Bound by Loneliness

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"You're a jinx."

The rain was dripping down on her face with so much force. It was cold, and it hurt like needles. But it didn't hurt as much as her face after Vi had beaten her. Vi had never beaten her before. Never.

It wasn't even the pain that hurt so much, but being left behind. Vi was gone. Vander was dead. Mylo and Claggor were dead. No one was here anymore.

Vi was wrong. Powder hadn't been the one to kill them. No! She would never do such a thing! All she wanted was to help. And she did help, right?

Why was Vi so angry at her? Why did she beat her? Why did she leave her?

Powder begged her sister to come back. She cried and screamed for her to return, to pick her up and carry her back home like always, where Vander would wait at them and everything would be fine. Oh, how much she wanted the world to be fine again!

She was no jinx, was she? She was clever, Vi had told her many times already. Nothing of this would have happened if Vi hadn't forbidden her to come with them. Powder would have been able to help them, and they wouldn't be dead...

A fire cackled in her back, its flames hungrily crying out for more food, and yet the warmth wasn't enough to chase away the cold. Powder didn't want to turn around. She didn't want to look at Vander, or the creature that he had become.

All she wanted was to wake up. Wake up, wake up, wake up!!

The rain had soaked her completely, her clothes, her skin, her hair. It had long become one with her, fueling the desperation inside. Maybe this wasn't a dream, and she couldn't wake up? In that case, Powder didn't want to get up ever again. Maybe she could fall asleep here and everything would be over...

"Hello, little girl. Where's your sister?"

Powder looked up to face the stranger speaking to her. His face wasn't foreign to her with its ugly scars and scary black eye, and she knew this was the man Vi hated. The man who was bad and had been an enemy of her father.

And yet this man was here, talking to her now, and not her sister. Vi had left, and she wouldn't come back.

With a scream, Powder charged forward and tore Silco to the ground. He didn't fight back, even though Powder wanted to fight so badly! But all energy left her body at once, and the weight of what had happened pushed her down, making it impossible for her to move.

As her head rested against the chest of the thin man, the one who had once called Vander a brother, the tears continued to flow. They burnt on her cheeks, clenched her throat. All of them had betrayed her and had left her alone. Most of all Vi.

"She left me", Powder whispered between heavy sobs, only now realizing the truth behind those words and their actual meaning. All those promises to be there for each other no matter what... nothing but lies. "She is not my sister anymore."

Silco moved his body, and Powder was sure he would kick her away. Kill her, maybe, and leave her in the rain together with Vander, Mylo and Claggor. At least she wouldn't be alone in death.

But he didn't push her. Instead, his arms hesitantly closed around her back, pulling her into a weird embrace. He was her enemy. Violet wanted to see him dead. Then why did it feel so calming?

Because Vi has been lying. Vi is not your sister anymore.

Silco was so different from Vander. Her father had always been strong and yet gentle, kind to her no matter how dangerous he could be to the others. This man was skinny, he was ugly... and yet he was kind as well. He was there for her now that she needed it the most.

"It's okay", he muttered, his voice close to her ear. Powder actually liked the sound of it. "We'll show them. We will show them all."

"Show them what...?" Powder lifted her face up again, tears blurring her sight as well as raindrops. She didn't feel that cold any longer. How could she feel safe close to this man everyone else hated?

Because they have been wrong.

The chuckle was almost entirely drowned out by the rain and thunder around them. "That we're the strong ones."

That wasn't true though. People had told her all the time that she was weak. Hiding her face against Silco's chest again, Powder noticed how different he smelled from Vander, too. The latter had always carried the smell of sweat, beer and tobacco with him, and nothing of that could be found on Silco. It was something Powder couldn't yet define. "But... I'm not strong! My gadgets don't work, I can't fight. I can't even climb properly! Vi said I'm a jinx. Maybe she was right."

"Oh, my dear child. A jinx doesn't have to be something bad at all."

Silco removed his arms from her back and moved back to lift up her chin, forcing Powder to look at him. The scars on his face were old already, but they still looked terrible and painful. She wondered who had hurt him so much.

"How...?" How could a jinx be anything good? How could she be good, when she brought nothing but ill luck to the people she loved?

A long moment of silence followed before he spoke again. "Be a jinx, but to those who deserve it. I can make you stronger, and I won't leave you behind like your... sister did."

He got up and brushed the dirt off his soaked clothes. "Come with me, and together we can prove the world that they abandoned the wrong people." Silco reached out his hand for her to take.

And without the slightest hesitation, Powder took it.