Spring came to the Institute. Fresh grass grew in gleaming emerald sheets over the bare hills, and the trees swelled with blossoms. Sophia normally liked spring, but this year the warm weather only exacerbated her feelings of ennui. The question of whether or not Doctor Benjamin Reynolds was her father ate away at her. She knew she could simply ask him, and that he would most likely tell her the truth. But she was afraid to hear it, because if he was, it meant that her mother had been an adulteress and a liar. She couldn’t bear the thought, not on top of everything else she was dealing with at the moment. She didn’t even voice her suspicions to Jude. That would make it real and she wanted it to stay in her head, where she could deny it for just a little longer.
She couldn’t sleep anymore. Every night was a struggle to just breathe, and one breezy night in mid-April, she decided she had to get out of her room, away from this horrible feeling of suffocation. She had to walk around, even if it was only a stroll around these sterile fluorescent halls. She rifled around in her drawer until she found her bobby pin. Then she went over to the door and got to work on the lock. After a few minutes heard a click and the door popped open. She slipped out, closing it gently behind her.
She sauntered around the dark and empty corridors, lightly tracing the walls with her fingertips. Eventually she found her way to the empty Meadow Lobby, and after standing there for a few seconds, looking around at the shadows, she realized there was someone sitting in one of the chairs by the fire. She froze.
“Hi honey,” Felicity said.
Sophia hesitated, then went over and sat in the chair across from her.
“I thought you’d be at Sybill’s grave.”
“Not tonight.”
“I can’t seem to get away from you, no matter how hard I try,” Felicity said teasingly. “This must be fate.”
“Or my shit luck.”
“Those claws never go in. Did you pick that up from Sybill?”
“Not really. I just don’t like you very much.”
“Rude.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I have no real reason to dislike you or anything.”
“I don’t know how many times I need to apologize---”
“I mean, just once would be great.”
Felicity stared at her, blinking. Then she averted her gaze and scowled at the wall, chewing her thumb. Sophia looked at her for a long time, trying to find any similarities in their faces. Their eyebrows were shaped the same, but other than that, they didn’t really look alike. Could they really be half-siblings?
“You have a brother, right?” she said slowly.
“What?” Felicity looked up. “Why do you care?”
Because he might be my fucking brother too.
“Just curious. You have any pictures of him? He’s a cop, right?”
“Yeah. His name’s Nate.” Felicity’s face softened when she said his name. Her hand slipped into her pocket. “I carry this one around. It makes me feel safe.”
She held out a small photo of the young man Sophia had seen in Sybill’s memories. She took a moment to memorize every detail of Nathaniel Reynolds’ face, every curve of jaw and cheek, his smile, the way his hair tumbled into his eyes, his hunched shoulders.
“He looks just like you,” she said.
Felicity re-pocketed the photo and smiled. “You think?”
“Felicity…”
“What now?”
Sophia felt her heart pounding against her throat. “You said my mom caused a lot of fights at your house.”
“And?”
“Was that because my mom and your dad---”
The words caught in her throat and strangled her. She couldn’t bring herself to voice aloud the hideous reality that she saw confirmed on Felicity’s face. A long silence lapsed. Then Felicity gave an odd laugh and said:
“Do you know what’s in Dad’s locket?”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“No,” Sophia answered, confused. “Should I?”
That odd laugh again.
“You should ask him some time,” Felicity said with a smile that gnarled her face.
***
A few nights later, Sophia was pacing the floor of her bedroom, unable to sleep, her mind buzzing. She was so deep inside the well of her own thoughts that it took a while for her to notice that a commotion was happening outside her door. Footsteps were pounding down the hallway. There was a loud banging and someone was shouting, their voice high-pitched and frantic. She went to her door and pressed her ear against it, straining to hear.
“…downstairs! Head him off!”
“He’s by the stairwell!”
“Jack, don’t!”
It was strange to think that she was in a building full of superpowered freaks---herself included---and yet that one name could strike such terror in her heart. It felt like someone just announced that they had released a giant anaconda into the hallways. Fear pooled in her stomach and froze her lungs. She swallowed and was about to back away from the door when she heard something even worse:
“There---she’s there! Miss Reynolds, don---FUCK!”
She didn’t recognize the voice of the person shouting. She assumed it was one of the nurses. But Miss Reynolds? Were Felicity and Jack making another break for it? Somehow she didn’t think so. This felt like something else.
There was a blood-curdling scream that made Sophia’s heart go cold. More frantic footsteps and door slamming. Was that Felicity? Was she in trouble? A storm of conflicting emotions swirled inside of her. She had no strong feelings for her other than pity and hatred. Still, if something was happening to her---they were sisters---she couldn’t---
The scream came again, shattering the air like falling broken glass.
Sophia ran across her room and found her bobby pin. She bent and picked the lock, her fingers trembling and slick with sweat. It took a little longer, but finally the door cracked open and she peeked out into the hallway. The noises were coming from somewhere around the corner, in the direction of the Meadow Ward lobby. Sophia fled soundlessly down the hall. She groped in her mind for Felicity’s mental signal, running around the corner, gasping for air until her lungs burned. Suddenly her mind was full of something that sounded like static, it made her eyeballs throb in her head, and then a single word tore out, like a shriek in the dark: HELP.
Sophia seized hold of the desperate signal and followed it into the lobby, coming to a skittering halt behind a fake plant as she bent over with her hands on her knees, panting. It took a moment for her head to stop swimming and her vision to clear. She lifted her gaze and stared through the fake leaves, and as her eyes adjusted to the dark room, she saw shapes moving in the darkness.
A terrible sense of foreboding poured like thick syrup into her stomach.
“This will be easier if you don’t run.” Jack’s voice was very gentle, like he was trying to coax a baby out of its crib.
“Get back,” Felicity snarled. Her voice sounded brave, but her face looked pale and sweaty, even in the darkness. “What the hell is wrong with you, Jack? Why are you doing this?”
“You lied to me, Fifi.”
“What?”
“About Francis. I asked you about him ages ago, remember?”
“W-Wait, I----”
“The thing that really hurts me is that you didn’t even have to do it.”
“Jack---”
“You took something from me so I think it’s only fair that I return the favor. Cosmic justice and all that.”
“ I-I don’t get it. Why does it matter how Francis died?”
Jack stopped walking and cocked his head. Even in the dimness of the room, Sophia saw a horrifying smile spread across his face. His usual languid mask was cracked by the twisted, feral lips of a wild animal, and Sophia knew before she even cried out that it was too late.
“Felicity--!” she shouted, just as Jack sprang at her sister with the agility of a frog.
He caught her in his arms. Felicity thrashed for just a moment, screaming something Sophia couldn’t hear. Then her whole body gave a violent jerk and she grew slack in his embrace. Jack cradled her like she was a baby, rocking her back and forth as he whispered soothingly into her ear. Coils of red began to rise off his skin like smoke. The strange substance twisted in the air, waving like the banners of a hellish army before swelling into an umbrella which loomed over the whole room. Felicity’s body began to shrink and wither. Jack’s face filled with an expression of orgasmic joy.
Sophia planted her feet firmly on the ground and punched towards Jack with her cosmic fist.
The impact tore Felicity’s limp body from his hands. He was flung backward, his breathless, high-pitched laughter ricocheting off the walls. There was an explosion of crimson light. Sophia waited for her flesh to be incinerated, but she blinked and found herself in a dimly lit unfamiliar room instead. She looked around, her brain scrambling to process what had just happened. It was cold---aggressively cold. She felt goosebumps exploding up her arms, and her breath misted in front of her eyes. The walls were lined with what looked like shiny metal cabinets. Then her eyes fell on a gurney in front of her. On top of it was a body covered by a sheet.
She was in a morgue. No sooner had she processed this hideous fact than a familiar drawl echo off the walls:
“Oh, dear. I’m sorry, love, I’ll fix it. Just lend me a little Time, hm? I’ll get us out of here…”
Jack’s voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. He sounded out of breath and his words were slurring. Sophia hurried down a semi-dark corridor, trying to be as quiet as possible.
“I promise I’ll be gentle…”
She could hear his footsteps dragging on the white tiles. They sounded unsteady. He had glutted himself, she realized. Time had been ripped out of him just as suddenly and greedily as it had been consumed. That was good. If he was weak and slow, she might be able to outrun him---
A cold hand touched the back of her neck.
“Found you,” he whispered in her ear.
Sophia screamed and sprang away, tearing herself out of his grip as she stumbled back into a gurney. Her heart plummeted when she realized it wasn’t empty; the white sheet slid down and she found herself staring down at the exposed face of a corpse.
It was her mother.
Everything went suffocatingly silent and she couldn’t breathe. She felt like she had been submerged in water. Sophia continued to stare down at that bloated pale face for an endless eternity until someone finally grabbed her arm and dragged her away. When the dim echoes of sound returned, she realized someone was screaming. A moment later she realized it was her.