Across the Sky
Wow, Emily is sort of back! Yeah, so this idea came to me in the absolute dead of the night. I'm not joking. I think it was the whole Star Wars EU that did it -- how the Jaina talks about the spot inside of her that will always be her twin's...sort of gave me this idea. THE QUAGMIRES HAVE THE FORCE! WOOO! Okay, not really. Don't worry.
Isadora Quagmire sat in the self-sustaining hot-air mobile home, and sighed. She missed Quigley -- even after all this time, it still hurt. Oh, she loved Duncan, sure, but there were three of them. She didn't feel...whole. Like she was missing one of her arms. Isadora knew Duncan felt the same way, even if he didn't show it. There was something inside of her, something that would always belong to the triplet part of her. No matter what happened.
She shut her eyes, and shut out everything. If she concentrated hard enough...
Duncan was frustrated. Isadora could almost feel it. And Quigley...a void. He wasn't there.
Wasn't he?
There was a shadow lurking just far away enough for Isadora to sense it. Quigley? It wasn't anything magical. It was a bond, a bond that any sibling could have. Some just chose to ignore it. Isadora could feel Quigley.
The air is affecting your brain, her logical half told her. Quigley was dead. Died in the fire. Get over it. You can't live in the past.
But...she could feel him. He was there. As surely as Isadora could feel her hair whipping into her face, she could feel Quigley's presence. Duncan was the logical one, the reporter. The factual one. Isadora had always been the dreamer, taking her fantasies and turning them into rhyming two-liners. Quigley was almost like the balance. He took the facts to make maps, but often dreamed about what lay beyond. How strange. Balance. There hadn't been a lot of balance in her life since...since before.
Isadora concentrated again. Yes, he was there. She could be fooling herself, but he was there.
"I know you're somewhere, Quigley," she mumbled into her arms, which she had buried her head in. "And I'm not going to give up on you."
Quigley grabbed a root and dragged himself out of the stream. He was shivering, wet, and he was probably going to catch hypothermia and die. He sat down on the riverbank, trying to think of some way to warm himself up.
He thought back to before the fire. It had been a cold, cold winter evening, when the triplets were nine. Even the snap-hiss-crackle of the fire burning safely in the fireplace could not warm the family up. He, Duncan, Isadora, and their parents had huddled alongside each other, shivering and laughing and telling stories. Their father had scared them with a ghost story, and in the dead of the night, Isadora had dragged her pillow and blanket into his and Duncan's room, because she was too afraid to sleep by herself.
Quigley's shoulders shook with a cold laughter. Duncan had been too face-the-facts to be frightened. Quigley had been slightly scared, but not really. But Isadora's imagination had gone wild, and she couldn't sleep on her own.
He sighed, remembering that night. Just when Isadora had started to drop off to sleep, he and Duncan would lean over and make scary noises. Isadora wouldn't speak to them for two days until they apologized. Quigley closed his eyes and let his body relax. Such good times. Gone. They thought he was dead. Quigley wondered how they were doing.
Some people said the bond between siblings was pure nonsense, but the Quagmires had known better. If they concentrated hard enough, they could feel each other's emotions just as strongly as their own. Quigley reached deep inside him. He could feel Duncan. Frustrated, angry, confused. Quigley wondered if Duncan was thinking about Violet Baudelaire, too.
Shaking those thoughts from his head, he concentrated on Isadora. She was sad. It crashed over him like a wave. Sad, confused, lost. Isadora was looking for him. She believed in him. He could tell.
I know you're somewhere, Quigley. And I'm not going to give up on you.
Her words carried across the sky.
I loved writing this. I hope you liked it, because I did. I'm not sure why. XD. Anyways, review it, please?
-- Emily
