always viewed myself as inadequate. Even now in Jamaa, I think Fierdan- technically you too I guess- is way smarter than I'll ever be. He could do magic more powerful than I ever could, than I ever can. The only reason I think I could be smarter than him is the reasoning behind my use of magic. I used magic to remove memories of the human world from Fierdan's brain, which then made you lose those memories too. I blocked your ties from Fierdan for so many years. I finally knew something that Fierdan knew nothing about. Because I stole it from him. I'm a deceiver." 

I glance at the clock. I see the numbers 5:21 am. 

I look straight at Duke. 

"You look more like Fierdan than you ever did before," I say while looking at his hair. It's nearly the same length as Fierdan's, and it's nearly black too. 

The dawn is almost upon us. It's almost morning. A new day. 

"Ever since I saw you in person, I really have been interested in you. Fierdan had a major part in creating you by using magic. He re-created himself. He created a living person- you. Of course I was so interested in seeing all of you," I say. "Think of it this way, Duke. Fierdan used magic to create and destroy; I used magic to deceive minds and bodies. If it wasn't for me, all your cuts and scars would be visible."

I must have said something wrong because as soon as I mentioned his scars, he got off the bed and left the room. 

TWINKLE

I run from room to room. We can't leave the building, so where is he?

Then I reach the artillery room. I open the door to see Duke practicing some training techniques. Dawn is also there.

I quietly growl. Duke is with her again.

He's wearing the same outfit that he wore yesterday when all four of us were aiming shots at targets using bow and arrows. Except his hair isn't tied up this time. 

It's early in the day. How long were they in here? 

Strangely enough, I don't see Duke using any fire. I go up to Dawn.

"What are you doing?" I ask, referring to her sitting on a bench watching Duke leap into the air and make punching and kicking motions while in midair before falling back to the floor. 

Dawn, still focusing on Duke, says, "Attack and defense techniques."

I smirk. "Attack and defense techniques? He's not even using any flames." I take off my black jacket and drop it on the bench. "I'll show Duke how it's done." 

I don't even give Dawn enough time to switch my clothes into a training outfit. I don't care about that though. I feel fine. 

I leap into the air without using any flames just like how Duke is doing. Except when Duke reaches the short height up when he does one punch and kick and falls back down, I let my blue wings come out. I'm twice as far from the floor as Duke is. I also let out twice the amount of punches and kicks in midair before falling to the floor. And instead of Duke's boring moves, I shoot blue ice-flames out from my fists and feet. They shoot out a few feet. And with a flip, I land on the floor. 

I grin as I look up at Duke. "That's how it's done."

A few seconds later, Duke lands on the floor. He rolls his eyes. 

"I wasn't using fire on purpose, Twinkle. I can use fire though, so watch me." 

I laugh. Sure he can.

He almost has it done the same way that I did it. The only difference besides the different colored flames is that he never could shoot the flames off his fists and feet as far out as I did. 

I fly up to join him in the air. 

"Like this," I say as I demonstrate a punch-kick. 

His flames are weak compared to mine. 

"No, try again. Put more force into it," I tell him.

This next time around, it looks like he put more strength in his punches and kicks. Which means the orange flames shot out further.

"Good. Go again."

I look down at Dawn. 

He doesn't need you to teach him. Because times have changed. I can teach him about the element of fire. 

DUKE

I feel like I'm covered in sweat. I've been in here for at least two hours. 

"Again," she repeats. 

If I met myself from four months ago when Twinkle and I first started hanging out, I wouldn't believe myself if I said Twinkle is stronger than me. Than I'll ever be, it feels like. 

But then again. If I met myself from two months ago, I wouldn't believe that Dawn and Fierdan are half-siblings. I'm still skeptical about it though. Dawn could be lying. She lied before.

I think of the Tall Tower and feel nostalgia. On the roof, I taught Twinkle how to make flames appear at the tips of her claws. 

And now here we are. Except this time around, Twinkle is teaching me about fire abilities far more bigger and complicated than just summoning flames to claws. 

And the next time I'll go to the Tall Tower is to be tortured. I know I will be. It's inevitable. I just don't know when it'll happen. 

I'm not even scared about the idea of getting hurt. I'm only scared because I don't know how I'll be caught. I'm scared because I have the feeling that everyone else will get severely hurt in the process of them capturing me. 

I'm scared because I don't want any of my friends to die due to my identity as the Duke Fierdan. 

"You can relax now," Twinkle tells me. 

I land on the floor and let my head drop. I feel sweat roll down the back of my neck and down my back. 

I grab the water bottle on the bench and start chugging it. 

I don't stop drinking until the bottle is empty. 

Frustrated at how Twinkle could do something better than me, I set the bottle on fire. 

Without another word, I leave the room. 

How dare she. How freaking dare she. 

ARDERE

I'm surprised that none of them found out yet. I left the building several hours ago. I've been outside ever since.

I look up to see dark clouds. 

A storm is coming. 

I smile as I cast lightning into the sky. 

I'll be the light in the dark. No matter what happens to us. 

I promise.