The Devlin Family

"Hey, wanna talk?" She calls after you. "I have a birthday present for you."

"Leave me alone monster!" You snap. Stepping back into your bedroom you slam the door behind you. Leaning back against the door you steady your breathing.

Outside the door you hear your little sister sulk away and you feel kinda terrible for treating her like that. She was just trying to cheer you up. You peer back out to apologize but she is already gone. With a frustrated sigh you close the door once more and lock it. You say again. "I can't handle this right now."

You look across to yourself in the big mirror. All dressed up for what you believed would be the best night of your life. All of the fantasies of independent wealth, power, and influence evaporated like the morning fog exposed to the full heat of the sun. The reality had been a nightmare. You pull off your vest and throw it into the corner. You remove your tie and unbutton your collar then keep unbuttoning your shirt. Perhaps some some sleep would clear your head. Perhaps it would allow you to wake from this awful dream. You get into your pajamas and turn off the light allowing pure pale moonlight to stream in from the big window.

Approaching the window you stare out over the front garden to the deep dark woods that stretched out through the family property for miles. The distant howl of a wolf sends a shiver down your spine. Or was it a werewolf? Your brother Bron. Another sigh, another shake of the head, and you close the heavy curtains. In the dark you navigate your room and crawl into bed.

Lying there wide awake you stare up into the darkness feeling more alone than you had ever felt in your life.

***

With the shock finally ebbing you now lay there wallowing in your self pity and anger. You could imagine Bron having a good laugh at your expense right now. They probably all were. Look at the stupid little human quake in his socks. How cruel. What humiliation. What a betrayal of familial trust. They may as well have pointed and laughed the whole time. None of them could understand. How could they? They had always known the truth, all of them. They were different from each other, yes, yet they were also bound as one by the common trait of their supernaturalness. They didn't know how it felt to be cut out of what made the Devlin's special. To be a pariah among your own kin. You imagined this must be how it felt to be told you were adopted only so much worse. Your entire childhood was falsehoods and illusions and they watched you grow up as a risible fool, blissfully ignorant of the reality around you. You couldn't imagine what they would say about you when you weren't around. Mocking your weakness, pitying you, laughing at your blind innocence. Your own family!

No, nobody could feel as utterly isolated as you did now. Nobody.

In a flash the eerily beautiful alabaster white face of your twin sister flits through your mind and a pain strikes your heart. A twin. You had a twin. Genetically, had she been human, she would be your closest kin. Given what she was you had no idea how genetics would work here. Still, it meant something to have a twin. Something important. Couldn't they have at least told you about her? While their true forms were kept a secret her entire existence had been erased and that was so much worse. The very knowledge of her denied to you, your sister stolen from you. That simply wasn't fair. They should have said something.

They hadn't even expected her to be there tonight. In the end it was Vespera herself to reveal her existence to you. She wouldn't have been involved in planning that humiliating scene. She wouldn't be laughing at you. Did she even know what laughter was? It was her birthday too. Didn't the others care about that? Did she? In your previous 20 birthdays never once did you see other gifts or cards or even just hear well wishes for your twin on the day of her birth. Didn't they love her?

Your father had said she disappeared soon after birth. That she only showed up during special occasions. Why had she left so young? Why still come back at all? And why on special occasions? Clearly something kept her connected with the rest of them and she had the awareness to recognize special moments. You remember how the tentacle that snaked under the couch had wrapped around your mother's ankle. Was that a sign of affection? It looked like it, but how could you possibly say without understanding her more?

Dad told you explicitly not to interact with her without him or your mother there to protect you. But you could sense that Ves was nearly as much a mystery to him as she was to you. When he spoke to her back in the library she never even looked his way despite his loving words. You recall how he readied himself to defend you if necessary. He didn't trust her, his own daughter, perhaps he even feared her. Could she sense that? Did she too feel the hurt about being different from the rest? Did she feel as betrayed as you did by being denied an honest life with your family? Did your twin feel as alone as you did now?

"Vespera." You whisper out into the dark empty room. "Vespera, I understand."

The room remains silent outside of the slight sound of wind pushing against your window. You continue staring up, looking and hearing for any change.

"I'm not afraid." You say just a bit louder but keeping your voice low and gentle so as not to scare her. She was shy your mother said. "I know how you feel. To be different. To be alone. I always knew something was missing in my life. How could I feel complete...without my twin sister."

Still there is no sign.

"We shared a womb you and I. We are a part of each other. They had no right keep us apart like they did." You say with growing confidence. "Can you hear me where you are? Can you hear me sister?"

And still the empty silence hangs over your room causing you to start to feel rather silly for talking to nothing.

"Well...I was glad to have met you. I am so happy to know about you and I look forward to getting to know you. I have stories to tell you about my world and I hope to learn of yours. I have so many questions for you."

Silence.

You smile. "I'm glad we could share our birthday together at least. It meant a lot to me to see you. Maybe next year I could see you again? I would like that."

Nothing.

You let out a sigh. "Okay then." You pull your blankets tight. "If you can hear me Vespera Devlin, I invite you to come visit me anytime you wish. You are always welcome here." You blow a kiss into the air. "Good night my sister, and happy birthday." Then, just because it felt right, you add. "I miss you."

Still, quiet, empty, dark.

You were being ridiculous. It's not as if you could summon her or anything, you were no Warlock. Even if you could it was probably a bad idea given what your father had told you. She probably hadn't heard a word you said. And yet talking with your newly revealed sibling went a long way to making you feel better. It gave you comfort knowing you had a twin spirit out there somewhere, no matter what she was. You suddenly didn't feel so alone anymore.

You close your eyes and ready yourself for sleep, feeling much more at ease than before.

***

Snug in your plush bed you allow your mind to begin to drift in an attempt to fall asleep. Your muscles relax, your breathing getting slower and deeper, and the pleasant fog of an approaching slumber settles over your mind and body.

That is when you notice the silence. Not the regular quiet of before, when you could still hear the breeze across your window and the occasional wood creak of the old house, but a deep and total silence. The complete absence of noise outside of the sound of your breathing. Something was very wrong here.

Fear grips your heart as your eyes snap open. You blink once, twice, three times to be sure your lids had opened such was the absolute unnerving darkness you found yourself within. Though you could not see a thing you could somehow sense movement in the black abyss. Slithering crawling tendrils of shadow within shadow. Your sister had come.

Never in your life had you been more afraid as you are right now alone with this creature, yet your curiosity could not be denied.

Careful not to make any sudden movements or noises you gradually sit up. There, hovering at the foot of your bed, is the pale oval face of your twin. Her six eyes, still showing a glassy glint despite there being no light to reflect from them, stare at you, into you, and through you. You had no doubt she could see you perfectly despite the total lack of illumination. On and around the bed you feel her tentacles slide.

You lick your lips and swallow your fear. In a soft voice you say. "Hello Vespera."

The haunting pale face, with those strange combination of features both alien and human, tilts ever so slightly. You wait a time for a response but none comes.

"Did you hear me talking to you earlier?" You say a bit more confidently. Just like the light the sound of your voice is muted as the darkness seems to swallow everything that touched it. There is no answer. You shift a little closer and put your hand to my chest. "My name is Jacob. Your brother. Your twin. It is nice to finally meet you." You get no response so you continue. "Did they tell you about me? They didn't tell me about you. I never knew I had a twin. I never knew I shared a birthday with someone."

The face then tilts slightly to the other side and a chorus of unearthly voices rises up sourceless and everywhere. Each voice as faint as falling snow but combining into a mosaic of audible meaning. "Jacob." She says though her thin mouth doesn't move.

"Yes!" You smile. "That's right. My name is Jacob. Your brother."

"Brotherrrr."

"Yes, yes!" You nod. The weight of one of her appendages glides over your leg. At first you believe it is above the covers but when you reach to feel it with your hands you feel the shape of it beneath your blankets, shifting and flexing between your pajamas and sheets. "I am your brother Jacob and you are my sister Vespera. We are twins."

Then, just loud enough to be heard but all around you, you can hear the sound of low steady heartbeat. A moment later two more fainter swifter heartbeats that seem to beat in unison join the first.

"Togetherrrr." She says in that strange multifaceted voice of hers. "Twinsss."

"Yes." You look around, searching for the source of the heartbeats but seeing only utter dark. The only thing visible in the whole room was your sister's pale face. You listen as the fainter heartbeats slowly get louder and stronger. "Is that...is that Mom's heartbeat? Are those ours? Is this...the sound of our womb!?"

"Togetherrr." More sounds join the three beating hearts. Voices. Muffled and indistinct but recognizable in tone and cadence. Father's voice, grandma's, Devany's, Ciara's, and others. "Together."

"Yes, that's right. That was me. That was us! We were together." You look back to her. "This is incredible!"

All at once the sounds stop.

"Separation...Light...Pain...Light...Mother." As if echoing through a canyon from a great distance you hear a howl of horrendous agony, the voice is your mother's. "Pain. Painnn." A moment later comes the sound of a wailing infant to join the insufferable screams of your mother. "Painnnn."

"Is that...? Do you remember our birth?"

The face straightens up and quivers, the thin mouth now frowning and the glassy eyes sparkling like jewels. "Separation. Taken. Alone...alone...alone...alone...alone." The tentacle beneath the cover suddenly coils around both of your legs and another whips around your arm and grips it tight. "Alone." You sense more of her limbs closing in around you.

You grimace at your sister's tight hold and you hold onto the tentacle beneath the blanket. "No. Not alone. You are not alone Vespera. Not anymore."

"Shame...Fear...Confusion...Suffering." More voices join the chorus with each word bringing the volume up and up. "Banishment...Alone...alone...alone...alone..."

"Nnngh." You grit your teeth as the tentacles squeeze tight and another snakes around your chest. "Ves...you're hurting me."

***

The tentacles tighten around you. Your legs, your arm, and now your chest. It begins to become difficult to breath. You are gasping for breath. More of the appendages are heading your way.

"No." You say. As you feel another beginning to wrap around your free arm you quickly pull it free. "NO!" You shout.

The sudden noise causes the tentacles to tighten. Fighting with all of your strength you kick and push and writhe against your sister. Your father told you to stay alert and protect yourself and that is what you do. You barely knew this creature, twin or no.

"NO! NO! NO!" You continue shouting as you struggle against her with everything you had.

All at once Vespera's limbs whip back away from you and her face begins to sink back into the darkness.

"No wait." You reach out for her. "Don't leave. Please don't go. Stay."

"Stay."

"Yes, stay. Stay together, with me."

"Together." Her face brightens back to usual pale white.

You let out breath, blowing out your nervous tension. "Okay, let's try this again." Holding out your hand you lay it palm up on your lap. On the assumption she can actually see in this dark you say. "Here. Touch me here. Gently. You have to be gentle. I am...just a human. A normal, vulnerable, plain old human."

"Human."

She looks down to your hand and a moment later you feel a thick tentacle carefully touch down upon your palm. Her skin was not what you had expected. It wasn't slimy or rubbery or clammy or scaly. It wasn't really anything. You could feel its weight and girth but the flesh itself had an almost neutral quality about it. Neither warm nor cold, neither coarse nor slick, neither hard nor soft. It was none of those things yet somehow all of them. Your senses struggled to make sense of it. It was an entirely new sensation that the human mind had not evolved to experience.

"Jacob." She says.

"Vespera." You say back as you lay your other hand over the first and hold the tentacle between them. You give it a squeeze and say. "Together."

The thin mouth shows the faintest hint of a smile and you smile back. All of the fear and trepidation drain from you. Monster or not it felt so damn good to connect with your long lost twin, it just felt...right.

"That's better." You say. "Hey, can have a little light? I can't see anything in this darkness."

"Light."

"Yes. Unless it hurts you, then I can sit in the dark. I don't mind."

Gradually a dim illumination lightens the room. It is the anemic glow of what moonlight could find its way around your thick curtains. It is barely anything, and yet after the total black of before it seemed like the sun. One corner of the room remains cloaked in deepest shadow. The light silhouette's your sister from behind allowing you a glimpse at her true form, the only way you ever would get a look as you realize her body simply did not reflect light in any way. Even her white face shone by its own power.

At first all you see is a writhing mass of tentacles below the face, yet the more you looked the more you could make out details. The face was in fact connected to a head and that head had what might be considered hair, though by the movements you could tell that the long "hair" was in fact thin free moving tendrils similar to the main limbs. Below that head was a slender neck, shoulders, and the hourglass body of a woman. You could make out no finer points but she had a definite torso, neck and head. Her arms and legs were thick tentacles though there were many more thinner ones sprouting from her back and sides. Her shape gave you a connection. You remind yourself that her father was a human and some bit of that humanity seemed to have influenced her form.

You continue to smile as you look back to the six eyed face. "Thank you." You pet the tentacle just as your mother had back in the library. "Can you speak Vespera? In complete sentences I mean."

"Speak."

"I guess not." You pat her arm, or whatever it is you had. "This will make communication tricky." Her limb wraps around your hand and holds it with surprising tenderness. You let out a soft chuckle. "That's okay. It's just nice being with you. We'll figure it out."

"Communicate."

"So, did...um...did they tell you about me? They never told me about you." You say. "You can just answer yes or no."

Instead of an answer those many tiny noises that congregated into her voice mimics other sounds. You hear...a clacking noise. Wood on wood. You hear a babyish burble. Then the sound of wooden blocks toppling to the floor and the babbling half speech of a toddler followed by a little squeal of laughter.

"Is that me?" Your smile grows. "That's me isn't it? Were you watching?"

The sounds change to that of a little boy giggling. You hear the boy whisper to himself out of breath. "He he he! They'll never find me here." You can still hear the heavy breathing of the boy when a moment later comes Trixie's voice, but her voice as a small child, calling out in the distance. "Ready or not, here I come!"

"I was in the wardrobe, wasn't I? That was my favorite spot." You get up to your knees and hold her limb to heart. "You were watching! Ha! You didn't forget about me, did you?"

"Jacob."

You hug her tentacle tightly to your chest. "I wish I could have known you then. Oh the years we could have had."

"Alone." The sounds of normal family life fade, replaced by a deep endless nothingness. "Alone."

"No! No Ves, you are NOT alone. Not anymore. Not ever again." Tears are welling up in your eyes though you didn't fully understand why.

"Together."

Walking down your bed on your knees you get right to the foot, right up to your twin sister. Being this close to her was unnerving, your fight or flight instincts screaming at you to flee this monstrosity, and yet after a moment you throw your arms around her and embrace her in a big hug.

***

To say the hug was the strangest you'd ever felt would be the understatement of the century. Within your embrace Vespera is a shifting mass, but beneath it all you feel the shape of the woman you had seen in silhouette. Through your pajamas you could feel breasts pushing into you. Your cheek brushes the white part of her face and it tickles you with its surprising softness. It felt as if her face, which appeared like a porcelain mask, was actually thousands or millions of microscopic filaments. Her skin was so weird to touch but you ignored your natural instinct to recoil, your instincts as a brother were far more powerful.

"Human." She says in that unique choral voice of hers. "Gentle."

And with that she hugs you back, a hug of a dozen tentacles that completely envelops you. Despite the great strength you knew she possessed she holds you with the over careful tenderness of a mother holding her baby. The smaller tendrils of her hair slides through your hair rubbing your scalp, the tips of some exploring your face and tracing the shape of your ear.

"I'm so happy." You smile as a tentacle traces your lips. A twin! A twin sister. Who cares if she was a monster. Truly this was the greatest birthday gift imaginable. Pulling back you look into her face, once so alien starting to become more familiar. "Why alone sister? I understand the enchantment on me probably kept you away from me, but what about the others? Why were you alone?"

Her face remains unmoved but her obsidian eyes begin to glimmer intensely.

The next thing you hear is your father's voice, terse and clearly stressed. "She is dangerous!"