Shattered (The Academy)

Chapter 16: The Third Twin.

I spent nearly twenty minutes trying to convince the boys it was just a nightmare and that I was okay. I played video games with the guys to vanish the tension away and after a couple minutes, it worked. Now? Everybody is asleep on the floor and they gave me the couch, cause they're gentleman. But while they are out and snoring, my mind is going too fast.
 Mina.
"Can't sleep?" North's voice sound in the silence. I turn to him to watch him looking back at me.
"Not really"
"It's for your nightmare?"
"Yeah" I admit. 
"Tell me" He says, don't asks. But there is such an intensity in his eyes that I find impossible to say no, even with this darkness. He then throws out the covers and moves aside to give me space to lie down next to him. I doubt an instant: Is that what friends do? It doesn't really matter now, because suddenly I find myself getting out of the sofa and laying down next to North. He moves closer and I do too, so in the end my head is in his chest and his arm over me. He strokes to my shoulder to my wrist, and I can't help but relax.
"What happened in your dream, Sang Baby?"
"I think... I think it was a memory, North" I mutter.
"Okay" He says soflty, his lips brushing my forehead.
"I was in some medical room. I was lying on a hospital bed and my hands and feet were tied down and I couldn't run away. But in this dream I'm younger, maybe nine or then. There was a doctor near me who was watching brain images and said something about something not working, then he got close with a injection. Through the glass window, my parents were watching, on the other side. He was going to hurt me, and I screamed".
"Oh, Baby" He mutters.
I don't tell him he called me Mina. If things go my way, none of them will ever hear Elizabeth and Mina's name.
"Maybe it didn't actually happened" I told him, because it's true: I don't even know.
"But maybe not, Sang. What else do you remember of your childhood?"
"It's blurry" I confess "I don't really remember a lot. I remember my mother's punishments and some kids at school, but... nothing else. Is that weird?"
"No" He assures me "Or at least I don't think so?"
"Do you remember your childhood, North?"
"I remember being angry all the time"

"Why is that?"

He smiles."Did I mention Luke and I are brothers?"
I look up at him out of sudden. "What?"

"Yeah" He laughs "Actually, he's older than me"
"WHAT?"
"Shhh!" He whispers "But yes. But the truth is that he is my half brother. Father was... sneaky and a fucking traitor. Mindless. A fucked up person, Sang. I was alone in Greece, angry and helpless. I had never felt such rage. Sometimes I even scared myself. That's where I met Silas, by the way. He's Greek".
Greek. That makes sense. Only a foreigner can be that... hot. I feel myself blushing.
"What happened then?"
"I came here. Luke was looking for me, and when I got here, I refused to be without Silas. So he came along too. Now, we are... a family" In the last part of his sentence, his voice breaks and swallows hard.
"Is all good?"
"Yeah" He says, kissing my forehead. I still can feel the ghost of his kiss on my skin, and the butterflies fly on my stomach.
I get even more closer. We talk a little bit more until he shuts more every second until he falls deeply asleep. And my mind is back to the doctor calling me Mina, Eleazar Rossum calling me like that too. And after and hour and no sleeping, I've made my mind because I cannot stand another second like this. I take my keys from my bag and head towards my house, running in the dark and lonely street.
 In my house, I run upstair to my room and turn on the light. I go through every drawer, every corner, but I can only find things I tought I'd lost and some lipsticks that must be Elizabeth's. But I don't really find anything out of the ordinary.
"I wasn't always the strongest one, Sang" There is a voice in the back of my head. Then is gone in the air, almost like it never existed. For a moment, I think I didn't, but there is that part of my head that screams that I'm not crazy, that I didn't make it up.
"What?" I whisper.
"You thought it was me" Elizabeth says, her words in my ears. I had never heard her like this before "All these years. The one who said no when you wanted to say yes, the one who kept everyone away when all you wanted was contact. But it wasn't me. You just don't know. You never know anything at all"
"Elizabeth" I breath "What are you talking about?"
"They said I was the reckless one" She continues "Careless. Wild. Rebeld. And, Sang, it is true. But it wasn't me who they said had a slight tendency of schizophrenia and violence"
I feel like I can't breathe. "Who said that, Elizabeth?"
"I remember, Sang. Maybe it's time you do too"
"Remember what?"

"The times before. Can you remember when we were just a kid and mother took us to certain appointments with bad man?"
"When we were just kids? Elizabeth, you appeared when I was twelve".

"But did I? Are you sure?"
I shake my head, curling in the bedroom floor, in a state of denial. "Why are you doing this?" I ask her "Why do you make me want to believe?"
"You have to remember!"
"Remeber what?!"
"When she took over!"
"She who?"
"Oh, Sang. You were barely here"
"Elizabeth! Why are you telling me all these things? Why now?"
"I loved you, Sang. I do. At the end, we are like sisters, aren't we?"
"You don't make sense"
She continues like if I had never said anything. "But I'm done. I'm done trying to protect you from the truth, so you can sleep, so you can move on while I keep her out for you"
"Elizabeth!"
"I've done my part. But if you bring her back... Sang, if you bring her back, we are both lost".
"Bring who back? How can I do that?"
"Through anger. Rage. She never wants to leave, Sang!"
"Who? Please, tell me who" I beg. I need her to stop, I need to stop mumbling about they and her and to give me names and ways.
"Who else?" Elizabeth tells me "The third of us. Mina"
 Then I feel her leave, but not completely: I still feel her there, in the back of my head. Waiting to come out. Waiting to take over.

 And maybe, Mina is too.

Elizabeth's point of view. 
Time before.

The first time I walk in one of the Nightfall club, my soul smiles. The music drowns any other sound, making my body loose and moving along the rythm.
 Tonight I've taken Sang's body, again. I've tried not to in the last couple years, but at the end I end up putting my clothes on and being able to see things and feel things on my own, not through her. I try to give her time to use the body she left shallow for so long, when she took over. When Mina was here.
  Most of the things I've done are for Mina. It's true that I do them to protect Sang, but mainly is for Mina not to come back. She appears when there is anger, when there is pain so intense it cannot be handled. And while we grew up, that was all there was. I knew Sang was there, somewhere: I had seen her before, but she hadn't seen me. When we were twelve and Mother got too sick to beat us up, the pain and anger was gone, and after a while, Mina disspeared. Finally. Then I saw her. Sang, I mean. I saw her coming back to life, to the life she couldn't quite remember, only fed by the small pieces of reality Mina and I decided to give her.
  Sang wasn't here for years.
That is why I try to respect her time. I try to respect her. But as much as I love my little sister, I can't stand looking at her in the eyes. She never knew no pain, except those times when mother would make her kneel or locked in the basement. Sang remembers that, but she doesn't remember the end, because she never lived it. One of us took her place. We protected her.
We still do. Or I am, since Mina has gone away and for that I am grateful. Not that I don't love her, but the bitch scares the shit out of me.
  Now, dancing through the music among the sea of people, I look up to see dark eyes meeting mine. I had felt him staring before, but I hadn't seen him in the crew. Now I do. He's so tall and dark, badass... Yum.
 Then, in a blink of an eye, I'm not in the dance floor anymore, but in a quiet room sitting on someone's lap, the echo of the music near. And I 'm kissing someone while that person explores my body with his hands. I freeze and stop him. I'm not dumb, I've kissed another guys, but I never let them go further, because I have that feeling virginity is a thing for Sang. These are the sacrifices I do for my little innocent helpless Sang.
  Besides, it wasn't me. And I'm certain it wasn't Sang.
"Mina?" He confirms my fears, looking at my eyes.
"I have to go" I tell him, coldly.
"Wait. What's wrong?
What's wrong is that Mina was here. And when she's here, things use to get out of control. Why, after so long? She doesn't even  like to be out here. She doesn't like the pain and suffering, and life. She hates living. She only ever wants to stay here to make sure we are safe, and making her believe is impossible.
"I just went out to have a little bit fun, Elizabeth" A voice inside my brain says dryly. Then it fades away and I lose her presence. As I said, she doesn't like to be here. But I guess after seeing everything we see she wanted a taste of what that felt like. A boy.
  After all, we're just human.
"Nothing" I tell the boy while I pass my hands for my skirt, trying to get it down "It was nice meeting you"
"Will I see you again?" There is a spark in his eyes.

And, at the end, I'm human too.
"We'll see" I blink.
Then I'm gone. And I know I'll see him again.