The Omega Secret (Book Four of the Omega Game Series)

Didoka The Main Island Ten years ago…     There was something in the water.     I couldn’t see anything beyond my own reflection in the lake, but I knew there was something in there, waiting, lurking, calculating. It had been there every single time we visited the lake, like a strange presence that delighted itself by letting me feel it but not seeing it. The dark waters of the lake reflected the tall frame of Kotani when he stopped by my side, scowling at the lake. The heavy feeling of the presence staring back at me dissipated the moment Kotani appeared. It vanished fast, disappearing and letting my senses rest after overstimulating them so keenly.      I frowned.     What an odd occurrence. I would need to check some books about creatures from the lakes. Maybe inspect the Bestial Compendium in the library at Algonala Island. I read somewhere that lakes were mirrors between worlds. That others could see us across dimensions using lakes to spy on us. I wondered if that was the case with that lake. I wondered if I could develop a hypothesis about it.     “Stop biting your nails Dido,” said Kotani by my side, pushing my hand away from my mouth and giving me a recriminating growl. I looked surprised at my own nails. I hadn’t even realized what I’d been doing. My brother shook his head at me,“That’s a nasty habit.”     “She is nasty all over,” sneered Nuna, passing by our side. Her pretty face contorted in an evident expression of distaste when she looked at me. It still amazed me that we looked so similar and that we were sisters...but that’s where our similarities ended. She hated me just for existing and in return I wanted to avoid her all the time. Nuna stared back at Kotani, giving him the side eye, “She wouldn’t have been invited to the royal outings if it wasn’t because you asked father to let you take her. Nobody wants her here.”   “Why do you keep bothering with her?” asked Alpos, who was several years older than us and was twice taller than Kotani. Our oldest brother and our most vocal hater. Both Alphas growled at each other when they came face to face. They hated each other. Alpos hated the fact that Kotani was a war prodigy, mastering the use of every single weapon at the unheard age of eight years old. And to Alpos’s chagrin, father favoured Kotani over all his other heirs, which was a known fact that many of our siblings were aware of. The King would always take Kotani with him to war councils and to check on the other islands. There had been some talk around the palace that the King was planning on making Kotani the crowned prince and that had pushed Alpos into throwing an angry tantrum that had gone on and on, all week long.     “Tread lightly,” warned Kotani and Alpos laughed.     “Or what? Will you punish me for talking rubbish about your little twin sister?” Alpos smirked, looking down at me and giving me a dirty stare, “Everyone knows the moment she hits her first Heat she is going to forget all about you. She is just going to be a b***h in heat, gushing to be f****d by all the Alphas that she can…” BOOM.     Kotani moved back and slammed his feet on Alpos’s face. The older Alpha was catapulted to the air and sent flying against a tree. The impact seemed to shake the entire hill where we had been enjoying the lazy summer afternoon. Nobody seemed to move for a whole moment. One heartbeat later Alpos shook his head and came back running for Kotani, who had been waiting for him with a smile.     I grew afraid for Kotani. The scent of my fear grew so strong that Nuna coughed exaggeratedly, waving a hand underneath her nose as if to aerate the stink of my emotions. She sighed, shaking her head at me and pointing at Kotani and Alpos, who were now fighting with his fists near the lake.      “That’s why you will never be respected at court,” she stated, “That’s how strength looks. Now you...you always smell of fear.”     I hated that she was right. I hated that I could never do anything to help Kotani. He was always defending me from the others, keeping me protected and away from the whispers of the court. And I couldn’t give anything back to him. Just the stench of my fear, the bitterness of my anxiety and the reeking scent of my weakness. At times I wondered why Kotani even bothered to love me. He could just go away, be free and forget about me.      I’d seen him watching the ships setting course to the Aracious Sea with eyes that glinted hungrily for adventures. I knew the only reason he stayed at the palace was to keep me protected. I was like an anchor, pulling him down with me and keeping my brother affixed. And the worst part was that I couldn’t make him see any reason. Kotani would never leave me, he wasn’t built like that. He was too hard headed to be selfish enough and let me go. In his mind I was his responsibility from the moment our mother had died giving birth to us. I wish there was a way to lessen the weight hanging on his shoulders, but I couldn’t do much for him...I couldn’t do much for no one.     Alpos attacked then, connecting his elbow with Kotani’s chin. The hit pushed Kotani back and Alpos used his advantage to kick my brother in the chest. I screamed in terror when I saw Kotani fly back and fall in the lake. The black waters seemed to contract, like a hungry stomach that was growling at the sight of a tasty morsel of food. I rushed inside the lake, screaming my brother’s name in desperate howls that alerted the royal guards around us. The royal commitive and the King came running down the hill, screaming for me to move back. My brothers and sisters moved fast, surrounding the lake and screaming Kotani’s name. He was the King’s favourite son after all and his fury would descend on all of us if something happened to his heir.     “Kotani...Kotani please...please...I beg you! Come back to me!” I was screaming and howling, pushing the black waters in my anguish to find my brother. It was through my tears that I saw Kotani rise from the lake. I had one moment to look at him in confusion. He had been inside the lake for so long and still his body wasn’t covered in water...all the contrary...it was steaming, as if he had been on fire.     His yellow eyes looked at me and I breathed in relief. It was him, those were his eyes, that was the way he had always looked at me. I smiled and cried at the same time, trying to dry my tears while I watched him give me a small smile.     Then he turned into something else.     His eyes went cold and hollow. His smile turned into a gash of terror and his face came in and out of focus. And that presence...that terrible, terrible presence that I felt before lurked now below his skin, just as it had lurked from below the water not long ago.     “Dido, stay back,” he growled at me, focusing those vacant eyes on Alpos. Kotani disappeared from my sight, running so fast through the lake that the drops of water were still floating in the air when he reached the shore. With a roar that wasn’t human Kotani took Alpos by his neck and started plummeting his fists angrily on his face. He didn’t stop. His rage was unbridled, terrifying, a horror that kept us all frozen in fear. Even my father was too surprised to move. When it became evident that Kotani wasn’t going to stop until he killed Alpos, my father ordered the guards to stop Kotani.     Fifty men were needed to push him away and even then he fought, roaring and kicking like a beast. His eyes found me when they took him down and chained him like a monster. Only then I saw some of his old self staring back at me. I saw his mouth open and silently he mouthed the words that he always said to me when I was afraid.     “We only got each other, Dido. You are me and I’m you…”     He was taken away from me that day.     My brother was never again his old self. He was a strange hybrid that remained barely human. He would feel like himself whenever I was around to remind him who he had been, but when I wasn’t around he was something else. Kotani learned to use me like a mirror, so he could remember how he had looked, and talked, and laughed before...before he stopped being Kotani.      I promised myself that day that I would find a way to help him. That no matter how, or what I had to do... I would find a way to fix what I’ve done.