MOTHERS

◙thirteen◙

His voice was pure like air, every word enunciated clearly, with intention. He was calm, so calm, considering someone had invaded his mind. Someone had dropped into his thought stream while causing many ripples, splashing over the existence he'd been led to believe was normal for him.

But he accepted Lola's gentle whispers inside his head. "Brother," she'd said, quietly at first, so as not to startle him. It had taken much concentration on her part to find the right thread to enter his mind—there were many to grasp, many floating about the area. She might have slipped into anyone's head, including a lab-coat wearing fool; but it took diligence to avoid their trash-filled brains and locate her brother's instead.

When she got in, she found peace. A strange yet not uncomfortable silence within the confines of his mind, sometimes switched up by a sweet lullaby; perhaps something his birth mother had hummed while he was still inside her belly. Whatever it was, it comforted him, and he allowed Lola into his head as if pulling her into a warm embrace.

"Hello," he said, his message reaching her ears with ease. He was speaking out loud, from within his room, unable to whisper into Lola's mind as she whispered into his. But all she needed were his thoughts, and she did her best to explain that to him in so few words.

He received her voice clearly, and soon he recognized her at once for what she was—his sibling, his equal.

"Sister," he said, a soothing smoothness in his tone. "What is your name?"

"They told me I am named Lola," she said, deepening her hold on his mind. She didn't know how to control minds, per se, though she had no doubt that power would extend to her, eventually. And in any case, she didn't want to control her brother, only steer him in the right direction.

"And I am called Rivo." Happiness tinted his timbre; it pleased him to meet another like him.

Break him loose. The voice said he could open doors, manipulate devices, use electricity.

"Brother, have you developed powers yet? What are you able to do?"

The humming in Rivo's mind turned to a subtle buzzing. "I have strength. But something is wrong with my eyes; I cannot see well. Sometimes not at all."

Lola grimaced. Not only would she have to be everyone's ears, but now she'd have to lend her sight to her brother. "We will worry about that later. For now, you must break free, and you are the only one of us who is able." She flinched; that was a lie, as she'd been advised her other male-identifying sibling had done something to escape, or was in the process of doing so without her help. But Rivo didn't need to know that; if he thought he was essential, he'd be more focused on his task. "I sense the power surging in you, and I think you have an ability that can tear through obstacles. Something about manipulating energy, electricity, connecting yourself to internal systems and dismantling them. Do you feel that, brother?"

"Tear through obstacles? Interesting," he answered, as the buzzing dulled to nothing. "I did grasp a certain aura in me that fizzled whenever I was close to the television device in my room. I played with it. A few times, I could see its insides, all the wires and connections, colorful boards with buttons and pins and ropes tying everything together. It looked confusing, and yet... it was as if I understood every piece, where it belonged, what it did to make the device function. And what would happen if I removed those pieces and placed them elsewhere, or nowhere at all."

Lola smiled. If he'd already started playing with the power, despite not knowing what it was, then the task of getting him out of his room wouldn't be as difficult as she'd anticipated.