Octavius (WATTYS 2016)

part two | ten | remember me

I was young. Not so young that I still needed a step stool, but still young enough to allow my hair to be tied down in two dark braids. My hair was so long, even then, nearly reaching my spindly waist. Aunt May once said I looked almost exactly like a new sapling, swaying along with the wind. 

It was so cold that day, even inside the Moonrise pack mansion. The mischievous wind managed to squirm under and over the cracks of the windows, snaking along my spine and sending chills. 

In my tiny thin hands I held...what did I hold? It's blurry now, why can't I remember?

Just breath....slowly....

I was sitting on my bed holding...something. I can hear laughter, a child's. I'm not sure if it's mine or...

I turn my head towards the door, and I smiled. It's a boy...no, two boys, but at the same time they are identical. 

Ben and Tyler. 

Oh, god. They're smiling at me brightly, bright white teeth, too perfect for children. No, that's not right. Ben had a tooth knocked out, or maybe it was Tyler. 

They race into my room, and they begin jumping on my bed, and I begin to pout, nagging them to stop or they would ruin my new pink bed spread. They stopped jumping.

They're wearing thick clothes, much too thick for the inside of the pack house. 

"Come on Ale Ale Oxen-free." The gap toothed twin, I recognize as Tyler now, grabs my hand in his gloved one, and he pulls me out of the house. We race down the stairs, our giggles erupting around us like popping bubbles, floating high above us. 

"Slow down, Mija!" I turn around to look behind me, and there she is, my mother. An apron is wrapped loosely around her waist and her hair is piled high and messily. She is beaming down at me, her fingers brushing lightly against my cheek. I giggled at her and stuck out my tongue, racing out to the back of the pack house, and diving into the snow. 

I always loved the way the snow felt on my skin, like soft pricks of fluff. I imagine this is what it must be like to live in the clouds. But even I knew that if you stay to long, get to greedy, the snow becomes something more cruel than kind. 

So I let Tyler and Ben pull me out of my mattress of flurries, and through the plain expanse of the yard. 

The grounds were perfectly and crystal white, the snow so evenly spread that you could tell each path of footsteps from the others. 

Maybe I should have looked closer at those footsteps. Why hadn't I? Maybe if I had...

God dammit, focus. 

What happened next? Right...

So, Tyler and Ben and I were playing in the yard, hurling balls of snow at each other, laughing, giggling...and then...crash.

The sound came from the pack house, and we all froze and turned to face the open back door of the mansion. We're stark still in the lawn, and all we can hear is the scattered murmurs from inside the house. 

"What was that?" Tyler asks, and the twins shuffle closer to me, so that we are huddled together, protected by each other's warmths. 

"Why is it so-" I began to ask when-

"I want to stop." I squeak out desperately, ready to open my eyes. 

"You're doing very well, Alessandra. Just take a deep breath." Dr. Sanchez' soothing voice echoes around the room, and I shuffle in the seat, trying to get comfortable but failing on all attempts.