Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.

Leilani.

I left Jarek’s house in a daze. On one hand, I was glad that he’d finally opened up to me, letting me know what exactly was happening with him; and on the other hand, I was worried and afraid. I was afraid on his behalf.

I feared for what would happen when we do not find a lasting solution to his ailment. And do you know what was worse besides that? The fact that I had to leave my coat behind, to remind him of my smell just in case he slipped into another episode, yet he refused to allow me to stay behind with him in fear of hurting me.

So in essence, the unpredictability of it all scared me more than anything.

My hands shook slightly as I drove to my house. It was snowing lightly. In fact, these days, it snowed a lot. Blinking through the tears in my eyes, I made my way to my house, that is after a quick stop at Walmart to get some groceries.

However, I’d just driven into my parking lot when I noticed someone by my porch dressed in a pink woolly coat and bent over some items.

My curiosity spiked. I quickly turned off the ignition and got out of my car, a frown forming on my face as I walked over to whoever it was. However, when I saw that it was Chalice, I froze, my fingers tightening on my paper bags containing groceries as I wondered why she was here.

I spat; "What are you doing here?"

At the sound of my voice, Chalice froze. She turned around quickly and I noticed to my amusement that she’d been busy ripping through a bouquet of red roses. The torn out petals lay strewn on the floor, and her bruised hands bled from tugging at the branches plus its thorns.

But she didn’t look hurt. If anything, she smiled at me, wiped the blood on her hands on her coat and drawled: "I came to see you. And then I noticed that some secret lover must’ve kept that so I destroyed it."

My eyes darted between her and the destroyed bouquet but I felt nothing. I smirked. "Thank you for tearing it down." I said, "I’d have preferred if you just threw it away though."

Her face fell. She spat; "You—"

But I was quick to butt in. I rolled my eyes. "Yes, me. You thought I’ll be hurt when I come here and find out that you destroyed that? That just goes to show how petty you are!"

"Bitc—" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"Oh, you see, I’ve been getting those flowers a lot recently, and I just throw them away. It’s nice to see that you’ll hurt yourself just to do what I always did without stress, as long as it made you feel like you were hurting me."

Now her face was a bright shade of red. She scoffed derisively whilst stomping on the destroyed flowers on the floor; and then she turned to me with malice gleaming in her bright blue eyes.

She yelled; "This is not why I came here today though!"

I smiled softly and crossed my arms over my chest. I loved that my calmness riled her up, and I especially loved the fact that she was fuming even now that I haven’t said a thing to her yet.

I drawled; "So tell me, Ms Blackthorne, why did you crawl out of your hole today? Is there something of importance that you’d want to tell me—"

"I want you to stay away from Kael, Zevran and Caelum!" She spat, interrupting me, and making my frown deepen before a slow smile suddenly spread out on my face.

And goddess, I couldn’t help it. I laughed. I laughed so loud, a few of my passing neighbors stopped to stare with smiles on their faces.

The red on Chalice’s face bloomed as she watched me and in irritation, she ducked her head, mumbling under her breath; "What’s so funny about what I just said?"

At that, I broke into another fit of laughter. And after laughing to my fill, I stopped, dropped my grocery bag on the floor and sassed; "Everything."

"Huh?"

"Everything’s funny about that." I said softly. "Before you used to go around bragging about how you have them wrapped around your finger, and now, now, you’re asking me to stay away from them? Are you suddenly scared they’ll leave you?"

"Oh, don’t be ridiculous!" She snorted.

But I wasn’t done. I wasn’t done at all. "You’re the one being ridiculous right now!" I clapped back, and with an eye roll, I added; "...don’t worry, as your estranged sister, if they leave you, I won’t take them back."

Her frown deepened. She growled; "Leilani, I’m being serious right now! Stay away from them if you know what’s good for you! I won’t warn you another time!"

"What will you do another time instead of warning me?" I drawled with a smile, hoping to get under her skin... and girlllllll, I did.

She snorted. "You think they’ll run after you? You think you have a chance with them?"

"I don’t think I do," I answered truthfully. "Frankly, I don’t want them. Maybe once, I used to, but I don’t anymore. I don’t want your leftovers so you can have them all you want."

Maybe it was something in my response, or maybe it was how coolly I sounded, but it didn’t quite sit right with my sister whose face instantly darkened. She growled; "... how dare you say these things to me but won’t stop perching around them? Or you think I do not know you’ve been trying to get them to notice you?"

That there made me smile. I shrugged. "I think you have that in reverse. I wasn’t the one who went to Kael’s house, he came to mine. And I wasn’t the one who visited Zevran bearing flowers and asking for forgiveness, he did. I wouldn’t even be shocked that those ones you destroyed behind you are from him. He’s been quite persistent lately."

Her face fell. Like it literally crumpled right in front of me. Tears glistened in her bright blue eyes before she quickly wiped it off, suddenly wearing a maniacal look on her face as she turned to pick up a rose stem. She growled; "You think you have them now?!"

"Mhm."

She sneered; "Then let’s see what will happen after I’m done with you!"

My smile didn’t falter when she raised the stem above her head, and I immediately knew what she was about to do next.

She was here to hurt herself just like she always does, and then pin it all on me.

However, I had greatly underestimated her this time around because she didn’t stab herself with the stem like I had expected. She stabbed my arm instead.

I groaned, screaming as pain lanced through me. "Urghh!" I shouted, "...what the hell is wrong with you?!"

But she didn’t respond. She simply spread her arms wide and took some steps backward. But before I could make sense of what was happening, a speeding car from nowhere breezed past and slammed straight into her.

A deafening loud crash was all I heard before she crumpled to the ground. My eyes widened. And Jesus, even my heart stopped beating at the time.

I rushed over to check on her to find her sprawled on the floor with blood oozing from her mouth and her leg twisted in a weird angle. But despite her pain, when she saw me, a twisted smile formed on her face.

She muttered; "Wait and see their reaction when they find out you pushed me towards an incoming car."

But I wasn’t fazed. I smiled, causing her smile to drop.

"Well, I hope you tell them that. And in case you never noticed, there are two CCTV cameras in front of my house and one across the street. I’m sure one of the three must’ve caught you walking towards the car yourself." I muttered in a mocking tone, savoring the way her face dropped and the way her smile morphed into a look of panic.

I nodded. "So, yeah right. Tell them I did this to you. But before then, hang in there, sister, while I call you an ambulance." I said, and with that, walked into the house whilst dialing 911.