A Tear In Space

Scylla Klein, eldest daughter of Chimera Klein. The confirmation of their familial bond felt both reassuring and strange. She’d heard the name before, but not the reason why her elder sister had never been around. A political move, fallen through. Just like everything else. Barghest's heart clenched at the mention of their father. The weight of the truth she had been avoiding pressed down on her. Black and blue eyes met hers, and she sought truth there. Any. At this point it didn’t matter what she found within Scylla’s gaze.

‘He's going to die,’ Scylla spoke plainly, her voice lower, eyes cast to the side. ‘Nothing that I or Aliana have tried has made any difference. It's something that you and the rest of our siblings will have to come to terms with.’ The words hung in the air, heavy and final. Barghest felt a bitter pang of anger and sorrow, mixed with a strange sense of relief at hearing the truth spoken aloud. She had known it, deep down, but hearing it confirmed brought a different kind of pain.

“I know,” Barghest admitted with grit teeth, her voice barely more than a whisper but growing steadier as she spoke. “I know he's going to die. I've seen it in his eyes, the way he looks at us, like he's already saying goodbye.” She turned her gaze back to the ocean, the constant, unchanging waves mocking her once again. None of this was fair. But no one ever told her that life was fair. “I don't know if I want to see it happen, to watch him fade away so I’ll remember that I was there at his end, or if I should just run away from it all so I can remember him as he was. Everything's falling apart. I don't know how to stay strong anymore. For my mothers sake, for my siblings...” Her voice was cracking, traitorous tears springing to her eyes that she resented immediately and tried to shake from her cheeks.

Her tail lashed once, her voice catching in her throat. Barghest looked back at Scylla, her eyes brimming with a mix of anger, sorrow, and confusion. How was she supposed to handle this? How? This girl of barely a year, a lost spirit as she stares back at her eldest sister, bright eyes pleading for answers she wasn’t sure she would ever find.

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