Page 17 of Fratelli: Eternal Bloodlines

With great care, Dolly looked her over. It was as if Dolly herself carried the light. The closer she was, the more the darkness dispelled. She could see the rest of Darlene’s young body. Aghast, Dolly recoiled in horror at how badly hurt her poor sister was. She tried to help, touch her, do something. Darlene cried out and suffered at any touch. And then Dolly stopped feeling her pain altogether.

“What’s happening? Why can’t I feel you?” Dolly said, hyperventilating.

Darlene smiled. “I stopped it, so you won’t feel it. You freak out too much and it hurts when you do that!”

“What?” Dolly gasped.

“I’ll feel the pain. If it scares you too much, we both are weaker,” Darlene said and her girlish voice softened. “Remember when we were kids, and you were scared of the closet? I’d get out of bed and go in there for you. I was scared too, but I did it for you. I protected you,” said Darlene.

Dolly nodded. She remembered.

“Give me the pain. Let me help. Let-me-let-me-me-me—” Dolly continued to sob and touch Darlene’s young body. Darlene grabbed her hand. She stopped her. Dolly looked down at her. She shook her head and wept. “It’s my fault.”

“Yea, but I kicked the Draca’s ass!” Darlene said.

Dolly couldn’t laugh at the humor. She needed to heal her, and fast. Her deteriorating state was her state as well. They were in trouble.

“Did you see it? Did you? How Domencio came to save me… like a superhero,” Darlene coughed up more blood. It came from her nose, her mouth, and her ears. Dolly put her hand on Darlene’s young chest, closed her eyes, and tried to do with Darlene what she had done with Lucio. She tried her very hardest to summon her light. There were only ambers of it surfacing.

“I don’t know what to do.” Dolly wept harder. “I don’t know how to fix this.”

“Maybe I die, here,” Darlene said. “Maybe this is when I die.”

“No,” Dolly dropped her head and sobbed deeply. “No, please. Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me. I’m sorry. I don’t hate you. I just… I just wanted you to let me be me. But you are me. We are sisters. I see that now. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what the doctors made me do to you. I’m sorry for taking Lucio from you. Forgive me. Please stay with me. I’ll do anything, please! I’ll give him back to you. I will. I swear it,” Dolly begged.

“I’m sorry too. But I’m not you and you’re not me. We’re different. We’re sisters. I want to be me too,” Darlene coughed out the words.

Darlene's hand moved. She reached up and touched her sister's hair. She stroked Dolly’s bowed head and Dolly criedinto her hands. “Domencio chose to save me. Didn’t he? He went up against his Draca for me.”

“What?” Dolly looked up. “What are you saying?”

Darlene held a smile instead of a grimace.

“What are you talking about? He didn’t—?”Dolly asked.

Then she realized her sisters’ delusion. She saw the whole thing through the eyes of a six-year-old. Darlene had never had a chance to grow up once cast away. She just watched life from a distance. And Dolly understood at that moment how much it meant for Darlene to finally be saved. To have someone choose her. She touched Darlene’s small hand. She held it. “Yes, I saw Domencio. He was the boy, and you were the girl. But then he turned into the man, the hero,” Dolly said and sniffed. “He was a superman. He flew straight up into the fire and pulled you out. I saw it, Darlene. It happened. He didn’t care if he got hurt, he just wanted to save you.”

Darlene nodded and grinned. Half of her face was so mangled and charred that it just oozed blood. “I think I love him now. I love Lucio too. I will love Lucio and let him go. Domencio is mine.”

Dolly laughed. “Okay. Okay. If you want Domencio, then you got to help me help you. We get out of here you can take him. I promise.”

Darlene giggled in a tight strained way, ignoring her pain.

They then fell silent, and the darkness moved in closer to them. “We are not getting out of here, are we?” Darlene whispered. “I’ll never get to see him, to tell him I love him,” Darlene groaned in pain. “I’m so tired of hurting.”

“We are going to get out of here. We got in here, so there is a way out. Now, just calm down and let me think. Let’s figure this out. We must try to—and—,” Dolly rambled.

“What? What is it?” Darlene asked.

“They’re fighting,” Dolly said. Her eyes were closed, but she could sense the drama and see the brothers. “Wait. We’re not in Domencio anymore. I can hear him. We are on the bed, in the suite. On the bed.”

“We are?” Darlene asked.

“Yes, and they… they’re fighting.” Dolly said alarmed.

“Who?” Darlene coughed up more blood.

“Domencio and Lucio. Lucio thinks Domencio killed us. He’s attacking Domencio, but he can’t win. He drank too much of my blood and I think Domencio knows it. He’ll kill him,” Dolly said, seeing it but not seeing it.

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