Page 59 of Pet: Torment

“She’s taking it from me.”

Our memories. Our life. Our hardships. Our growth.

She took all of it, just like that. Within seconds, as if it didn’t matter. So the vision I had wasn’t from Remus’s point of view. She tried to kill me, and he must have stopped her somehow. Remus knew she was coming after me. He knew and tried to get a message out that none of us could decipher until now. And if not for luck, she would have travelled to this plane to finish the job.

Why? Why would she do something so cruel to her son? Why would she go to such lengths to keep him as a docile puppet to use at her discretion? There must be something deeper happening here. And as I am now, I won’t be able to figure it out. No one will. Remus, before he met me, was never one to open up.

“Lie back, Iris. Let me heal you,” Xion says gently, cutting through my thoughts.

I hate how kind she is to me. It rubs salt into the already festering wound inside of me. She knows this is bad. It has made her see me as something other than an irritation or an enemy. It’s making her see me in pity as the whole of what was lost is realized.

“I’m not as good as Remus, but I can at least stop the pain,” she says as she places her fingers on my throat.

Warmth pours from her fingertips, easing the pain in my throat. But it doesn’t stop the hole in my chest from growing. And as I shift my attention to Ezra, I can see that he feels the same. We all know this out of our depth. And none of us are strong enough to face Remus and figure out how to fix it.

I flinch as pain shoots through me. It’s sharp and near my stomach. I groan, my hand flying to the area when I hear Xion gasp, her hand lifting from my neck.

“Ezra!” she shouts.

But the world blurs as my body takes on a mind of its own, convulsing. I feel their hands on me, holding me down as warmth spreads between my legs. I choke on the air, unable to breathe, unable to move. The pain is excruciating. I take one last deep breath, unable to scream from the state of my throat as my eyes roll back, and I lose consciousness.

Ezra

We’re fucked. And I don’t even know how bad.

I lean over the railing, vomit pouring past my lips from everything we’ve been through in the last seventy-two hours. Iris was right. Our mother wiped Remus’s mind, and after making sure the source of his bond was gone, she’s once again disappeared where neither Xion nor I can track her.

As a result, Remus not only almost killed Iris, but also triggered the loss of a life that was barely blooming.

I know my brother. I’ve always wanted to be like him. But I’ve always acknowledged that was nothing more than a dream. He was always able to do so much more than me and Xion. In my eyes, he was indestructible.

But now…with this…if he ever knew, it would kill him. Hell, it might kill us. He’s different with Iris. I’ve seen a side to him that I’ve never seen in all my years of life. He’s always been protective, yes. But still he remained distant and detached. Only recently has he changed and it’s all because of Iris.

I look up as Xion joins me on the balcony, her finger in her mouth as she trembles, biting her nail. She shakes her head, tears streaming from her eyes.

“I couldn’t save it,” she whispers.

Nausea hits me again, and I retch over the railing. I knew the second I saw the blood that it was too late, but Xion stayed for hours, trying to save it. When I finish, I turn back to face Xion, leaning against the rail as I slide down, exhaustion washing over me. I don’t know which issue to tackle first.

“What do we do now? Do we tell her?” I ask.

Xion is silent, her attention focused on the sunset.

“No,” she finally says. “She wasn’t aware of it. We take this to our graves. We tell no one, not even Remus. Ever,” she says.

I sense the fear in her voice. Remus is fiercely protective of Iris. If he knew… there’s no telling what could happen. The shattered planet in our star system is a testament to just how far Remus will go in his rage.

“And what about mother?” I ask.

Now Xion looks at me. I can see that she’s debating on telling me something, and she decides to reveal it.

“Before Remus left, he was asking questions about her…questions that I couldn’t answer. I didn’t want to believe it at the time, but I think she’s dangerous. I think this is deeper than some desire to keep control of Remus. I think it has to do with where we came from,” she says.

I shake my head in confusion. “What? What are you even saying?” I ask.

“Remus and I don’t remember our childhoods. And I think there’s a reason for that. There are a lot of things in our lives that don’t make sense, but we never questioned them because we didn’t need to. Remus thought getting answers would help. He was hearing voices and having visions, and unable to control himself—”

“Iris said she was having visions too,” I say quickly.