Tied Together With A Smile

I lay in bed that night, my mind reeling way too much for me to sleep. I can see without my glasses now. I can hear things that I wouldn't have been able to hear a day ago. My tears have crazy magic healing powers.

My stress level is up so high I can't even think of the word "sleep" right now.

So much has happened in such a short span of time. Liam almost dying, me saving his life with my crazy magic tears, and me finding out I'm actually a mythical bird who might be able to control fire and fly.

After Deaton explained everything, he did a series of tests to test my vision, hearing, strength, endurance, and agility.

For the first time in forever I was able to run a mile with Liam in six minutes, scale a large tree with ease, pick up heavy weights, and hear Liam's heartbeat from across the room.

In fact I am practicing right now by listening to Liam's heartbeat while he sits in his room. The steady beat of it is the only thing keeping me calm right now otherwise I would probably have a mental breakdown.

I thought the stress of keeping the whole Brett thing away from Liam was bad enough, but now this has just added to that and made it much worse.

Not to mention every time I close my eyes I see Liam bleeding out on the roof of the hospital.

I honestly wish my tears were made of Valium right now so I could actually sleep.

I suddenly hear Liam's heartbeat elevate.

What is he doing?

Then I hear a whir and click of a printer and Liam's heart beat even faster.

What's going on in there?

Curiosity takes over me and I get out of bed and pad softly to my door and open it. I hear the printer still running and knock on Liam's door, quietly so I don't wake our parents. Liam doesn't answer so slowly open the door and peek inside.

Papers litter the floor and more are coming out of the printer that Liam is standing at, trying to turn off. I see him pressing the cancel button, but it doesn't stop the endless spew of papers. He finally unplugs it which makes it stop, and we are left in silence, the only thing I hear is Liam's wild heartbeat.

"Liam?" I whisper.

My twin's dirty blonde head whips around in fear. His blue eyes land on my similar eyes and he visibly relaxes.

"What happened?" I ask him,stepping into the room to pick up one of the papers on the ground.

"It wouldn't stop," he mumbles.

"Why, what did it print?" I ask. I flip over the paper to see a very familiar looking paper.

"The dead pool," Liam answers.

***

Liam and I collected all the papers up and sorted the different lists so they were in neat piles Liam's bed. I pick one up from the first list we cracked and look at all the names crossed out. "Liam, Derek isn't on here anymore."

Liam doesn't respond to me. I glance up to see him reading one of the other lists. "But you are."

"What?" I look over his shoulder at the list of names and see two names right next to each other.

Liam Dunbar 7

Lily Dunbar 11

"You're worth 4 more million dollars now," I tell him.

"And you're worth 11," he replies.

"Should we call Scott?" I ask him, sitting down on his bed.

"No, it's 2am," he tells me. "Scott's asleep right now. We'll tell him tomorrow, but I think we all already assumed that you would end up on the list." His jaw is set and his fists are visibly clenched.

"Liam, are you okay?" I look up at my brother's glaring face.

"If anyone lays a finger on you, I'm going to kill them," he says, a low growl in his voice. "I can't lose you."

"I won't let you lose me," I tell him, grabbing his hand comfortingly. "Li, those two times I thought I lost you were the most unbearable moments of my life. I would die protecting you, but from experiencing the pain of thinking that I lost you, I wouldn't want you to suffer that way either. I don't want to suffer like that again. Us Dunbars are sticking together."

He smiles a bit at me and nods. I know something is troubling him right now, and I don't know if I should pry.

"I'm gonna head back to bed now, I think," I tell him. "We still have school, you know, that thing that normal teenagers go to?"

Liam doesn't think my joke is funny. It's quite the opposite actually. I see fear register on his face again as I stand up. "Are you sure? I mean, are you okay enough to sleep?"

"Okay enough to sleep?" I repeat in a question. "Liam what's wrong? I know something is freaking you out. What is it?"

My brother's voice hardens. "Only if you tell me what's been keeping you up these past few nights."

I stop in my tracks as if I was a robber who was caught red handed stealing from a jewelry shop. "I don't know what you mean," I squeak out and wince at my terrible acting. I could never lie to Liam even if I wanted to.

"You're lying, Lils," he confirms. "Why have you been so jumpy since you went back to Devonford? Did Brett do something to you?" His voice gets louder and angrier at the last sentence.

I shush him since our parents are trying to sleep and bite my lip trying to think of a way to explain everything to him.

"So it is about Brett," Liam huffs. "What did he do to you, Lils? He didn't hurt you, did-"

"No, no, he didn't hurt me," I cut him off shaking my head.

"Okay, cause I can maybe beat him up now if you wanted me," he shrugs, which makes me crack a smile. "I mean, I am worth a lot more than him on the dead pool, but what did he do?"

I hesitate then take a deep breath. "You know the whole story that Brett told all of us about his old girlfriend that he hurt by accident on the full moon?" Liam nods. "Well, he ran out afterwards cause it brought up some really bad memories, so I followed him outside to see if he was okay. He was standing outside the station trying to calm himself down. When he did, he told me that Emmet was right for calling him a monster. He was talking about the same things you were like how he was a monster and a freak so I told him the same thing Scott told you."

"Not all monsters do monstrous things," Liam mumbles, cutting me off.

I nod and continue. "After that we kinda just sat next to the station and talked for a bit. Then he- he, um..."

"He what?" Liam urged.

"He, uh, told me he liked me since we started at Devonford," I mumbled.

Liam's face went from concerned to surprise, then to confusion. "But he acted like he hated you all semester."

"I know, but he said he wanted to keep me away from him because he was afraid of repeating what happened with his last girlfriend. He didn't want to hurt me, so he made sure we hated him so I would stay away and you would keep him away."

"That's so dumb," Liam replies. "He could have just avoided you instead of putting you through hell, and why did he drag me into it?"

"He didn't trust himself," I tell him. "He thought that since I take your opinion into consideration a lot, if you hated him too I would make sure to avoid him."

Liam doesn't look convinced. "Why did he tell you now?" he asks instead. "And how did you reply?"

"I couldn't," I tell him. "I didn't know what to say, but he said that he told me now because he couldn't take it anymore. He didn't want to drag me into the supernatural world, but when he found out that you became a werewolf, he gave in. He was also scared that I would think he's a monster if I found out, but he saw that I was still okay with you and normal to him when I found out he was a werewolf that he decided he wanted to tell me. Then, um, he- uh. We, um- we kissed..."

"You what?!" Liam tensed, looking at me with wide eyes. "You- you kissed Brett. Brett Talbot. The guy who made us both miserable in our first semester of high school."

"Liam-"

"Why?" Liam cuts me off, ignoring me. "Were you-"

"Liam," I say louder, stopping his rant. "Afterwards, I told him that it was a mistake. I said that even though I forgave him for the things he did to me, I couldn't forgive him yet for all the things he did to you. That I don't involve myself with people who hurt the people I love."

Liam is quiet for a bit, mulling over what I just told him. "So you said you wouldn't be with him because of me?" He asks.

"Of course," I tell him. "I don't associate with people who hurt you."

"Then why have you been so miserable since then?" he asks.

Why have I been so miserable? I just rejected a guy. That's it.

"I hated keeping a secret from you," I say, halfheartedly.

"You like him," Liam states.

"I don't," I defend.

Why would he think that I like the guy who bullied the both of us a few months ago? I would never like someone like Brett.

"Lils, I know you better than anyone else," I tells me. "I knew when you had that crush on Mason before he came out."

"Did not!" I say, hotly.

Liam gives me a look with his eyebrows raised. "Oh really?" He says, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "You always looked at him with big googly eyes and always asked to play video games with us when he was over even though I know you don't like video games."

"Okay fine," I say making him grin in victory. "Yes, I liked Mason a few years ago, but this thing with Brett is different. I don't like him. He hurt you, Liam. I can't like people who hurt the people I care about."

"Look, you know I don't like Brett," he tells me. "I don't trust him and neither should you. Just stay away from him."

"Trust me, I will. I don't like him anyway," I argue.

"Lils, you're lying again and not just to me, but yourself too," he replies. "You like him and you're denying it. Just don't do anything stupid, please."

"I won't," I tell him. "I'm perfectly fine and have a good head on my shoulders."

"You've been sulking all week," he replies.

"Well you've been extremely jumpy the past two days," I shoot back.

"I fought eight foot tall creatures made of bones and almost died," he replies in a hard voice. "Of course I'm jumpy."

I'm silent for a bit. I've been stressing over myself so much I haven't asked Liam if he's okay.

"How are you holding up?" I ask, softly.

"Could be better," he mutters. "I keep thinking they'll show up out of nowhere. I wasn't able to sleep last night and I don't think tonight's going to be much better."

"You can't sleep?" I ask. He shakes his head. "Why?"

"I don't know," he mumbles. "I just get scared when I hear the slightest noise. I keep thinking that a berserker is behind me or someone who wants to kill me."

"I haven't been able to sleep either," I say, softly.

"Why can't you?" Liam asks me.

"Every time I close my eyes to sleep... I see you dying on the roof again," I say in a whisper. "That image has been burned into my brain and is haunting my dreams. I almost lost you again."

"But you saved me," he replies, pulling me into a hug. My head rests on his shoulder and his is on mine. "You're the reason I'm alive. I'm scared for you since you're now on the dead pool."

We sit in silence, comforting each other.

"Look at us messes," I mumble with a small laugh. "Tied together with a smile, but we're coming undone."

"We'll be messes together," he replies, and I feel him grin.

"Sounds great," I tell him with a chuckle. I put back and stand up. "I'm gonna try to sleep now. I need to get at least an hour or I'm dead."

"I'll still be up probably," Liam tells me. "Since I can't sleep I might as well catch up on Riverdale."

"Sounds lit. I might join you," I tell him, snapping a finger gun at him ironically. There was a small flash of light by my hand and I jump in surprise.

"What the hell?" Liam mumbles.

"What was that?" I gasp, examining my hand and then shaking it out.

"That almost looked like sparks were just shooting out of your hand," he tells me.

"What?" I say. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Wait, Lils." Liam stands up from his bed and takes a step closer. "Snap your fingers again."

I raise my right hand and snap my fingers. Just then a flame of light appears as if I was holding a lighter. I let out a yelp and shake my hand, making the flame disappear.

Out of curiosity, I raise my hand and snap again. I see the flame ignite and stare at it in shock.  I glance over at Liam who wears a mirrored expression of mine. "Is this a Phoenix thing?" I ask.

"I think so." Liam says, staring at the flame flickering on my index finger.

"We'll add that to the list of things to tell Scott," I tell him.