Connection

To say the hug was the strangest you’d ever felt would be the understatement of the century. Within your embrace Vespera is a shifting mass, but beneath it all you feel the shape of the woman you had seen in silhouette. Through your pajamas you could feel breasts pushing into you. Your cheek brushes the white part of her face and it tickles you with its surprising softness. It felt as if her face, which appeared like a porcelain mask, was actually thousands or millions of microscopic filaments. Her skin was so weird to touch but you ignored your natural instinct to recoil, your instincts as a brother were far more powerful.

“Human.” She says in that unique choral voice of hers. “Gentle.”

And with that she hugs you back, a hug of a dozen tentacles that completely envelops you. Despite the great strength you knew she possessed she holds you with the over careful tenderness of a mother holding her baby. The smaller tendrils of her hair slides through your hair rubbing your scalp, the tips of some exploring your face and tracing the shape of your ear.

“I’m so happy.” You smile as a tentacle traces your lips. A twin! A twin sister. Who cares if she was a monster. Truly this was the greatest birthday gift imaginable. Pulling back you look into her face, once so alien starting to become more familiar. “Why alone sister? I understand the enchantment on me probably kept you away from me, but what about the others? Why were you alone?”

Her face remains unmoved but her obsidian eyes begin to glimmer intensely.

The next thing you hear is your father’s voice, terse and clearly stressed. “She is dangerous!”

“We are all dangerous.” Your mother’s voice replies. “We’re monsters darling.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yes.” She sighs sadly. “But she is our daughter. We are her family. She deserves a place here.”

“She almost destroyed you. I didn’t even know that was possible.”

“Yes.” Your mother says, shaken to her core. “But I survived.”

“Barely. Lilith, listen to me. She cannot be controlled. She cannot be contained. She cannot be reasoned with.” There is a sound of a fist slamming down. “I cannot even find out anything about what she is in any of the ancient texts. Who knows what she is capable of. How do you raise a child you cannot understand or connect with or even discipline?”

“You humans seem to think love is the answer to everything. We could try that.”

“I’m not sure she understands such mundane feelings. I don’t think she even realizes what we are to her.” There is a sound of someone slumping down heavily into a chair. “You know I love her but…she scares me.”

“I know Samael, I know. Me too.”

“We have to protect Jacob and the others. I’m not even sure the power of his enchantment is enough. She is dangerous Lilith, to all of us.”

In an even more sorrowful tone your mom replies. “I know.”

“She can’t stay here.” He mumbles something under his breath then says. “She’ll be happier in the other place. Perhaps she’ll find more of her kind there. She can live her life in a place better suited for her. She’s not meant for this world. This is for the best.”

“They sent you away.” You whisper and lightly stroke your fingers along the edge of her oval face. “To protect me. I’m so sorry.”

The sounds around you change. Another scene from another time. There are the heavy clomping of feet then the slamming of a door.

“She was here again!” It was your father again.

“Vespera?” Your mother asks.

“Ves was here?” Your big sister Devany echoes.

“Yes!” There is the sound of anxious pacing. “Bron saw her face in the shadows. How does she get through the wards? Why does she keep returning? There is nothing for her here. Why won’t she leave us alone?”

“We’re her family.” Mom says.

“I’m not sure that matters to a thing like her. No, it’s not that.” He says. “Perhaps it is simple curiosity, like an insect exploring a new place to colonize.”

“She is not an insect.”

“I know but…she doesn’t think like we do. I haven’t found a way of communicating with her. I’ve tried every spell I know. She can’t talk, she can’t write, she isn’t telepathic, she doesn’t react, she hardly even acknowledges me. I don’t believe she’s intelligent. I think she is just a thing that exists. I haven’t been able to get through to her at all. Have you?”

“Not as such. I think there’s more going on with her than we realize though. You should sit with her. Talk to her. Be with her.” Your mom sighs. “There is a connection, I swear I feel something when I am with her. A mother’s instinct perhaps? And she is shy, easily startled. We have to be patient.”

“It’s Jacob.” Devany interjects. “It’s usually around Jacob. Often when something is happening in his life. Tonight is his graduation. Last time was after that big fight he had at school.”

“Is it him keeping her tethered to this place?” Father mutters. “They are twins. Could he be her weakness? Perhaps…” He trails off. “No. I’ll redouble the wards. I’ve developed a new one that should…”

“Shhhh.” Your mother says suddenly. “She’s here.” There is a shifting of people in seats. “Vespera, Vespera my child. Come out of those shadows my dear. Let us see you.”

You hear soft gasps. Then, just as he had back at the library, you hear your father’s voice take on the soft sweet tone of a concerned parent. “Vespera my sweet girl.” Your heart breaks for your twin. Dad never realized she could hear him even when he couldn’t sense her. He didn’t know that she knew everything that had been said before. He didn’t know that she knew they were trying to keep her away. Speaking to her as if she were a simple animal he continues. “Ves. It’s so good to see you again.”

The sounds change again. The noises of the house and the family fade replaced by a total fathomless silence that bends your mind just to hear it.

“Alone.” Your sister says in a voice so soft you barely make it out.

A tentacle swipes over your wet cheek, wiping the steady stream of tears from your skin. She looks at it then wipes the rolling tears from your other cheek. You hadn’t even realized you’d been weeping. How could they treat her like that? How could they not recognize their daughter was a creature of intellect and emotion?

“I’m sorry.” You whisper. “I didn’t know.” You sniffle and wipe your nose. “Why didn’t you talk with them? Like you do with me? Maybe they would have listened.”

Her ghostly face tilts a few degrees. “Together…Twin…Connection.”

“Connection? You mean…am I the first person you’ve ever spoken to?”

“Jacob.”