I stared at this strange man in my room. This wasn't supposed to be possible, one person from each family was chosen - one and one only. Least, that's the way I was told and explained to. I swallowed hard, running a hand through my hair. I watched this guy make his way to my bed, and sit down, he sunk down some.
"Holy crap." He stated, bouncing himself up and down. "This thing is like a cloud."
"Get off my bed."
His blue eyes flashed with such a dare the air actually caught in my throat. "Make me."
I regained my composer, and crossed my arms. This guy was crazy, scratch that, I think maybe he was on crack.
"You have the wrong girl." I stated.
"Nope." He said, matter-of-factly. "You're my girl."
I sighed; "My brother was a sacrifice. One kid per set of parents, that's how the rules were explained to me by your sister, Unloved."
"The man downstairs, he's your step father, correct?"
I nodded.
"Your real father?"
"Is the same as my brother." I snapped.
The boy laughed softly, and I knew he was laughing at me. Standing up he walked over to my closet, standing on my hope chest, he crawled to the very back of my extremely high shelf. There he retrieved a black, old leather bound book, covered with dust and walked back out to me. He held it out to me. I felt my mouth gape open, I didn't even know that book was back here.
"How did you-"
"Before you think I'm some creepy who broke in and went through your panty drawer, your brother showed me that book. Back when you were very young."
I rolled my eyes, sighing again. I opened my hand and took the book from him. When I opened it up, I watched the dust roll off the sides and fall to the floor. Inside was extremely old writing, writing back when it was all fancy and pretty. Family names throughout the years were all down from top to bottom.
"This is your family tree." The boy stated, walking over.
He placed his hand over mine, at first it was extremely cold, then it warmth seemed to form between us. I yanked my hand away, and he cleared his throat, grabbing a thickness of the book and flopping it to the left. He took his perfectly cleaned nail and pointed to my mother's name.
Lynn ---- Gerald. Underneath Gerald was deceased. But my brother's name, Andrew. But this guy named Gerald was not my brother's and my father... But how? My mother was married before? I looked over the black haired figure.
He nodded slowly, taking a seat next to the book. The next line was Lynn ---- Carl, Who was, and up to this moment believed, to be my brother's father. So, Andrew was only my half brother? But why? and how? I raked a hand through my hair. So that would explain the fact of why I could be a sacrifice... I looked again at this weird boy on my bed. I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose.
This was a little to much to take in. Me? A sacrifice? My Brother? Not my Brother? A deep sigh ran over me, and his blue eyes found me. He attempted to calm with a half smile, but it wasn't real. I hugged myself tightly. This was all just way to much. My brother, my best friend, and role model, was killed because of this. Now he wanted me to be one? I sighed again, studying the inside of my eyelids.
The night of my brother's death replayed in my head. I was back in my room, mindlessly flipping through a magazine about pointless girly crap I wouldn't ever be into. I tossed the magazine across the room, and laid back closing my eyes. My head was throbbing, another bad headache. Suddenly a loud thunk was heard from down the hall, and I froze. My mother and step father were supposed to be out all night. I leaned over and grabbed my combat boot, thinking maybe I could hit them over the head with it if someone came at me. I slid from my bed, opened my door and made my way down to Andrew's room.
"Andrew?" I called.
"Amethyst-" There was a sharp intake of breath, it sounded very wet and pained. "Go away."
"Andrew!" I tossed my shoe aside and reached for the doorknob.
It was locked, and I knew we kept a spare key somewhere. To be honest, I don't know what I thought was really going to be behind his door. I mostly knew that Andrew had a past of cutting himself and I thought he was seriously hurt this time. I found the key mom had stored just in case under her desk and ran back up. Slipping the key into the hole, the scene in front of me knocked the wind from my chest and made my knees buckle.
Blood, more then I thought any human was possible of having, was smeared all over his window, and window frame. Bloody foot prints with drag marks next to them lead to his bed, where a puddle of blood was at the foot of the bed. Andrew was laid on top of one of his blankets, blood everywhere. He was cut up, and shredded open. His black hair was soaked in blood and I watched a thin trickle of it fall from his mouth. Slowly his green eyes opened, and he saw me. A mix of fear, regret, and apologies fluttered across his eyes.
Black wings unfurled themselves, blocking Andrew from me. This was the first time I registered his fighter, Unloved was here with us. She looked fine, aside from the fact his feathers were falling off, and she was a lot paler then normal.
"You need to leave." She snapped.
"That's my brother!" I demanded, attempting to crawl to my feet.
"Sh...es...." A wet cough exploded from Andrew's chest, and he winced. "Co...rr.."
"Stop talking." Unloved stroked his cheek.
I understood the connection between fighter and sacrifice, but at this moment in time, I was jealous. So jealous that someone else was comforting my brother, my best friend.
"You- Get off him!" I screamed.
Within a flash I was on my feet and attempting to pull Unloved away. She barley even moved her arm when she flung me backward. I let out a cry of pain and knew something was going to be badly bruised in the morning.
"You need to leave, Amethyst." She stated. "Your brother needs to pass on."
"You need to get him to a Doctor!" I screamed.
"You need to calm down." She snapped, her eyes finally turning to me.
Unloved scared the crap out of me. She had long white hair, that she generally pinned back into a french braid, but it was unraveled and stained with blood - Andrew's blood was my guess, and her eyes with such a bright red they were glowing in the dead of the night. She had long pointed canine teeth, like a vampire, but it was actually the way her teeth had grown. I could tell now that her face was tear stained, and she was shaking.
"Unloved..."
"Kali..."
"Huh?"
"My name, it's Kali."
I blinked, slightly shocked. It was about this point, I knew my brother was going to die. You see, only the sacrifice can know their fighter's real name, when revealing their name to another, they loose all power.
"No.." I could feel the tears form in my eyes. "No!"
Kali released my brother from her grasp and gently laid him down on the blanket. His breaths were coming quicker - pained, and hard to work for. She slowly walked over to me. Gently, she took my face in her hand, I could feel the blood from my brother mark it's self on my face.
"He knows you love him. There will come a time, when you will understand why I am asking you to leave." She swallowed, closing her eyes. "Right now, you have every right to hate me. I will admit it, I am the reason your brother will die tonight."
I could feel my heart up in my throat, at the same time I wanted to puke. She was just so bluntly honest with it all. We knew my brother was going to die, the one person who would ever understand me. Tears were spilling from my eyes now. Slowly she placed a envelope in my lap.
"This will explain almost everything. When the rest of your questions are ready to be answered, you will receive them. Till then, you need to sleep."
That's all I remembered the night of my brother's death. When I awoke it was to my mother's screams.
I slowly rubbed my eyes, I realized that I had been crying. The caped man stood in front of me holding a piece of cloth.
"Wipe your eyes." He said quietly.
I just stared at him, shocked. This was honestly the kindest thing someone had done for me since my brother's death and I didn't know how to take it. Suddenly I was grabbing his jacket and sobbing heavily into his chest. He didn't say anything, he simply wrapped his arms around me, and placed me on his lap. I just cried.
I cried over the fact my brother was dead. I cried over the fact My mother was loosing her mind to the world she'd married into. I cried over the fact of how lonely I was. I cried over the fact I was well aware my life was about to change.
But mostly? I just cried, cried allowing myself the release I truly needed.