//------------------------------// // Chapter 24: Shared Burden // Story: Child of Mine // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Kyle spent the next few hours with her laptop, studying her magical instructions. Well, she still wasn’t sure any of it was magical, but given the instant response on her agreement spell it did seem like a safe bet. It was a bit like learning an entirely new branch of mathematics, without the years of lower-level instruction to make her prepared for it. Mostly she stared at the screen, scrolling through pages and trying to feel something that wasn’t there. Monday said this was one of the easiest spells for her to learn. Then why was it so frustratingly difficult? After about an hour of study, her anxiety over Fay had started to grow again, and she packed everything up to head back inside. Sleeping during the day like this was unlike the baby, and the longer she stayed away the more uncomfortable she became.  But there was no fire raging in the house when she came back inside, just her sister sitting quietly in front of the table staring down at something on its surface. She approached slowly, settling her bag down by the door. Was she digging through the abandoned medical supplies? Or… no, that was her phone on the table. She was holding something in her forelegs, trying to hold herself in place while also manipulating something between her hooves. “Are you trying to text?” she asked, gently pushing the door closed. She glanced once down the hallway, just to be sure the bedroom was shut. It was, and there was no wailing calling for her. I guess that makes sense. You changed someone into a horse, and they gave you sleeping drugs. “That’s not going to work.” Kara looked up, glaring. “You should’ve told your freaky baby to give me a horn then. This is… the only way I can think of. The team has to know I won’t make it.” Kyle approached slowly; in case she was lying about what was on her screen. But no, it was just a badly misspelled message to her team. She sighed, nodding towards one of the icons. “Just voice dictate. It’s way better than typing it out letter by letter.” Kara hesitated, then shrugged. “I guess it’s swine flu or whatever, so they won’t let me out. I’m sorry, girls.” A few seconds later and the message appeared. “Wish you’d come in here sooner. I’ve been doing this for an hour.” Kyle nodded. “I was just studying my… magic, I guess? I thought about bringing it inside, but I figured you might want a little time to yourself.” Kara nodded gratefully, not meeting her eyes. “Thanks. I guess it helps, but I’m still not sure… it can get better.” “Probably not,” Kyle agreed. “We can get used to it, but that’s not the same thing.” Kara turned away from the phone, settling back down on her haunches. “So how close are we to fixed, Kyle? How many more hours of practicing do you need until you can change us back?” She opened her mouth to refuse the question, then hesitated. She’d promised quite clearly not to say anything about what she was doing to any human, but Kara wasn’t another human anymore. Why shouldn’t she talk about it? “The first thing Monday sent was a spell to make light. Like a… flashlight, I guess. I don’t know how far the actual transformation is, but I feel like it’s a long way away.” She didn’t want to say it, but… she could lie to her parents, but not to Kara. “If my progress is this slow, I expect it will take months.” And even that was optimistic, since she hadn’t done any magic yet. Only the telekinesis, which didn’t feel anything like what Monday was trying to teach her. Kara shook her head violently. “Hell no are we waiting that long. I can’t just put my life on hold, Kyle.” She turned back, picking up her phone in her mouth and holding it up as best she could. Despite her teeth in the way, Kyle could understand her well. He’d had a lifetime to understand all the silly things Kara could do. “I’ve got things happening! School isn’t just about a place I have to be for a few hours, it’s where my life is!” Kyle’s ears flattened at the implications, though of course she couldn’t argue. School was just an obligation for her, something she’d hated and would’ve quit if her parents let her. “Let me say it a different way, Kara. I want to be changed back as badly as you do. I’m not saying you don’t have more to live for, or whatever you’re trying to say. We all know you’re better than me at everything. I’m not slacking because I can’t understand an entirely new science I’ve never even looked at before yesterday. I’ll spend as much time studying as I can.” Something echoed from the doorway. Kyle turned, halfway expecting the return of those awful doctors—but her fears were in vain. She could only see her parents’ retreating backs. There was a tray in front of the door, one that hadn’t been there before. Kyle hurried over, though she wasn’t fast enough to catch her parents there. They’d already slipped over to the other door, and vanished into the house. Are you afraid of the baby, or us? Either way, the tray was far better prepared than anything they’d done so far. There was a single large bowl of mixed vegetables, along with a liter of juice and some utensils. The veggies smelled fresh, and they looked even better. “You guys didn’t bring me anything like this,” Kyle muttered, settling it onto the kitchen table. She shoved the medical bag up against the wall, nodding towards the bowl. “Go on then. You’re probably hungry.” “I already had breakfast earlier,” Kara said, shrugging one shoulder. “Besides, I’m not eating for two. You can go first.”   Kyle wasn’t about to fight to be the most helpful, not when Kara was entirely right about how hungry she always felt. It wasn’t long before she pulled over a bowl, though she lacked the ability to eat it normally as Kyle had started doing. Kara had to bend down to the bowl, picking things up with her teeth. She tried with one hoof, and entirely failed to manipulate a fork with it. “Well… this is crap,” she muttered. “How is this fair?” Kyle half expected to see the food visible through her body, but that horror didn’t come true. Probably just some weird side-effect to the transformation. One that had faded slower than with Kyle, seeing as her mane still shone metallic. “It’s not. You want to trade being able to use a fork for nursing a baby?” “I probably would’ve eventually,” Kara said, voice defeated. “Didn’t think my twin brother would.” Neither did he. “It does seem worth thinking about,” Kara said, a few moments later. She’d only half-finished her bowl, measured to exactly half in the brotherly way. Kyle watched to see if she would change her mind, then levitated it over and dumped its contents into her own empty bowl. There has to be more we can eat than raw fruits and veggies. It was keeping her alive at least, but it hardly felt like living. How much cold food did she have to endure before she tasted something real again? “Why I’m different. Baby curses both of us. We’re twins, aren’t we supposed to respond to things the same way? Or… wait, that’s maternal twins. You’re not a girl. But now you are, and… you’re more different than before.” She poked Kyle in one wing, looking thoughtful. “You look like her, kinda. Her nurse… her mom, really. I guess that makes sense. But what did she make me? Maybe I’m… more like that magical bedroom. You think maybe she was just trying to recreate something familiar?” “Maybe. She was hungry, so she made someone to feed her. She hated living in the stables, so she changed them. She felt threatened, and… made someone to protect her? Maybe you’re a guard?” Kara rose, twisting her rear slightly towards Kyle. “I’m branded, did you think about that? A stork… could be a baby symbol. Maybe I’m a baby guard.” She settled down onto her haunches, glowering. “I don’t care what it wants me to be. I won’t let her force me into something. You might be cool with a weird alien ruining your whole life, but I’m not.” “I’m not either—” Kyle began, but then she heard something coming from down the hall. A squealing, echoing loudly towards them. There was only one thing that could be. She rose, darting for the bedroom. “I’m coming!” “Yeah, you’re not cool with it,” Kara said flatly. “I totally believe you. That’s why you’re fighting this so hard.” What the hell was I supposed to do, leave her to get eaten by mountain lions? She hurried inside, lifting Fay out of bed. “Morning sweetie! No more mean doctors this time… they’re gone. I wish you could’ve scared them off without attacking Kara, though. She was just trying to help you.” Fay didn’t seem to be listening. She squirmed towards her almost silently, her mouth working. Better in here than out there. The old mattress wasn’t as comfortable as the couch in the nursery, but it was still better than standing up and feeling like she was an animal. Fay had taken her humanity away, but that didn’t mean she had to submit to that change. The baby probably wouldn’t even have wanted her to. The nursery she created was nothing like a stable, but seemed ready for horse-civilization to move in. Kara’s tragic transformation might offer the next clue to where Fay had come from. “What did you do to her?” she asked, knowing full well the baby wouldn’t answer. “Why couldn’t you blast the doctor instead? Kara didn’t deserve it. She only wanted to help us.” Kara appeared in the doorway moments later. She watched silently, ears pressing flat in embarrassment. But what might’ve been mortifying for Kyle to see in her place barely seemed to phase her. “You think she’ll answer you if you keep asking questions like that?” Kyle shrugged, though she couldn’t move far without disturbing the baby. She kept her voice as soft as she could. “Aren’t you supposed to talk to babies? I know they don’t understand, but… everybody does it, don’t they? How are they supposed to learn how to talk otherwise?” Kara shrugged, sitting down again. “I don’t know if that’s touching or grim, Kyle. It’s sweet that you’re willing to help that baby so much, even when it… ruins our lives and stuff. But do you really think you’ll have to worry about how well she learns how to talk? That takes years, and she’s not really yours. You don’t have to worry about raising her, you just have to…” She trailed off. “I don’t know either,” Kyle said. “What am I waiting for? If Monday is right, she didn’t come from a company, she was created by… an Invisible Master, whatever the hell that is. There’s nowhere for her to go. She doesn’t have real parents, only the ones who made her. Probably for selfish reasons. Maybe the reason she made me was because she didn’t have a home.” Kara shrugged. “Maybe. So what? You help her now, while we don’t have any other choice. I probably would’ve helped a helpless little baby too, if I found one in the woods. But sooner or later, we need to decide when enough is enough. She doesn’t get to ruin your life, or our lives, or thousands of other peoples’ lives. Look at what she did to me, Kyle. I’m a fucking horse. Everything is over now. No more sports, no more friends, just hiding in this dusty old room. How many other people does she attack before you let her go?” “As soon as we have somewhere safe for her,” Kyle said weakly. She extended one wing instinctively, covering the baby from Kara’s words. As though that would make any difference. “I will give her up, Kara. I hope I’m wrong, and there’s someone I can give her to. But if not… I’m still trying to find a way to use this magic stuff. Maybe I’ll take care of her after I’m fixed, if there’s nothing else to do with her. That’s… something to worry about later. I still have to learn the magic.” “Or those creepy doctors find a cure,” Kara added. “I don’t know why Grandpa bothered. Were they just here to freak her out and see if she would melt down? If so, let’s point her towards them next time. Maybe they’ll be even smaller horses than we are.”