Second Chances (Brett Talbot)

Tied Together With A Smile

I lay in bed that night, my mind reeling way too much for me to sleep. I can see without my glasses now. I can hear things that I wouldn't have been able to hear a day ago. My tears have crazy magic healing powers.

My stress level is up so high I can't even think of the word "sleep" right now.

So much has happened in such a short span of time. Liam almost dying, me saving his life with my crazy magic tears, and me finding out I'm actually a mythical bird who might be able to control fire and fly.

After Deaton explained everything, he did a series of tests to test my vision, hearing, strength, endurance, and agility.

For the first time in forever I was able to run a mile with Liam in six minutes, scale a large tree with ease, pick up heavy weights, and hear Liam's heartbeat from across the room.

In fact I am practicing right now by listening to Liam's heartbeat while he sits in his room. The steady beat of it is the only thing keeping me calm right now otherwise I would probably have a mental breakdown.

I thought the stress of keeping the whole Brett thing away from Liam was bad enough, but now this has just added to that and made it much worse.

Not to mention every time I close my eyes I see Liam bleeding out on the roof of the hospital.

I honestly wish my tears were made of Valium right now so I could actually sleep.

I suddenly hear Liam's heartbeat elevate.

What is he doing?

Then I hear a whir and click of a printer and Liam's heart beat even faster.

What's going on in there?

Curiosity takes over me and I get out of bed and pad softly to my door and open it. I hear the printer still running and knock on Liam's door, quietly so I don't wake our parents. Liam doesn't answer so slowly open the door and peek inside.

Papers litter the floor and more are coming out of the printer that Liam is standing at, trying to turn off. I see him pressing the cancel button, but it doesn't stop the endless spew of papers. He finally unplugs it which makes it stop, and we are left in silence, the only thing I hear is Liam's wild heartbeat.

"Liam?" I whisper.

My twin's dirty blonde head whips around in fear. His blue eyes land on my similar eyes and he visibly relaxes.

"What happened?" I ask him,stepping into the room to pick up one of the papers on the ground.

"It wouldn't stop," he mumbles.

"Why, what did it print?" I ask. I flip over the paper to see a very familiar looking paper.

"The dead pool," Liam answers.

***

Liam and I collected all the papers up and sorted the different lists so they were in neat piles Liam's bed. I pick one up from the first list we cracked and look at all the names crossed out. "Liam, Derek isn't on here anymore."

Liam doesn't respond to me. I glance up to see him reading one of the other lists. "But you are."

"What?" I look over his shoulder at the list of names and see two names right next to each other.

Liam Dunbar 7

Lily Dunbar 11

"You're worth 4 more million dollars now," I tell him.

"And you're worth 11," he replies.

"Should we call Scott?" I ask him, sitting down on his bed.

"No, it's 2am," he tells me. "Scott's asleep right now. We'll tell him tomorrow, but I think we all already assumed that you would end up on the list." His jaw is set and his fists are visibly clenched.