Becoming

By Sydney Frandsen

The first time I teleported, I was with Hamish, and we were about to tumble from the edge of a cliff that we had ventured to close too. One second, we were sliding over the loose gravel, about to fall a thousand feet to our doom, the next, we were a heap of limbs on a grassy patch close to the cottage we shared with mother, father and our sister Holly. 

We untangled from each other coming to a seated position staring at our home.

“Harris” Hamish said slowly “what just happened, why are we not dead?” I couldn’t look at him, my mind reeling at the events that transpired. My hands dug into the grass around me, feeling the loamy soil underneath, like I was trying to anchor myself to the earth itself.

“Don’t tell Mom and Dad” I said softly. Hamish’s head turned slowly towards me, fear settling in his eyes. 

“You have magic.” He breathed, slowly standing on wobbly knees, he began backing away.

“Hamish, please don’t tell Mom and Dad!” I begged, rolling onto my hands and knees, tears streaming down my face.

“You’re a monster, a witch!” Turning, he sprinted away toward the house, towards what would become my end. I didn’t think, my blood rushing to my ears, a pop, and I was in front of Hamish, blocking his path.

“You can’t tell Mom and Dad!” I screamed into his shocked face. He flailed his arms to avoid slamming into me.

“What are you going to do to me, kill me if I tell?” I recoiled, his words slapping me across the face.

“How could you? How could you think I would ever hurt you, my twin?” I asked. Hamish stared back at me with the same brown eyes and brown hair that always seemed to get in our eyes no matter the way mother cut it.

“How do you know that you don’t have the same power? We share everything else Hamish!” Anger settling into my voice. I couldn’t believe my own flesh and blood, my twin thought that I would hurt him, after everything we had been through, after all the things we shared. At the same time the primal fear of witches and magic that had been drilled so deeply into us from the time we could walk hung over us. My own fear and disgust fighting with my need to survive.

“No. No, I could never be like you.” He spoke like he was trying to convince himself.

“And what happens if you’re wrong huh? What happens when you teleport or worse, start a fire in front of Mom and Dad!” I took a step closer to him, uncertainty flickering in his eyes.

“You think they’ll understand? That they won’t immediately take you outside and burn you at the stake until you’re nothing but a charred corpse?”

“At least I won’t end up hurting anyone.” He said evenly, meeting my eyes once again.

“I haven’t hurt you Hamish. In fact, I think I saved you only minutes ago!” I yelled again.

“You should have let us die.” His gaze dropped. It hit me then, there was nothing I could do to change his mind.

I stared at him, then turned back to look at our home one last time. 

“You’re right.” I turned back, Hamish looking at me with confusion. “I should have let us die.” Resolve steadied me as I threw my arms around Hamish.

“HARRIS NO!!” His words were carried away by a pop, the grassy patch empty again save for two silhouettes imprinted on the ground. 

Then the cliff, the fall, my resolve holding true as we plummeted down the sheer rock face, Hamish’s screams echoing around us. Becoming the monster.

Sydney has been writing for over 20 years and has written professionally for small local businesses in the PNW where she currently resides. She is currently obtaining a minor in creative writing and enjoys reading copious amounts of books and playing with her 2 cats and dog.