When Lee and her mother returned from shopping, it was to an eerily quiet house. Even though it was daylight out, the house was unnaturally dark. Lee knew immediately that her twin was not in the house or the woods surrounding it. She could feel him deep in the forest, a place he would never go without her because the trees cast shadows that were always watching in a menacing way, spooking him. Calling out to her mother, Lee used her connection to her terrified twin to follow the path he took into the dark depths.
Knowing something wasn’t right, their mother had already entered the house when Lee called out to her. Turning on the lights and opening the blinds, she found a note on the dining room table.
"Harlow,
I almost didn’t leave this note but I wanted to take another chance to tell you how worthless you and those abominations you call offspring are. You came from a worthy family and yet you were nothing but a disappointment. I’ve chosen someone worthier than you who can give me real children and not those weaklings you had the misfortune of bearing me. Nothing you ever did was right, so I took the greater of the abominations and got rid of it. Now, my new mate and I can start over without having to worry about those disgusting creatures coming back to haunt us. I don’t want to see you or that insignificant child again. I do not want my new daughters contaminated by your filth.
-Feri"
Reading the note twice more, Harlow finally noticed Lee’s absence and ran out of the house, calling to both her children. Not finding either one, she ran back inside and called the sheriff, getting a search and rescue party started for her missing children.
Lee-Lee followed her brother’s thread of connection deep into the forest, worrying more and more for him as she could see the boot marks of her father next to Day’s. Instinctively knowing something bad was about to happen, Lee started running, going faster than she ever had. If anyone had been watching her, or if she happened to look at herself, they would have seen that her legs had grown slightly longer and were now bent at an odd angle, almost resembling the hind legs of a large dog or wolf. All of a sudden, Lee’s connection to her twin was cut. Stumbling, but not allowing herself to fall, Lee once again sped up, finally reaching the spot her brother’s tracks led. Feeling his absence in her mind, Lee fell to the cold ground as the darkness started to settle around her.
For as long as she could remember, Lee had shared a special connection with her brother. To them it was normal, forged in the womb of their mother, the twins always knew what the other was thinking and feeling. It wasn’t until they started school that they realized other children and siblings didn’t have the same ability, so when they started talking to each other in their minds they kept it a secret, even from their parents. Now, though, Lee felt almost entirely cut off from her brother, something that had never happened even when they taught themselves to build boundaries to keep some of their thoughts private from each other. She knew Day was still alive, but she couldn’t hear him or feel him like she could before.
Hours later, the search and rescue team found Lee laying in a clearing in the woods. Her mother was the first to see her, worry covering her face when she didn’t see her son. Reaching for her daughter, Harlow was shocked to see bits of fur covering her daughter, keeping her warm from the dropping temperatures. Grabbing her daughter into her arms before anyone saw, she woke Lee, desperate to find out what happened to her son, to know what damage her husband had caused her family.
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