The Prophecy Marked My Sister, but I Died Instead

When we were small, a witch named Sybil predicted that my sister would not live past sixteen. Since then, every eye in the family turned toward her. All the love in that house gathered around Aurora and stopped there. Whatever she wanted, whatever she wanted to do, our parents backed her completely. Every scrap of tenderness and every resource they had went to her, while I was left out in the cold, and the things that should have been mine were handed to her too. Even so, I never complained, not once. I knew my sister was someone to be pitied. Then the day of the prophecy came, the day she turned sixteen, and I was the one who ended up poisoned with wolfsbane, of all people, hanging on the edge of death. My parents were busy with her. They decided I was making a scene, and they ordered the guards to throw me out of the castle. My arms and legs had no strength left. I dragged myself toward the doors and called out in a shaking voice, "Dad, Mom, let me in, please, it hurts so much..." Instead, from behind the doors my father's gentle voice said to my sister, "Don't worry, sweetheart. The one causing trouble has been put out. No one is going to take your parents' love away from you again." Hearing that, something in me died for good. With the sound of my family fussing over her drifting through the door, I slowly closed my eyes. Chapter 1 A faint mist rose off my body. Everything in front of me spun as if the world had turned upside down, and when my sight cleared again it was drifting inside the castle. My parents were watching Aurora with aching faces. My mother stroked her cheek. My father watched it all in silence. Then a sharp pain shot through both their heads. For a moment something like a vision passed in front of their eyes, me, lying in the white snow with half my body already buried. My father's eyes flew open and he sucked in one heavy breath after another. My mother was only just coming back to herself. Both of them seemed to sense something, faintly. But one look at how weak Aurora was and they forced that strange feeling back down. Aurora wore a gown much like her mother's. Between the two of them she looked small and thin. She sat silent through all their fussing, and then her cool voice broke in, "Is she coming back?" Aurora folded her hands and lowered her head toward her. "Mom, Neve isn't going to come and bother us today, is she?" "Don't worry, sweetheart." My mother looked straight at her with soft eyes, as if no one else in the world existed, and patted her shoulder as she said, "You don't just come down with wolfsbane poisoning. She's jealous of you, that's all. She's faking it to get our sympathy." My father chimed in, "That's right. You're what matters now. We've put her out, and she won't be taking any of our love away from you." Before he had finished, my mother said thickly, "One more day. Whatever you want to do, tell us. We'll back you no matter what..." Then she lowered her head, her eyes red. Aurora opened her mouth and closed it again, like someone with something to say and no way to say it. I hung above the hall like a wisp of cloud, watching it all coldly. For as long as I could remember, my sister had run through every part of my life. My parents' mouths never got away from her name. I was jealous of her. I hated her for taking everything from me, until there was no place for me in that house and I was nothing but a weed outside the walls that no one noticed. My father took her from witch to witch, hunting for one powerful enough to break the death sentence hanging over her. Deep in the dark woods he found one. But the witch told him I would have to trade my life for my sister's. He did not hesitate for a second before trying to make me drink the potion that would do it. I shook my head as hard as I could and refused to open my mouth. He pried my jaw apart and poured it in. "This is for your sister. You're young. What is half your life to you? Do you really want to stand there and watch her die?" I screamed at him, "How can you be so heartless!" When the potion was gone I lay on the cold floor, breathing in thin little gasps. Aurora came over then, put her arms around me, and sobbed, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is my fault. You got hurt because of me. I'm sorry." I shut my eyes against the pain, and my tears ran down onto the cold floor. I thought, if my life buys hers, it's worth it. But the witch's potion was a fake. I got my life back. My father flew into a rage, and after that he was colder to me than ever. There was still one warm thing in that cold house. Late at night, when everything had gone quiet, Aurora would slip into my room and give me a piece of candy. She would put a finger to her lips. "Don't let Dad find out." I would look at her and not know what I felt. This was the person who had taken my parents' love from me, and here she was being kind. "I'm sorry, Neve. I'll be gone soon. Then there won't be anyone left to take Mom and Dad's love away from you." Sometimes I tried to help her on my own, only for my parents to decide I was trying to hurt her. There was no avoiding the beating that followed. In the last two years especially they watched me like a criminal. That was when I understood that a single hair on my poor sister's head was worth more than all of me. My view rose higher. Through the windows my blank eyes found the body still frozen in the act of crawling toward the doors. I stared at myself lying in the snow under a fresh layer of white, then at my own hands, already half see-through. So I was dead. So it was me the witch's prophecy had marked for death all along. Chapter 2 It went back to when I was little, as far back as I could remember. I watched my parents smile at Aurora, and I watched that smile go flat into a hard, measuring look whenever it turned on me. The guards shadowed her carefully, while asking one of them for even the smallest favor only earned me a scolding from my parents. "You want the guards to do everything for you. Their job is to keep your sister safe every minute of the day, not to run your pointless little errands." My father snapped, "What if something happened to her? Why can't you ever think about your sister!" My mother stood beside him with her eyes on Aurora. She gave me one sideways glance and said angrily, "Maybe the prophecy is this jinx's fault in the first place. Without her, my daughter would live past sixteen." All I could do was lower my head and take it. Everything in that house belonged to Aurora. Once I overheard my parents talking in the study. "Is there really nothing left?" My mother's voice came through, hoarse. There was a long silence before my father answered. "I've posted a reward. I've poured out everything we own just to buy our daughter's life." "How much time is left?" The study stayed quiet for a long while. All that came out of it was one long sigh. I did not understand any of it, so I went to Aurora and asked her what was going on. Something finally moved in that calm face of hers. She said in a faint voice, "I'm sorry, Neve..." "I didn't want it to be like this either. I'm sorry." Then she looked out at the far sky and said nothing more. Seeing her like that put an ache in my chest. My parents found out I had gone to her, and my father, strict as he always was, lost hold of his temper completely. "Neve, can't you use your head for once! Your sister is already hopeless about her own life, and you go and set her off. "That is your sister. If she dies, you will never have a sister in this world again!" I could not hold it in any longer. I burst into tears. "Why does she get to have things I can't have? Why is she the only one you ever see? Anything she wants, she gets. Anything she wants to do, you back her all the way. Is there a second daughter in your hearts at all? Why do I have to live in her shadow, why..." I pointed at Aurora, sitting across from me. "If you want to die, then go die. Give me my mom and dad back." My eyes were red from crying, and I stared straight at the two of them. Meanwhile, Aurora sat off to the side, quietly wiping her own tears. The veins stood out on my father's forehead and his face went red. He stood, slapped me hard across the face, and gave the order to put me out of the castle. Aurora threw her arms around him, her voice breaking, begging and begging him not to throw me out. My parents saw how upset she was, and in the end they could not go through with it. They ordered the guards to take me back to my room. It was only later that I learned prophecies really do come true, and that my sister really was going to die. The memory thinned out. My see-through shape blended into the night, and my sight came back into focus on my parents walking Aurora to her room, settling her into bed, starting a bedtime story... My mother saw the heavy snow drifting past the window and could not help sighing. "Is Neve really all right out there?" My father frowned and said nothing for a long time. At last he set his jaw like a man making up his mind. "Aurora has one day left. The least we can do is give her every minute of it." He stepped over, patted my mother's shoulder, and said, "Neve is a good girl. She'll understand. Once tomorrow is over, we can give all of our time to her." Aurora lifted a weak hand. "Mom, Neve, she..." "It's all right, it's all right. Tomorrow will pass safely. Don't be afraid," my mother said softly, after Aurora's eyes had closed. Meanwhile, I floated outside the window, watching all of it. My father said nothing. He only ordered the guards to unlock the front doors. Chapter 3 Some time passed with no sound at all from outside, and my father asked one of the guards, "Has Neve come back?" The guard shook his head. "We walked the whole way around the castle. There wasn't a trace of her anywhere." He paused a moment. "She's just being stubborn. Put some food downstairs on the ground floor. Set it out for Neve." I drifted down in front of my father and looked at him. His eyes were red. The lines between his brows were packed tight together, and there was a lot of white now in hair that used to be black. I said softly, "Dad, I'm dead. Will you look at me?" I reached for his broad hand, but mine passed straight through it. I grabbed without thinking and caught nothing. I stayed where I was, watching him pace outside Aurora's room. After a long while he went downstairs, saw the food untouched, and asked the guards, who told him I still had not come back. He looked toward the doors with grief all through his face and said quietly, "Neve, still not back? Once your sister is gone tomorrow... your mother and I will make it up to you, I swear it." I looked at how worn down he was, and my voice caught as I said, "Dad, Mom, I wanted so badly for you to love me a little more. But now... now it can never happen." My father went back up to the corridor outside Aurora's room. My mother came out of it and looked at him with red eyes. She buried her face in his chest and sobbed, "Aurora only has half a day left." She lifted her head again and asked, "What about Neve? Is she back?" He shook his head and sighed. "No. I don't know what she's sulking about, but she won't show her face." My mother watched the wind howling past the window and let out a deep breath. She spoke almost to herself, "Neve, I know you feel wronged, but your sister has one day of life left." My father pulled her in tight. "Once Aurora is gone I'll announce that Neve inherits my place. She'll be the new Alpha of the pack, with power over everything. That should go some way toward what we owe her." My mother nodded. "All these years we gave everything to Aurora and left Neve out in the cold. Once Aurora is gone we can finally spend real time with her." I looked at my mother. Her face was wet all over, and the tears dropped one by one to the floor. I put out a hand to wipe them away, but it stopped beside her cheek. "Dad, I don't want to be Alpha. I only wanted you to care about me a little more, but now there's no way left to make that happen." Her crying eased. She looked out the window and said impatiently, "Neve still isn't back. Her sister dies at dawn and she doesn't have the sense to come home. She doesn't care about her sister at all." The sky dimmed. Outside the snow was still coming down in thick flakes. A knock sounded at the door. My mother hurried over and pulled it open. "Neve, do you have any idea how selfish you're being? At least you know how to come ho... Rosalind?" She helped my grandmother in through the doorway. My grandmother leaned on her cane, saw how worked up my mother was, and asked, "What is it? What has Neve done?" "Nothing, it's nothing. You came, Rosalind. Is it Aurora you're here for?" my mother said awkwardly. My grandmother's voice came out hoarse. "Tomorrow is Aurora's last day. I came to sit with her, to be of some use." As she spoke she drew a crimson jade pendant out of her clothes. "Where is Aurora? Take this to her. It's a charm I begged off a witch. I'm hoping it carries her safely through tomorrow." "Aurora is doing all right for now. She's resting in her room." "Let her rest, then. Where's Neve? Why haven't I seen her?" My grandmother looked around the room and frowned. Chapter 4 My mother turned back to the window with more worry in her face. "We said a few words to her and she took offense and won't come home..." My mother lowered her head and took the pendant. My grandmother said nothing. She turned her head slowly toward my father, who had just come in. "What did you two do to Neve?" He went still. "Neve... she kept making a scene, demanding we sit with her. I had her put out." "What! You put Neve out?" My grandmother's eyes went dark as they moved between them. "Do you understand that this was the last chance those two girls had to see each other!" My mother saw the anger in her face and said weakly, "She knew perfectly well it was her sister's last day and she still made trouble..." My grandmother rounded on her and shouted, "Neve is your daughter too. You know exactly how hard her life has been. On the last day you still treat her like that!" My mother pressed her lips together and said nothing. My grandmother's voice shook. She stared straight at my parents. "Aurora was still a child when a witch said she would die. I know you were afraid of hurting her, that you wanted to give her the best of everything so she could go without regrets." Her voice climbed higher. Tears fell to the floor. "And Neve? Did either of you ever truly care for her? All she ever got growing up was what her sister didn't want. When she wanted something of her own, you used her sister as the reason to refuse. "I know you may have told yourselves you were toughening her up. You went too far. You call yourselves parents and act nothing like them. You owe Neve far more than you ever owed Aurora!" My mother twisted the hem of her dress in both hands, shaking all over, and said nothing. My grandmother said hoarsely, "Aurora is leaving and she can't even see her own sister. Do you want her to go with that hanging over her?" My father was quiet for a moment. Then he called for the guards and said in a low voice, "Bring Neve back." My grandmother watched all of it and said, "Go and rest. Tomorrow it will be over..." My mother shook her head. "I can't sleep." My father nodded as well and went to stand beside her. My grandmother sighed. "Come on, then. We'll wait together." I watched the three of them walk to Aurora's door. My grandmother looked at the door and said softly, "Aurora, Grandma is here with you too. Don't be afraid. When you wake up everything will be fine." Beside them my tears came again and scattered into the air. "Grandma... I've missed you so much." Time slid by under their worried eyes, and far off the sky began to turn white. When the first thread of sunlight came through the window, the snow that had fallen all night finally stopped. My parents hovered outside her door for a long time, hands raised to knock and not daring to. My mother hesitated for a long time, then knocked lightly and called through the door, "Aurora? Are you awake?" They stared at the door as if they could see a scrap of hope in it. After a moment there was a rustling inside. Aurora opened the door. "Dad, Mom, Grandma... I'm fine." Her voice was a little rough, and she gave them a small smile. My mother put out both trembling arms and pulled her in hard. Tears slid from the corners of her eyes as she patted her daughter's back. "Thank God, thank God. The prophecy is broken. My Aurora didn't die." The knot in my father's brow finally loosened, and his face softened as he watched the two of them. My grandmother watched, and then it hit her. "Neve! Has she still not come back?" Her voice rang out loud. "Guards, guards!" Only then did my parents snap out of it, and they turned to the guards in a rush. "You still haven't found Neve?" The guard shook his head again. The whole family hurried out of the castle, trying to find some trace of me in that endless white. There was nothing to see. The snow had covered all of it. My father stopped mid-step. His foot had come down on something. He lifted it slowly, looked at what lay underneath, and his whole face changed. He dropped to his knees and shoved the snow away with shaking hands, over and over, his voice shaking too as he cried out, "No. No, this can't be happening!"