Iris

12 | familiar

— I R I S '   P O V —

     I COULDN'T move. My shaky hand remained fixed around the doorknob to Roman's office, painfully accepting the coldness it had offered. And my feet remained glued to the floor beneath them, totally ignoring my mind's desperate pleas for them to move further.

Nolan had woken me up this morning, saying that our oldest brother needed to talk to me. Nolan's words were so simple, void of any hidden meaning to them, and his tone was as calm as usual, a ting of playfulness lacing it. Everything seemed normal. And despite that, my thoughts succeeded in turning into a chaos; one that got abruptly overpowered by a dreadful voice.

That voice sounded too low; almost inaudible. And yet, it was too powerful. Frightening. Controlling. It lashed out at my mind when I least expected it and ended the chaos that had started to encase my senses. I wanted to believe that it was a friend, rather than an enemy. But it didn't give me the chance to do so.

It lowly played at the back of my mind and grew louder with every second. I attempted to ignore it, to act as though I weren't afraid of what it had said. But truth was, its voice was the only one I could hear.

It was so merciless that it forced my mind to cling onto the conclusions I had been desperately attempting to bury away. And it was so overpowering that it made me believe that my brothers no longer wanted me; that they were planning to send me away from them.

The mere thought of being back at an orphanage or with another couple of fosters made my chest constrict in pain and my heart squeeze in sorrow. It gave me the urge to breakdown; to plead until the darkness would decide to pity me the way it had always done over the past years. The way I had always expected it to do.

It was a faithful friend, after all. I refused to believe that it would ever betray me.

My eyelids dropped. And for a moment, I let myself drown into the darkness that had invaded my vision and I let my senses embrace the comfort it had offered. For I knew that it wouldn't last forever; that it would vanish as soon as my gaze would meet my brother's—in a few minutes. And that it would crumble and leave no trace behind it.

"...he Diego? As in Diego Morris? You mean the same– Fuck. This isn't good. Shit."

The darkness abruptly perished, and I found my heart beating wildly within my chest, each dulled thud it resulted in painful against my ribcage. My gaze scanned the hallway, alerted as I made sure that no one was watching, before I took a step forward and listened closely to the conversation taking place on the other side of the door.

"Calm down, Eli. We know nothing yet."

I recognised the voice as Roman's. And just like always, he sounded calm and composed, his cold tone almost void of emotions. Almost.