Chapter 8: Shattered Perfect World

Run away.

Get angry and beat him within an inch of his life.

Fight or flight.

Any strength Shine had in her body was dulled to a hair strand. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move. Her legs felt like jello and arms shook. Violet eyes welling up with tears of disgust. Disgust at Orion.

Disgust with herself.

They sat in silence watching one another. One was prey, the other was the predator. At the moment, Shine wasn't sure which she was. She hugged her thighs tightly together, an intense feeling of nausea washing over her. Orion scanned her body, licking his lips.

He had a hungry look in his eyes, clouded by an intense haze.

"Get the fuck out," She screamed suddenly.

Orion shook his head. "Come on, don't be that way."

"You're fucking sick!" She reached for her desk lamp, ripping it from the socket and throwing it as hard as she could.

It struck Orion, smashing against his skull. Blood dripped from his forehead and he hit the floor, groaning like an angry animal. His head propped up at the end of the bed. Shine jumped to her feet, moving to the corner of her room, back against the wall. She slid calmly to the right, inching her way closer and closer to the door.

This wasn't him. This wasn't her brother, the one who took care of her, and hugged her when she was upset and loved her like a brother should.

"Don't you fucking listen?! What the fuck is wrong with you!?"

He licked his lips and leapt at her. Shine ducked and rolled towards the door as Orion smashed through the wall. Dust clouded the bedroom as Shine snatched the door open and rushed into the hall, running in the opposite direction of the stairs towards her parents room. Her fist pounded on the door.

"Mom! Dad! Open up, please! Something is wrong with Orion!"

"Nothing is wrong, Sis," His voice chimed in. The cloud faded, revealing Orion's dusty form. He rubbed his arm of the drywall remains, approaching Shine. "I couldn't wait any longer."

The bedroom door opened, but Shine didn't bother to look at who opened it. "Keep him away from me! He… He was…." She shuddered trying to put the words together.

Burly hands clamped on her shoulders, and for a moment, she felt safe. The grip became tighter, which soon turned into a bear hug. Her arms were locked under her father's grip. His heavy voice oozed into her ears, eyes widening in response to his following words.

"You shouldn't do things like this. It spoils her."

Shine felt any extra sounds fade out. She slowly looked up at her father, his somewhat dark skin and wrinkled face coming into her view. The black hair and brown eyes. Tired, humane, yet so disgustingly twisted. A hint of red was on his lips.

From a cut.

From something outside.

"Where's Mom," She croaked.

"Don't worry about that. You have more problems to worry about," He replied.

Orion rubbed his hands together. Shine slowly looked at him, drinking in his features.

He physically looked larger than normal. More muscle and hair. Wild bedhead, glowing red eyes and sharpened teeth.

"Can I finish now, Shine," He asked in a rhetorical tone. His hands rubbed against her exposed legs. Shine felt her breathing get heavy in response. Her heart rammed, welled up tears of fear now flowing in silence. She barely had any strength to fight back. Not from injury, but from the horror of what was happening.

She denied and denied and denied in her mind as much as she could, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't wake up from this nightmare.

It's not a nightmare.

Not a bad dream. It was reality. This was her reality, and it was happening right now.

"Why…." She croaked, feeling Orion adjust himself against her. "What's the matter with you both?! We're family!"

Her father scoffed. "You thought that, and we allowed you to believe that. They always taste so rip in despair. Shine, sweetie, do you know what we are?" She bawled her fists, shutting her eyes and wishing she could shut her ears.

"We're demons. Special demons in fact. We, or more specifically I like to hunt, but hunt for the purest blood. Blood of girls like you. It's funny though, because you're more special than the others. More physically capable. Beautiful beyond comprehension. I've felt tempted like Orion here at times, but held myself back because the time needed to be right. Since my horndog son can't keep it in his pants now, we might as well get our kicks. Keep you around for a couple years until you pop out more kin for us."

Shine bit her lip.

Orion entered her, and she gasped loudly, before crying and struggling against her captor and Orion's movements. She felt the contents of her stomach rushing up her throat, and she almost let it all free. Before it left, she looked up at the man who was supposed to be her father and let it fly.

He dropped her, Shine hitting her head hard against the hardwood floor. Orion slipped out of her and stumbled back against the railing. Dazed at first, Shine quickly recovered and leapt over her brother, smashing the glass table in the living room as she landed and bolted for the door.

Her father rushed up, pieces of Shine's dinner on his face, and barked loudly.

A shockwave erupted behind her, forcing her through the front door, taking it off its golden hinges as she slid down the steps, once again hitting her head against the pavement. Her nausea grew, stomach condensing as she let go of another wave of vomit.

Orion bounded to the door first, peering down at his sister. Shine looked up, hair in a scrambled mess, face littered with sweat, vomit and tears. She got to her feet, rushing down the street into the forest behind one of the neighboring houses.

Orion bounded after her on all fours, their father right behind him.

They kept up with Shine so easily. She leapt over bushes, around trees, branches and twigs cutting her body. The faster she went, the more careless she became. Each branch she touched caught fire from her sudden movement, but not before digging deep into her arms and sides.

She turned, looking back at the two. One branch jut out at just the wrong angle, and pierced deep into her thigh. Blood spewed and she toppled over, sliding and rolling until she smacked hard into a tree, air leaving her lungs. Her body went limp and eyes half open.

Orion slid to a halt, sniffing the air around her, smiling once their father slowed down. Deep in the trees in the middle of the night. Not another soul in sight, or within hearing distance.

Even if she screamed for help, she knew no one would come. Strength faintly returned to her body. With a weak grip, she pulled herself up, using her free hand to rip the broken branch from her thigh and stand straight.

"Gonna make this easy for us now?"

"I'd rather die," She spat. "Fuck you both.." Shine croaked, tears flowing down her cheeks. She raised her fists, body shaking. Her head pounded. Her stomach twisted in knots so tight she felt she could vomit again right then and there.

Orion leapt through the air. Woozily, Shine ducked under, throwing a punch. Her knuckles connected with his stomach and she twisted with all of her might, watching his body spin around her wrist and fly back into a tree stump. Her father ran at her, steps heavy. It felt like an earthquake with each one, so much so that she stumbled and hit the tree with her back.

She ducked his first punch, trying to connect her elbow to his ribs. Despite the contact, there was no reaction to the attack. His large arm snapped back, gripping hers and twisting it behind her back.

"Be a good girl," He said, applying pressure. Shine screamed in pain, feeling her bone weaken and suddenly snap.

Her screams ceased and her mind emptied completely. Wide eyes gazed at the sky, her body suddenly dropping like lead and hitting the soil. Orion crawled towards her, face seemingly mutated, extended, into a wrinkled snout. His glowing eyes ceased, replaced by pure blood colored orbs that gazed down at Shine's broken form.

"Hurry up, I want my fun after you," Her father said. His voice sounded distorted in her ears. Her vision was clouded. The moon released its faint light through the clouds overhead.

Help… Me…  Someone… Please…

Shuffling disturbed the pained silence.

Orion and his father looked back at the bushes they came from. Raising an eyebrow, they both moved side by side, growling. No other movement came for the past few minutes, and they relaxed. Turning their heads back, their eyes widened.

Shine was gone, but in her place was a boy in a black hoodie and dark jeans. His face was covered, head low, back against the tree and he held a golden locket in his hand.

"Who the fuck are you!? Where's the girl?!" Orion's father yelled.

The boy's fingers gripped the locket tightly, and he rose it into the air. "Gone. Long gone." He stood then, brushing his pants and putting the locket in his back pocket. Pulling his hood down, his black hair fell, and he craned his head aside. "Sorry, did you need her for something?"

Orion got in the boy's face, growling loudly. At this point, he was more beast than man.

"Hey, listen, I know you guys had this whole amazing plan to harvest her body to cultivate your clan, but I can't let you do that." He touched Orion's shoulder, the demon flicked his eyes to it then back.

"And you are?"

"Justin," He answered, before slamming his foot against Orion's shin and shattering it with no effort. Bringing his leg up, he used his momentum to toss Orion into the tree, watching the demon drop to the floor in pain.

Orion's father took a step back, shocked.

Justin slowly looked back, eyes glowing in a violet light. The brown had faded. His black hair slowly shifted, from dark to pure white. Flames bellowed around his body, dancing in an intense heat so strong, the trees around began to melt. "You hurt my sister. Sorry, but I'm gonna have to make you pay for that."

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Shine slowly opened her eyes. She was moving. Fast. Her legs were numb. Her broken arm was limp at her side. Something cold held her tightly against it, but it wasn't uncomfortable. A hard back, covered in dark clothes.

A groan escaped her lips, the back slowing down to a halt, lowering Shine until she touched a tree. Her head draped to the side, hair blocking her view of the person's face.

"Hey, hold on. You'll heal up just fine, give it time."

"Wha…" She replied. Her throat was dry. Her chest heaved each time she tried to breathe.

She felt like shit. Complete and utter shit that had just been dropped outside and sat cooking in the sun for hours.

A hand brushed against her cheek, then fingers moved the hair from her face. When the person came into view, she blinked in complete confusion.

"It might… Because I hit my head twice…. But weren't your eyes… Brown…. Not green?"

He didn't respond for a moment, until he cleared his throat and said, "Contacts. Are you okay, Shine?"

"No," She said, laughing hysterically, before coughing hard. "I got raped by my brother… Twice… My father wants to use me as a baby factory… No idea where my mother is… Broken arm, hurled my dinner multiple times, pounding head, the list goes on." She replied. Her voice sounded weak.

"It'll be alright… We'll get you to a hospital. A really good one." He looked around.

Shine let her head fall to the right. A white light erupted in the darkness.

Fire. Intense. Strong enough to make the darkness bend and retreat. Through the bushes, he stepped out. Shine forgot all of her pain for a moment. Her eyes went wide, body freezing in a puddle of her sweat and thin trails of blood.

He gazed at her for a moment, white flames fading away. He didn't acknowledge her at first, but then moved next to her and crouched down.

"It's alright now. We're here."

"You're… You're the…" She tried to crawl away from the two, but couldn't move far.

Pain rushed through her skull when she moved too quickly, which once again made her vomit from the intense nausea. The boys stepped back a bit.

Once she finished, the one with white hair moved near her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, easy. You just went through some… Really rough shit."

"You're the boy from my dream," She cried out. "This… This is some kind of trick! Or something!"

"Take a breath, Shine." He told her calmly. "We're not going to hurt you. I promise. This is Kairas." He pointed to the other boy. Shine glanced at him, drinking in the fact that they were twins. "I'm Takabi," He said.

"Wait… You… You look like a boy I met…"

Takabi blinked, his hair shifting to black and eyes to brown. Shine gasped, watching the colors alternate back. He stood up, helping Shine do just the same. "Yeah, Transformation magic is very basic… Sorry about lying. We couldn't let you know who we really were until… Well, until we had the right time. Sucks it had to be now, like this."

"What the fuck are you?!" She snatched herself away, gripping the rotted wood of the tree tightly. "Who the fuck are you?!"

Kairas, who had his back turned, looked at Shine over his shoulder. "Kind of a rude way to talk to family."

Shine looked between the twins. Her tongue licked her dry lips, and she asked quietly, "What… Did you just say?"

"Right," Takabi started. "Being blunt. Shine, We're your brothers."