Hello, hello~ Just a quick warning ... This story is very, very dark so if you saw the genre listing but still had some faint hope that it would be a light tale, you will be in for a shock. I'm serious ...

Black Paradise

We've always been together. Side-by-side. Inseparable.

When someone calls out to us they always say both our names, one after the other but in no particular order. We're not the same in years, or months, or days … but it doesn't seem to matter much. We grew up right beside one another, seeing the same things, listening to the same sounds. We're the closest we could possibly be. It's always been like that.

Even now that we're both getting older, a little bit more mature, a little bit more independent … I still find the most comfort when I speak my mind truthfully to him and he listens like it's the most important thing in the world. We don't see so much of each other now, because my school is no longer the place he travels to as it was just a year ago. He has a girlfriend too, and I don't have a boyfriend, but somehow that hasn't changed the way we act and react around each other. His girlfriend is lovely, so maybe that helps. I'd be happy to have her as a sister even, because she's so pretty and graceful. Maybe some of her tact would rub off onto me too. The three of us spend so much wonderful time together.

His mother is a master of calligraphy. My father is a businessman. He has one sister and I have one brother. I live in a traditional house. Everything was so natural, so easy … it was like I was living in a bright and beautiful paradise surrounded by those who mattered to me. So bright, so radiant … colours, light, laughter …

Black Paradise

My father fell into debt. He couldn't breathe with the weight of the pitch dark ocean above him. The sharks circled. His eyes were haunted, his movements abrupt, a cornered animal cowering from the hunt. One day, without a word, he came out of hiding. He went to his old office block, all the way to the roof. Up, up, up - so high. I guess there were too many stairs, because-
He didn't take them on the way down.

"Why? I don't want to understand. Why did you kill my brother?"

I'm not thinking about my father right now though. I'm thinking about the boy who strayed from my side. My words are directed at him. I speak in contradictions. I'm thinking straight, in circles, not thinking at all.

"My girlfriend died too."

I already know that. A drunk driver and a pedestrian crossing dye the world red … I know it must be hurting him more than me, but even if it was in a different way, I loved her too. I can't bear the thought of not seeing her sweet smile and hearing her laughter mingling with his as I watch them from a close distance. They were happy. Seeing them happy made me happy.

"And you killed my sister."

I took from him. He's lost a lot now.

His mother's mind went missing not too long ago. A combination of too many things shattered her. She lost her elegance and became wild. She tore her work and splashed lines of black across the walls and floor with a broken brush and cracked ink stone. No one could touch her, hold her, restrain her. The ink she used to control so masterfully rebelled against her, shadowy chains of characters dragging her deeper into her insanity. In the end she set fire to the house and burnt up as the house burned down. The flames consumed everything. It seemed like a bad dream. A nightmare.

But he also took from me, so …

I've lost a lot too, haven't I?

Maybe it was a forewarning. One of my friends was on the school's roof of an afternoon. She wanted to see what it felt like to stand on the other side of the railing. She tied one end of a rope to the metal bars just in case she fell. It was just unlucky that she tied the other end around her neck.

"It's not the end of the world."

I don't really want to forget it all. But now I feel as if I don't have much choice. I stare at him distantly as I lie on the cold tiled floor. He looks like he usually does, although there's a stain on his white shirt … but there's something wrong.

"Maybe not. But …"

Ah. That's what it is. Why … why is that knife there in his chest?

"It's the end of me."

Stain … there's a stain on his shirt. Why? Why is there a stain? Go away! Go away! GO AWAY!

He's walking away from me. Why? Where's he going? My eyes are getting blurry, I can't see him! Where-?

My fingers brush against something sharp in my listless frantic movement. A razor. Blackness, blackness … so dark … encircling me … Why …

… Ah … that's right … there's a stain here too … all over these white tiles … a red, red stain ... tears …

… I remember now … I … I'm ending too …

"Nii ... sa ... ma."

He had one sister and I had one brother.

Twin self-inflicted murders.

Double suicide.

Please don't kill me for this! Er, and if you hadn't guessed, it's AU and the characters have little resemblance to the originals ... very little. Plus the way they're related got mixed up too ...

And again, to the people who're super mad at me for writing this ... I'm very sorry! Really!

Edit: someone pointed out to me that the characters could easily be Rukia, Kaien and Miyako ... and in retrospect, I can definitely see what they mean. Well, you can read it either way; I don't mind at all~