Lightbearer

by L.C. Davis

“Once upon a time, a delivery boy met the devil.

I’m starting to like him. Kind of. Too bad one of us has to die, and it isn’t gonna be me.

“Cheese, you’re an asshole.”

We’re twins, but she got all the stick-up-the-ass genes and I got all the anxiety and our mom’s penchant for day drinking. Definitely the short end of the stick, but again, at least it’s not up my ass.

Nice guy for someone who probably had a freezer full of heads.

I’ve always had a hard time keeping my mouth shut about “sensitive political topics” like who I fuck and whether people like me should have the right to exist.

According to my shrink, at any rate. She also thought my daddy issues were why my last five boyfriends had a leather kink, so I took everything she said with a grain of salt.

When she finally answered, relief and brotherly love overflowed within me and I blurted out, “Holy fuck, you look like shit.”

The bond between twins. Beautiful and everlasting.

Reality and Sirena have never been on good terms. Kind of like me and the local transit authority.

Compared to her, I usually look like someone who snuck into the family reunion for the free tacos.

Her smile was strained and it pulled at something in my chest. That invisible string that had always connected us, no matter how far apart we were. Or maybe it was heartburn. Either way, it was acting up big time.

She raised an eyebrow. “Why is drag your solution to everything?” “I look amazing in fishnets,”

“Bullshit. Physics is complicated, making flan is complicated, those dreams I used to have about furries are complicated, but there’s nothing complicated about some asshole scaring the shit out of you,” I said firmly.

She was my other half. The better one, for sure. As much as I hated myself, I’d never been able to hate her.

If this nameless prick thought he was gonna take her from me, he had another thing coming.

Apparently, Apollyon was the Greek name for Abaddon, King of the Demons, Lord of Destruction and all-around stand-up guy.

We’d always been connected. I didn’t know what it was like to live without her, I just knew it would be so earth shattering that I’d know if she was gone.

A lot of wondering if the weight on your chest is because your muscles are finally starting to atrophy like the doctors always told you they would, or because she’s gone. Because she’s gone and you could’ve fucking stopped it if your head wasn’t so far up your ass you’d never need a colonoscopy.