A knife carved into my flesh. My breathing shook as I stared up at the ceiling, determined not to scream. Above me, eyes focused on the cuts he was making, Maple stood. His hair was long and white, going down to his waist. Next to him, staring at his work as he carefully cut into my skin with steady hands, was Mable. Maple was wearing blood-soaked white clothing, Mable wearing a tattered white dress that looked like it was a wedding dress. The white dress was yellowed with dirt and blood, the fabric fraying at the ends.

“Y-you were such a good kid, what happened?” I asked them, tired from struggling against the binds that held me. My body was cold, all of my clothes cut off of me.

Crimson red eyes flicked up from my wounds to meet my gaze. Maple’s lips twisted up into a sickening grin as our eyes met. He brought the scalpel he was using to cut into me to his lips, his tongue flicking out and running along the blade.

“A good kid…?” Maple wondered, his grin growing bigger, showing off yellowed teeth with large and sharp canines, “Does that mean I’m not a good kid right now?”

I huffed out mirthlessly, the chuckle halfhearted, “Torturing people makes you a bad guy. Don’t you want to be a good guy?”

Maple giggled, swallowing my blood, his crimson eyes glowing for a moment as he regarded my naked form with a predatory eye, seeing all the crimson lines wrapping around my torso and limbs.

When he spoke, his voice was casual and relaxed, like we were friends engaging in small-talk, “Not particularly. I quite like causing pain and watching people writhe.”

Mable giggled from where she stood next to Maple, hugging his arm and leaning her head against his shoulder as she stared at my body as well. Staring at the wounds they’d inflicted with an intensity that made her seem crazed.

I laughed once, quietly, weakly, “I’m not writhing, or screaming. Aren’t you bored? Let me go, yeah?”

That would work, right? Then I could get up, beat them up, and take them with me as we went dungeon-diving. I could teach them the morals that their mother didn’t instill within them….

Maple’s grin faded, his eyes growing lidded as he looked at me. His lips were relaxed as he stared at me. His hand reached out, long fingernails digging deep into my wounds and scratching me.

My fists clenched alongside my jaw as my eyes flickered up. I took in a shaky breath, trying not to whimper at the pain arcing up my form. In my peripherals, I could see Maple staring at me intently.

The teenager hummed as he dug his fingernails into the tender flesh of my stomach, tearing my skin as he dragged his nails through my skin toward himself. The nails caught on many of the closed wounds, reopening them. They hurt a hell of a lot more than they had when I’d originally gotten the wounds.

My body had fallen into a numbing cold state, but the trail of Maple’s nails burnt like it was a redhot iron being dragged against my skin instead of a person’s nails.

“I can feel you shaking,” Maple said quietly, still staring at me.

His stare continued for a few more seconds. Soon, the teen’s lips twisted up, eyebrows raising as he smiled. The smile seemed so peaceful, lighting up his whole face.

Maple seemed amused as he spoke, “Are you trying to act brave so I’ll release you?”

I swallowed, breathing stuttering. I looked down at Maple, not moving my head, eyes growing lidded, jaw still clenched. He had no right to look so relaxed, I thought.

When I spoke, it was through gritted teeth, “Don’t act coy. You’ve been getting bored. Best bet is to release me, so I can kick your ass and teach you some lessons.”

To recruit you officially into my group so that you don’t end up broken beyond repair. So that you can have time to heal and see right and wrong as they are. To see the world in a better light.

Maple giggled after I finished speaking, Mable shifting her twin brother away from the table as she glowered at me.

Her eyes, much like Maple’s, had changed colors. She now had eyes that looked almost golden, the stare animalistic. She bared her teeth at me. I sneered at her, baring my teeth back at her. I’d rip her skin off with my teeth.

I tried to get up, to make do with my mental threat, but the pulse of pain that followed almost made me pass out. Or maybe it was my lack of blood that made me almost pass out. Regardless, I couldn’t help the whispered whimper, my breath coming out reluctantly as I crumbled back down, staring up at the ceiling.

Tears burned in my eyes as I looked up at the steel beams crisscrossing above me. Pain pulsed along my body, not as bad so long as I remained relaxed. My stomach and side were still burning where Maple had clawed me.

I focused on my surroundings to evade thinking of the pain I was in. I was in some sort of warehouse or factory, the surroundings all made of gray stone. My back pressed against one of those cheap plastic tables, belts clinging together and strapping me to the table. I felt really heavy, like many people were pressing against the table, holding me down.

The air was stagnant, the sound of blood dripping was the only noise in the room outside of Mable and Maple’s movement. My mouth tasted of iron and bile.

Drip… drip… drip-drip… plop…

Maple giggled, turning toward his sister. His lips curved into a soft smile as his hand reached out, gently caressing his sister’s face.

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The teenager looked into his twin’s eyes, speaking softly, “She can hardly move. Thank you for taking care of me.”

Maple’s forehead rested on Mable’s. They both closed their eyes for a moment, opening them to stare into each others’ eyes.

I stared at that, relaxing, trying not to breathe too loudly. The bitter feelings I held toward them faded.

They’d gone through so much… The darkness of their childhood, the constant assault by their mother, the bare minimum of food and water. It was ridiculous to think that only a few short months ago, they were locked in a basement.

Guilt and desperation twisted within me as I returned my gaze to the ceiling, trying not to cry. They’d been hurt so badly… I didn’t want them to continue down this path. It would just hurt them more.

“If you like hurting others so badly, why don’t do you use it for good?” I asked, the heartbreak twisting within me.

I didn’t want them to be beyond saving. I didn’t want them to suffer at all. Never again.

“Hurting others for good…?” Maple mused as he walked back over, one of his hands reaching out and setting on my shoulder, his eyes focused on mine.

Mable shifted to walk to my other side, her fingers trailing along my body. I shuddered at her touch, breath escaping me in an unsteady and teary gasp.

“Yes,” I agreed, voice unsteady, eyes remaining on the ceiling.

I got lost in my own hopes and dreams of what would have happened had I kept the twins instead of letting them go with CPS.

My words were dazed, voice quiet, eyes unfocused, “Instead of going out and torturing random civilians, why don’t you torture those that deserve it?”

Would they even know what that meant? I would have to explain further. I swallowed, struggling to speak. My chest hurt, the open wounds on my collar making it feel like I was breathing through them as I gasped for air.

Maple’s fingers trailed my shoulder and collar, the pads of his fingers gently brushing over the lines he’d cut into me. He was quiet, focused on my words.

“People like your mother, people who are criminals, or people who use their powers for bad,” I said quietly, struggling to speak, my every sentence started with a loud gasp of air, “Be a hero instead of a villain.”

“Heroes don’t exist,” Maple refuted immediately, voice flat.

He sounded so certain….

“That’s what your mother told you, right?” I asked, making up bullshit without thinking too hard, “That’s what all bad people say. But they do exist! Of course heroes exist—villains can’t exist without heroes, you know? There is no darkness without light. There is no light without darkness. Um, for example… firefighters are heroes,” I managed, growing dizzy.

As I spoke, I thought.

All I knew about the twins was that they’d been abused heavily as children, and were locked in a basement. That means they didn’t know much of anything—that they’d never experienced anything in the world outside of what their mother had decided to tell them. If I could use their lacking knowledge against them, then maybe I would save two lives that didn’t deserve to be labeled as monsters. They really, truly didn’t know any better.

In their eyes, the world was a very dark place. Every man for themselves, everyone fighting and struggling to get ahead in life. Everyone hurting each other. I knew that, but… I was hoping they would change their minds. That they would follow a different path than the one they were shoehorned into. That they could become good and healthy individuals who could live fulfilling and wonderful lives of their own.

They didn’t deserve this. This path, the one they were on… They didn’t have to be this way. They just needed guidance—they needed help.

“Firefighters? I expected you to say police,” Maple muttered right as I finished speaking, breaking me from my thoughts.

I barked out a laugh at the ridiculous statement, grimacing at the pain that twisted through me.

“Why would I lie to you?” I gasped out, “The police aren’t heroes, though some try to be. They’re protectors of the peace—they hate chaos like us—People…” I stuttered, changing my words, voice growing softer, “People like us, I mean.”

Maple hesitated, his fingers tracing the various red lines he’d carved into my flesh.

“Heroes…” Maple whispered, gaze unfocused. Then his eyes sharpened, rage filling his eyes as he frowned, voice certain, “Heroes abandon the people they save.”

I swallowed, looking up at the ceiling as a deep-set regret filled me. I stared up at the ceiling as the tears I’d been trying to hold back fell. I laughed, my lips twisting up into a bitter sneer, grinning up at the ceiling.

“Yeah, they do,” I agreed quietly.

My mind was taken over by all the people who I’d begged for help from. Taken over by all the times I’d been abandoned. I didn’t have a hero, though. I was just left to suffer. Everyone told me it was my fault my parents hated me. That it was my fault I couldn’t cope with the life I’d been forced to live. No one ever helped—no one ever tried. Just staring on with pity, watching as I suffered. Watching as I drowned in the misery invoked upon me and my siblings.

This wasn’t about me, though. I stared blankly up at the ceiling. It was getting harder and harder to think as time went by.

“It seems you, too, have experience with that…” Maple said quietly, expression full of remorse and empathy.

The look only made more tears fall from my eyes. They were such good children. They didn’t deserve to be hurt like this. They didn’t deserve to hurt others like this, because when they realized what they were doing, it would hurt them so much more.

I chuckled, “No, I don’t,” I refused softly, vision growing darker as my body grew colder, “I never had a hero to save me. I just escaped on my own.”

It’s quiet, the twins staring at me somberly. My emotions were wrung out, my eyes lidded as I stared up at the ceiling. The pain that had previously been something to bear through grew into a welcome distraction from the heartbreak that still clung to my soul.

The twins shifted, and I found myself accompanied by two individuals laying on either side of me, both wrapping their limbs around me as best they could. I tried to resist passing out, but I failed, my mind fading in and out.

“If we aren’t careful, we’ll become the same as those that hurt us,” I managed, voice quiet and slurred, vision growing darker even though my eyes were wide open and focused on the ceiling, “For people like us, that’s the worst fate. Even if heroes don’t exist, that doesn’t mean we can’t look up to them. We should aim to help people as best we can, because monsters are born from people like us, and then people like us go out and create more monsters.”

It’s quiet for a long time. Drip, drip, drip… My blood still dripped on the ground. My exhaustion was at its peak. As my eyes closed, I spoke quietly.

“Don’t you think there’s more than enough monsters in the world? We’re no longer bound by those that hurt us. We can choose to be who we want to be. We don’t have to be monsters…”

Not anymore.