Chapter 33: Sister

Chapter 33: Sister

The scream died. The darkness cleared. The glow of the symbols dimmed until they were just dirt again. My stomach ached, but my balance returned as my eyes stopped spinning. A body lay slumped at the center of the star.

I took a tentative step forward, testing to see that I could. When my foot moved freely, I leaped the two steps forward and crouched down at the center.

"Mila?"

At first I thought she was dead. Her body didn't move, but then I realized the body wasn't right. It was too big to be Mila. I fumbled to turn the flashlight on. It was hard to tell in the light, but the hair wasn't right either. It was too dark, not Mila's bright blonde.

The head lifted. The hair fell back. Two grey eyes stared out at me. I stumbled backward. The eyes staring back at me were mine. The face staring back at me was mine.

"What the fuck!" I cursed as I jumped back and my butt hit the dirt.

The eyes staring at me blinked. "Can you get this light out of my eyes?" The woman leaned away from the light. The voice was familiar. Was it... mine?

I tilted the flashlight down. The woman was tied up in a straight-jacket. "Who are you?" I whispered.

The woman shook the messy hair out of her face. "Lanie."

"Are you the darkness?"

Lanie's eyes knit in confusion. "Umm... no?"

"Why do... why do you look like me?"

Lanie raised an eyebrow. "What? Look, can you just get this off of me?" She wiggled in the straight-jacket.

I wasn't sure what to do. Maybe she was in a straight-jacket for a good reason. Maybe she was the darkness.

"How do you I know I can trust you?"

"Look, trust me, don't trust me. I don't care. Just get me out of this thing." She squirmed.

The way she said it, with the intonations and everything sounded exactly like what I would have said. I looked around. The forest was empty. The sky above was clear with speckles of stars appearing through the tree tops.

Lanie let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Okay fine, but no funny stuff."

Lanie snorted. "Yeah, sure. You just summoned me and you think I'm the one doing funny stuff?"

I got to my feet and walked to the back of her. The buckles were tight and hard to get undone, but after several minutes of fiddling with them, the jacket loosened. I pulled it over her head and dropped it on the ground. She turned to me, her top completely naked. She covered her breasts with her arms.

"Do you happen to have a shirt?"

"Oh, umm, yes. Here." I pulled the black hoodie over my head and handed it her.

"Thanks." Once she was clothed again, she stood up and brushed the dirt and leaf debris from her white pants. They looked like scrubs. "Now that you've brought me all the way here, what can I do for you?"

I blinked. "What?"

"You summoned me."

"I did?"

She narrowed her eyes. "You just did some top level magic shit and you don't even know why you did it? Wait..." She snatched up my phone still on the ground. The earbuds hung from it still playing a jaunty tune about clouds. Lanie shined the light on my face. She inhaled sharply. "Holy shit."

"What?" I asked exasperated.

"You do look like me." She reached out to touch my face. I stepped away from her. She leveled a look at me for a long time. "Who's your father?"

"Daniel Hatfield," I said.

Lanie shook her head. "And your mother?"

"Isabell Grey."

Lanie paused. I could see the wheels working behind her eyes. She must know what was going on. "Pandora..." She whispered.

"What? Never mind. Where's Mila?" I asked.

"Who's Mila?"

"My friend, well sister..." I shook my head. "This spell was supposed to expel the darkness living inside her."

Lanie held the phone around the circle looking at the symbols. "What did you say when you said the spell?"

I held out the crumbled paper in my hand to her. The blood from my hand marked the edges of it.

"This is clearly a summoning spell. How can you not see that? Even says to summon your sister."

"Mila is my sister. Well, I just found out we share a father."

Lanie shook her head. "It's to summon me. I'm your sister. You didn't share a womb with her, only the seed. We share both. We're twins."

I could feel that this should be a shock, that I should react in some way, but my mind was too far gone. It was another shock to my system in so short of time. I just couldn't process information like this.

"What happened to Mila?" I said weakly.

Lanie held the paper back to me, a sad look on her face. "You traded her in for me."

"I what? No, no, wait. What?"

Lanie pointed to the paper. "Right here. You offered up your friend's soul in trade to find me. That was the power it took to bring me here."

I shook my head. "No, I didn't. No. I was trying to save her." I could feel my face getting hot. The pressure of tears stung behind my eyes. "Where is she?" My voice creaked. I didn't care about the rest, my father, my twin sister. But Mila? I cared about Mila. She mattered.

Lanie shook her head sadly. "She's dead. Well, worse actually. She doesn't exist anymore. Her soul was used as power. It's neither dead nor alive. It's just gone."

I crumbled to the ground. I held my knees to my chest. "Remi!" I shouted. "Remi, Remi," I begged.

"Remi?" Lanie questioned. She looked around. "Like Remi, Remi? Tall, dark and full of trouble, Remi?" She stooped lowly and covered my mouth. My hot tears ran down her hand.

"Don't speak his name. Is he the one who got you to do this spell?"

I nodded slightly beneath her hand.

"Mother..." She swore. "Look, don't trust Remi. Not a single word he says. He's a self-interested bastard. If you're going to blame someone for your friend's death, blame him. You've been set up. He's working with Isabell."

I pulled away from her hand. "It must be a mistake," I said, but my heart sank. He was the only one I could trust, but I knew it all felt too easy. Now I felt like I was unraveling at the seams. I was nothing. No, how could I have done this? How could I be so weak?

Lanie was pulling me up to my feet. "Come on. We need to get somewhere safe. Do you have a house or something?"

"An apartment," I answered hoarsely.

"Okay, let's go."

Lanie pulled me after her out of the forest. My footfalls felt numb and heavy as my mind whirred. How could I have sacrificed my friend? I was trying to save her. Why did everything in my life always go so terribly wrong?