My Brother's Keeper

The moment I reach the River Rem, I’m met by my elusive doppelgänger. We stand the same height with the same brown hair and brown eyes. The difference between us isn’t seen by the naked eye, but when she smiles, you instantly feel cold, as if every bit of humanity has been sucked out of the room. She’s wicked, and I can sense it, but I am as well, according to several people I have met recently. I instantly feel irritated and wish I could wake up, but I’m far too tired to open my eyes. Besides, she would pester me anyway.

The sky is the usual shade of black, and the water has no change in its hazy appearance. We are standing at the rim of the shoreline, just as I had with Soren a few nights earlier. It feels heavier this time. The air is sour, and I think my sister is the reason for the tension.

“Can a girl not have fucked up dreams without the constant interruptions?” I groan once she steps forward.

She sneers, “You think I enjoy this relationship? I had to wait until you weened yourself from your medication.”

I wasn’t “weening” myself from my medication; I was not taking it. I missed two nightly doses and stood in Preston’s front yard. I skipped the current because I couldn’t swallow the damn pill. I wanted to, but I couldn’t get the lid off each time I tried to grab the bottle. They weren’t childproof, and yet that damned lid refused to budge.

“I never thought I would miss Mom’s nightly torment.” I cross my arms in front of my chest.

It’s my sister’s turn to act annoyed. She stomps her foot and crosses her arms tightly over her body.

“Do you want to know what happened, or do you plan on ignoring me until I regain enough strength to set you on fire?” she spits back.

Her threat seemed hollow, and even though she had mentioned she could produce magic, I had yet to see any proof it existed. Maybe she was gathering her strength. Then again, perhaps she wasn’t.

“I want to know why you keep taking over my body.”

She huffs and mimics my stance. “I’ve done it one time. I sit in the back of our shared mind and pretend I’m in another body most of the time. One that will allow me to use my magic and not oppress me.”

“You’ve done this more than once. I can count on one hand the number of times you’ve done it this week.” I correct her. I know I cannot trust anything she says, and I should take the things she says that are true with a grain of salt.

“Whatever, smarty-pants. Do you want to know?” She rolls her eyes and becomes more annoyed.

“Dad got the okay to see Lenny. I can get him to answer all these questions.”

My sister throws her head back and laughs. “Odette, Lenny is the one who talked me into offing Mom. Something about opening the portal so you and I can be split in two. I think I got the short stick with you being the primary body holder.” She bites her bottom lip and glares at me.

“Why do I feel I should know all this already?” I ask her.

There was no mention of shared minds or temporary body holders. Something told me she wasn’t so much in my head as in the surrounding energy. If she were in my head, she would have spoken long before now, and the medication wouldn’t have affected her.

“You are cursed, dear sister. Trauma haunts you every day of your life. The more you dwell, the longer it will take for your true form to manifest,” she replies with a frown.

“What true form?” I step toward her. “You already said you’re the magic one.”

“Okay, so you took after Dad, and I took after Mom. While the magic doesn’t work here for the others, it does for me. So, we get five royals to do a little voodoo magic to open the portal, and bam, we’re in separate bodies by morning.” She claps her hands together and smiles.

She makes it sound easy. I’m nothing like her. The idea of killing anyone, while intriguing, is wrong. I know it’s wrong, and I’m not willing to risk my life for a fairy tale portal.

“I will kill no one,” I protest.

“That asshole last night was going to kill you. Why not do him first?” She waggles her eyebrows, and my body goes cold.

If I have two consciousnesses in my head, why am I logical of the two? Is this what Soren was talking about, that I would want to speak with him about the desire to taste blood? Should I keep her at bay long enough to get answers?

What was that name my father had said to me that night at Preston’s?

“Odile,” she says with a massive grin.

“Excuse me, what?” I ask. I’m a bit mortified she was inside my head. Was she always able to read my thoughts?

“I’m Odile, and you are Odette. You absorbed me, and we became one. I age as you age. The only difference is I’m stuck on the other side of every damned mirror. You got Mom’s love. I got covered up. Until Lenny noticed me, then when you were asleep, we would hatch plans to open the portal, but we agreed the first to go had to be our mother.”

“You expect me to believe this shit?” I laughed nervously. I was moments from pushing her into the water and drowning her. Everything she said was a lie.

She wasn’t the one who had lived her life in mirrors. All I could remember were reflections. I knew my mother’s identity, but I didn’t recognize her or anything about her. Odile spouts nonsense about plotting our mother’s death with Lenny, and I was supposed to believe it?

“It’s true!” Odile groans.

“I’m not buying it. Now get out of my head.”

I raised my voice, and I shouldn’t have. Suddenly, the world shook, and the river water rose. I had almost forgotten where we were standing. First, it covered our ankles and then reached our knees. Odile danced around as if the water was hurting her.

“Shit, she’s awake,” Odile says, looking over her shoulder.

“Are you afraid of her?” I tease.

I find her terror amusing. All the talk of magic and portals was bullshit. She was trying to frame me for something. I did not know what, but she was terrified of our mother. “Talk to Lenny. He’ll tell you everything. You aren’t as innocent in this mess as you think.” My sister winks and disappears.

Moments later, I feel hands on my shoulder and hear my father’s voice in my ears.

“Odette, wake up.”

“What’s happening?” I yawn.

“If you want to see Lenny, we have to leave now. They’ve moved up his execution forward by a day.” My dad runs around his office, grabbing his keys and wallet.

“Right now?” I sit up and rub my eyes.

“Yeah, we’re on a time crunch. Let’s go.” He holds his hand to help me, and we race to the garage.

Our house is about twenty miles from the prison. However, there are no highways that take you straight to it. You have to drive half of it through rewinding roads. You’re moving in one direction and hardly ever see another car.

During the drive, I wonder about this other realm. Does it run parallel to ours, where a magical wave of energy would fill the city once the gateway was opened, and all the people inside would magically become what they used to be? Is this royal blood for entry a sick way to open a preserving vase?

“What are you thinking about?” my dad asks, breaking the awkward silence in the truck cab.

“Nothing much,” I state, knowing I’m lying to him.

We return to our quiet drive, and I look out the window, thinking of all the wonderful things opening the portal could do. From what I understand, it’ll be a deed well beyond my capabilities, but I could make everyone happy with Odile. They could all go home, and their missing magic would be restored. I pictured green grass, tall trees, and plenty of wildlife.

Something isn’t right with the plan I’m thinking of. If the blood of five royals could open the portal, why had nobody thought of opening it themselves?

“Dad?”

“What’s up?” He glances at me for a second, then returns his vision to the road.

“The other night, you called me Odile. Who is that?” I ask cautiously because I don’t know what he will say. He knows more about me than I do.

During their fight, it was mentioned how I would hurt other patients, but I have no memory of breaking them. Odile said she only used my body once but joked about how the others shouldn’t have touched me. I know she can control my body and that what she said was a lie. Still, it doesn’t shake the feeling I’m missing something.

My father clears his throat, and his grip on the wheel tightens.

“You heard that did you?” he squeaks out.

I frown. “Yes.”

Dad takes a deep breath. “How about after you talk to Lenny and get all your questions out, we talk about what happened that night?”

Seeing how uncomfortable he is discussing Odile makes me feel a little better. At least I’m not the only one who has trust issues.

“Is it that bad?” I chuckle.

He says nothing, but the way his face pales, and his eyes water makes me realize there’s something sinister to Odile. Maybe I could understand why Karen wanted me out of the house. Could I be a threat to Pax?

I would never hurt our brother.

Her whisper sounds annoyed. I should stop thinking of this until I learned to block her out.

Once we come out of the woods, there’s a line of six houses and the entrance to the Coscoroba Prison. The red-bricked houses belong to the warden and the guards. They aren’t well-kept and seem to fall apart like everything else in Coscoroba. The prison, however, is large, with razor wire on the top of its forty-foot fences. The grass is brown, and there are few trees, but the prison has a beauty in its age I cannot understand.

We must go through three stations before finally reaching the front of the prison entrance. According to every guard we encountered, our arrival had been expected, and all safety protocols were implemented. The guards speak to my father as if he’s the one with authority, which makes me wonder how royal Karen is and if Karen is even her real name.

Little attention is paid to me as we pass through the gates.

At the front entrance stands the statue of a swan. It’s about six feet tall, with its wings spread, looking toward the sky. Interestingly, I still don’t know what it means until much later.

We’re ushered into the warden’s office and sit in comfortable chairs. The receptionist gave us water and some snacks while we waited. When the warden comes into the room, he formally addresses my father and sits on the other side of the desk. Again, I do not exist.

“Mr. Stephenson, we are proud to have you in our little establishment. I heard you are here to speak with Lenny.” The warden licks his lips and folds his hands on the desk.

“Yes, Odette feels it’s time to get some answers.”

Even though my father says my name with me sitting next to him, the warden refuses to acknowledge I’m in the room.

“Good, good. We have set up a room in the west wing for them to talk. No worries, sir. Lenny hasn’t been able to create a spark since he arrived here five years ago. I cannot wait to put the man out of his misery for what he did to poor Odette’s mother.” The warden speaks so eloquently to my father that I feel it isn’t me who’s having the interview.

“You have the mirror?” my father asks abruptly, and for the first time, I understand why the warden isn’t looking at me.

He knows!

“Yes, we found a replica of the one from the murder scene.” The warden’s voice is stiff, and sweat has formed on his forehead.

“Good.” My father finishes his water and looks at me. “You ready”

I don’t know what to say, and if I let on that I already knew about Odile, it’ll only make doing what I have to do even more challenging. So instead of speaking, I shake my head and stand from the chair.

Even with Dad standing beside me, speaking to me, the wardens’ eyes never waver from my father’s location.

The warden leads us through a labyrinth of hallways, each connected with doors requiring electronic passes, fingerprints, retinal scans, and even simple badge scans. All of this bypasses the inmates. My father and the warden have basic conversations while walking, but I’m too distracted to pay attention.

Why is the prison so big? How many baddies could there possibly be from my mother’s realm? Everyone made it sound like rainbows and butterflies except for my mother and her magic, which wasn’t cool.

We make our way down the final hallway. It’s colder than any other, and the air is thicker. The walls on each side appeared wet even though my hand returned dry when I touched the gray rock. It also smells mustier, as if the area hadn’t had fresh air in ages. Finally, we stopped in front of a large wooden door. I can sense something different on the other side, but I don’t want to say anything. The warden takes my father by the shoulder and informs him of the rules.

“Only Odette can step foot in the room. He cannot use his magic, but we don’t know about the other girl. We posted guards at all four corners just in case, but they will not remember any conversations once they leave the room. This meeting never happened, and there is no record of Odette stepping into prison today.”

My father nods, agreeing to the terms. He turns to look at me.

“Get the answers you need and get out. The longer you’re there, the more he can corrupt you.” He kisses me on the cheek, opens the door, and pushes me inside.