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Chapter Three

“ W hat did you see?”

“I can’t believe it actually worked. It worked!

It was absolute perfection! Better than I ever could have imagined!

” Einn’s squealing, squeaking, manically giggled cackle echoed off the rock walls.

It took on a life of its own. It raced down Tveir’s spine making goosebumps dance the Hokey Pokey all over her body.

It was everywhere. It bounced back and forth, up and down, side to side and corner to corner before whipping around in circles then finally dying to a whisper that refused to be extinguished.

The kind that nagged and pricked the senses with wild abandon.

“What did you see?” Her words were measured, concise and without emotion when repeated. It was her job to remain calm and focused even when she wanted to scream and yell and demand answers to her questions. While her counterpart continued to be the largest pain in the ass to ever be born.

“I am brilliant! I’m a genius! I am the smartest person in the whoooooolllllleeeee friggin’ universe.” The giggling turned into an uproarious, high-pitched chortle that had the hair over all the bodies of every living creature within the Magical walls of their prison standing at attention.

“What. Did. You. See?” Inhaling through her nose then exhaling through her mouth, Tveir began to count backward from one hundred–very slowly.

One hundred… Ninety-nine…

Gaze locked on her sister; it was hard not to lose her temper.

Watching Einn wiggle her shoulders, jump up and down, and shimmy her rounded, pear-shaped hips like Chubby Checker while continuing to be ignored was infuriating.

Why did every day have to be like a party at Romper Room?

Why did she have to be the referee? When did she get to have some fun?

Why was she the responsible, levelheaded, task-oriented one?

Genetic? No, that couldn’t be. It was fucking luck! Blind, stupid, simple, doodah, clueless LUCK! That’s all there was to.

And she was used to it. After all, it had been the same since the very beginning.

Ninety-eight… Ninety-seven…

“I did it! I am unstoppable! I am amazing! I am fan-fucking-tastic!” Dancing around, hopping from one foot to the other with the opposite hand in the air and her long, gangly fingers wiggling and waggling in ways no human digits ever could, Einn’s off-key, nasally, sing-songy cheering was so grating, so completely tonal that bits of rubble and clouds of dust fell from the ceiling.

Looking down the sharp ridge of her long, pointed nose, Tveir casually flicked the dirt from the shoulder of her pristine white lab coat. Continuing to count, this time with the words spoken just under her breath so her sister was sure to hear, she clipped, “Ninety-six… Ninety-five…”

“I spied on a goddess! The goddess! The bane of our existence! Yes! Her! I did it!” Einn was still on a roll and getting more robust with every passing second.

“I have perfected the most amazing device in history. I, me, me, meeeeeee! I spied on an Omnipotent Being that shouldn’t be an Omnipotent Being but is because she’s a whiny fucking baby!

!” Huffing out an exasperated breath, she switched back to her jovial celebration as if she’d flipped a mental switch.

“I am fucking amazing! I literally infiltrated another Realm that was not stupid, stinking, simpleton Earth! I could see, smell and hear, everything. Even her stinking roses! Blech!” Spinning toward her, Einn shouted as if they were two miles and not two feet apart.

“Did you get that, Tveir? I did it! I did it! I did…”

“Yes, yes, Einn. I got it all.” The ominous rumble of her envious growl slithered along the stones.

It took everything in her not to reach out, wrap her lengthy sinuous fingers around her sister’s neck and squeeze until the light gray, kind of purplish in the right light, pallor of Einn’s skin turned a deep, murky, dirty pink.

But she didn’t. She couldn’t. She loved her sister, her twin, her mirror image in every way no matter how irritating, frustrating, and absolutely maddening she was. Tveir loved Einn. That’s all there was to it.

So, she would continue to count. Take a million deep breaths and maintain her steely control.

She could do it. After all, she was the smart one.

She was the determined one. She was the one that kept them on the right track.

She was logical and knew every trick in the book to keep from losing her temper.

She couldn’t hurt her sister. Just could not do it. They were two peas in a pod. They were a pair and that’s all there was to it.

There was just no way she could ever hurt Einn or leave the poor soul to her own devices.

There was also no way she could let her get away with taking all the credit.

That was bullshit with a capital B, and something she would correct straightaway.

“I was right here… in the room… working right alongside you.” Clearing her throat, Tveir continued, “I have been with you every step of the way, since the very beginning, morning, noon, and sleepless night. Therefore, we invented the most amazing device in history.”

“Yes, yes, of course.” The sharpness of Einn’s tone said she was less than thrilled.

She had always been the show-off with an unending need for attention and validation, and this reaction was further proof.

So, what if she was pissed? Tveir could not have cared less.

Then her sister scoffed, “I mean, it was my idea, my plan, and I was the one who thought of using the Rainbow Stones of Bifrost dad gave us for an energy source when we’re ready to test the biggest, better, more spectacular version of the Twinometer.

But sure, I’ll share credit,” and she thought about delivering a swift kick to Einn’s backside.

Instead, Tveir inhaled through her nose, held it for precisely one beat of her heart then exhaled.

Forcing a smile, she worked hard to make it look more menacing than reassuring, she pushed past her irritation and inquired, “Just to be sure, I must ask, did you cover your tracks while you were ‘spying’?” Purposely adding air quote because her sister hated them, she continued without so much as a breath.

“Did you remain hidden and undetectable?” Opening her eyes wide then narrowing them, she continued, “We do not want another incident like Earth.” Sighing with enough exasperation to fill the room, she held up her hand when Einn started to object and kept right on going.

“We simply cannot have another monumental setback. We used the only Memory Stone we had to erase the memory of that… that… what was it called?”

“A teenager, T. It was a teenage boy with a horrible haircut, even worse fashion sense and breath that smelled like the rotted cheese the Giant Rodents of the Alpha Realm favor. Why can’t you ever...?”

Interrupting because she simply could not and would not listen to anymore of her twin’s relentless chatter, Tveir sternly reminded, “We are so very close to completion. We are almost on schedule. We…”

“Yes, I know.”

“…have to be done on time, Einn. We…”

“Mhm.”

“…have talked about it so very many times. We…”

“Yep. Heard it the last twenty times.”

“…cannot have needless delays.”

“Well aware.”

“So, I must ask again, are you sure you…?”

“Yes,” Einn loudly and with an overabundance of irritation interrupted with a scoff.

Rolling her bulbous eyes, she huffed an incredibly exasperated breath and shook her head.

She was petulant at best. Worse yet, she was being childish and infantile just for the sake of being exasperating.

As usual, she was being true to who she was, and that made the situation even worse.

Sadly, she wasn’t done. So, Tveir stood perfectly still and waited for Act Two. There was no doubt it was coming, and even less uncertainty that she wouldn’t have to wait long.

With one arm fully still extended, the other at half-mast, and her knotted, gnarled fingers extended as far as they could possibly go, Einn’s tone was sassy, immature, and childish as she deadpanned, “Of course, I made sure that Papa couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t even get a whiff of my…”

“ Our …”

“Yeah, okay, okay, okay” she huffed.

Tveir’s irritation grew to yet unreached proportions and that was something truly significant.

She was getting more agitated with every passing second.

She wanted to rant and rave. She wanted to tell her twin what a brat she was.

She wanted to spin on her toes and stomp out of the room, slamming the door as she left.

But there was no use. It wouldn’t do anything but cause a fight and give Einn a reason to make her own grand exit and push them even further from their deadline.

So, Tveir crossed her arms, slid her left foot out to the left, cocked the hip on the same side and waited.

Just as hoped, she was instantly rewarded.

“I guess if you wanna be technical, it is our experiment, our device, our triumph that will go down in the historical annals of technological advances. Our names will be on everyone who is anyone’s lips.”

“No, they will not be, because no one will ever know what we’ve done, right?”

“Oh, yeah.” For the briefest of seconds, Einn looked confused, then she smiled brightly and winked emphatically. “That’s right. No one will ever know that it was us .”

“But we will know and that’s enough, right, E?”

“Yes,” Dropping her arms to her side, Einn spun away from her twin and added with a huffy, “Even though I did most of the work.”

“I’m gonna pretend that I didn’t hear that.”

“Pretend all you like, Tveir. You know it’s true. I am the hands-on, hardworking one. I turn the screws and run all the tests. You simply play around on all your computers and bark orders.”