VLAD

M y eyes snap open, my heart beating loudly in my chest. There are a few rays of sun filtering the bars of the only window of the room.

My sister is huddled by my side, her entire body shaking, her lips purple.

"V, wake up." I push at her shoulders, but only a few small noises escape her lips as she tries to open her eyes, her body coiled tightly to preserve heat.

I quickly shimmy out of my thin shirt, laying it on top of her. But as I try to cover her with it, my hand brushes across her forehead and I notice she's burning up.

"V…" I mutter, worried.

We've been here for a long time. I'm not even sure how much time has passed anymore. The only thing I know is that days turn into night and then into days again. Sometimes we are taken out of the room for a medical consultation, but other than that we're just left alone.

The only people we've interacted with have been the doctors, who aren't very talkative. They only record their measurements, and then we're taken back to our cages.

Because I can't call this room anything but a cage. Not when the bars mean that we're treated worse than animals.

And because of that we're now both one step away from going crazy, the isolation almost unbearable.

"V," I continue to get her to rouse.

"What…" she mumbles, her eyes sluggish as she tries to pry them open. "Here," I say, getting some water and forcing her to drink.

"You need to hold on, V," I tell her, stroking her hair.

She's been getting weaker and weaker for a while now, and the tests we have to undergo don't help much. Not when every single blood draw weakens even her more.

"I…" She shakes her head, some droplets of water falling down her chin. "I don't know how much longer…" she whispers.

"You need to, V. For me," I take her hand, hooking our pinkies together, "we're in this together. Always," I tell her, desperate to make her not give up hope.

"Always," she whispers, her lips tugging upwards slowly.

Truth is, I don't know how long I can keep this up either. I've been trying to be strong for her sake, but even I am losing hope.

Vanya eventually beats her fever, and color starts to climb up her cheeks. Her mood, though, doesn't improve.

One day, we're picked up by guards and taken to a new room, where two doctors we haven't seen before are waiting for us.

The tests are routine, and we're already used to the blood draws or the weird machines that they put on us. But this time, they also give us some questionnaires and some drawings to interpret.

I'm not exactly sure what this is, but apparently we both pass all the tests, as the doctors inform us that we'd be moved to another facility.

We're both confused at the whirlwind move, everything happening too fast.

Loaded in a black van, we're taken to the next location, but our living conditions don't improve. If anything, they are even worse than before.

The cell is dirty and the food is barely edible. The only difference is that we now have round the clock guards and even more tests.

The first week we're there though, we also get a present.

The first present we've ever been given here.

One of the guards comes and brings in a baby rabbit, telling us that we need to make sure we raise it appropriately.

I'm immediately skeptical, and my suspicion doesn't abate. But the rabbit's arrival makes Vanya break out of her shell and she starts to become more active. She now smiles more, and her mood has considerably improved.

Seeing the changes in her makes me thaw toward the rabbit, too.

"I named it Lulu." Vanya beams at me, holding the already two months old rabbit in her arms. It's definitely growing every day, and I can't believe that they saddled us with another mouth to feed when we barely get enough food as it is.

"That's nice, V." I try to return the smile.

"He likes it when I rub his belly. Look," she giggles, turning Lulu on his back and petting him on the stomach.

I don't know if Lulu is very keen on that, but it makes Vanya happy and that's enough. Though I am a little put off that Lulu's fur is clean and shiny while Vanya's clothes haven't been changed in months.

She's smiling happily in her tattered and dirty dress, a stark contrast to Lulu's pristine coat.

"I can't believe they let us keep it," she whispers, holding Lulu to her chest and cooing softly.

"I don't think we should get too attached, V. I don't have a good feeling about this," I tell her for the thousanth time.

"It's been so long, brother…" She shakes her head. "If they had meant to do something, they would have done it already. It's been months and they've let us keep Lulu," she says, and while I have to agree with her reasoning, I still can't quite feel comfortable.

The door to the cell rattles, and two guards step inside the room.

"Your turn, brats," they yell, coming inside and grabbing us roughly. Vanya accidentally drops Lulu, her eyes immediately filling up with tears as he yelps in pain.

But we don't have any time to react as we're shoved outside the cell and taken down a dark corridor.

"Vlad," she whispers in a low voice, "I'm scared . " She looks at me, her eyes wide with fear.

I am too, but I can't show it. Not when she needs my support.

"It's going to be okay. Just like the other consults." I try to be optimistic, but something about this feels awfully ominous.

Even the building looks worse than the one we'd been in before, so I don't have high hopes.

We make a right down a narrow staircase before we're ushered inside a huge room full with medical equipment.

Vanya and I are separated by the guards as we're pushed toward a pair of high beds. We barely have time to react as we're raised on the beds, our hands and feet strapped to the metal hinges.

When t he guards are gone, it's not long before a man comes inside.

He's wearing a white robe, like the other doctors.

His height is like my father's, but he doesn't have the muscles to accompany it.

With light-brown hair and dark-blue eyes, he doesn't look as menacing as the other doctors.

He even has a small smile on his face as he comes toward us, picking up a pair of gloves on the way.

"What do we have here?" he exclaims, his gaze moving quickly over me before switching over to Vanya, his eyes lighting up with interest.

I swallow, unsure if I like that.

"And who is this little princess?" He heads to Vanya's side, picking up a strand of her hair and bringing it to his nose, inhaling.

"What's your name, darling?" he asks, a weird smile on his face.

"Vanya." My sister blinks, just as confused as me.

"Vanya, such a pretty name. For a pretty lady," he comments, going around his table full of utensils, his hands moving dramatically in the air as if he's contemplating which one to choose.

Eventually, he settles on a small set of needles, turning back to us, his smile even wider.

"I'm Miles," he says proudly, "and you're very lucky to be chosen. My criteria is very strict, and I have to say. We haven't had a full set of twins pass the tests in quite a while." He moves around, coming to sit next to Vanya's bed.

"And you, darling, are the first girl in averylong time," he sighs. "But such a pretty thing you are," he continues, his gloved hand trailing down her cheek.

I guess you could say Vanya's pretty. She's definitely the more good looking one of the two of us. With her frail frame, black hair and black eyes against pale skin, she looks like a porcelain doll. But I don't like the way he's saying it to her. It feels… predatory.

"Why, I'll have the best fun breaking you," he says excitedly, and I frown, not really understanding his meaning.

He heads to my side first, regarding me for a moment through narrowed eyes before choosing a fairly big needle.

"Now, let's see how this feels," he says, inserting the needle into my arm without any preliminaries.

I jerk away in pain, my eyes wide as I take in his smile.

"On a scale of one to ten, how much does it hurt?" he asks, his hand applying pressure on the needle and moving it around.

"Five," I answer, taking a deep breath and forcing my eyes not to tear up in pain.

Somehow I think he wouldn't appreciate that display.

"Wonderful," he replies, taking out the needle, blood gushing out of my skin before choosing another one and jabbing it again into the same spot. The tip is bigger, so it immediately enlarges the wound.

I stifle a moan of pain.

"Now?"

"Seven," I say, cursing myself right away for not going to a higher number. Because if this is seven…

His smile never falters as he takes an even bigger needle, repeating the procedure until I yell a painful ten.

When he's done with me, my arm is a bloody mess. I can't even see the original wound as multiple holes are centered around the same area, blood gushing out in spurts.

Unlike previous consults, he doesn't even bother to give me a gauze for my arm, or even clean some of the blood.

No, his attention is switched to Vanya, and his smile widens as he regards her pale face. My stomach is in knots as I know he'll do the same to her, but I can only helplessly watch as Vanya turns her eyes to me, her cries muted as he makes a mess of her flesh.

"My God," Miles breathes out, amazed at Vanya's perseverance. "You're a wonder, aren't you?" he exclaims in disbelief after he disposes of the tenth needle. He seems to be impressed that Vanya hadn't cried out even once.

What he doesn't know, though, is that my sister's already developed her own mechanism of dealing with outside stimuli. She finds her refuge in me. The moment our eyes met I knew she'd shut down, only waiting for Miles to be done.

Even as blood pours out of her wounds, there's barely any reaction.

"I think I have a winner," Miles adds, an expression of pure happiness on his face.

I don't get to dwell on it, as we're quickly taken away and put back in our cells. Vanya is back to herself the minute she sees Lulu, taking him in her arms and staining his white coat with her blood.