The Bond That Holds Us

A tragic story about the love twins hold for each other.

               She ran full out, her bare feet stabbing the hot pavement with urgency. Sweat flowed eagerly down her face but she didn’t care. Her eyes were focused on one destination; one she didn’t even know. Elli panted, her breath haggard as she tried to figure out the reason behind her running. She could only remember that feel… The need to go somewhere -to someone. With each painful, boiling step was a rhythm: Step, step, step… Alex, Alex, Alex. The unexplained tie, the string that held the two twin sisters together was loosening within Elli and she couldn’t understand why. What was going on that made the bond feel so weak?

“What are you doing?!” Alex cried. Elli looked up, bewildered. 

“What do you mean?” She asked, her eyebrows arching downwards.

“What do I mean? I mean what the hell are you doing with my diary!” Alex screeched, her eyes blazing red. She stormed across their joint bedroom and ripped the book from Elli’s hands.

“I didn’t know it was your diary!” Elli replied. Alex glared at her.

“Yes, you did!” Alex retorted. Elli gawked at her sister. She saw her face looking back at her in twisted rage, the absolute opposite of herself. Elli felt defenseless. Alex had the upper hand; she was staring down at Elli who was sitting casually on her bed.

“I swear, Alex! I didn’t know! I’m sorry, really!” Elli pleaded with her but Alex saw only red. Why was she so angry? Elli couldn’t figure it out. Sure, she had her diary but it was both an accident and not that big of a deal. What had happened?

“Listen, Alex, sis… What happened? Did you get into another fight with mom?” Elli asked, concerned.

“What does it matter to you? Oh right, you’re mommy’s little sweetheart, I forgot. If I tell you, you’ll probably just gossip about it with mom like the two old ladies you are,” Alex jeered. Elli flinched.

“That’s not right, Alex. I didn’t do anything to deserve that,” Elli whispered, hurt.

“Of course you didn’t. Just like you don’t deserve s**t, you spoiled brat,” Alex spat.

Elli snapped and jumped off the bed, only inches away from Alex’s face.

“Just like you don’t deserve Mom’s or Dad’s love because you’re an ungrateful, rotten, stupid punk!” Elli growled at Alex, her face now matching her twin’s. Alex’s face faltered and for a moment, showed vulnerability. Then her face twisted again and before Elli could react, slapped her across the face. Elli’s jaw dropped, her hand instinctively going to her struck cheek. She stared, shocked, at the floor as Alex stormed out of the room. Suddenly Elli whirled around, anger back in her face, to face the back of her retreating sister.

“I HATE YOU!” She screamed at Alex. Alex glanced back, her face a mix of pain and heated rage. Then she headed out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

Elli snapped back to the present, a frown cemented onto her face. She wasn’t the one to get angry, never, but something just snapped in her the other day. It was so petty, she thought to herself; hardly reason to scream that horrible word. 

Suddenly, Elli caught a glimpse of her brunette hair a few streets ahead. A smile broke out on her face as she recognized the identical petite size and height that identified her other half, Alex. Her clothes on the other hand were more radical. 

“Elli is the sweet and Alex is the sour,” mom used to say when guests came over.

She wouldn’t have thought so if she’d seen the fight. The two were balanced in sour then. Elli shook off the thought and raced to reach her sister. The bond was shaky and she needed to repair it. Maybe it was the fight that had loosened the strand that held the two together; maybe that was what she was feeling. So Elli would apologize and that bother would go away. Easy as pie, she thought.

And then she saw Alex walk across the empty street just as a car was turning into it, moving way too fast for legal. Elli’s heart and stomach dropped to the sidewalk beneath her.

“No,” She breathed and then louder, “NO!” She bolted across the street and threw herself into her sister but it was too late. 

The car hit them both. Elli took the brunt of it, having pushed Alex almost totally out of the way. She grunted as the front of the car hit her ribs with a sickening crack, a piercing pain stabbed into her lungs and heart. Everything became blotched with black spots. The headlights slammed into Alex, bruising her waist and cracking one of her ribs. The glass stabbed into her side and she screeched out in pain.

The car jolted to a stop then. Elli and Alex collapsed to the concrete floor, causing both of their heads slight damage. Alex blinked, her vision obscured by something red. Blood was trickling from her forehead. She glanced over at Elli, lying limp on the ground, her head injury worse than Alex’s. Elli, her eyelids drooped, stared idly at Alex and gave a sigh of relief when she moved to come closer to Elli. 

“Elli? Elli? Speak to me, Elli,” Alex pleaded, her voice cracking as sobs broke through. Elli opened her mouth to speak but the pain in her lungs restrained her. She felt dizzy, lightheaded, and sighed again as warm liquid ran over her face. It was a strange sensation. Alex’s face morphed into panic and pain as she watched her sister dwindle in and out. The driver of the car that hit them jumped out panicked.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” he sobbed and reached into his pocket, pulling out a cell phone.

“911? Um, I just… I just hit two girls with my car. Teenage girls. Oh my god… Please, an ambulance!” He shrieked into the phone.

Alex crawled to Elli’s side, ignoring the stabs of glass. 

“Elli? It’s going to be OK. I know it is. Elli, Elli, please. Stay with me, Elli,” Alex pleaded as she brushed the hair away from Elli’s blood soaked face. 

“Alex…” Elli whispered. It took so much for her to even utter her name.

“Yes, Elli?” Alex was clutching at straws now, at anything that would keep Elli talking and alive.

“I’m… I’m sorry I said those mean things, Alex,” she gasped as her lungs caved in on themselves.

Alex broke down into tears.

“I’m the one who should be sorry. I was mean for no reason. I didn’t mean to… really,” Alex sobbed and curved her hand to fit Elli’s face. Slowly, Elli was fading.

“I don’t… Hate you,” Elli whispered, her breathing becoming shallow.

“I know you don’t. I don’t either, Elli. I don’t either,” Alex said, leaning over and kissing Elli’s forehead. Her lips came away blood red but she didn’t care. Elli’s eyes overflowed with tears as she closed them.

“I love you,” Elli whispered.

“I love you too. Always,” Alex said, sobbing and gasping uncontrollably. 

“Always,” Elli breathed. 

She sighed in relief as she slipped into a happy light, the bond between them forming into an impenetrable string of gold. 

 

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