Talia grabbed her brother's hand. "Are you sure about this?"
He squeezed her hand. "We'll be fine."
"But my concentration is horrible and I don't want you to get hurt trying to protect me." Her gaze fell to the ground.
Her brother chuckled, rolling his eyes. "You're always so dramatic. We're going to be okay. Trust me." He tilted her head towards his.
She took a deep breath. "Okay."
He held the pathfinder to the light and let it carry them away.
————
Talia knew something was wrong the moment they glittered into their friend's sprawling yard.
Her brother collapsed and his skin was deathly pale. There was no color in his eyes and she could see through him.
Her eyes widened. "No, no no no no..." she cradled him in her arms. "Erin. Help!" She screamed in vain as the two lay in the grass.
"Hey," Erin's weak voice drew her attention. "It's okay."
"No it's not." Talia could hardly see through her tears.
Erin reached up and brushed the tears from her cheek. "I love you, Tally."
"I love you too." All she could do was watch as her brother faded away, leaving her to sit alone in the dewy grass cradling the air where her brother had been. He was gone and now she had tell her parents.
————
Her mom dropped to her knees, not bothering to hold back her tears. Her dad just stood their in shock.
Talia couldn't look at them. She hung her head, wiping new tears off of her tear-stained cheeks.
Suddenly, her father stalked off.
Talia knelt beside her mother, letting the woman cry on her shoulder, holding in her own emotions.
————
The sound of her father shouting downstairs woke Talia in the middle of the night.
She crept downstairs and saw her father screaming at her mother, hurling insults like stones at the helpless woman.
A pang of grief shot through Talia's mind and she flinched. Next came a stab of anger.
It took her a moment to realize that these weren't her emotions.
As the argument continued, the emotions swirling got worse and worse until it made her scream.
Both of her parents fell quiet. Their emotions shifting to concern. They darted around the corner and found Talia curled into a ball on the floor. They wrapped her in a hug and tried to comfort the girl, unaware that their touch revealed all the strain and fear and pain between them.
Talia choked back her tears and her emotions, trying to make them feel better.
They took Talia back to bed and tucked her in, but she couldn't sleep.
She had too many emotions and questions whirling through her mind. One sentence kept resurfacing: she was an empath.
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Shatter Me - A KotLC Story
FanfictionA young elvin boy abandoned by his mother in the Neutral Territories, with no idea who his father is, is taken in by an ogre. Raised in secret, the boy soon discovers his father's identity. When the ogre king learns of his existence, he is chased o...
