Ree
When Ree woke up, her hands were wet and red. She did not like it. The red water felt warm and sticky, and the smell made her stomach hurt. It fell into her palms before sliding down her arms.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
She let her gaze travel from the expanding pool of red on the sheets upward to its source, and her breath caught.
The red water was coming from Brother's nose.
At first, she thought she was dreaming. No-- a nightmare. That was what Phobas told her they were called. But when she pinched herself, she felt pain. This was no nightmare.
Ree kicked off the covers and shook Brother's shoulder. "Brother?" No response. Fear shot through her. Why was he not moving? She tried poking his eyelids. No response. The red water was everywhere -- on his shirt, on his arms, on the sheets...
Ree had to wake Brother.
She stood up and jumped, landing knees-first on his stomach. Brother's eyes swung open and he jerked upright. He looked around, dazed, panting. Brother was about to say something to Ree when he saw the red water too. Slowly as if he were in a trance, he wiped his arm across his chin and stared at his sleeve.
Ree nudged his arm. "Brother?"
He winced as he tipped his head back and pinched his nose. "It's fine, Ree," he said, breathless. "I will be fine."
But Ree wasn't a fool. She saw the shock in his eyes when he first woke up, and felt the pain that followed. Death was coming for him, and he did not know it.
Ree had seen red water come from Brother's nose before, but never this much.
"It only happens when I use too many powers at once," he had once told her.
This time, he had used far too many.
Brother was good at reading faces. Especially Ree's. It was as if he had read her mind. "I know what you are thinking. But remember what I said." He gave her a small smile, a rare smile. A smile that had to force its way through pain. "I will never abandon you again."
Ree searched his eyes-- silver like fish scales. She loved those eyes. And one day, she wouldn't get to see them ever again. "Yes," she said, feeling a lump swell in her throat, "you will."
"No, I won't," he promised. His voice was so firm, so.... certain. Brother stood up and pinched his nose again. "See? The flow is already slowing. After I get cleaned up, I'm going to visit someone in the ICU. Then we can get breakfast. It will be as though it never happened."
'But it did happen,' Ree thought as he went to his closet to grab a new shirt. She wiped away her tears before Brother could see them. 'Goodbye, Brother.'
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M1
My eyes were already open when I woke up.
"Weird," I wanted to say, but the words never made it past my lips. I sat curled up at the foot of Blondie's bed, weaving a pen through my fingers. I tried to put the pen down and look around, but that too began and ended as nothing but a thought.
I tried standing, I tried blinking... I even tried holding my breath. Still, my body refused to obey.
"Dammit!" The word shot from my mouth, unbidden, as I chucked the pen at the wall in front of me.
