My sister was packing her things hastily as I peered into her room. She rushed left and right, grabbing random articles of clothing from the drawers and shoving them into a duffle bag. She seemed to pause for a moment, as if to acknowledge my existence for just a second, before returning to her frantic packing.

I can’t expect anything more. She stopped looking at me years ago, stopped seeing me… And now she barely knew me.

“Get out of my way,” she hissed, head bowed low with the bag slung over her shoulder. She refused to even look me in the eye as she betrayed me.

“I’m not letting you leave,” I replied.

She scoffed, shaking her head, her messy blonde hair falling over her face. “You can’t stop me, Chai.”

“Yes, I can.”

“We’re not kids anymore, you can’t boss me around. I’m leaving.” She shoved past me with her broad shoulders, forcefully pushing me aside. I quickly followed after her and manoeuvred to block her way once again. This time she stopped and looked at me, and in her eyes all I saw was anger, frustration, hatred. Then she looked away again.

“Gin!” I exclaimed, “Think for a moment about what you’re doing! You’re waging a war against Anomalies; you’re waging a war against me!”

She didn’t look up. Her fist was clenched tightly, veins protruding and knuckles going white from the tension flowing through her arm. “This isn’t about you. This is about our future.”

“Our future, Gin? They’ll kill me. You know that. And you would have directly contributed to that.”

“Don’t fucking lecture me! I’m old enough to make my own choices. You can’t keep expecting me to listen to every single thing that you say, as if your word is gospel.”

“I’m your brother!” I retorted, “I’m older than you, you have to listen to me!”

“Yeah, by like 8 fucking minutes! Listen to yourself, you’re whining. Acting like a pissy baby just because I won’t do what you say.” she spat. Finally, she turned to look at me. I could see the suppressed rage in every fibre of her body, from the gritted teeth, the knitted eyebrows, the tense shoulders, and her zealous eyes. “Purity is doing its best for mankind, Chai. Why can’t you see that? They’re going to help people like you, they’re going to find a cure and they’ll save you from this mutation!”

“Save me?! I don’t need saving, Gin. Why won’t you just fucking accept me for what I am?”

“No. I’ll never accept you as long as you’re… as long as you have that.”

“You can’t even say it. You can’t even say I’m an Anomaly. I disgust you, don’t I?”

“Please,” she scoffed, “We grew up together, inseparable. Nothing you do could ever disgust me.

“Then what’s wrong, why is this any different?”

“It’s a cancer, Chai, can’t you see?” she stated, voice softening for just a moment. It was quiet, eerily so, before she started again, “You’re getting sicker and sicker every day. I can’t sit around and watch as this, this thing kills you!” There was a flicker of sadness in her eyes as she looked away once again, “I’ve seen the blood in the sink, Chai. It’s getting worse, isn’t it?”

I brought a hand to my mouth and looked askance. That was enough to make Gin’s shoulders slump, as if that was all the information she needed. I didn’t want to talk about it. I adjusted my sunglasses and turned back to look at her through the tinted glass. Without them, everything was too bright, too strong.

“See?” she said, sighing. She brought her hand down on my shoulder and gripped it. “I’m doing this for you, Chai. I can’t sit around and watch you die.”

“I’m not dying.”

It was instinctive. Her hand was suddenly jerked away from my shoulder and she was thrown back with excessive speed against the far wall of the room by an invisible force. She yelped, crumpling onto the floor after the impact. There were cracks in the wall and plaster crumbling as she stood up, coughing to pull some air back into her lungs. She strode over to me, then grabbed me by the front of my shirt, lifting me just off the ground with surprising ease.

“You think that’s funny, Chai?”

“I didn’t mean to, it just happened, it--”

“You’re getting more powerful, you’re getting stronger--”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“You can’t control it, can you? You’re a loose cannon. Imagine if that wasn’t me. Imagine if that wall,” she pointed at the broken mess of powdery white plaster and torn wallpaper, “was a window. I’d be dead, and that blood would be on your hands.”

“But you’re not dead, and that wall isn’t a window, it’s a wall.” I struggled against her grip, and eventually she let go. I backed away from her, and she looked at me with not anger but pity.

I had never felt so condescended.

“You and I both know it’s killing you,” she said quietly, “The more it mutates… the more that stupid gene manifests… the worse you get. It’s hurting you, and I can’t just stand by and watch it happen.”

“I’m fine, Gin. You don’t have to worry about me,” I scoffed. There was a burning inside my chest, a feeling tightening around my heart. “Or maybe you should worry about me. That’s what sisters do. And now you’re betraying me for some stupid fucking organisation that’s hellbent on destroying people like me.”

“Destroying? They’re helping, how many times do I have to tell you that they’re helping you!”

“By killing me?! You’ve seen what they do to ‘rogue Anomalies’, Gin. They’re not friendly, they’re monsters.”

“Just like you.”

Everything was silent apart from our breathing. The pain in my chest grew stronger and stronger. I felt sick, but I couldn’t show it, I couldn’t let her be right. I could see her mouth twitching in her frown, and I could see the way her arms shook as she balled her hands into fists.

“I’m the next stage of Evolution,” I stated firmly as the silence continued, “You’re just jealous you weren’t born with gifts like mine.”

She let out a dry laugh and shook her head. “Jealous? Jealous? You think that’s what this is about? You always were a narcissist, Chai. Everything’s always about you.”

She stepped forward and brought her hand to my face, and I instinctively flinched. She wiped her thumb along the underside of my nose, and showed me the blood that now coated her finger. I suppressed a cough, ignored the pain in my chest, pretended that I was more than fine.

I failed.

I choked and coughed out globs of semi-congealed blood onto my palm. The blood trailed from my lips as I coughed again, more blood making its way up my throat, into my hand, and onto the floor. I looked up, and all I saw was pity.

Pity.

And all I felt was anger.

“See?” she said, taking her handkerchief from her pocket and wiping away the blood from my hands. “You’re sick. And you’re getting worse. Purity, they can help you. They can reverse this, make you better again.”

“It’s not going away, Gin. This is who I am, I can’t just let them take it away!”

“Chai…”

“Stop pitying me like I’m some lost child. I was granted these powers, I should use them, and if people like you won’t accept me, then so be it.”

“I’d rather have a human brother that was alive than an Anom that’s dead.”

“Then I hope you like having a dead brother.”

The air was tense as she pocketed the bloody handkerchief and let go of my hand. I felt the grip around my heart tighten. Was it regret or was it the mutation trying to stop my heart from beating?

“Purity doesn’t care for people like me,” I whispered, staring with blurry eyes at my blood stained hands. “Nobody does.”

“I can’t sit around and watch you die. I can’t watch as it just… gets worse, and worse…” she replied, “They’ll find a way to save you.”

“I don’t want to die,” I sobbed, rubbing at my eyes as the tears began to fall, “I’m not ready to die-- I don’t want you to leave me alone. I don’t want to die alone.”

I cried. She pulled me into her arms and held me, comforting me, and I hoped that this moment would last forever.