"Well I told you both..." Henry shrugged while stepping up and out of the door, and a peace sign to let them know he wanted no parts of this. "What a betrayer!" Lewis shouted while picking up a pillow over his head to yank it at the kid, who shut the door and ran away. "This kid made us fall into this trouble!"
"But you can't blame him... After he is gone." She spoke with tired eyes while spinning the knife between her fingers with a playful manner.
"Aefia... You can't use your authority over your elder siblings and both of us are older then you... And don't step up against it otherwise I will tell mom that you have been misbehaving."
"Yeah alright... And she would know I am already mad from the poison I had just tasted. And don't even act like an older brother where you are honestly already afraid I am about to tear this palace down to shreds." She spoke while her knife came to a stop at her fist, with a gesture that mirrored a stab motion.
The entire atmosphere froze as they stared at each other with a questioned gaze. "Well there she goes again... Trying to kill herself again." Lewis decided to try and change the subject, but was stopped abruptly when she folded her arms and looked at the both of them then at her own laptop which blinked out of life. "Get out..." With the two words, she walked over and picked up the device with shadowed eyes.
"I need time to cool down. So just get out and don't get in for the next seventeen hours. I am extremely tired and I can't afford to stay up another second." She spoke while placing the charger in and setting the device down. "For your confirmation... Yeah I did drink poison because I really wanted to know what it tasted like and I actually managed to recover from the dosage with the help of my skill. Although it was a last minute decision, I already deduced how I was going to recover the second I touched the glass."
But before she could even afford another word, the sudden urge to cough couldn't be denied. And within a second, her hand came out bloodied as if she dipped it in blood. Followed by the previous cough, she sneezed twice due to the blood trickling down her noes in a tinklish way.
Finally, she turned towards her brother. "Don't even dare to get the nurses. I swear I am fine." She added while using a handkerchief to cover her mouth. "All lethal poisons have these type of side effects. I can handle it. I just need a few hours of rest."
"That doesn't look like a few hours worth." Lewis answered back while pointing at her direction. "And you are practically taking her responsibilities. Do something? Or do you just want to stand there and watch?"
"It will be hard to persuade her to do something she doesn't want to do. So I don't see a way I can help her in this situation." George replied to his brother while folding his arms.
"I am serious. I am fine. You guys can go." Aefia chose to speak up while leaning against the table and staring at the carpet beneath her feet. "I will just take a few medicines and sleep. I should be fine by tomorrow."
Within the blink of an eye, Lewis approached her side and placed a flat palm against her forehead. "A high fever doesn't go away in a day. And added to it, you will need to be monitored through your sleep too."
"No really. I have Brittany. Don't bother wasting your energy." She denied. "I have survived until now so I can survive another moment longer."
"Are you trying to reject your older brother Aefia?" Lewis clicked his tongue. "Since youngers should listen and pay respect to their elders, I believe you have two reasons to listen to me and not just try and push me out. I am staying here until you can stand by yourself again."
"I can stand by myself."
"Are you talking back to me right now?"
"..."
"Good. Now do you need a painkiller?"
"I don't think so." She smiled while pulling the handkerchief off her face. Finally, she pushed herself forward and attempted to walk towards the sofa at least. "I only have a sore throat. I think a cough drop will help."
"Seriously?" He eyed her while watching how she struggled to keep her knees from giving up. "Alright. George will get whatever is necessary. And I will get you a glass of water. At least have a servant bring it for you."
"Aren't you afraid of embarrassing yourself?"
"Not when my little sister is about to die. There are times when a life comes before an embarrasing moment." He answered while placing a hand on her head, and a smile on his face.
***
"Aefia... It's literally seven in the morning and you not even thinking about waking up." Lewis spoke while trying to get her up despite the delay in time it has already been. "It's the first day back to school... And you are still in that dream world. Where even are you?!" He spoke while shaking her wrist violently, trying to trigger a jumpscare, but she still lay with her eyes shut and with no response.
"Did you try being kind to her?" Henry spoke while walking inside with a loose bow-tie. "She is the most sensitive to anyone who is trying to act nice to her. She sees them as a threat... So you should try that for once." The kid spoke while walking over to his brother's side and leaning over him with an arm resting on his shoulder as he let go of her wrist from a high level and let it drop with a thud, impacting the side of her bed frame which was made of sharp edges. Yet, the only reaction they got back was a pained face.
"Yep... Not going to work." The kid responded while observing her expressions that were hidden behind her disheveled hair. The youngest brother, who was nine already within the past four weeks, knew almost every sort of details about their sister, starting from favourite food to favourite type of paper. Even around now, he had understood how well their sister loved to sleep and if she were distracted even once, she might jolt awake like a ghost and stick a knife at their side and then go back to sleep.
"You should have tried my way. I told you no level of injuries are going to help you, given that she is still bullied at school by the well-known 'pink gang'... And added to that... You did say she is a battle freak. So she will just think she is in the middle of a war inside her dream." Henry spoke while standing straight and rolling up her white shirt, and revealing a long cut, with burn marks here and there. It looked like a highly heated curling iron was used to tear apart the skin while knives were used to cut through the already lecerated injuries, to prevent from healing.
"And what made it worst... Is how you just slammed her wrist against the sharp bed frame. Now if you want her to wake up... I suggest you take out the medical box from under her bed and just try to seal the wound... That would be enough to sent an alert to her brain." The kid spoke while pulling out a small first-aid box and pushing it in front of their crouching brother. "And remember not to seem like I was the one to force you... Because then, she would run after me the entire palace."
"Then I guess... If she wakes up, that is enough of a risk for me." Lewis replied while clicking open the lid to the medical kit and pulling out the scissors to cut off the tightly sealed bandages that were used to cover her wounds, with pure blood seeping out and rolling down her arm with a tingling feeling as she tried to pull on her left hand back with a click of her tongue and irritation that she couldn't itch the ticklish feeling.
"That's bad... As it seems..." He spoke while putting down the previous bandages and pulling out the bottle of ointment to clean the area. But as soon as the soaked cotton reacted to her burnt skin, her arms violently shook but she still didn't seem to jolt awake. With the second interaction, she trembled as if traumatized, and on the third, as he held it down for a short while, her left arm retracted inside the blanket as she immediately sat up, holding her left arm with shocked eyes.
"Ow! What the hell?! Did a mole get into my room or something?!" She spoke while looking to her right, and immediately, her right hand reached towards her pillow and slammed it against Lewis's face with a swift movement. "If you were going to plan on patching it up, why didn't you do it less painfully?!" She shouted while using her right hand to hold onto the bleeding wound as drops of crimson stained her deep green pinafore and the white shirt at its sleeves.
"Well it was Henry's idea of waking you up!" He protested while hugging the pillow at his lap. "I only dropped your wrist from a height... And you still didn't seem to wake up! So I had to take note of his words and test it." Pushing the pillow to the side, he stood up and dusted his clothes while glancing up only to see her fall back under the blanket and fall deep into sleep.
"Seriously?! Want to test my patience Aefia?" Lewis spoke while pulling the blanket from her face and grabbing her right wrist, then pulled with his full force as she slid against the edge of the bed and fell to the ground with a thud. "What the heck! Why do you hate me like that?! What did I do to you to get this much hate?!" She shouted while holding her head and sitting up on the floor.
"Well it's not my problem to leave you sleeping until the daylight peaks out... But it will be George and his grounding restrictions that will turn you into a trapped monster." He spoke while holding up his hands in a shrugging gesture as she stood up on her knees and started throwing her pillows at his face with pure anger. Later, the kid joined in and threw a literal antiseptic cream at his face. "Henry! Don't do that again!" She shouted while stopping him by a hug as he lifted his hands to throw a scissor at him.
"Well that kid learns whatever you do! The next thing you know... He is the next maniac of this family. We already have a bloodied Imperial Princess here who is the shield despite having three brothers to do it for her." The middle brother spoke while throwing the pillows back onto the bed as he watched her let go of the kid.
"Do it... Throw the scissors." She spoke while standing up.
"Wait! I didn't mean it alright!" While bracing for impact, he shouted with a protest. With a swift movement, his head impacted fabric as he stared up at Aefia and the pair of scissors at her hand with an expressionless face. "Well at least that way, he won't be dumb and end up almost dead in every scenario." She spoke while flinging it with one finger at him. "Now if you don't mind... I want to go back to sleep."
"That's a simple answer, no. You have school." Lewis spoke while grabbing onto her left wrist, his fingers pressing down on the burns to stop her from moving. "Aah! You piece of leave!" She yanked her hand backwards while staring at him with deep, dark eyes, with an expression that read 'do it again and I will rip your soul out of your body'.
"It's simply unavoidable. That wound is bleeding and if you walk out of this room in that state, George will do the verdict thing for you."
"Then what am I supposed to do? Break a melaminde plate on his head?! It's not like you don't know how to 'clean a wound' properly!" She shouted while grabbing the soaked cotton and doing it herself while gritting her teeth at occasions. Quite some time later, she took the antiseptic and practically silently screamed through the process. But just when she was wrapping the bandage around, using her mouth to tighten the ends, Lewis stopped her abruptly and took away the fabric.
"Well that's not sanitary!" He shouted while getting a clean patch and redoing it. "You just gave it a better reason to just worsen. And this is exactly why you need older siblings to keep you tied to your boundaries. Well some limits can't be crossed and some secrets need to be out." As soon as he was done, his eyes scanned the entire room and Henry who was busy packing the kit back and placing it under her bed again. "You better get down to the dining hall within the next five minutes if you don't want to miss the chocolate cake you liked a month ago."
With a snap of her fingers, she stood up fully changed into a deep red pinafore and coat, while clenching a hat at her hand. "Done." With the single word drifting in the air, she left her room in a sprint and descended the stairs. "She just went away to secure that chocolate cake before us!" The youngest took off a short moment later and that left only the middle brother to stare at the blood-stained fabrics in the ground.
Even as both the siblings were gone, Lewis sat down on the bed and took a look around the room. "Aefia is always organized. But she only organizes when she keeps secrets." He spoke to himself while looking at his own hands next.
"Stephany has crossed the line officially. Should I just kill her?"
"I am tired to having to deal with Aefia every morning. Saying she is tired because she is simply exhausted, but is lying about the fact that she is tired of her own life."