The Sister

“..ther.”
A sound faintly makes its way into my tired mind.
“...rother.”
Again, louder this time, and closer.
This time instead of calm words I feel something cold grab my nose, preventing me from breathing.
“I said wake up big brother.”
I jolt up, and try to figure out what’s happening. Currently, I’m sitting in one of the bedrooms in my house. The dim light coming in from a nearby window tells me it’s getting late. I’m sitting on a chair in front of the bed, my arms still resting on the blankets.
“If you’re that tired you should sleep in your own room.” A very soft and gentle voice tells me.
Finally, I look at the figure sitting in the bed. It’s a young girl, she’s only thirteen, yet the wires coming off her and the look in her eyes make her seem older.
“But then I wouldn’t get to spend time with you.” I smile at her as I sit up straight.
“Spend time?” She laughs, which quickly turns to a small cough. “That normally has both people being awake.”
“Sorry, Aria. I was up late last night finishing an essay. What were you saying?” I gently ruffle her hair while holding back a yawn.
“Are you sure you’re okay? You almost look worse off than me?”
She tries to play it off as a joke, but I know what she means. Between studying, working, and looking after her, I’ve been running myself thin. Especially now with my exams coming up.
“I’ve told you, I’m fine. The only thing you need to worry about is getting better, okay?” I start fixing and tidying some of her blankets. “How were you today?”
“The doctor came again, no changes at all.” One of the machines beeps. “You know what he likes to say. No news is good news.”
Though she laughs at this, I can feel how scared she is, her voice wavering slightly.
But that doesn’t mean there won't be any good news forever.” I try to reassure her. “I’m sure that soon…”
“Soon what?” She cuts me off. “It’s been over a year already, and nothing has happened. They still don’t even know what’s wrong with me.”
I see the tears start to well up in her eyes, so I quickly bring her head to my chest. She always hates it when I see her cry.
“I’m sorry, it’s all because of me,” her sniffs and whimpers break up her talking. “I’m ruining your life, just like I ruined…”
“Hey, shhh, you’re not ruining my life.” I console her. “And you didn’t ruin their lives either, you’ve done nothing wrong.”
Her mood swings are something I’m completely used to now, just something else I had to adapt to.
She mutters and mumbles against me for a few minutes before pulling away and using my sleeve to wipe her eyes.

 “I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you my new medication could affect my mood.”
“You don’t need to apologise, you can’t help it.”
This is how our days normally go, while we live together, because of me working and studying, and her medical appointments, we only get a few hours together.
“You looked like you were having a very interesting dream, wanna tell me about it?” She asks, actually sounding excited. She loves it when I read her books and stories, so I guess she sees this as just another tale to tell.
“I guess I can, but you better be ready, it’s a long one.” I announce.
She listens intently as I recall everything I can from the dream I was having, laughing when I tell her it’s the game I've been playing recently, remarking how similar Retainer was to her, going silent when I get to how injured I got. She even makes fun of me when I talk like the merchant.

“So yeah, I guess I lost to that Shadow blob, which is why I woke up.” I end my tale, glancing at the time, I see I’ve been talking for nearly an hour.
“You forgot one thing though.” She states, slowly getting out of bed for our evening walk.
“Oh, and what did I forget from my dream?” I chuckle.
“You said you got a wish if you completed the tower right? From the goddess?”
“Oh yeah, it was kind of the driving factor for people agreeing, wasn’t it?”
“So tell me, what was it?”
“Hmm? What was what?” I watch her slowly get ready from my chair.
“Your wish you idiot, what was your wish?” She feigns frustration.
“My wish? Oh, my wish was…”

Huh? My wish, the reason I entered the tower in the first place.
Even though it was a dream, of course I had a wish. And my wish was…
A sharp pain shoots through my head, forcing me to double over. If I wasn’t sitting down, I’d be on the floor already.
“Big brother, are you okay?” Aria slowly makes her way over to me.
“I’m fine, just finish getting ready, it’s getting late.” I wave her away.
Images flash inside my brain, joining the intense pain.
An empty bed. A note. A darkened bathtub. I’m sorry.
They keep repeating, on and on, the pain getting worse, it almost feels like my head is going to split in half.
“Big brother?”
It all stops as soon as she speaks. I know she’s behind me, waiting at the bedroom door for me so we can go on our evening walk, have a nice night, and be as much of a normal family as we can.
But…
“You want to know what my wish was?” My voice is barely louder than a whisper.
“Yeah, tell me.” Her voice is full of her usual enthusiasm.
“First, tell me this. If we go on this walk, everything will stay the same, right?” My voice breaks as I ask her, tears threatening to spill down my face.
“Of course dummy, why wouldn’t they?” Her cheerful replies are the complete opposite of mine.
“I’m sure there’s a world where we could be happy. Perhaps another where I accept this offer to stay with you.” I can’t hold the tears back any longer.
“Big brother, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” I still can’t face her, not with how concerned she sounds.
“My wish. The reason I entered the tower.” My voice breaks, but I don’t care. “Was to be able to see you again.”
I finally turn to face her.
“What do you mean? I’m right here silly.”
“No, my sister is dead.” I clench my fists, my right hand wraps around something solid. “She’s dead, my wish was to be able to see her again, I wanted to talk to her, to tell her so much. To… to bring her back with me.”
“So then why?” The Fake Aria yells at me.” Isn’t this what you wanted? We could stay here, be happy, be a family again. And you don’t even have to finish your climb.”
“If things were different, I might have stayed. But as you said yourself, you two really are similar, and I can’t just abandon her.”
“I won’t let you leave.” She screams.
“I wasn’t asking.”
I raise my right arm, though it’s empty, the familiar weight is still there.
“Spirit Disruption.” I cast the highest rank counterspell I know. The shockwave it sends out starts ripping not just the room, but the space itself apart.
I take one last look at my fake sister, both of us with tears still streaming down our faces. I wasn’t lying, if I didn’t have a reason to go back, I might have taken the offer of staying here.
“You always said you would be my knight in shining armour when we were younger. I guess you’re slowly getting there, just not for me.” She gives me a kind smile, almost as if it was my real sister.
“Thank you.”
The words barely leave my lips before the spell finishes destroying the space and everything else around me.