Work Text:
There was an ordinary family living in a small house in a big city.A father who worked as a lawyer for a small firm, the mother, a kind woman, was a housewife and took care of her two daughters. Two little twins of seven years old, the older one with black hair as black as the night and the younger one with blond hair, both of them had brown eyes. No one would have any idea that such an ordinary home was the site of so many tragedies.
Alex couldn't say when it all started,although she knew that the blows came after the screams, the screams after the scolding, but there was nothing before the voices and lights, those had been there since they were born, she knew it even with all the fuzzy memories in her head. But there was one memory that was perfectly clear, one she could never forget, the day everything changed.
“Alex, Alex! Look at my drawing” A little blonde girl shouted excitedly, raising a yellowed notebook in her tiny hands.
“It's very nice, Elyon” The little black-haired girl smiles at her, looking at the strange mixture of dog and cat painted in gray colors in the notebook.
“He is coming” Elyon stopped, eyes open, wrinkling his nose as if he smelled something unpleasant. “They say there is something wrong”
Alex looked away from his sister to the kitchen window overlooking the front yard of the small house, where he did indeed see two blinding lights approaching. Frowning, she rose from her seat at the table and tossed all the crayons into a worn princess print backpack.
“Hurry, hide” The girl took her sister's hand and led them to their room, a small space, it was more like a large closet with a bed that took up most of the space and a small cabinet with a couple of drawers that held all of his belongings. “C'mon, under the bed Elyon”
It was something their mother had taught them. If her father was not happy, he would become the monster of her nightmares, then it was better not to be in sight, if he didn't see them he wouldn't think about them, it would be as if they did not exist and could not harm them. They heard the front door open and close loudly. Alex had always thought of his father as an ogre, with his tall and broad frame, with big hands good for smashing things and his raspy, booming voice.
For her, her mother was the small assistant of her father, when the Ogre was gone, she would act nice and friendly, but when he came home, she would obey whatever he said.Elyon, on the other hand, was the princess locked in the tower, good and innocent, always seeing the good in everything and still believing that they could be a happy family. Instead, she wanted to be the hero, the knight who would rescue her sister and free her mother from her father's spell so that perhaps all three of them could be happy.
“Where's my dinner!?” The ogre's voice roared through the house, Alex always wondered how no one else listened, how no one else came to help them “I have wonderful news!”
She thought she heard her mother answering something, but her voice was always so low and shaky that she wasn't surprised she couldn't understand what she was saying. But his father had also stopped screaming, which was wrong, her father always yelled no matter what he was talking about, now she couldn't hear what they were talking about. She moved to get out of bed but something was holding her wrist, she turned her head to see her sister's hand holding her wrist tightly. She is trembling, her face is full of tears, and her normally brown eyes have turned a very pale blue. Alex knew she was scared and trying too hard.
“Elyon calm down, they seem calm, everything's fine.”
“No…” Her voice was a trembling whisper. “Alex don't leave”
Releasing herself from Elyon's grip, she carefully stepped out of her hiding place and with slow, careful steps reached the door, pressed her ear to it, but still did not understand what they were saying. Frowning, she slowly opened the door and finally heard something.
“Are you sure about this?” That was her mother's voice “Will these people really be able to help them?”
“Who cares?” The ogre sounded happy, he had never sounded happy before “You know we can't handle them, you told me yourself that you are afraid to stay with them, they can deal with their abnormalities, while you and I can be happy again” sounded so loving, Alex didn't believe him for a second.
“Well... I guess they know how to take care of them better than we do” Her mother sounded doubtful “They'll be happier.”
“That's right. They will be better off, and so will we” Her father sounded like he had done something very good “Now go and get them, they're going to be here any minute.”
She didn't understand, were they going to send them away? Would they be separated from each other? She turned to look at Elyon, who was still under the bed, her hands over her ears and her eyes closed tightly as if she didn't want to hear. The door opened to reveal her mother, who had wet eyes and a very small smile on her lips.
“Alex come here” She said softly, then walked over to the bed and gently pulled Elyon out from under the bed, once she had her in her arms she took her hand “Come on, there's something we need to talk about”
She led them into the kitchen where her father was sitting at the table with a big smile on his face that reminded her of the walrus in Alice in Wonderland. Her mother sat in a chair across from her father with Elyon on her lap, Alex sat next to her, staring at her mother waiting for answers. She smiled and explained.
“In a moment, certain people will arrive” Her smile grew a bit “They have a special place for people like you, a school” The small blonde sniffed.
“People like us?” Her mother looked uncomfortable
“Freaks” His father said simply
“People with different abilities” Corrected her mother “They are going to come for you because they believe that you are very special and that you deserve to go there.”
“Are you sending us away?” The major asked
“Yes, you'll be fine there, I assure you” His father actually looked happy. He looked like he was about to say something else but the blonde interrupted him.
“You lie” She stared at him with her blue eyes again. “You don't know, you're doing this for money, it's not a school, you don't know where it's going to take us” Her mother froze “You sold us”
She watched as her father's smile slowly faded into an angry grimace, his face turning very red and his eyes bulging. He was very angry, her mother shrank a little in her place and stopped hugging her daughter. He abruptly rose from his seat, grabbed the girl by the arm, and pulled her violently from the woman's lap.
“I told you I hate it when you do that you freak!” He held the little girl's arm tighter
“Let her go, you're hurting her!” Alex got up from his seat and tried to hold the arm his father was using to hold Elyon.
“Don't touch me!” Her father pushed her hard and she fell “Damn monster! Take her to her room, don't let her come out!” She looked at her father as he yelled at her mother.
“Mom?” Turning to look at her mother, who looked like she might burst into tears at any moment, but she moved to do as her father commanded, Alex closed her eyes and clenched her small fists “You're as bad as him” whisper.
“Alex don't do it!” The other girl screamed as she saw her brother's eyes widen and turn bright red, her hair had begun to float a little
Seeing her, her father let go of Elyon and tried to hold Alex.But when she saw him approaching she wrinkled her nose, a shadow moved beneath her and rose from the ground above her father, forming a large black blade. And before anyone could react, the shadow moved, cutting off the arm with which he wanted to hold her, and then fell apart like water and joined the shadow of the old refrigerator in the kitchen.
The only thing the man could see was his missing limb lying on the ground in front of him before he began to scream in pain. The mother let out a high-pitched shriek before backing away and slamming into one of the kitchen cabinets, her eyes fixed on her eldest daughter, who was staring at her husband's wound. The woman patted the cabinet in search of the knife she had been cooking with before the man's arrival. As her hand touched the knife handle, she grabbed it and lunged at the girl, she could only see the red eyes turn to her before she felt a stabbing pain in her chest, she looked down but could only see a large red spot on his chest before everything went black.
Alex saw her mother collapse lifeless before her, blood covered the floor where a shadow had pierced her heart, she slowly got up and took the knife from the woman's hands. She turned to see her father still screaming, his eyes fixed on his wife's body. She saw her sister with her eyes closed tightly and her small hands covering her ears, her face contorted as if she were in great pain. Alex frowned and approached her father before placing the knife across his face, just below his right eye.
“Shut up” she scolded in her small, high voice. Her father's cries were reduced to whimpers “You only make it worse” Aware of her limited physical strength, she retreated to a distance where she could no longer reach the man, she raised the knife and drew an invisible line across her father's neck watching as one of the shadows did the job and the man's head fell, his body collapsed with a loud thud. She looked at the bleeding body before approaching Elyon.
“Alex…” The little girl's eyes were filled with tears and her face was reddened with tears “It's too late” And as if on cue, the front door opened a few feet away, revealing an older man in an elegant suit, someone she had never seen before.
Alex saw him frown as if he smelled something very bad. The man looked around the kitchen, pausing at the bloody floor, glancing at the bodies of her parents before looking at her and her sister. Alex moved to get between the man and Elyon.
“Who are you?” She asked the man, who just smiled and walked towards her.Alex pointed the knife at the man's leg, causing a shadow to pass through it, and the man fell to his knees as his thigh was pierced, but he showed no pain.
“Awesome” said the man, his smile widening.”You both will be very interesting”
Alex could only look at the man in surprise before she heard footsteps and saw more people entering the house, armed men who looked like soldiers.She saw them pointing their weapons at her, angrily she waved the knife and several shadows rushed towards her. She watched as several of them fell when she felt a sting in her neck and suddenly went numb.
“Alex!” Elyon was startled to see her sister fall to her knees.
“Elyon…” Her vision was blurred and she could no longer connect with the shadows, it was bad.
“Alex!” Elyon's voice grew distant, she turned to look at her and could only make out a lot of movement, her sister being taken away. “Alex, don't!”
“Let her go” She tried to stand again and felt someone holding her free arm, she aimed the knife at her attacker and actually felt it sink a little into the person's flesh, but not enough to make him let go. She felt another stab to her neck.
“Alex” Her sister kept screaming but it was getting harder and harder to hear her, eventually her voice melted into the leftovers and everything faded away.