I ran. With my ragged, heavy breath, I ran. My foot tripped over something, and I crashed onto the ground. I mentally braced myself, preparing myself for the pain, but my entire body was already burning from exhaustion so much that I could not tell if I was hurt. The sound of my fall was ringing in the empty hall- if not in my head. My head was hurting, my body was tired, but I used what was left of my strength to push myself back up. Then I kept running.
Around me was nothing. No one. They'd all fled by now, probably. Except for Nadia. And I knew, I knew what she was going to do. I already had, once the speakers warned us of the arrival of Lucifer. But what they didn't know was that Nadia was the person assigned to release him. Her father. Ours.
But I had to get there first. I had to tell her that it wasn't time yet, though I'm not quite sure why.
"Nadia!" I yelled, still sprinting, hoping to find a trace of their presence. "Where are you?!"
There was no reply. I was running out of time. Quick- I had to be quick.
And yet, I slowed down, allowing my body to rest for a few seconds. Not my mind, though. I had to think fast. If I were Nadia, where would I summon my father? The garden? The rooftop?
Then it hit me.
I picked up my previous pace and dived straight into action. My mind now filled with a swirl of questions, I pushed away all the negative thoughts. I was focused on getting there, and in a blink of an eye, I had arrived at my destination, where I thought they were at.
And I was correct.
"Took me long enough to figure this out," I stated, glaring at the frozen figure before me. "Should've known that you'd be at the library the moment they made the announcement."
I stared at Nadia, my twin sister. Her and I, so similar, yet so distinct. She was a reflection of who I was, and who I was destined to be. Who I should've been.
She gave me a humourless smile, one that suggested that she wasn't exactly glad to see me here. "You know me too well, brother," She paused, stealing a glance at Anderson, who had his hands up in a defensive position. "But not well enough."
I tensed, surveying my sister carefully, trying to read her face. I knew, deep down, she didn't want to do this. She was forced to. Just like me. The only difference was that she was expected to continue our family's legacy- meanwhile I, on the other hand, was deemed to be a mere disgrace. But what I also knew was that, unlike me, no matter how much Anderson mattered to her, her loyalty towards our father would always come first.
"Don't. You know what's going to happen- what this means, if you do this." I gritted my teeth. Even I could tell that there was an edge to my voice.
For a moment, she seemed vulnerable. Scared. And all I wanted to do was embrace her, and provide her with comfort, something that we almost never felt growing up. It was like we were young again, getting yelled at by our father for things we didn't do, for being good but not great enough. And for a moment, I didn't only see Nadia in front of me, but our mother, exposed to the unforgiving cruelty of our father.
But after all, another thing we had in common was our ability to hide our feelings well. The masks we had to put on, every single day, from day to night, to hide our identity and who we truly were. Nadia quickly put on her poker face once again, clearly aware of her slip up. "We don't have a choice. You know that too. There's no way out."
My chest tightened. She was right. But still, I could not bring myself to destroy this place. Here was the only place I could call home. The only place with people who actually cared about me. I simply could not throw away everything like this, especially after all that we had been through. I owed them.
"What if we switch sides?" I suggested, softening my voice. "Even if there is no guarantee that we'd succeed, this is, after all, better than not trying."
Nadia seemed to consider my offer for a second. I was, of course, hoping that she would agree, but even I myself did not know if I would dare to do the same.
Some would say that going against our father was a dangerous, dangerous mistake.
