”Hey sis, look at this!”
A small brunette girl turned at the words, not looking any older than 7 years old and blinked curiously at her twin brother who was cupping his small hands in front of himself. The boy just smiled at her, beckoning for her to come see whatever it was he was hiding in his bruised, cold hands.
As she was close enough for their faces to brush against each other’s, the boy opened his hands, revealing a small glowing light floating right above his palms. The girl gasped in excitement at this, quickly covering her mouth to stay quiet. She looked up to meet the boy’s proud eyes, before glancing nervously around the cold streets. It was night, and everyone with a family would be safely tucked inside their warm beds at this hour. Out here in the cold, back in their own little corner beside an abandoned house they hide along with other homeless. They’re not all drunkards and bad men as many would think, but most of those people are kind and more sharing than any rich bastard that passed them every day without as much as glance. But they’re still humans, and things ‘different’ without any explanation have and will always spread fear and worry among people. Even in this day and age, ‘different’ was never a good thing to be.
“You really should be more careful, what if someone sees you?” she scolded a little, earning a roll of the eye from her twin.
“Geez Vanessa relax” he huffed, closing his hands over the small light until it died out. “All the grown-ups here are as good as blind anyway. And besides, their nice people! They wouldn’t chase us away… They adore you and your amazing singing voice,” he assured her, patting her head softly. Vanessa blushed softly and looked down at the snow covered ground.
The boy smiled softly at his sister, amazingly enough quite happy with their life. They had all the freedom in the world, and each other. That was more than enough, as long as they stayed together. He reached for her hand, and wrapped his fingers tightly around it, as if afraid to let go. Maybe he was… she was all he had after all. “Come on, the old guy just started the fire for the night,” he grinned and started to lead her towards the small crowd of homeless gathering around the only place of warmth.
The girl suddenly halted, making the boy stop as well and gave his twin a questioning look. Vanessa was looking right behind him, eyes narrowed in suspicion and worry. The boy followed her gaze over to the shadows, where a dark figure slowly emerged towards them. The small twins stood still, not in fear but curiosity as they stared at the man stopping a few feet’s in front of them, giving them both a cunning smile as if he knew them.
The girl clung to her brother’s arm as the man knelt down, his cold and dark eyes feeling as if burning right through them. The boy glared back and opened his mouth to speak but the man beat him to it.
“Don’t be afraid, I’m here to help you… Dimitri.”
Dimitri!
“Dimitri? Wake the fuck up before I toss you off of the boat.”
The young man blinked a few times, covering his eyes as the sun hit eyes and turned to stare at the one who so rudely woken him up. Vanessa stared down at him, hands on her hips and a disapproving look at having been ignored. Dimitri just smiled up at her though, before jumping up on his feet with ease and walked past her without a word. Whistling to himself, he more felt than saw eyes on him as he passed several of the other students, everything between admiration, disgust, awe and fear on their faces. He snickered to himself, as always not giving a crap about what trash like them thought about him. If anything they were nothing but a way to amuse him with, the way it was so damn easy to manipulate and fool them.
He leaned on the boat railing, closing while enjoying the strong wind hitting his face. He’s always enjoyed the cold more than the heat. Especially if it was cold enough to make his body numb, it was… relaxing.
Hearing something from down below him, he opened one eye to look down at the water.
Mermaids? He thought to himself, but not as excited as the first time he had seen them. If it wasn’t anything new or interesting enough, then it wasn’t worth his time. He heard many of the other students shout in glee and excitement at the sight though, especially the first years.
He glanced down at two kids who was trying to look over the railing at his side, smiling widely and laughing as if the whole world shined down on just them. A boy and a girl, their first year at Avalorn. Was he and Vanessa that happy their first year as well?
The twins stood in the middle of the giant crowd of excited kids their age, everyone looking nervous, excited, worried and hopeful at the same time. Dimitri wasn’t though. Instead of what used to be his bright and curious eyes, were instead replaced with a dead look, who didn’t even seem to notice the warm hand of his sister in his own, tying to wake him up from whatever dreamland he was in.
“Dimi…” the girl whimpered anxious, tugging at his arm instead. He blinked, before turning to look at her, smiling warmly, yet it felt empty to her. “What’s wrong?”
Vanessa bit her lip, hesitating. She knew what was wrong, why his smile was fake and his gaze looking like a dark bottomless hole. “…are you ok?”
The boy blinked, before chuckling at his twin. “What does that even mean?” he asked in a cold voice, still smiling before turning his head away and pretend to listen what the headmistress was saying. Vanessa just gave her brother a sad look, knowing Dimitri wasn’t mad at her but… at everything around them. He disliked crowds, they made his head hurt with all the annoying voices from people he’d say. She’ll have to sign for
him later as soon as they had free time…
“What if we get separated?” she asked worriedly, staring back at her twin when she felt an assuring squeeze on her hand.
“Don’t be stupid, of course we won’t,” he said lowly, smile still in place as he watched some other first year stand nervous in the crest, before the headmistress told him to go to the Owlorn table. That was the nerd house right?
He smiled at his twin when it was his turn and let go of her hand as he moved to stand on the stage, staring emotionless over at the crowd. He should feel something… excitement, worry, happiness… right? So why, why couldn’t he force himself to at least feel something?!
Because their ‘oh so dearly’ adoptive father had taken even that from him. No matter… he would go in this silly school of magic, become more powerful than anyone and then take him and Vanessa far away somewhere…. Where no one would get in his way, where he would have control. His head was starting to hurt again, and he had to close his eyes as the world began to spin.
He opened his eyes just as he saw a fox running at him, and the right through him, disappearing.
“Vulpes!” he heard the headmistress yell out, and pointing at the table he was to sit. His expression still stayed emotionless as he walked over and took his seat, even when his sister ran happily over and join him at his side, wasting no time to cling at his arm.
“Dimitri?”
He blinked, and found himself back on the boat again leaning on the railing, on his way to his 7th and last year Avalorn. In all honesty, he was still amazed at times that he survived with this curse on him.
‘The more you learn and powerful you get, the more pain you’ll suffer through’, he could still hear Kent’s voice echo in his head.
He smirked, no, not even with a curse on him could be controlled. Guess he was just that good.
A punch to his shoulder finally made him look at his twin, who looked more pissed off than before. Apparently she must’ve noticed some girls giving him ‘the look’ again. Come to think of it, he couldn’t spot the two cute ones from the KaleVala house he saw before.
“You’ve started to sleep walk again?” Vanessa growled, crossing her arms over her chest. “Or have you finally lost touch with reality? I knew this day was coming,” she mocked, smirking. Dimitri just snickered at her, raising a hand to gently brush away hair from her face. He wrapped the hand at the back of her head, bringing their faces close. “We both know that happened years ago,” he whispered, hot breath hitting her lips. He didn’t miss the shudder that ran down her spine, smiled and then walked past her like nothing.
He saw them finally closing in on the school and moved away from the excited crowd who had started to gather at the deck.
One more year, and he’ll finally be free.
