hiiyakai
Her words hurt him, and he strained to understand why. They should have come to him as a welcomed reprieve from their push and pull. His relationship with his twin was always hot and cold. Fire and ice. This was smoke and shallow breathes. Suffocating on the thin oxygen left between them. “I wanted –” he began, voice hitched in his throat as sad eyes met their counterpart. “You, Jo. I wanted you to be enough.” But it wasn’t. The coldness of their childhood home was anything but comfort, no matter how much his twin had tried. It was easier now, to look back at how hard she had fought to fill those dark spaces with light – to consume the terror and pain. In the end it only left him feeling even more hollow than before, watching just how easily his other half could sacrifice herself for such an unwanted creature.
“Don’t.” She was blunt, and to the point. She wanted to stop him before he could start, but it was too late, things were already in motion, and by the time she finally got it out, the damage was already done. His words stung, hurting her in a way she couldn’t quite explain. He was just explaining himself, speaking his truth, but it didn’t change the inevitable but hanging over the statement. But she wasn’t enough. She’d known she’d failed him, she’d done nothing but think about it ever since her brother had sunk a hunting knife into her gut back in ninety-four. She was reminded by it every day he was gone, every time she thought she saw him in a room where he couldn’t have been, or knowing he was half a world away from where she was and she wanted nothing more than to see him, and knowing she couldn’t. “I’m happy for you.” A brief pause as she blinked back tears, swallowing hard as she looked at her brother. “Let me be happy.”
