Reborn, We Became Twins from Hell

The rain didn’t wash away the blood. Kael lay on the cold wooden floor, his fingers twitching in vain, his chest rising in shallow gasps. Kira was beside him, eyes half-closed, a bruised flower in the wreckage of their bedroom. The walls were scorched from the fire set just an hour before. The flames had licked the ceiling, stopped only by the storm that had finally broken through. They were only fifteen. And they were dying. Kael’s hand reached for his sister’s, slick with blood and soot. “Kira…” She blinked slowly, her lips split from the beatings, her body broken in too many places. “I’m still here.” Their foster father had said he’d stop. Their foster mother had said it was “discipline.” The social workers didn’t listen. The priest turned his face away. The principal told them not to "cause problems." And the people who should have protected them—the ones who were supposed to save children like them—had looked the other way. So the twins stopped speaking. And the world stopped caring. Until tonight. Until their foster father came home drunk again, rage bubbling like a poison in his veins. Until he dragged Kael by the hair, threw him against the dresser. Until Kira screamed and got the belt. Until he lit the match and tossed it in the corner “for fun.” Until everything went black. Kael could feel his body fading. Cold seeped in like a whisper from the grave. But instead of fear, something else stirred inside him. Something… alive. “You were not meant to die this way.” The voice echoed from nowhere. A voice like smoke, like burning silk. Male and female all at once. Kael opened his eyes. The room around him had vanished. He was floating in darkness—inky, starless. Kira’s figure appeared next to him, just as ghostly, just as lost. “Where are we?” Kira asked, looking down at her own translucent hands. “A place between,” the voice answered. “A choice awaits you.” Flames erupted beneath them, not painful, but warm. A light unlike any they’d ever seen illuminated a path forward—twisted, glowing with red sigils, bound in bone and ash. “You were wronged,” the voice continued. “Tortured. Betrayed. But you are not forgotten.” “Who are you?” Kael asked. “What is this?” “A gift,” the voice whispered. “A curse. A chance.” Kira’s eyes sharpened. “To go back?” “To return,” the voice said, “not as who you were… but what you must become.” The path stretched forward, pulsing with hatred and hunger. The smell of brimstone filled their senses. In the distance, Kael could see shadows—faces. Their foster father. The principal. The priest. All the ones who had hurt them. All the ones who had smiled and turned away. “What would you have us do?” Kira asked. “Take justice. Make them feel what you felt. Let the flames cleanse what the world would not.” Kael looked at his sister, his twin. She was no longer the soft-spoken girl hiding behind torn sleeves. Her eyes glowed with something dark and divine. And he felt it too. He held out his hand. She took it. They stepped forward. Kael woke to the sound of thunder. But it was not the thunder of rain. It was something deeper—like the crack of ancient bones beneath the earth. He sat up with a start, his heart pounding. He wasn’t in the burned house anymore. He was lying in a field of black grass, beneath a sky the color of dried blood. Beside him, Kira rose slowly, her dark hair now streaked with red. Their skin shimmered faintly, marked with glowing sigils that pulsed in rhythm with their breaths. They had returned. But not as they were. Kael’s memories were intact. He could remember dying. The pain. The voice. The choice. But now, his body felt strong. Stronger than ever. His hands glowed faintly when clenched. His anger was no longer a burden—it was power. Kira stretched her arms. The wind bent around her like it feared her. “We’re not human anymore.” “No,” Kael said. “We’re something else.” A whisper floated toward them on the wind, as if the world itself was taking a breath. Welcome back. Kira turned to him, her expression unreadable. “Do you remember what he said when he hit you the first time?” Kael nodded slowly. “‘Boys don’t cry.’” Kira’s mouth curled into something cold. “Then let’s make him scream.”