Chapter 2: Twins

Chandra stared into the eyes of a blue eyed, blond haired boy, actually both of them. They were twins she concluded. She stood up slowly not wanting to scare the boys, she looked into the eyes of the one on the left of her, as she peered around him she felt such relief. She wasn't the only one left well not the one twin sister left that is. Chandra felt her eyes tear up and involuntarily grabbed the boy in front of her, she embraced him and felt him put his hands up. His other brother snickered and laughed. Chandra let go and stepped back flustered.

" I'm sorry I was just so relieved when I found out I wasn't the only person left" Chandra admitted.

" It's okay" 3 replied, he clamped his hands on his mouth and stared at his brother. 4 looked confused and stepped closer towards him. 3 spoke? It was the first time he heard him speak besides the usual flickering communication, but a human voice? Where did that come from?

" Are you alright?" Chandra asked worried, she walked closer and stared at the boy who had his mouth clamped shut. 4 looked towards Chandra and stepped beside her, he wanted to get a good look of his brother.

" Alright 3 you can take your hand off your mouth now" 4 said sarcastically, he too was surprised he had a voice, he remembered the scientist chasing them in order to receive their voice boxes. So they adapted using their eyes instead now they had a voice? Maybe the real human could help them out, 4 turned in front of Chandra and squinted his eyes, Chandra seemed confused by the look on her face.

" Do you have a voice plug or something in your body?" 4 asked, he couldn't shake off the fact that he had a voice now.

" No we have voice boxes, why shouldn't you know that?" Chandra asked while glaring at bit, she didn't mean to sound rude or anything. The question just struck her off guard.

" You wouldn't understand, you see we aren't really human like you, we changed into humans from being....er....dolls" 3 scratched his head embarrassed as he knew the expression on the girls face would change from curious to confused.

" Dolls?" Chandra repeated, 3 and 4 both shook their heads at each other and frowned they knew she wouldn't understand, they were both about to walk away when they heard something from behind them.

" Wait! I can't just leave you here by yourselves especially in such places like this, please come back and meet my sister she'll be able to help you if you really are dolls" Chandra smiled politly, she ran over towards the twins and grabbed each one by the arm, 3 and 4 looked at each other confused, Chandra started to walk with the boys linking arms to her she led them to her old house and towards her sister.

" Now" Chandra started as she lit a new match of the brick walls, they were both standing in front of the dented blue closet. She threw the match in the glass vase she opened the handle and they all peered into the dark closet. Chandra stepped in first and together 3 and 4 looked as the light seemed to eliminate the darkness, 3 sighed he wished he could use his eyes to light up the room. Chandra led them to one chamber, this one had brick walls and a rolled up sleeping bag with an old fuzzy pillow snagged in a fuzzy pillow sham. Chandra smiled to herself, this was her room in one corner she kept her pile of magazines and books, though you couldn't seem them from the angle. She never though much of it except that it was humble and her room. They kept walking down the hallway until they came to another room that was blocked off by a red and white checkered picnic blanket, Chandra pushed it aside and saw Selene still at the table only with a thing a round her head, turning her head Chandra saw that Selene was wearing a pair of glasses that had pieces of red glass making them opaque to Chandra. Selene looked at her sister and sighed she returned to her work table and never noticed the presence of the boys.

" What took you so long?" Selene tried not to sound worried by covering her tone with disaproval and a bit of frustration.

" I was looking out at the gazebo and fell asleep, I know long story. And I found these two people" Chandra put her hands out to show 3 and 4 who were still confused and bit frightened about where they were. Selene looked up this time and peered towards her sister, she showed her teeth turned around and rummaged through a drawer and picked up a sharp, rusty scalpel. She walked closer towards Chandra but steered towards the boys and stopped at them.

" If you as dare put a hand on my sister I'll cut It off" Selene threatened, Chandra felt her face heat up as she knew her sister would do something as drastic as that. 3 and 4 looked at each other, becoming new humans they had no idea what she was talking about.

" Umm Selene, they say they just became humans, they were dolls or something like that at first." Chandra still wore a weird look as she stared at the boys, Selene took off the glasses and stationed them on her head, she looked at both of the boys and nodded, she walked around them looking at their different style of clothes. She looked and pulled out a piece of robe to look at it, she looked up at 4 who's robe she was grabbing.

" Who made these? There really hand crafted well" Selene walked back around and stopped at the front of 4, her eyes gazed down at the hand painted 4 on his chest, she put one hand and traced the delicate 4 and looked up at 4, 4 wasn't sure but his neck was sweating and he felt blood rushing up to his face when she touched him.

" What's this mean? You some part of a cult or something?" Selene wondered over to her work table and grabbed a tablet of paper, she stared to write down what she noticed about the boys.

" No.. It's my name, I'm 4 and this my older brother 3" 4 replied as he pointed towards the silent 3. Selene raised an eyebrow at him and walked back over towards him, she put both hands on her hips and glared.

" Right and I'm 13 and she's 14" Selene sarcastically laughed at him, Chandra glared at her.

" Sister they are different maybe they are of a different race" Chandra said as she got the satisfaction of 3 nodding his head in agreement. She smiled politely at him.

" Yeah sure Chandra sure they are, anyways I'm kinda busy so why don't you run off and play or something" Selene walked over to pick up a loose bolt on the floor, Chandra nodded sadily and walked away. 3 and 4 were looking as Chandra walked away towards her room, 3 and 4 were about to go after her until they felt a force on their arms, turning around they saw Selene staring darkly at them.

" Just cause she trusts you doesn't mean I will, sit." Selene pointed at the cot beside her worktable, 4 clung behind 3 and together under the nerving grey eyes of Selene they made their way towards the bed, they sat down and tried to smile at her. Selene rolled her eyes and returned to her work. 3 could hear a bunch of electricity from something she was working on. After a couple of minutes she stopped and sighed, putting both hands on the worktable she cupped her face in her hands.

" What am I going to do with that girl? believing in such stories she is too gullible" Selene started to work again, the boys looked down but 3 glared towards her.

" Well if you did listen to you maybe you'd believe too"

" Who asked you again?" Selene replied as 3 got the look of one eye, he shut right up and shivered while 4 held onto him, she was a scary type of person unlike her twin sister Chandra.

Just then the curtain whipped to the side and Chandra stepped in with a smile on her face. On a rusted golden trey she had four cups filled with brown liquid. She walked in and set it beside her sister she handed one to her sister, and the twins were surprised that they saw the cold hearted women had smiled. Chandra walked towards the boys and sat in front of them, she handed them one cup each and grabbed the remaining one for herself, Chandra sat her cup down on a saucer and smoothed out her mint green dress as she sat she then took a sip and smiled kindly at the boys.

" It's my first attempt at earl green tea....I hope you enjoy anyways" Chandra smiled as she saw the boys still looking at the rusted, brown liquid. They had no idea what it was but the shrugged and tried it.

The drink was very bitter to them, but with Chandra smiling so kindly and so unsure of themselves, they both smiled kindly and took small sips sucking in agony with every sip they took. 4 looked like he was going to throw up or spit back into the cup. 3 wasn't in good shape either. When Chandra noticed their expressions, she gasped and smiled again.

" If you don't like it you can spit it out it won't hurt my feelings I know you were dolls you probably haven't eaten before" Chandra heard a smashing sound coming from Selene's worktable, looking up Chandra saw her sister shaking visibly, Chandra bit her tongue she realised that she pushed her sister's buttons too many times, with one finger Selene motioned for Chandra to go out to the hallway, reluctantly of coarse, Chandra sat down her cup and walked with her sister, with such force that she could have pulled it off, Selene briskly pulled the curtain so the twins couldn't see anything.

They couldn't see but they could hear good enough.

" I'm sorry but I believe them why wouldn't you" Chandra's tiny voice whimpered.

" Because it's stupid if I told you I was a caveman would you believe it?" Selene's cold voice snapped.

" No"

" So why do you believe that those boys were dolls?"

" I don't know Selene I just have a feeling"

" Chandra just stop it..."

" Stop what?"

" STOP ACTING LIKE AN IDIOT, HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE SUCH THINGS YOUR LIKE MOM!" 3 and 4 were still shaking as they saw Selene stomp towards her work table, slam down her glasses nearly breaking them and starting to work on them, being shaken with rage Selene kept burning herself off of the fire she was using, the boys heard her curse a couple of times. She then put her burnt hand in a blue bowl beside her and sighed again.

" Go" was all she said.

3 and 4 cocked their heads to the side in confusion.

" Go with her, I can't be bothered to babysit you guys"

That was good enough for them, 3 and 4 ran without hesitation towards the darkened hallway, they didn't have to look far as they saw Chandra sitting within the darkness, cradling her knees and sobbing quietly to herself, 3 bent down towards her and didn't want to touch her because of Selene's stern warning. To his surprise Chandra grabbed 3 arms and held it close to her face. 3 smiled in response and found himself leaning closer towards her head, he stopped immediately when he heard 4 start to laugh behind him and hearing Selene burn herself and curse louder this time.

" I'm sorry y-y-you had to hear that" Chandra's voice was jumpy from her crying to herself, when she looked up at 3 her eyes were starting to turn red as well. 3 smiled kindly and helped Chandra up. 3 wasn't sure of what to say to a crying girl, even though he was used to girls because of 7 he wasn't sure of how to reply to one that cried, 7 never cried period.

" Why don't you come to my room and we can talk?" Chandra said as she used her hand dry her tears, she still had grasp of 3's hand and started to link her hand under his arm. Chandra turned them around and led the boys to her room, when they came in Chandra let a match and lit a purple waxed candle, it lit up the room showing her pile of prized magazines as well as her makeshift cot. She smiled as she sat down and went to her corner that had an old coffee machine that still made coffee thanks to her sister's generator. She poured a cup of something she knew the boys would like, hot chocolate. She smiled as she gave the boys two new cups, they both looked questioning at first but smiled as they tasted it. It tasted sweet 4 looked towards 3 and smiled.

" We'll need to cataloge this stuff when we turn back into stitchpunks" 4 replied, 3 nodded in response.

" What did you call yourselves?" Chandra asked at the S word that they called themselves.

" Our family is called stitchpunks, we have a huge family all the way from 1-9" 3 piped up, he smiled as Chandra's face lit up by the stories they told of their family.

" That's so cool so you have a bunch of brothers and one sister?" Chandra smiled, she wondered what it would be like to have a bunch of brothers as well, they'd probably be scared to death of her sister who was more of a brother than a sister.

" I'm sorry for my sister, I guess she doesn't believe in that stuff but I do the moment I met you guys I knew you were different I just couldn't put my finger on it" Chandra answered, she looked at her reflection in the cup of hot chocolate, she steered her finger in it for a minute stirring the long strips of white colored chocolate into the mix.

" That's okay no need to apoligoze" 3 replied, they seemed more at ease with Chandra, in fact 3 was a lot like her a bit nervous but still wasn't afraid of speaking his mind. Chandra took her finger out after it burned her, laughing nervousily she put her finger in her mouth and wore a goofy looking smile afterwards.

" Ehahah I'm such a doofus at times" Chandra smiled.

Just then the church's bell chimed from the city square, Chandra counted the bells and found it was 5 o'clock. She stood up she had to make supper for her sister and now for 3 and 4, Chandra actually liked that they had numbers instead of names made it easy to remember for such an absent minded girl. She walked into her makeshift kitchen and searched through the cupboards, she found pieces of bread and made 4 peanut butter sandwiches for everyone, putting all of them on plates and on her tray she walked through the darkness to her sister's room. Pulling the curtains aside she walked in, still scared about what her sister would say to her now she placed the tray on her worktable and placed the sandwich beside her, Chandra turned around and was about to return to 3 and 4 when she felt someone grasp her arm, turning around she Selene looking down and grabbing her arm, she moved her head towards her cot. Following her she sat down beside her sister.

Selene covered her face with her hands and sighed deeply, she looked up towards Chandra and placed a hand on her sister's knee.

" I'm sorry about yelling at you... I just... I just....er...thank you for dinner" Selene was a bit flushed and stood up to her worktable, she was never good at apologize even when they were kids, but standing up and walking away was Selene's way of saying sorry, Chandra closed her eyes lightly and smiled she then stood up and patted her sister's shoulder, she walked out and went back towards 3 and 4. They were both sitting on the floor and looking at everything in sight, laughing while they passed each other.

" Hey guys hungry?" Chandra held out the 3 sandwiches on the tray, 3 and 4 walked over and looked at the sandwhiches. They both picked them up and took bites of them, 3 really liked the substance in between the bread, 4 wasn't so sure of what he was eating. Chandra smiled as she placed the dirty tray on her stack of other used trays. She sat back down and stared at the boys, she was really curious.

" Can I meet your family sometime?" Chandra asked quietly, both the boys looked at each other and sat down beside each other.

" Of coarse you can we're not sure how they'll adapt to the youngest suddenly growing up" 4 chuckled a bit as peanut butter was stuck to his tongue. Chandra laughed herself as she could imagine a bunch of dolls looking up at a bunch of humans. 3 smiled as he saw 4 trying to talk with the peanut butter in his mouth.

" By the way why were you guys so surprised about talking?" Chandra asked as she took a dainty bite of the corner.

" We never received voice plugs when we were stitchpunks so we communicated through our eyes, although no one knew what we were saying to them that was frustrating, so we kinda gave up and we used our eyes for film projections well my brother 4 can do that I can't no matter how hard I tried" 3 replied while 4 basked in the glory of being the only one who could communicate through his eyes, Chandra laughed she never had met someone as funny as these two, they were kinda like her and her twin Selene. Chandra turned her head to see her sister walking through, she passed 3 and 4 and walked towards Chandra, she nodded towards the candle and Chandra understood. Selene always sent her to bed early so she could do some work around the house earlier in the mornings. Chandra nodded as Selene walked out of her room she turned towards the boys.

" I have to go to sleep, I can give you some old rags to sleep on if you'd want" Chandra stood up to go search.

" Oh no it's fine we'll sleep on the floor, we'll be fine" 3 said sounding nervous, he didn't want Chandra to attend to their every whim, it would make 3 feel well too important.

" If your sure" Chandra shrugged as she blew out the candle, she made her way back to her cot in the dark, she pushed her head against the pillow and closed her eyes listening to the sound of her sister welding something.

" Psst...Chandra! Chandra!" Chandra opened her eyes to see her sister staring at her right in her face. Chandra stepped back but Selene put an reassuring arm on her to tell it was here, she looked around nervously then turned back towards her sister, Chandra could barely see her in the dark.

" What's wrong did I over sleep?" Chandra asked while rubbing her eyes, her mind fully woke up as she looked around for the twins.

" Where are...." " There in behind me there fine" Chandra was cut off by Selene's whip voice.

" What's wrong you seemed worked up" Chandra noticed, there was an uneven nervousness in her sister's voice.

" I'm fine look... I don't want to scare you but the reason I woke you up is because theres something lurking around in here" Selene stated.

Chandra stared passed and thought she saw something whisk in the shadows.