ENOCH HAS GONE CRAZY and he doesn't know how to feel about it. Like on one hand it was inevitable with his family, but on the other hand it's completely terrifying. He thought he would turn into his brother and as much as he didn't want to, he was preparing himself to snap. He didn't want to be a murderer, but that's what he thought was going to happen. He's a siphoner too. He's defective. It's only natural, right? The boy who could only take, who could only suck the life out of everything around him would eventually have the tables turned on him. The life would slowly be sucked out of him until eventually he was unrecognizable to the people around him. They would only see the psychotic maniac who snapped one day. That's not what's happening. He's not about to kill someone. No. Mother Nature's coming for him in a different way. But it's no less brutal.
Enoch's losing his mind. He see people out of the corner of his eye, but when he turns they're gone. Then he hears it. A laugh. Echoing in his head. He hears whispers. When he tries to listen to what they're saying all he can hear is his name. Enoch. Enoch. Eeeeenoch.
It's worse when he sleeps. All the demons of his mind come out to play. They leer at him. They smirk. They laugh. They cry. They scream. Enoch wants to scream, but he can't. He wakes up struggling to breath like something is sitting on his chest. Like something is choking him. No. Like something is squatting inside his throat. Like a snake. He feels it slither around and he runs to the bathroom to throw it up. Only for nothing to come out. There's nothing there. He sits there and cries. And cries. And cries. He wants to talk to someone. He wants to talk to Ingrid. He wants to talk to Kai. But he can't. He can't because Kai is gone. And Ingrid has her own problems. She wakes up screaming almost every night. Her powers. Her visions. They're worse. And at night in her dreams, she sees things. Horrible things. She see people getting tortured. She sees people dying. She has enough problems. She doesn't need Enoch's crazy ass.
It's not just the things he sees. (He doesn't want to call them visions because Ingrid sees visions and that's not what he sees) There are days when he feels so great. Like he can do anything. And he's ready to concur the world. He doesn't need sleep, he doesn't need to rest, he just needs to go. And then he crashes, hard. And it hurts. Like sometimes he just feels so, so heavy that he can't do anything. Sometimes he feels sad, some of the time he feels numb. Sometimes he just wants to lay there and die. and then, then he's okay, for a little while, until the whole cycle starts again. The people, no the things he sees are there. A lot. Which is why he doesn't blink an eye when he starts seeing dead people. It's the night after the bonfire. Ingrid's asleep. Enoch's avoiding sleep. He sees his dead brother, Joey first. He ignores him because he doesn't want to hear the horrible things he's gonna say. Then he sees his dead twin sister Annie. He ignores her too. When he saw her she tried to talk to him, so he put headphones on and blared music. Eventually she too, left. Then Ingrid woke up. Screaming as usual and Enoch went to comfort her.
•—•
The next day brought them to the grill, eating.
"Holy shit." Ingrid said, suddenly.
"What?"
"Elena just walked in on her brother kissing his ex."
"Jeremy? Moody Teen? Cheating?"
"Yeah. And get this," Ingrid leaned in, "she's a ghost." Enoch's heart stopped.
"She's a what?"
"A ghost. Turns out Bonnie messed something up with a spell and now the dead are corporeal."
"Shit." Is all Enoch could say. He was too busy thinking about his siblings.
"Come on!" Ingrid said, holding out her hand.
"What? We have to pay," Enoch said.
Ingrid looked at him bemusedly, "I just did. What were you lost in your own head or something?"
"Something like that."
•—•
They are at an old abandoned house.
"Come on!" Ingrid said, about to
get out of the car.
"Wait," Enoch grabbed her hand and stopped her, "Why are we here?"
"I told you. Bonnie's here and we need to help."
"But why? We never help."
"I'm a psychic. I have to help when it comes to matter of the dead. It's my duty, I guess. Yours too. You're a witch."
Enoch groaned, "Don't remind me." They get out of the car and walk to the house. They walk into the house and he sees one Miss Shelia Bennett.
"Now, what are you two doing here?" she asked them.
"I'm a psychic, ma'am. It's my duty to help." Shelia nodded and looked at Enoch.
"You should know by now, I'll follow her wherever."
Shelia smiled at him, "That I do."
"You know him, Grams?"
"Yes. I helped his family once. And then when he came to town I helped him. Even gave him a car. You taking care of that car, boy?" The last part was directed at him.
"Yes, ma'am, I am. One of my most prized possessions."
"Good. Now let's get to work."
•—•
At one point Enoch and Shelia has a talk.
"You need help. What's happening it's not healthy. You need to talk to someone."
"I-I'm okay."
"No. You're not and that's okay," she said and then she grabbed his chin, "But you need to understand something. You are not your brother. You are not turning into him. You'll be okay if you talk to someone." She smiled at him and he smiled back trying to blink back the tears. She patted his cheek and stood up.
She stopped before she left the room, "And talk to your siblings." And she left. He turned and saw his brother and sister there. His brother walked up to him first and gave him a hug.
"I'm sorry." he said.
"For what?" Enoch said and laughed a little hysterically.
"How we treated you. You didn't deserve it. You're not an abomination just because you don't have your own magic. You're an abomination because of your music taste." Enoch laughed and shoved him, "I mean it though. What happened wasn't your fault. No matter what Dad said. It was Kai's fault. If you ever see him, which hopefully you won't, punch him for me, yeah?"
Enoch nodded, "Yeah. Maybe I'll hit him so hard he sees you and then you get to hit him too."
Joey smiled, "I love you. Even if you have a trash music taste." Enoch gasped and shoved him again. Joey faded away, his laugh staying even after he left.
Enoch looked over and saw his twin sister, Annie and started crying again. He ran up and dropped down in front of her.
"I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry." he sobbed.
She put her hand on his head and smiled at him, forever the face of a ten year-old, "It's okay, Enoch. It wasn't your fault."
"It was. It was. It was and I'm so fucking sorry."
"Shh. It's okay, but you know what you need to do? Tell Ingrid. Get if off your chest. You've never told anyone and it's eating at you." Enoch shook his head and started to protest, but she cut him off, "She won't judge you. She'll help you." She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him.
She looked up, suddenly, "It's time to go. Remember I love you and it's not your fault." and then she too, faded. And Enoch cried. And cried. And cried. And that's how Ingrid found him. She ran up to him and held him.
"What happened?" she asked, but he shook his head. She held him until he was ready to talk.
He pulled away and wiped his face, "I need to tell you something." She nodded at him and waited until he got the words.
"I've told you that I was a twin and that she died, but I never told you how."
"I assumed Kai killed her."
"No," he said and then took a deep breath, "When I was in the womb I siphoned too much and consumed too much and as such my sister came out sickly. She couldn't do a lot because she was very fragile. My parents blamed me for it, rightfully, because I took too much from her." Ingrid wanted to cut in, but Enoch shook his head, "The only person I had was Kai. He comforted me. He knew how it felt. I trusted him with everything. One summer we had an inground pool. It was great. One day it was just me and Kai outside. My parents were in the house and the rest of our siblings were someone scattered. Annie was looking at us through the window and came outside, she wasn't supposed to. Kai told me that she wanted to go for a swim, but was too scared to go in by herself and that all she needed was a little push," Enoch's voice was shaky, "so I gave her one. And she couldn't swim. She was fragile. I went to go get our parents but Kai held me back and said that out parents would get mad. I got scared I didn't know what was happening I hesitated for a second. And she died. She died so fast. Again I went for our parents and again, Kai stopped me. He told me about how much trouble I would get in. How I murdered her. How I hated her because of the attention she got. How I killed my poor weak, sickly sister. And I got scared. Kai told me he'd protect me. And I believed him. So we ran into the woods and acted like we were never there. No one knew and my parents filled the pool with concrete to stop anymore "accidents" from happening." Enoch looked up at Ingrid and saw her crying.
"It wasn't your fault!" and she pulled him into her arms again, "It's okay. I've got you. It wasn't your fault." She repeated this over and over as he cried. And he cried. And he cried. And. he. cried.