Control

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"I'm sorry,"

"Big brother."

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Briar stared at the young girl. She was Roman's...sister?

They looked utterly different, the girl - Rose - with her hair bobbed and blonde, and Roman with his short and curly brown. Rose's eyes were wide and bright, as a young child's should be, but they were filled with pain. The elements surrounding her had disappeared and she had dropped to the floor, her skirt pooling around her small figure. Her sobs were muffled by her hands and her hair covered her face as she rocked back and forth on the floor.
"Rose," said Roman, his voice laced with agony but also forgiveness. He didn't blame her. "Rose, come here." The young girl shuffled over to him and sat by his side.
"I'm sorry, big brother. I didn't mean to, it wasn't me..." she said. Roman smiled slightly.
"Shhh, don't worry. I'm okay." He put his arm around his sister and she lent her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Roman looked over at Briar and smiled.
"I'm sorry," he said and he laughed quietly, before wincing at the pain it caused him. "For everything. For being a jealous idiot and for attacking Noah and for hurting you. I'm so sorry." Briar looked at him. Instead of his eyes darting around like they do whenever he speaks to people, they were trained on her. His eyes seemed to glow with regret and pain, but they were fading with every passing second.
"I'm sorry too," Briar started, but Roman stopped her with a hand over her mouth.
"No." He said, and gently lowered his hand. "Don't be sorry for anything. It was all me." He looked over at Rose, who had fallen asleep against him and looked so peaceful and innocent. Like she would never hurt anyone.
"Keep her safe," Roman pleaded. "For her sake, and mine." His eyelids began to droop, and Briar felt her heart quicken. He was loosing too much blood. Briar put her hand over his wound, trying to slow the blood flow but it did nothing to help.
Doctors were arriving, and they kept promising her he would be okay.

But she didn't believe them.

What would they do to him to fix it? Would they do something like they did to her? Or would it be something worse?

As they carried Roman off on a stretcher, the doctors shouting for people to move out of their way, Rose woke up. Briar expected her to be in tears, but instead the girl just watched as they took her brother away and sighed.
"It's all my fault." She said, turning to Briar. "If I had just run away sooner, I..."
"Wait, stop. Run away? From who?" Briar asked, her hand on Rose's shoulder.
"The doctors," she said, her eyes darting around the room. "They kept me here. Took me from my family. They put this power in me, but I broke. I'm not in control of anything anymore; not my powers. Not my life. Someone's doing this, and I can't stop it."
Just as Rose finished, her breath hitched and she flinched in pain. Her eyes began to fill in from the edges, turning them black. The dark veins reappeared on her cheeks and the power surrounding her returned.

The girl grinned her wicked smile.
"You know too much," she said, a deep voice intertwined with hers. She stood and lifted her arms, raising the floor around her.

"You need to be taken care of."

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