My Sister's Keeper

After four years, I presumed that The ORC stopped looking for me, but when I bolted up from my bed, chest heaving and eyes burning red, I immediately thought the worst.

I raced to my front door, the intruder’s sweet floral scent lingered throughout my apartment but I was alone. I unhooked the chain lock and flung the door open. The hallway was empty; all three of my neighbors slept soundly while the remnants of last night’s rainfall dripped from the gutters.

My heart returned to a steady drum when I saw our locked entrance door secured but when I looked down to see a black duffle bag at my threshold; my heart ricocheted in my chest.

Inside the duffle bag was over a million dollars and a Passport sized black book. I recognized the gold embossed symbol on the leather bound book. A scale with a crescent moon and two intertwined snakes on either side of it with a five-point star at the top.

Property of The ORC.

They found me.

The black books, or DOCS, as we called them, were our hit lists. Fifty pages filled with over a dozen targets, brimming with surveillance photos, known addresses, aliases, and other valuable data that we could use to seek and destroy. Demi-Demons never needed much to track our targets. A name, face and common hangouts were enough for us.

This DOC was blank, no pictures or typewritten data on the unlined pages instead there was a single name handwritten in delicate print dead center of the first page:

CYBIL GREENE

With only a name, a duffle bag, the DOC, and a substantial amount of cash, I knew the person-or creature that left this parcel had to be connected to The ORC.

But why were they looking for me?

Maybe they heard about the Demi-Demon who got away and needed my help.

Or maybe, The ORC was trying a new technique to lure me out of hiding in order to take me out for good.

Without much to go on for my target, I searched for clues about my anonymous recruiter, building their profile on the tangible elements I had until a vague picture developed.

Recruiter X was a female, and she smelled like flowers.

Roses to be exact, with a hint of coffee and the rancid stench of medicine that made me gag.

Her scent clouded everything she touched, and when I focused on the DOC, I saw dainty hands with long fingers; her caramel flesh shining with scars of past and present.

A week after the secret delivery, I picked up her scent while walking from the corner market across from my apartment. The city reeked of mildew and rot- then again that was normal for Talo. Her floral aroma stunned me.

Recruiter X was close. I could feel her.

I staked out near the corner store the next night. Her scent and vibration saturated the area. Another bout of rain struck the city, shifting the humid temperature to a chilly fall evening. I shrugged into my leather jacket, closed my eyes and let the world around me come alive.

The smells always hit me first, then the sounds, people’s thoughts. Their cries, shouts and laughter, all in their heads while their exteriors told other stories.

Those were the lies.

Among the humans, I made out a few creatures, two vampires and some ghouls. A banshee beggar woman bumped into me while pushing a cart of putrid trash. “Watch where you.” She stopped when I glared at her, my crimson eyes blazing. The banshee’s jaw dropped, and the hag scurried away; her stench of urine and dirt was cut by the pleasant aroma of roses. I scanned the streets; a Talo patrol car passed and carried her scent through the air. A heartbeat sang in my ears but it wasn’t mine. I searched the streets again, the rose scent swelling in my nose and the heartbeat drumming louder.

A bus sped down the street, and when its tail end cleared, my eyes locked onto a set of dark eyes. She called to me.

“Yana.”

She wore a heavy, black cloak with a large hood that concealed her face but her eyes shimmered under the street lights.

Recruiter X.

I maneuvered through the traffic toward her, but when I reached the curb, she was already on the move. “Wait” I called. She slipped between pedestrians with her heavy cloak deflecting her turns. She dipped into an alleyway then hopped over a fence like a low hurdle. When she landed on the other side, she looked back at me.

Beneath her massive hood, a soft glow of crimson illuminated from her eyes.

“You’re a Demi.”

I jumped the fence, landing on an abandoned car. The rusted hood creaked then crumbled under my force. She leaped for a fire escape ladder, but I yanked her leg, sending her to the ground.

She hit the concrete with a thud before I snatched her up by the heavy collar of her jacket. “Who the hell are you?” I asked. She struggled in my grasp, and I could feel her slender frame knock about inside her coat, but she said nothing.

She kicked me in my stomach, slipping from my grasp, then reached into her thick cloak with a gloved hand to reveal a silver dagger.

I grinned. “They sent a dagger wielding demon to kill me?” My eyes burned, and my body swelled.

Her concealed face followed my transformation from human to monster. I stomped toward her, and she braced herself for the impact of my massive wings before they flung her into a car. She flopped to the ground but jumped up and steadied herself, dagger at the ready. I grabbed her by the throat, hoisting her into the air.

A deep growl vibrated from my throat. “Who sent you”

Her pulse weakened in my grasp, but her lips remained pursed tight.

“Why did The ORC send you?”

“They didn’t,” she said then thrust the dagger into my side. A heavy wave of pain radiated through me. I tossed her to the ground as I shifted back to my human state. After plucking the blade from my ribs, I felt the wound seal shut before I stalked toward Recruiter X. She laid on the ground, clutching her rib.

I knelt down beside her; she didn’t protest, but my hand trembled as I pushed her hood away from her face.

Almond shaped eyes, the color of chestnuts, like mine.

Full lips … like mine.

We shared the same nose and high cheekbones.

She was me. I was her.

I fell backwards. “How are you doing that?”

As she rose to her feet, the alley lights revealed more of her face to me. We were identical, but her skin was covered with scars. Her right eye had a long scar through it; the chestnut hue of the iris was like faded leather. “Yana,” she said.

My throat tightened. I wanted to respond, but I was seized by confusion and fear.

She limped toward me, her hand affixed to her ribcage. “I know this is alarming,” she said.

“Alarming,” I repeated.

She had a faint smile on her face. “My name is Cybil. Cybil Greene. I’m your sister.”

“I don’t have a sister.”

“That’s what The ORC told you.”

“Prove it.” Cybil jerked back like I spit in her face.

She lowered her head, and soft white tendrils fell over her shoulders. “This isn’t enough?” she asked, motioning to the rib wound. Cybil stared at me waiting for a response; when I said nothing, she rolled her eyes then pulled another blade from within her cloak. She snatched my hand then dragged the blade across the palm.

My hand was on fire as I screamed into the night and at her. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Watch,” she said; she slipped off one of her gloves, revealing a scarred hand with a gaping, bleeding hole in the palm while the heavy throb ceased in my hand until it repaired itself.

She looked at me while pulling a white gauze from her pocket and proceeded to wrap her hand. “I’m sorry we had to meet like this. I just needed to find you.”

“How did you find me?”

She smiled. “The ORC’s records. You’re public enemy number one.”

“Of course I am,” I mumbled. “You work for them, too?”

“We have been working for them since we were kids,” she said.

“What?” A stream of unsteady questions flooded my head, but I could only blurt out the most logical one. “Why are you looking for me?”

Cybil bowed her head, and a heaviness filled my chest; my eyes burned with tears. I couldn’t stop them from spilling, and when she looked at me, she was crying too.

“You want me to kill you.”

“You were right to leave The ORC when you did, Yana. The structure has been tainted since it began.” She held her bandaged hand out to me. “Let me show you the things that I have seen.”

Before I could object, my sister grabbed my hand; a surge of heat passed between us, and a flash of light propelled me into Cybil’s thoughts.

Flashes of Demis, lined up then condemned to cells.

Needles.

Blood bags and screaming.

Ear splitting screams.

I snatched my hand away, tears blurred my eyes.

“Artificial Demi-Demons.” My sister held her side again as she nodded. “Why?”

“The Alignment is coming, and The ORC wants the Nether to win. The greater the evil ...”

“The greater the chaos,” I finished. “But why do you want me to kill you?”

She smiled, something I didn’t expect. “I’m dying, they know it, too, but I refuse to give them the satisfaction of putting me down like a dog.” She grabbed the dagger again, shoved it in my hand, then pulled my arm until the tip rested at her sternum.

My chest tightened. “Cybil.”

She secured her hand around mine as she stared at me. Her brown eyes glowed like embers. “This is the way,” she whispered.

“I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. This was your assignment. You were paid to execute this mission. It’s not in your nature to abandon a mission.”

It was her voice that scared me, void of fear and full of acceptance. “Kill me, Yana. End this pain, please.”

The tears fell harder, and in the midst of my sadness, a wave of fury washed over me. The ORC not only groomed me to kill, but they turned my twin sister into a lab rat, all while hiding the truth from me.

I had a family. Once.

Cybil was looking at me, unclear of my thoughts but recognizing the anger that burned in my eyes. “Let the rage fuel you,” she said. “I won’t feel it. I promise.” Her hand fell from the handle of the blade, and her eyes closed. I pushed the blade into her chest; her bones seemed to shatter under my pressure. She pulled away, stumbled, then collapsed.

I joined her on the ground.

“It doesn’t hurt,” she said. “I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time.” She took a breath; it was shallow and short. “The ORC knew what they had in you. Th-they’re scared of you and all of your power.”

“W-we could do this together,” I said. “We can stop The ORC and The Alignment.”

Her body shook while death washed over her, but she maintained her objection. “I’ll always be with you,” she said. Her chest rose then fell one last time.

After devouring her heart, I burned my sister’s body and watched the smoke carry her ashes toward the heavens, toward Empyrea.

“Your death won’t be in vain, Cybil,” I said. “The ORC will not get away with what they did to us. I will end this for you ... For us.”