This is short, emotional, and informative. I have to wake up at seven tomorrow, so this AN is also going to be really short. Next chapter will be annoyingly long, both the actual content and the AN, kay?
Disclaimer: I don't own, I don't own, I don't own. No copyright infringement intended, yada yada yada...
"What is with you today?" Kathrina snapped angrily as she easily shoved the youngest and the only female Rider into the ground. "You're even worse than normal." From the sidelines, Jadia growled at the insult to her Rider. While the pair weren't getting along after their talk two days prior, the dragon was still protective of the girl.
"Nothing…" Amy murmured listlessly, standing up carefully and picking up the blade she had been loaned.
Kathrina rolled her eyes and said callously, "It is something, or you would not have your head in the clouds. Wake up, girl! You are an Argetlam! Such weakness cannot be allowed!"
"I know that…" the human answered, readying her sword for their next bout.
Disgusted, the elf shook her head. "No. I will not fight someone who obviously does not have the heart of a true Rider. You are too easily distracted for the role you take."
"Distracted?" Amy said in disbelief, some of her temper finally flaring. "You think I'm useless because for one day I am distracted? Here's a wake-up call for you, Kathrina!" Her harsh tone caught the female elf's attention. Kathrina smirked, prepared for Amy to be rude to her. Too angry to notice, Amy continued relentlessly, "I would like to see how focused you are, when it has been a year to the day after your identical twin sister died!" Uncaring of the shock radiating from both her teacher and her dragon, Amy stormed off, struggling with the tears pouring off her face.
The human girl was klutzy, but she was very good at hiding. The fact she wore entirely dark, chocolate brown today was helpful. She hid in the forest at the base of a tree, hiding in the undergrowth as she finally let her tears fall. Unwillingly but unable to stop herself, she began to remember her twin, her other half in so many senses and also her complete opposite.
"Amy…?" she whipped her head around, only to find that someone had found her: Murtagh. He was sitting next to her, obviously not sure how to interact with her yet. However, he did ask gently as soon as he saw her tears, "What's the matter? Are you hurt?"
"No… No, I'm not hurt… Not in any way that you can heal…" she told him, brokenly. She was holding herself, trying to keep from falling to pieces. The tears hadn't stopped, and she didn't think she could force them to stop at this point.
Hesitantly, Murtagh placed his arm over her shaking shoulders, ignoring how stiff they became in order to pull her as close to him as he dared. "Healing begins with acknowledgement…" he murmured to her. "If you talk about it…"
"I… I never talk about it… It hurts worse when I do…" she told him, though for a change she didn't pull away from the male contact.
"That's bleeding some of the poison out," he assured her. "I carried so much bitterness around with me because of my parents… And I was manipulated because of it. Now, I am able to remember my mother at least with fondness, and I no longer suffer because of my father."
It took her a few moments, but then she began to quietly talk, her words accented by the occasional memory, "I wasn't an only child… In fact, my only sibling was my nearly identical twin sister…"
Two young girls were dressed to match in delicate white dresses, white stockings, and white shoes. Both had their curly, dark brown hair pulled into high pigtails. The differences between them were small, but noticeable. One had a powder blue sash around her waist and matching ribbons wrapped around her pigtails, her eyes an interesting mix of gray and blue, while the other had a pale, sage green sash and ribbons, her eyes a similar mix of gray and green.
"In so many ways, Lyn and I were the same, but we were also completely different. I was the older of the two of us, so I became protective and hot tempered so that she could be as she wanted, which ended up being quiet and gentle. We also had different talents. Whereas I had no grace, Lyn was an incredible dancer…"
The view was almost center stage, in the very front of an unfamiliar and strange theater that was actually inside. On the stage, there were five dancers, four of which were dressed in green and one that was dressed in red. The eye instantly traveled to the one in red, the one that looked exactly like Amy only with blue-gray eyes. She spun on the very tip of her toes with ease, taking center stage.
"But then, Lyn met Jesse…" The hatred dripping from her voice startled Murtagh from the calm center he had found himself in as he saw brief images of her sister. He briefly found himself seeing a boy from her memories. A blonde with piercing blue eyes, he had a charming smile and was carefully put together to form an image of casual disarray. "It was love at first sight for her. She had never had a boyfriend before, and it was too easy for him to earn his way into her heart, even though he didn't deserve it. Then, one night, he got drunk. It wasn't the first time, but it was the last…"
He was running out of a cornfield, Amy's sister right beside him. They broke through the final stalks, only to see a scene of horror. Twisted and charred pieces of metal were everywhere, fires still being put out.
"Jesse!" he heard a slightly higher pitched voice than Amy's scream, and he found himself grabbing hold of Lyn, keeping her from racing forward. "Let me go, Amy! JESSE!" she cried out desperately.
"Lyn, calm down! Lyn, it's too late!" Amy said through his mouth, his grip on the girl firm. When the slightly younger girl went limp, he held her close, trying to offer some comfort."
"Lyn… She was so heartbroken. I tried to help her. Rather than work at a studio afterschool, I was home with her. Nothing seemed to work… And then…"
He walked in through the front door, stopping to look inside a darkened room that wasn't lit at all. "I'm home, Daddy," Amy spoke through his mouth again, her voice sweet and soft. "I'm going to check on Lyn, and I'll start supper, alright?" She didn't get a response, and he had a feeling she wasn't expecting one.
Walking upstairs, he cracked the first door open only wide enough to allow him a brief glimpse of a bedroom done in beige, brown, cream, and deep violet as he threw a bag inside before closing it again. He first walked right across the hall to open another door, this one opening to a bedroom decorated in black, gray, white, and blood red. No one was there, so he closed the door and continued down the hall where two more sets of doors paralleled each other. One he ignored and the other he approached.
He raised the pale hand he recognized as Amy's and knocked on the wood painted white. "Lyn?" he heard her call, "Lyn, I'm home. Open up, would ya? You must have fallen asleep in the tub… Lyn? Come on, you can't stay in there forever…" This didn't feel right, to him or Amy's past self. He knocked furiously again, Amy calling her sister's name with no response. Finally, he took a couple of steps back and then charged forward, ramming the door. He repeated this a couple of times before the weak lock finally gave.
"LYN!" Amy distantly screamed. He rushed forward to pick up the girl submerged in bloody water, checking for a pulse and finding it weak and fading fast. "DAD! DAD, CALL 911!" Amy cried, even as he heard her whisper fiercely, "Don't you dare leave me Lyn, you hear me? Don't you dare!" before shouting for her father again.
The scene changed to being in front of a gravestone. It was engraved "Evangeline Lily Archer, Beloved Daughter and Sister, April 16, 1990—January 6, 2007."
Murtagh found himself back in his own mind, holding a shaking Amy. Not even bothering to consider her own phobia concerning personal space, he pulled her tightly against him, whispering soothingly, "I'm sorry, little one… I'm so sorry…" She could only cry from within his arms, finally letting someone comfort her after a year of silent grief.