Solace
Amethyst wonders why Daniel cries every night in his sleep. He is her twin, and she would like to think she can tell when something is wrong with him. When he was younger, he would jokingly call her his guardian angel.
When Daniel stares off into the distance, she tries to figure out what he is looking at. But the unfocused look in his eyes gives him away. He is looking, but not seeing. She notices that he does that often, lost in his own little world.
One day he asks her if she knows a girl named Thalia.
She looks at him quizzically and simply says, "No."
Daniel nods as if he expected her answer. He brushes his dark hair out of his face and sighs. "Am, some days I think I'm losing my mind."
She doesn't ask him why. One day he'll tell her, one day when he's ready. She understands that he doesn't like to be pressed. He keeps to himself, and trying to force him to open up only makes him withdraw further. Their parents don't understand, but she does.
Daniel doesn't have many friends, but he isn't an outcast. She doesn't know of anyone who dislikes him, but he prefers to be alone. Their parents worry that he is antisocial, but she thinks that he just doesn't know how to open up to people.
Amethyst always talked about angels when they were younger, having been raised in a Christian family. However, Daniel never indulged her fantasies. One day when she was in a sour mood, she snapped at him. "Daniel, why can't you believe in the angels?"
"They're not real, Amethyst," he said softly, refusing to meet her eyes.
"Yes they are!" she shrieked, unaccustomed to her brother disagreeing with her. "Mommy and Daddy say so!"
He shrugged. "They're wrong, Am. I know." He'd left her and gone to his room after saying that.
It is the only disagreement she can remember having with him. Daniel seemed so certain that angels didn't exist at that moment, yet he had once called her his guardian angel. Had he said it just to please her and her fetish for angels?
She looks at her reflection in the mirror. They share the same dark hair and pale skin. His pale green eyes are only a few shades lighter than hers. They're even the same height. Her mother once told her that when they were babies, it was only Daniel's birthmark on his face that made them easy to tell apart.
His birthmark is a strange thing. It goes from below his right eye to his jaw, and almost looks more like a scar. Their parents took him to various dermatologists when he was younger, and they all agreed that it was like nothing they'd seen before, but it posed no threat to his health.
Daniel had insisted on keeping it, even though their parents were leaning towards having it removed. He had confided in Amethyst and told her he knew it was important, but he didn't know why.
One night she wakes up to the sound of him screaming. Their house is big, and their parents' bedroom is on the other side, so perhaps they haven't heard him yet. She knows it will be bad if they hear him. They worry enough as it is.
Amethyst gets out of bed and tiptoes into his room. He has stopped screaming and lies motionless on his bed. "Daniel?" she calls out softly.
He turns his head to look at her. The moonlight illuminates his room well enough that she can see him smile weakly at her, as well as the tear streaks on his cheeks. "Did I wake you up? I'm sorry, Am."
She walks over to him and sits next to him. She brushes his hair out of his face. "Nightmare?"
He nods. "You wanna talk about it?" she asks softly.
Daniel doesn't say anything for a few minutes. Finally he croaks out, "You'll think I'm crazy."
Amethyst lies next to him just like they did as children when one of them was frightened. "Don't worry. I already know you're crazy." She offered him a small smile.
Taking the initiative, he looks her in the eyes and begins. "I'm Luke...and I'm mad about something. I don't know what, but I can feel the anger. Sometimes I'm still angry when I wake up. And there are people trying to kill me...but only because I deserve it." She doesn't ask him what he means by this.
"There are a lot of dreams...but in one I kill myself. I have to, or at least I think I do. And then I end up in this place..." Tears fall down his face. "Amethyst, I wish I was like you. I wish I could believe in angels, but I can't. I know what it's like to die. I know where you go, and it's not a good place. There aren't any angels."
She holds him tightly, letting him cry into her chest. She strokes his hair, not saying anything. Any vocal reassurance would feel false. She doesn't know why he has dreams like that, and the reason isn't important.
What is important is that she's there to hold him when he cries. She's there to reassure him that he isn't crazy, that he's Daniel, not Luke. There are some things he never tells her about, like who Thalia is. He never tells her exactly what the place he dreams of going to when he dies is like.
Amethyst doesn't lose her faith in angels. If anything, it only grows. She believes that there's a reason Daniel has a twin sister. She believes that God knew Daniel would need the extra help, a special person to confide in.
She believes that she is Daniel's guardian angel.
Author's Note: This story is inspired by my current profile picture, just a random fact. Thank you to Ellen 26 for her help getting me started with this story! After writing this, I realized that Luke wouldn't remember who he was in his next life, but for the sake of this story he didn't...Reviews are loved, especially ones with CC!