Chapter 1
"Perish the thought," Lightning Farron mumbled to herself. Her younger sister, Serah, looked at her quizzically from across the kitchen table.
"What'd you say, Claire?" Only Serah could call Lightning by her real name. Anybody else would have received a strike across the jaw if they dared to utter the name at her. After her parents death, Claire, now Lightning, developed her own way of coping from the loss and that was to throw away the past entirely and create a whole new future-even if it meant changing her name. Serah stared at Lightning with concern. "Claire?" she called out to her again.
Lightning snapped out of her thoughts and quickly put on a carefree smile on her face. "Oh, all I said was I can't wait until you're wedding." The statement was a blatant lie. Lightning was absolutely dreading the marriage between Snow and Serah. The thought alone, nearly made her dizzy from the rage that pooled around in her chest.
Serah was beaming from ear to ear as she got up from her seat to place a chaste kiss on Lightning's right cheek. Lightning could feel her face becoming rapidly hot from a damn blush creeping onto her cheeks. Shit! Lightning berated herself.She quickly tried to conceal it by lowering her head into the upturned collar of her army jacket. Fortunately, Serah had already made her way behind her towards the stairs. "Goodnight Claire," she simply said as she made her way up the stairs to her bedroom. When Lightning heard Serah's door softly click shut, a tear made its way down her cheek and eventually landing onto the table. Lightning placed a hand on her cheek where Serah had kissed her-it was burning with pulsating warmth. Why am I feeling this way? Lighting questioned her own bewildering feelings.
The next morning, Lightning could hear the clanging of pots and pans from the kitchen and reluctantly sat up on her bed. What's Serah doing up so early? Lightning wondered.She ran a hand through her naturally messy, strawberry-blonde hair and yawned. Her head and eyes ached persistently from all the crying she had done the previous night; she barely got any sleep. The thought of Serah being wedded to somebody like Snow made Lightning's stomach curl. These bizarre feelings she had towards her sister caused a severe feeling of shame to well up in the pit of her stomach. For many months now, the strange feelings kept her up nights pondering why, when, and how this all started. With some thought, Lightning remembered it all started with the news of Snow's proposal to Serah. Since then, Lightning's hatred towards Snow only grew stronger every passing day and so did her own confusing feelings. She hated him for taking Serah away from him and the way Serah had on the most biggest smile whenever she was around him. Lightning felt like she had been replaced. She couldn't figure out why she would feel the need to be jealous of her sister's fiance? She should be ecstatic for her little sister for finding someone she wants to spend the rest of her life with, even though it isn't her. "No!" Lightning shook her head furiously. "Stop it Lighting! Stop thinking these disgusting thoughts!" No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get past the feeling of envious rage towards Snow and these newly realized feelings she harbored deep inside for Serah. All the times she showed utmost loyalty and affection towards Serah are just things any sister would show, right? Lighting tried to justify to herself. But it was the masked feelings behind her actions that made Lightning's sisterly affections towards Serah…different. Lightning grasped her head between her hands and ducked her head in shame and guilt. She was supposed to protect Serah, not burden her with her own insane feelings. Tears started pooling around in her aqua-teal eyes. She tried her best to hold back the tears of shame and anger, but could not. The tears started falling onto her bed sheets like falling rain.