What We Wish For

Chapter Two

Artheen The Beauty

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"Beauty is Blinding"

My brother had said that to me once, but he never understood how deeply it had hit me. I was only about thirteen when he had stumbled into my room drugged, he had kneeled in front of my bed sobbing to me uncontrollably.

There had been no point asking him who had done it, because he would rather die than be the cause of someone's troubles.

I still remember him curling into a ball under my covers, shaking and body drenched in sweat. He refused to open his eyes, said that he wanted to gouge them out for cursing him like this. My brother was beautiful, the most gorgeous person in Arcadia, inside and out. He was like the brightest star, in a sky of millions, but the brighter he shone, the more moths flew towards him.

I do remember asking him however, why he allowed it, why he wouldn't lash out, why he wouldn't do anything.

He laid awake that night with me, processing my words, and I really, really wish he hadn't.

"Beauty is Blinding Artheen, to be born blind is a blessing, to become blind is a curse. Eyes are the windows of souls, but they are the doors to the darkest souls. What they see, is what they want to see, and what they don't is what they don't want to see."

He had gotten up later, kissed my forehead and left.

He never came back.

Something had snapped in me when I had woken up, my mind was in shambles and only at small glimpses did I find myself doing something I would have deeply regretted.

My brother's poetry had laid in front of me, in my mind I refused to allow him to leave so peacefully, I wanted these people to feel what he felt. So, I picked up his angriest poetry, one that I had sobbed for three weeks after only reading once. It shone like a beacon in my hands, I was convinced my brothers beautiful words would break the ugly shackles these people seemed to be trapped in, so I had planned to publish it for all to see.

I am a coward.

What do you see in my eyes to make your compassion shrivel so quick?

When I bruise myself, eat, and sleep, I ask myself what is the point?

My body has never been mine; I am trapped in a glass cage forced to see all that happens to it.

The word No will never haunt anyone's mind as it does mine.

Beauty is blinding, gauge your eyes quick, before they are poisoned.

You may take my body, but never my soul.

When my brother had left, my parents changed slightly. My father had become agitated, more frustrated at simple things then he usually was. My mother quiet, and colder than she usually was.

I didn't really care, not really. I don't think I had the energy; I didn't even have enough energy to mourn the loss of my brother. But really, I think I had been mourning my whole life, because my brother had always been lost.

I wished so badly his lack of presence made a difference in that cold and empty house, but it did not. Because even when he was here, he never really was, and the truth of that was something we had all been guilty of turning a blind eye to.

I guess in the end, I was happy for him. For the first time in his life, he had made a choice for the benefit of himself, and even if it hurt me deeply, I was glad.

I was too naïve to realize it then, but the moment my brothers foot left the front doorstep of our house, I was doomed. My brother was an angel in a world of demons, a star in an empty galaxy, truly he was the only light I had in an otherwise pitch-black world. And when you take the only light source you have, you are left with darkness. I was left blind and distraught, and my own light had flickered out long ago, so I was left alone with a raging dark evil that would stop at nothing to devour all that it could.

AN/ Small starting introduction to a new character, who I may just consider my favourite due to the amount of detail that will need to go into her character. Thank you for reading, and I will now be posting updates regularly.