Chapter 5

Three Years Ago...

Author's Note: I'm back! Okay, so I usually don't update on Fridays and I usually don't put these notes at the top of a chapter, but there are a couple of things that need addressing beforehand: First off, I've been on a mini involuntary break due to my computer playing up and needing to get repaired. I got it back today and will finally be able to get on with reading, writing and updating stories again. I swear to god, it's been too damn long. The other thing I wanted to talk about was the update schedule. It's not changing. I just wanted to make that clear for everyone. The next update will be on Monday and then will fall back into the regular pattern after that. With that being said, I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

The girls hated parties. Too much loud music and too many people. It was a giant wall of noise they couldn't sort through. But due to their dad's recent promotion, they were under orders to be there and to act presentable. Even though they'd rather be at the dentist, they were in for the long haul. Out on the dance floor, people were moving in time to the music in singles and pairs. At the tables, people were sitting in family groups and at the buffet tables, Sophie was hiding in her own bubble of social awkwardness while Katie had unfortunately been dragged onto the dance floor.

Sophie had been lucky, all things considered. Their mother had been fussing for days over the perfect dress to get two of for them until Sophie had finally been able to tell her that she hated dresses. They'd just turned fourteen and she felt it was high time she spoke her mind on it. It had led to a brutal disagreement until her dad had stepped in and told their mother that he didn't mind if Sophie wanted to wear something different as long as it looked smart enough. Her outfit had been approved and had the added bonus of making sure no one approached her to dance. The fact the twins had recently decided to have their hair cut shorter also helped. A lot of the men who might have wanted to dance with her were mistaking her for a boy thanks to her outfit. And she really didn't mind that.

Eventually, she decided she'd let Katie suffer for long enough. She walked over to where she could see her sister being mauled around on the dance floor by the son of one of their family friends. He was the kid of someone their mother knew from Japan and from the look of it he'd had about as much social practice as they had. She headed over just as the song ended he slowed down for long enough that she could get to her sister. She looped an arm around her protectively before turning to the boy.

"Warikonde mo idesu ka?" she asked. The boy- Iidazan or something like that, she seemed to remember- looked like he wanted to protest. Unfortunately he was too out of breath and resigned himself with a nod before stepping back and bowing.

"Arigatogozaimashita." With that, he turned and left for the buffet table Sophie had just come from, clearly in need of a drink. Sophie herself was at the point that she probably would have grabbed a bottle of something alcoholic and downed it in one. Unfortunately, she and Katie could never stand the idea of seeing the world through a filter. When the world became too much, each of them helped the other to shut it out altogether.

A slower song came on and she and Katie held each other close, moving gently with the music. As they did, she could feel Katie's mind reaching out to touch hers. When they connected, she began to see intermittent flashes of their bedroom. The message was clear. She was hating life itself right now and wanted to be back there. Sophie could mirror the feeling. It was their own private sanctuary. Once that door was shut, not even their parents dared to disturb them.

"Everyone in this room is staring at you." Katie's voice drifted into her head. "Must be the outfit." Now that her previous dance partner was gone, Katie was visibly much more relaxed, melting against Sophie and letting her do most of the work while she got her energy back. Sophie didn't mind. She wasn't a great dancer, but it wasn't that hard. Just walk around and occasionally turn. That and make sure she didn't bump into anyone. She rated it fifty-fifty on that last one.

"Makes me glad I won the bet then." Sophie replied. The bet had been with her mother in response to her scathing criticism of Sophie not wanting to wear a dress. The deal was simple. Her mother gave her fifty dollars. She had to get a suitable outfit for that which would be approved by both parents. That basically meant their father would get the deciding vote since it was his party and their mother would do her level best to talk him out of it. Some charity shop diving later, Sophie had easily been able to put together something that had more than done the job and her father had approved with flying colours. And she was grateful. Had she lost, she would have been forced to wear the dress and pay back the fifty dollars. But she'd gone as all-out as possible with a smart button-up shirt, trousers ironed so straight that the A's on her school report card had a hard time keeping up, well-shined black shoes and a tie. Learning to tie it without strangling herself had been a learning curve, but she'd persevered and managed it in the end. And she'd been able to dump fifteen dollars of change into her mother's hands at the end of it.

"You look amazing." Katie complemented her. "Maybe they're jealous of you. Maybe the men think you're one of them and they feel threatened."

"Threatened?" Sophie scoffed disbelievingly. "I doubt it. A lot of the men in here have done mandatory service. With exclusion to that one guy who was talking to Dad earlier. He was born with those breathing difficulties. Maybe it's you they're distracted by. You can actually pull off the dress. You look stunning."

"We've just had our fourteenth birthdays." Katie reminded her. "If they're looking at me for that reason, Chris Hansen better be ready to pop out from one of the side doors with a camera crew." Sophie had to bite the inside of her cheek to kill the laughter at that. She knew she had to be careful. If she started laughing for no reason, everyone would want to know why.

"Well why would they be staring at me?" Sophie asked despite herself. What she wasn't expecting was for Katie's hand to come up and snake around the back of her head, pulling her close and pressing their foreheads together.

"Because they have no idea what you're capable of." Something about the reply made Sophie's heart start pounding. Their minds were connected and their bodies were so close. They'd always known they were codependent. They also were often plagued by the sensation that the simple cell division that led to them being twins should never have happened. That two people were standing where one should have been. They felt like two halves of a whole that could never be complete. It was why- up until recently- they'd been trying to take more risks with their telepathy and push it further. That was until they'd been locked in connection with each other all night one night, had no sleep and then had to suffer through school the next day. They were basically dead by the time they'd got home and they'd decided it wasn't a good idea after that. Losing track of themselves was too easy and if they were too embedded in their connection to react to the world around them they had an equal chance of waking up in hospital if discovered or never coming out and dying when their bodies gave out.

But here they were, together in the middle of the dance floor with dozens of people around them. Their connection was on full burn and each of their minds was buzzing with the energy of it. It was the closest they now dared to get. In truth, Sophie had no idea if people were staring. As they stood there, completely lost in the moment, she realised she didn't care, either. But then they were both snapped back to reality by someone shoving her from the side and causing the pair to fly apart. She struggled to get her footing as Katie turned to glare at their intruder.

"Hey!" he snapped. "Kids around in here! This family party!" His accent was thick- even thicker than their dad's- but from the look of him he was one of their dad's guests. Sophie guessed he was one of the men he'd invited from his service days. She remembered him mentioning a guy who'd turned to the bottle in a big way afterwards and this guy was completely blitzed. Still, he hadn't totally taken leave of his senses. He was using English. That meant he was still conscious of all the times he'd tried to speak Vietnamese to someone at the party only to find out they didn't speak it. That had been happening to quite a few of the guests from both sides of the family. It was why the groups were keeping to themselves and not really mixing too well.

"Screw you!" Sophie snapped as she stormed back over. "We were enjoying the music together! You got a problem or something?" Katie wasted no time in playing the peace-maker. She grabbed Sophie's arm and started to lead her away. She was right. It was pointless to butt heads with a drunkard. Turning, she looped an arm around her sister and headed for the buffet table again. The kids had all but picked it clean but there were still a few things left and there was a chance there would be something to distract them. If nothing else, there was an ice pick in a big block of ice that Sophie wanted to have a go at spinning in her hand and doing tricks with just for the hell of it.

"Con de chet tiet!" Sophie stopped cold. She hadn't known if the word 'dyke' had a Vietnamese translation. It wasn't something she'd ever wanted to look into. But she was pretty sure that was as close as anyone was ever going to get. Snarling, she grabbed the ice pick from the block and whirled to face the man, so furious that the red mist was all she could see.

"What the fuck did you-" Katie cut her off by getting in the way. Tears were streaming from her eyes and Sophie realised that they were still connected mentally. The sheer power of her anger was causing her sister physical pain. She dropped the ice pick and pulled her close as the drunken guest was shoved sideways. Everyone gasped when they saw that it was Sophie and Katie's dad who'd intervened.

"Get out! You go now! Fuck off!" In that instant, the girls became acutely aware of the meaning behind all their father's talks and lectures on knowing who your friends were. Several other men came to stand behind and beside him, forming a wall that blocked him off from the girls. Seeing that he was outmatched and outnumbered, the man thankfully had enough sense left to leave. Everyone kept glaring after him until the door banged shut. Some moved to the window to make sure he left properly and remained there until he crossed the road and lit up a cigarette.

As the group began to disperse, their dad turned to face them. His face betrayed no emotion as he bent down, picked up the ice pick and turned it over in his hands to inspect it before jamming it into the block of ice with authority. With that, he turned back to face the girls again as Sophie's mind raced with the prospect of how truly screwed she was.

"I speak to you later." It was all he said before walking off. Sophie realised that it was deliberate. He was making her wait to let the stress of it boil in her mind. And it was already working. She was instantly feeling the need to get away. She turned to Katie, looking her over properly and gently using her thumb to wipe the tears from her sister's cheeks.

"Come on. Let's get you some fresh air."

Author's Note: For anyone wondering, yes I did know the Vietnamese was inaccurate. Unfortunately a lot of the letters have so many individual accent characters attached to them that there was no way this site would recognise it. Also my writing software didn't even contain a lot of them. I apologise for that. It may not be a concern to most people but I've always tried to be as accurate with these sorts of things as I can. As I mentioned before, the update schedule is resuming as normal from this point on so I hope to see you all on Monday. It's good to be back and here's to the rest of the story going up without a hitch.