half/closer | GirlXGirl

27 / closer

Two girls sitting on the floor. Similar eyes hiding a deep forest. The afternoon rays from the roof window of our attic reflected our misery. However, my sister and I had the same heart—so brave and yet so fragile.

The first piece of the domino had fallen already and we were both unaware of it. We were too caught up in the world in front of us that we were so oblivious of what was happening beneath. Pieces by pieces, they fell. Every collision brought us into this situation. It was our time to stumble because we were also one of the pieces.

We never thought that the greed grows. We never imagined that the vines were surreptitiously spreading underneath our lives.

It began with our father— Aston Blackburn.

And there were other names— Elric Krause, Nathaniel Valentine, and Malum Colvin.

As we skimmed again through the box of our father he left at the attic, Quinn and I had finally realized that there was a dark history behind the old photo which was labeled NAME.

"Does Aunt Claire knows about this?" Quinn questioned as she tossed back the photo inside the box.

"Yes, but she's unaware of all of this murky stuff, I think," I answered, letting out a sigh. "We can't have her involved in this. Hilary is enough."

"NAME, huh?" my sister mused. "You know what? I understand that you joined this underground group that our father founded before he married my Mom. But... you had mentioned that they were harmless. Care to explain?"

I looked at my sister in guilt. "I lied."

"Uggggh," Quinn groaned. "Why did you do that?"

I sighed again. "Because I didn't want Jett to be in jail. He saved me. Remember the accident?"

Quinn frowned. "Yeah, you almost died that time. You were in a coma for a week. It was really an accident, right?"

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I closed my eyes in regret. I kept these things from my sister and I knew then that it was gonna f ucked me up in the future. I just didn't know that it could be this super dangerous.

Opening my eyes, I looked at my sister in turmoil and shook my head. "Kinda?"

Quinn glared at me but she looked like she didn't want to tackle it anymore. The fact that I lied to her about that incident was not important anymore because we had more critical things to fix during this moment.

"Yeah? Can you give me all the details?" Quinn demanded as she leaned back on the wall and crossed her arms.

"Is it necessary? I mean, it wasn't entirely an accident. That's it?" I answered in hesitation.

Quinn seemed like she was gonna attack me with a sharp pen. Yeah, sharp pen. Because her sweet face looked like she wasn't capable of using a kitchen knife or a chainsaw to kill me right then. Though I knew she was a badass inside.

"C'mon, Loe! You have to give me all the details. We have to know how we end up in this mess. I'm sacrificing my relationship with Risa by keeping her away from me. It's hard not being able to talk to her and you clearly know her odd mood swing. You're just unlucky that your ex-boyfriend is part of the gang and he wanted you to break up with Hilary as a first demand."

"That bastard is not my ex-boyfriend!" I hissed in anger.

Quinn shrugged her shoulder. "Alright, alright! But please, explain."

I let out a breath to calm myself down and I also leaned against the wall then stared down at the floor. "I joined our father's community because I thought it was just a secret brotherhood-slash- sisterhood community aiming for a sense of belonging. I was fascinated when we first found that box in this attic. So after that, I searched for them for months and I found Malum Colvin at the beginning of summer break before our junior year."