The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

#148 All They Know

[The Twins]

Later in the evening, Teri was sitting in the tree house with the Twins as they talked amongst each other while eating food that Sophia got for them while she was out. Sophia had already gone home to take care of Apollo and properly clean the house. Teri would've stayed with her to help, but thought that Sophia should take more responsibility for herself since they were the ones that lived in that house.
"I guess I never considered that they've been living with each other for so long, they probably just got more comfortable around each other and were putting it off for a while." Teri said to the Twins as she picked at the last bits of her food.
"Yeah, but you gotta admit, Sophie is the laziest out of all of us. Plus, she says she forgets stuff all the time. She probably meant to do it earlier, but kept forgetting." the Twins replied to her. They took a large bite out of their food.
"Sure, but if continuously forgetting to clean up after herself is what made Apollo sick, she can't just keep forgetting. Honestly, I never knew how often Apollo gets sick. It's a little concerning actually..."
"Oh, yeah... Sophie told us about that while you were gone." Fleetfoot started.
"She says it's not a big deal to her when Apollo gets sick. As long as she's there to help him, she says he's usually fine after a couple days." Flyboy finished.
"But it kinda is a big deal! No one should get sick that often! I'm sure Sophie is just used to that, but even then, something like that shouldn't be played off like it's an easy thing to do. Apollo told me about it too when he asked me to stay with him. He said it didn't happen so often until they both went to school."
"That place that both  he and Sophie hate? That place made him sick?"
"Well... technically, I guess? He said that he had a lot of nice friends, until he realized they weren't being so nice to him. And when he tried to tell someone about to get their help, they just ended up being mean to him too."
The Twins glanced at each other for a moment before shoving the scraps and trash of their food into the brown paper bag and set it aside.
"He said... there was nothing he could actually do about it. And since they were forced to go back everyday, he couldn't always avoid it. He said it made him really anxious, and that anxiousness is what made him sick so much. So he'd have Sophie get his work done for her so they wouldn't miss anything. And... it made me think... maybe all this Demon fighting stuff may be stressing him out like that.
The Twins looked down at the floor.
"Yeah... you might be right. It makes sense, I mean, fighting all those shadow monsters is really stressful." Fleetfoot began.
"He and Sophie have a longer history of fighting those creatures. And having to fight for your life and go back to a place that treated you so badly... I can understand how that would make him so anxious. That kind of stress... I can't imagine it, but I bet it must be really hard on him." Flyboy added.
Teri also set her scraps aside and wiped her mouth with her wrist.
"I know our main focus is to keep Sophie safe and keep her gem away from the Demon, but now I'm also worried about Apollo. If continuously fighting like this keeps stressing him out so much, he's just going to keep getting sicker and I don't want that to happen."
The Twins sighed and nodded in agreement.
"Yeah... Sophie said he still doesn't really understand his new powers either or how they're supposed to work. And neither do we with our own. And if we can't figure out how to use them properly we're not going to be able to fight back against the Demon. If we want to be able to keep each other safe, we need to learn how to fight better. I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out, but it might take some time."
"Hmm... Sophie might be right. I say, when Apollo is healed, we get back to training and we'll work together to figure out how to make your powers work."
The Twins nodded in agreement. They all cleaned up the leftover scraps before Teri decided to call it a night and returned to her underwater room. The Twins put the trash on top of the desk in the corner. Sophie said she'd come by tomorrow to dispose of it properly.
The Twins made themselves comfy against the beanbag chairs and pulled the large green blanket over them. Fleetfoot slid the door closed with his foot and tried to relax. There was still air coming from the cut out window, but it wasn't as cold.

They tried to sleep, but found themselves unable to. They just stayed awake, their eyes glowing dimly in the darkness. Their eyelids fluttered open and closed. But they didn't lack enough energy to sleep.
"Hey... can you sleep?" Flyboy asked his brother in the darkness.
"No..." replied Fleetfoot.
"Do you... do you think we'll be able to control our powers?"
"I'm sure we'll figure it out. We have to. If we want to protect everyone, we need to learn how to use them," Fleetfoot answered.
"What if we can't? What if the Demon attacks us again before we learn how? What are we going to do then?"
"We'll find a way. Sophie taught us how to fight. As long as we can fight back, we can protect her. We won't stop until we find a way to beat the monsters."
"We'll do whatever it takes to keep the gem away from the Demon?"
"We have to. It's just us. You heard Sophie, we're the only thing standing in its way. We have these powers for a reason. If we can't fight back against the shadows with anything else, then what's the point in having them?"
Flyboy closed his eyes and sighed.
"Yeah... you're right. We'll figure it out..."
"Of course we will."
"... I just... I just don't want to lose more than we already have..."
Fleetfoot looked over at his brother. His face was turned away, but he could hear the emotion in his voice.
"Everyone else... they've already lost and sacrificed so much..... Teri lost her Mother and her home..."
"Sophie and Apollo helped us, they let us stay here and helped regrow the Moonflowers when we had nowhere else to go." Fleetfoot added."
"They have each other. Teri had a family. We have no one..."
"Don't say that. Of course we-"
"I mean like us." Flyboy interrupted, "Sophia and Apollo both have wings, colored eyes, and they have their own powers that make them unique. They're so different from each other, yet very similar at the same time. Teri had her Mother. She had an entire kingdom that loved her. But... we don't know anyone. There wasn't anyone before Sophie or Teri that was around to help us. We don't even remember if we had other friends or family... The Demon almost destroyed the one thing we had where we could call it home, but now we don't even have a home. For all we know... that place probably wasn't even our real home."
They shared silence for a long time. Fleetfoot hated the way his brother said that, but it was true. He just didn't think about it like that before. He looked over at his brother again, but he was curled up tightly against the beanbag chair. Fleetfoot sighed and rolled over.
"You know... when you put it that way... you're not wrong. But that doesn't mean that we don't have anything now. We have Sophie and Apollo and Teri. They let us stay in the tree house. They bring us food, they make us comfortable, they play games with us. Sophie was the one who helped us take care of the Moonflowers and they're doing well. See?"
Fleetfoot nudged his brothers' back and pointed up to the shelf where the terrarium sat. Through the dark glass, they could see the Moonflowers glowing dimly within. From where they lay, it almost looked as if they had captured stars in a glass case. Fleetfoot glanced back at his brother.
"We might've not had that much back then, but we have more now. Sophie promised to protect us, and now it's our turn to protect her. We're not going to let the Demon take anything away from us. Okay?"
Flyboy smiled weakly and nuzzled deeper into the blanket. After a long while of shared silence, they both slept.

A few days passed. They waited for Sophie to come back and tell them that Apollo was feeling better. In the meantime, Teri was helping the Twins everyday to figure out how to unlock their true powers. They tried their best, but everyday it ended up in minimal success. One night, while they were trying to sleep, they were awoken by a sudden headache. They sat up and groaned, only to double over and curl up on the ground as they felt their heads throbbing.
And through the pain, they began to see something. It was blurry at first, but then they started seeing shapes. Shapes and colors that almost seemed familiar. And then those shapes became figures.
That figure was Sophia, standing somewhere in darkness as two red eyes glared at her.

The headache suddenly disappeared and the Twins sat up in shock.

Sophia was in trouble.