Chapter 62: The Other Half
"Shouldn't we bring this poor thing back to its room? I'm sure it'd love to go home," Lucien said, flashing them a faint smile. He seemed to be looking right at Truman.
Nuri caught something weird, though.
Not once had Lucien actually looked at the creature like it was a monster.
Nuri didn't have much time to chew on that. He glanced around the hallway.
Where's Mo?
Usually, the charm was perched right on Lucien's umbrella handle. But Lucien hadn't even brought the umbrella today. They were always together. Where did it go?
Alina and Nuri just nodded, stepping out into the hall, but Nuri couldn't shake the knot in his gut.
Was he missing something obvious?
Back when they first came up here, they had left Truman resting in his bed. But when they reached the nursery, there was no way Truman could've slipped past them. In fact, his bedroom didn't even have a second door.
And that creature had such a heavy, oppressive presence...
How had Truman left without anyone noticing?
A drop of cold sweat ran down Nuri's temple. He reached out to grab Alina's sleeve, but a cold hand clamped down on his wrist.
Nuri flinched.
Lucien was staring right at him, his golden eyes flat. "Don't overthink it. Let's get them back, shall we?"
Lucien stepped past him, falling into step beside Alina and striking up a casual conversation.
Nuri stared at his sister's back.
She knows who he is, and she's just chatting with him like an old buddy?!
Nuri squeezed his eyes shut. Alina, seriously! He is not someone you just make friends with!
The creature limped beside Nuri, matching his slow stride. Nuri looked at its distorted, peeling face, wondering what kind of nightmare Talia had put her own blood through. To do this to your own kid... she was pure garbage.
The hall was empty all the way back. Nobody around. Same as when they first arrived.
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Which brought up another problem: how was this whole floor spotless if no servants ever stepped foot up here?
Maybe he was just losing his mind.
"Come on, Truman. Back inside. You need rest," Alina said, her voice softening with pity.
She pushed open the bedroom door, then went dead still.
"What's wrong?" Nuri asked, crowding up behind her.
Then he saw it.
Both of them stared at the bed, frozen.
Truman was sitting right there on the mattress, smiling. It was a broad, bright smile, way bigger than before.
The creature behind them let out a high, raspy cry of joy.
"Truwan!"
The monster scrambled past Alina, throwing its long, twisted arms around the boy on the bed and burying its face in his shoulder.
Nuri and Alina stood in the doorway, jaws open.
The realization hit Nuri like a punch to the chest.
That's why the kid's face looked familiar.
"What are you standing there for? Get inside," Lucien said behind them.
He nudged them through the door, pulled out a wooden chair, and sat down at the table, helping himself to the pastries like he owned the place.
Nuri shoved Alina the rest of the way in and slammed the heavy door shut.
"Explain," Nuri said, his voice dropping as he stared down the boy on the bed.
Truman held the creature tight against his ribs. "This... this is my twin."
Alina's mouth hung open. She shot Nuri a look, like she was checking if her ears were playing tricks on her.
Nuri just gave her a grim nod.
"I can finally say it," Truman murmured. "I needed you to go down there so you'd bring my brother back up here."
He squeezed his twin tighter. "We're incomplete without each other. If we stay separated too long, we start dying."
"I'm guessing Talia split you two up because she hated how close you were?" Lucien asked from the table, resting his elbow on the wood while he chewed.
"Yeah..." Truman gave a bitter, empty laugh. "To her, my twin was the only cursed one. She separated us, but that just made me sicker."
His chest heaved.
"So she decided that if Truwan killed someone, I'd magically recover." He let out a dry, hollow laugh. "Haha..."
He rocked his twin back and forth, holding him like fragile glass.
"What did she even do to get you born under a curse like this?" Nuri asked. His vision swam a bit from the heat in the room.
Truman dropped his eyes. "She cursed the God of Sacrifice."
Nuri locked up.
"The god got angry," Truman whispered. "Unfortunate for us. I don't think she ever meant for it to hit us."
He stroked his brother's twisted back. "When we were born, she threw Truman away because she couldn't stand looking at him. As far as she cared, I was the only child."
A small, sad smile touched his lips. "Didn't work out for her. We're the same existence. So Truman found his way back to me."
He looked into the creature's hollow eye sockets. "He can't talk like us, but he understands. He thinks. He feels. He's not a monster."
Truman looked up at them. "He just looks a little different."
"Makes sense to me. I've seen things like him before," Lucien said smoothly.
Nuri shot Lucien a sharp glare. Was that supposed to be comforting? Did Lucien just think every human was a monster inside anyway?
"Ah... that's why he was crying in the nursery," Nuri muttered, remembering the wet tracks on the creature's face. "He feels everything, but he can't speak."
Heat flushed up Nuri's neck. He felt sick with shame over how he'd panicked when the thing first chased them down the hall.
He looked up, and his eyes met Lucien's. Lucien was watching him with that knowing, clinical stare, reading him like an open scroll. Nuri immediately looked away at his boots.
"Is there really no way to undo it?" Nuri asked, looking back at the bed. "No way to heal him?"
Truman's smile cracked. He turned his head toward the dark window pane outside.
"I..." His voice trailed off into a barely audible whisper. "No. We just want to get out of this house..."