Facing Fear | ✓ ONC 2023 Honorable Mention

18 | A Sister's Love

"FEAR is giving an ultimatum," Shiori rasped out between her gritted teeth. "It wants an answer about how I fought and won against my fear of dying and it thinks you're the key to it."

"Me?" Mori sat back on her heels, helplessness assailing her while she watched Shiori struggle against their invisible enemy. In one hand she held the salvation of this world, in the other she clung to the person most precious to her. 

Don't pretend like you wouldn't put a bullet through the head of anyone who tried to hurt her.

Mori squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't kill FEAR, not without killing Shiori—this time forever. "What's the ultimatum?" Mori said. She tried to be strong, to not show Shiori how much FEAR was getting to her, to not cause her any more pain than she was already experiencing. But on the inside...on the inside she screamed and begged. Anything. I'll give you any answer you want as long as you leave my sister alone. 

"We help FEAR find its answer and you get to go home," Shiori whispered, trembling but breathing normally now. "You and your friends. You'll tell the developers that the cube didn't work but there's hope for escape and the game will go on. Life in Valor will go on."

"But what about you?" Mori gripped Shiori's hand in hers, determined not to let anything part them. "I go home but what's the point if you're not there with me?"

"If you refuse," Shiori's voice lowered, her eyes focusing on Mori. "Then FEAR is going to shut itself down and kill everyone in here with it, including you and me."

"What kind of options are those?" Mori asked with a despairing laugh. But Shiori shot her a significant look that from anyone else would have meant nothing, but from her sister it meant everything. "No, Shiori. I'm not losing you again, so there's only one choice."

"C'mon, Neechan," Shiori said with a heavy sigh, tugging Mori to her feet. "We should take a thinking walk."

Mori let Shiori pull her along, weaving through the massive pillars. She'd never been athletic, so her sister had tried to get her to be active in other ways—persuading, sometimes blackmailing her into going for "thinking walks" where Shiori entertained all Mori's thoughts and "do you remember"s that she normally didn't have the patience to sit still for.

But this time Shiori drew a thought up from the well of memory. "Do you remember when I was little and you'd convinced me that when you kissed my little scrapes and cuts, they were magically all better?"

Mori smiled even though it pained her. "Enough that you'd rip off the band-aids and say you couldn't see them anymore? I remember."

"I think dying was like that," Shiori said. "Maybe it's selfish of me, but the relief I felt when I saw you...I just knew that if I could have you at my side, if you told me I'd be okay, I wouldn't be afraid. Maybe because I love you so much that I didn't want you to see me hurting, or because of your love for me I really believed that there was nothing to be afraid of."

Biting her lip, Mori attempted to hold back the tears, but Shiori hugged her and they burst out. She cried, breathing in the scent of her sister's hair, listening to the sound of her voice to treasure in that well of memory forever. 

"I'm glad I got to see you again, Neechan," she whispered. "Do you think you can say goodnight, this time?"

Goodnight. Her sister still believed the night could be good, but only if Mori told her so. Shiori wanted her to choose the third option. Mori nodded, embracing her sister with everything she had, all the love she had. "Goodnight, Shiori-chan."

When they drew apart, FEAR's eyes met hers instead of Shiori's. "Do you think you know the answer?" it asked, leading her toward the pedestal.

"Courage can overcome most fears, because it promises you'll overcome and grow stronger," Mori replied. "But when it comes to the fear of dying, courage can't help you, not when dying is the end."