The Hope Of The Three (Book 2 of the Hidden Trilogy)

Chapter Twenty-Six: Truth

★Alena★
(AQ)

I sat on the soft ground beside Tsuki reading my book, The Lord Of The Rings. The weight of the book was familiar to me and the worn edges of the pages were soft to my touch as I flipped them. It had been so long since I had read it, I had to pick up a few chapters previous to where I stopped to refresh my mind. As I devoured the story my mind wondered when the others would arrive. We have been at the meeting place for a week now, and I was getting quite worried about them.
Twilight fell and the stars made the sky glitter and shine. As I searched the sky I saw that quite a few stars were missing from their constellations, including my brother's. Stars cannot leave Eosphoros unless they want to stay on earth forever. Only Ali and I can because we are part human. I was still gazing at the sky trying to figure out why Ali's star wasn't there when I heard them. They were still a long way off but I jumped up and ran toward their voices.

"Eliana! Umair!" I ran to them and hugged them.
"Alena!" Umair exclaimed and hugged me tightly. Normally I would feel a squeeze in my heart when he held me, but I felt nothing.
"Where's Ali?" I asked peeking around them trying to spot Ali. They exchanged glances and Eliana nodded at him.
"Alena." Umair grasped my hands and brought them in front of me forcing me to look at him. His face was serious and grave. I immediately realized something was wrong.
"Alena," He began again. "Ali-" His voice cracked, clearing his through he tried again. "Ali didn't make it." The words shot through me like a bullet, piercing my heart. I fell to the ground in shock.
"He left you this." Eliana pressed a stiff piece of paper into my hand and quickly stepped behind Umair as if she was afraid of what my reaction would be. I felt tears filling my eyes making everything blurry. I covered my eyes and hung my head. Ali. Dead. Gone. I knew it was true, deep down. But my mind had seemed to shut down, not able to process this. My heart was numb and my body felt like it was made of cement. I felt Rayn's strong arms encased me. His body pressed against mine. Steady as a rock. I pushed him away, my body controlling its self. Soon trees were flying past me as I fled from them, from the truth, away. Where they can't get to me. Where the truth can't reach me. I heard Ryan's voice call out my name but I didn't turn back. I ran for what seemed like an eternity before I collapsed. My body hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of me, and the paper from my grasp. I scrambled to revive it, as I did I saw what it was. It was a picture. Ali and I stood side by side. Smiling, happy, no pain. Together. We were young, no older than eight. Then my eyes flicked to the third person in the picture. He had Ali's blue eyes but shared our hair color. Light brown. A wave of recognition ran through me. Altair. My other twin brother. Altair had died years ago, surrendered to the black virus. An unstoppable disease. My tears dripped from my nose into the paper. It had already been tear stained once when Altair died but Ali had discovered a way to cleanse the paper of the stains. He also fixed the tear that I created all those years ago. It split Altair from Ali and me, effectively making me forget him. Though the picture was in one piece(and laminate so I couldn't rip it again) I could still see the small rip line. Why would Ali give me this? With his dying strength he gave it to Eliana to give to me. Why? Then it hit me. Today is the anniversary of Altair's death. We never talk about it. We act as if he never existed. As if my mother never had triplets. Ali must have been planning to help me accept his death, something I could never overcome. Now instead of accepting Altair's death with the support of Ali, I have to morn through both if my twin brothers deaths. Alone.
I lay on the mossy ground where I collapsed hugging the picture to my chest, the world blurry from the tears in my eyes. The sky became dark and the stars became even more abundant.
"Goodbye Ali. Goodbye Altair." I whispered to the sky full of stars. I closed my eyes as I felt a pair of arms wrap around me. The person lifted me up from the wet ground and cradled me to their chest. I first thought it was Ali, but then I remembered that he wasn't here anymore. I looked into the person's face to find it was Rayn who was holding me. His eyes were wet and glassy. I realized that the limited time he had with Ali made a stronger bond than I thought. I buried my face in his shirt and cried. I cried until I had no tears left and just pressed my face into the wet spot I left on Rayn's shirt. The whole time he said nothing and just held me, sharing my tears as we mourned together. As the stars retreated and the sun rose something dawned on me. I no longer considered Rayn as an enemy, or even an annoying pest. But as he held me in his arms I realized that he had become my friend. The way he took care of me, how much less we fought. Maybe there was something more between us. Maybe there can be more between us.

(Pic is of Altair)