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Near asleep and near awake.

And for that minute or two, I remained conflicted by choice. With every jolt rousing her, her breathing grew fainter, her movements more sluggish, until in time, they’d reach a point where she would just stop moving.

Unless I intervened.

I don’t think she even had the energy anymore to raise her head if she even wanted to. She was relying on me now to watch her for her, except, I really didn’t know the proper means to actually go about doing that.

Watching was such a broad term. Could mean anything, really...

“Still with me, Adalia?” I asked quietly after another minute.

She didn’t answer, not even a noise, a twitch, something to tell me that she heard. I glanced down, saw the murky swirl in her empty gaze come to a rest, and that’s when I knew it was only a matter of time.

A matter of seconds.

.....

With the question remaining unanswered.

Should I be selfish or stupid?

I think I might have already made my choice, I don’t know. I think I looked away, pretended to be distracted while keeping my hands firmly in place. In the corner of my gaze though, I could clearly see her eyelids finally fall… and then, just before I could even think to regret my choice…

Adalia spoke.

“Do not dare wake her up.”

Or so I thought.

It took everything in me not to jump in shock, accidentally rouse an unconsciousness, unspeaking Adalia awake. Yet it was unmistakable. I definitely heard her voice.

Only it was not her.

“Such a tenacious, stubborn woman my sister is, wouldn’t you agree?” the bench creaked, shook, and on the other end sat a familiar figure swathed in black. “Unbecoming traits somehow only amplified tenfold only within your presence.”

A light ripple of black in the breeze. Strength undaunting welling in a fierce gaze worn in the face that mirrored Adalia’s own beauty. But when it came to personality, the reflection sitting before me couldn’t have been more of a polar opposite if she tried.

Amelia…

Suddenly, I felt pressed, pressured, and suppressed. Speaking of things being amplified. That’s how I always feel every time I somehow come under her dark presence.

I felt my lips twitch with the only question I had in mind.

“What are you doing here?”

“Am I now not allowed my own incentive?” She scoffed, gazing at me with that same cold apathy in her pitch-black eyes. “Knowing my dear sister is to play your loving date today, you’d think I’d just let that kind of information lie in rest?”

“You were watching us?”

“Of course, I was watching you,” She said in tedium. “Every move, every word, I saw and heard all. And yes, that too includes this absurdity of an event you enticed my sister into.”

Amelia eyed the band around my arm with a dirty, aversive leer, the tip of her claws expressing her distaste by scraping crooked ridges into the wood of the bench.

“Go away,” I told her, feeling annoyed, ’cause as far as I’m concerned, our privacy was being violated. “You really shouldn’t be here. You think Adalia would appreciate you being here without her knowledge?”

“And miss the absurdities you would have my sister do?” She turned her leer toward me. “Push her, exhaust her, as you already have? All for the sake—of what really? Affirming your love? If your love is as genuine as you claim, what need would you have insisting upon in a way such as this? Unless, of course, it isn’t, after all.”

Suddenly, Adalia wriggled in unrest, as if having heard, as if insulted, and gave her legs a slight push, lightly nudging and shoving Amelia away, but to no avail.

Amelia was here to stay.

“Please tell me you didn’t just appear now just to hurl insults my way,” I whispered, stifling anger. “Surely even you have to be above that kind of pettiness.”

“How presumptuous. Really, I ask you, between my opinions of you and my concerns for my sister… which do you believe would take utmost priority over the other?”

“You tell me.”

“My sister is exhausted,” Her voice turned sharp. “Because of you.”

And immediately I sniped right back. “I didn’t want to—!”

“Whether you intended to or otherwise,” She spoke over me. “It does not change the fact that it is solely because of you that she has become this way.”

There was a pause, a silence shared between harsh glares, to which Amelia turned away first from, peering over at Adalia’s sleeping face, her bitter expression gradually turning less severe.

“Because she loves you, because she cares for you, naturally, she would only push herself for you…” slowly Amelia reached out, stroking the back of her sister’s hand with a gentleness, tenderness, I very rarely see in her. “And in turn, I saw you reciprocate her extensive efforts… how you struggled to always accommodate her condition. How you would shield her, protect her, and at times even without her own knowledge.”

“You were spying on us… how long for exactly?” I asked.

“Long enough to understand that in spite of your blatant selfishness, you would treat my sister fair and kind. I have never seen her brimming with this much vigor, seeing this much life stirring within her. Truthfully, I sincerely believed any modicum of joy would not be available to her.”

She flicked her eyes up, and for once, I did not feel scorned by her gaze.

“Then, I watched her as she glided across the frozen ice, you and her together, and I’ve never seen happier. In the same vein, the games you’ve played with her… for a moment, it was as if she could forget about her discomfort, the constant hardships living in her state, for only just a moment of course, but even still… it was a moment she never once had before in her life.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just kept quiet. I was so accustomed being only degraded and insulted half the time we spoke to each other, that I was just watching any moment for the catch.

But there was no catch, there was no hostility.

Amelia was as sincere as she could get.

“And if not for you, a moment like this would never have existed for her in the first place,” She said, finishing, sighing, her lips narrowing with great reluctance. “And for that, I suppose, it is only right, only fair, for I to give you my thanks.”

“You don’t need to thank me for things like that,” I said, and I felt my gaze drifting back down to Adalia. As always, her slumbering expression, an endearing sight to see. “Making sure she’s happy is my obligation.”

“An admirable notion,” Amelia remarked. “Hopefully it will still hold true in time.”

“You’re saying it wouldn’t?”

“Words are merely ever just words,” She said. “What you do is ultimately what would attest to your resolve.”

“I suppose so,” I raised a brow at her. “And, well? So far, so good?”

“You mean to ask if I had change your mind about you?” She threw me a derisive look. “Suffice it to say, but I am not so easily trusting as my sister. You have a long way to go before you finally are what you claim to be.”

“I am what I am,” I simply said. “If nothing else, I promise you that.”

Amelia stayed dubious, which was pretty much what I expected. Stubborn, tenacious, just like her sister in so many different mays.

“Speaking of which,” She spoke up again, her voice suddenly softening once more. “What you told her, what you promised her… do you intend to keep true to that promise you made?”

It took me a second to figure out what she was referring to.

“You mean first place?” and like rain pouring, I felt a sprinkle of gloom pouring over. “Not without her, I can’t. If we can’t participate in the next event, then, I don’t think we’ll be able to, well…”

I trailed away, overtaken by the scene in a couple of hours of Adalia waking up and realizing I’ve ignored her request, her promise, and the feeling of apprehension that came along with it.

“And say, if she were fit to contend, it is safe to presume you would have fulfilled your obligation?” Amelia asked.

“Yeah,” I gave her a look. “Of course I would.”

“Unknown, unforeseeable caveats, notwithstanding?”

Where the hell was she going with this?

“A promise is a promise,” I said.

Something quickly rippled across her expression then. Something strained, something warped between disgust and hate, fading away as soon as it came, and with a soft audibly sigh, I could hear the sound of defeat leaving with her breath.

“Very well...”

And suddenly, with a single decisive nod, I saw Amelia spur into action. Her hand reached closer forward, slipping the band off Adalia’s arm, and in a single swift thrust, I watched her place it around her own.

Then it clicked, and I finally could see the string connecting each of her questions to form her true intention all along. I almost wanted to laugh, and then probably shriek in terror right after… knowing now exactly the horrors she had in mind for us both.

“Amelia, you can’t be serious.”

“On the contrary… I always am, aren’t I?” She sighed again. “Unfortunately for us both...”

Is this really happening right now? Not a dream, not a nightmare. Maybe I accidentally fell asleep too right alongside Adalia? If so, wake up. Please, wake up.

I won’t wake up.

This was real.

This was happening. Irrefutable proof that the universe was conspiring against me. First it was with the RGB squad and their involvement, and then came the shocker that was Hayley’s appearance.

Now there was this.

Now it was her.

Arguably, the worse it could ever get.

That I could ever get...

“Well then,” Amelia said, turning to me, utterly failing to hide the repulsiveness in her own eyes as it echoed my own. “Shall we go and play now?”