Echoborne

I’m sure you've all heard stories about twins-how strong their bond is. Twins are known to be inseparable. They finish each other's thoughts, and can feel each other’s pain. They have this instant connection, like a tether between them has existed since the womb, before words ever existed, before they took their first breath.

We were never those kinds of twins. 

Elisio and I had the same DNA. We looked so alike to the point where our own parents struggled to tell us apart. We had that same freckle above our right cheek, same dimples and thick, wavy black hair from our mother. Our eyes were ebony just like our father’s, but unlike him we did not have that lifeless dull look to them like he always wore.

Elisio despised me, and I am not afraid to admit it, I hated him too. Now that we were seventeen our fights had become more aggressive, more violent. A while ago he broke my arm, I made sure to return the favor. Our parents usually fixed this by sending whoever was bleeding to the hospital.

Tonight was different. My father insisted we eat dinner together with Tia Lidia, who was visiting from Colombia. We never had a family dinner; we were not that kind of family. You could say that my mother was a rather cold person, not an ounce of maternal instinct in her blood. She cared about her looks and lavish parties with the elite. She always calculated her next move, which is probably why she married our father. Father had a growing potbelly, hairy arms and a receding hairline but most of all- money. He barely spoke with us but rather showed his love by throwing money to our private school and extravagant birthday parties. He had no sense of humor and spoke in a monotone voice. The only time I had ever heard him raise his voice with emotion was on his business calls. Nothing about him stood out, unlike my mother whose beauty demanded attention in every room she entered. 

I poked at the dinner our chef had prepared, wishing I was anywhere but this pathetic attempt at being a close-knit family. Sharp pain shot through my shin and a quiet curse escaped me. There was no need to look up, I knew who did it. I already knew if I looked up, I would see Elisio smirking at me from across the table. That same stupid smirk that made his dimples deepen as he relished getting a reaction from me.

“Dario needs to be seen by a doctor.” Tia Lidia said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. I watched her studying my face. I simply stared back, face blank. A night of drinking too much and I had got it in my head to pierce my lip by myself. It looked cool at the moment but now, two days later I had a bad feeling that it was getting infected, which I would never admit. Safe to say, my face wasn’t looking its hottest.

 Elisio had wasted no time as soon as he saw it while we crossed paths. 

“Looks like someone made out with a stapler." 

We began our usual routine, words turned into fists. When Elisio cut my lip, the housekeeper muttered under her breath to the chef this was not healthy behavior.

“He’s fine,” my mother said, snapping her fingers signaling for another glass of wine. Father looked at me through bleary eyes, already drunk on something much stronger than the wine that was being served.

“Honestly Catalina,” Tia Lidia continued “Look at him. Do you not- ”

“You are welcome to leave my home whenever you wish. No one asked you to stay this long, Lidia.” My mother said, a queen holding court.

“I’m fine.” I snapped, probably a little too loudly since father and the servants jumped from my sudden outburst. Father looked at me, face scrunched into something unreadable before he faded away again. Mother looked directly at me.

"Elisio is fine."

She frowned for a second, rubbing her temple.

"I mean... Dario."

 She took a long sip of her wine glass, checking to see if her lipstick had stained it before putting it down.

Tia Lidia turned her attention towards my father. “Julio?” 

He glanced up at her. “What is it?” He asked, confused.

Elisio kicked me again on the shin. My fingernails dug into my palms painfully as I tried to calm myself down. I would not let Elisio get the reaction he was looking for. He smirked and kicked one more time on my other shin.

“Stop it!” I exploded. So much for not giving him a reaction.

Tia Lidia’s eyes widened, surprised and confused. With that I got up leaving the table, I could hear the sound of a chair scrape across the tile floor. 

“Dario!” Tia Lidia called after me and father sighed loudly. Elisio took his chance and left as well, following a step behind me. Tia Lidia spoke to my mother in rapid-fire Spanish. 

Once we were up the flight of stairs we each went to our separate master bedrooms. For a split second we both looked at each other instead of scowling, a rare moment in agreement that dinner was a mess as usual.

“Dario needs to be seen by a doctor” He mimicked Tia Lidia’s voice, ruffling my hair. He used to do that when we were younger whenever I was upset. I always told him I hated it.

“Shut up. Leave me alone.” I walked to my room giving him the finger without looking back.

There was homework that needed to be done but I did not care. Our father had donated to our school to build a new gym; it gave us perks. Grabbing my cellphone, I scrolled through my texts and saw one of my girlfriend Julia.

It was a simple text. A red heart followed by the words ‘I love you and want you to know you can always talk to me.’ Sweet, but no thanks. I texted back saying I would call her later tonight. She was the only good thing in my life lately. For the past two months since the accident, kids at school had started avoiding me. Elisio had probably spread another rumor, like the one in seventh grade when he'd convinced everyone I had lice. Everyone had avoided me for almost a month with that one.

I scrolled through Instagram seeing a party that was posted not too long ago. Elisio stood in the middle of the picture with a bottle raised over his head grinning. Marcus had posted it. He was my best friend, not my brother’s! 

I tossed my phone onto the bed and marched straight to Elisio’s room. He was on the phone talking to someone. He scowled, motioning with his hand to leave, which I chose to ignore.

“Why are you hanging out with Marcus? He is my friend not yours.”

“Get out.” He pushed me away ignoring my question.

“Everything all right?” a sweet voice asked through the phone. I froze. 

“You're talking to Julia?” My voice broke a little at the end. 

Without thinking, I tackled him down on the floor, phone flying out of his hand. Elisio shoved me off him unfazed as I rushed to the phone and grabbed it before Elisio could.

“Julia?” My voice shook.

“Dario?”

Elisio ripped the phone from my hand. “Hey, I'll call you back later, ok?” He quickly hung up. “Maybe she wants the better twin.” he teased. “Why are you jealous or someth-”

I snatched his phone and threw it against the wall with everything I had in me. A satisfied crack echoed through the large room. Elisio scrambled, picking it up to access the damage. His nostrils flared in anger.

“You broke my screen!”

I approached him crowding into his space. “Stay away from my girlfriend!”

Pain exploded across my face. I pressed a hand to my nose. It was always the effing nose with him. My nose should have hurt, but the pain barely registered.

 “You’re dead to me!” I wanted to gouge out his stupid dimples.  

“Whatever, bro. Get out of my room!” 

I turned and walked out before he could see my reaction. The hallway was quiet as I tried to calm my breathing like a therapist once told me years ago. My ears were ringing as I tried to breathe and count to ten. Once the ringing stopped and my surroundings returned to focus, I found Tia Lidia in front of me.

“You're bleeding! What happened?” She looked behind me at Elisio’s bedroom, loud music vibrating through the door. She processed, putting the pieces together. A drop of blood dripped down my face landing on the Persian carpet. Awesome. 

“Dario” she says gently “I know things have been -”

“Stop. Just stop.”

I walked away, closing my door before she could follow me. I would deal with Julia later, once I’d calmed down. She knew what Elisio was to me. Always competitive, always fighting and she was talking to him? My rival since birth? She could have the better twin. 

I put my phone down on my night table and took out the bottle of Hennessy that I’d stolen from dad’s office. I drank it down until everything felt numb. My room slowly began spinning, my king mattress started to feel like a cozy, leisurely boat ride. My limbs grew heavy, warm and I started to feel detached from everything. My body was miles away as I fell into blissful oblivion.

Sunrays filtered through curtains waking me up. My eyelids felt heavy and gritty. A headache started up again like it always did when I drank too much. My nose felt swollen and crusty. Oh, the dried-up blood from the nose bleed. Gross.

I fought the urge to throttle my own reflection once I was in front of my bathroom mirror. My reflection always felt like looking at Elisio and not myself. Avoiding looking into my own eyes, I took the damage in. Nose swollen but not broken. My lip piercing was inflamed and angry looking. Nothing else of notice besides the blood from my nose which I started to wash off. With a fresh set of clothes I feel a little better, more like myself.

I had to talk to Julia and break things off with her. She wanted to talk and hang out with Elisio fine, but I wanted no part of it. My phone was not on the night stand, I looked around throwing things throughout the chaotic bedroom. Where was it?

 I hunted until I found it on my dresser, next to the photo frame of me and Elisio as kids. My body froze, noticing a large crack on my screen. It was so big I could barely see the words and text notifications through it. The photoframe of me and Elisio was cracked as well. Elisio had gone as far as scratching my face out of the photograph. I was going to kill him.

 I found Elisio in his bathroom checking himself out. I threw my phone at him hitting him right on the back of his head. He whirled around, pupils turning black in fury.

“You broke my phone last night Dario! Fair is fair”

“Fair is fair?! You are literally cheating on me with my girlfriend”

“Don’t you mean soon to be ex?”

 I lunged at him, slamming his face into the mirror. A yelp of pain escaped Elisio as shards of glass embedded into his cheeks. For the first time I saw fear in his eyes. A small part of me felt satisfied.

“You little shit!” He came at me throwing wild punches until I slammed against the mahogany bed frame, my forehead catching the corner. I could feel the large gash on my forehead and the blood.

“What are you doing?!” Elisio stopped wailing on me out of breath as we both turned to see Tia Lidia looking horrified. She crossed herself before running down the hall shouting for my mother. Elisio and I locked eyes, surveying the damage we had caused one another. 

“This is all your fault!” we said simultaneously which further aggravated me. Elisio's eyes shot daggers at me, his face showing he felt the same way.

“It’s not my fault,” I said quietly into the empty air between us. We stared at each other still trying to catch our breaths. 

 “We need stitches again,” he finally said, breaking the silence. “You need to stop this, Dario. You need help.”

“Me?!” 

A wail sounded from the door and we both spun around. My mother and Tia Lidia were there, our mother holding the door frame for support.

“I told you Catalina. I kept telling you!” She yelled at my mother who seemed to be in a trance.

“We are fine!” I shouted even though we all knew this was a lie.

“We are fine.” Dario repeated after me, as if we both said it, it would be the truth.

Our mother and Tia Lidia just stared until mother left the room yelling into her phone, most likely for the chauffeur to take us to the hospital again.

Tia Lidia took small unsteady steps into the room, like a little scared animal. Her hands were shaking.

“You call this fine?” She motioned around the room in a quiet voice. Elisio and I looked at each other unsure how to answer. 

“We both know we probably need stitches and stuff.” He responded.

 Tia Lidia gathered herself and gently touched my face, her hands soft and small. I swiped her hand away. Elisio took a few steps closer to Tia and stood next to her cautiously. His eyes took in Tia Lidia's expression before he turned to me.

“You need to stop this, Dario,” Elisio said.

“Me! You started it! You are the one who is taking everything from me. My friends, even Julia-”

“Look at this. Look at us!” Elisio pointed to his face, the glass shards glistened in the morning light. His forehead with a gruesome gash. He touched his nose, wincing slightly like I had done earlier. He also had an infected lip piercing. Since when did he also pierce his lip?

“Dario,” Tia Lidia said gently, “you and Elisio were in a car accident-”

“Tia, I know about the accident!”

 “Elisio isn’t here-”

“He’s literally right there!” My finger was right in Elisio’s face.

“Both of you were drinking and driving,” Tia Lidia continued, talking through her tears. “You survived but Elisio has been gone for over two months”

My heart pounded through my ears, feeling dizzy and nauseous. My skin felt too tight, too hot- I wanted to crawl out of it. I hadn’t realized my knees were buckling under me until I felt Tia Lidia holding me. I stared at Elisio desperately as he looked at me crying. Seeing him crying terrified me.

“He is here! He is alive. Elisio, tell her!” Elisio did not answer me, his body flickered and faded for a heartbeat.

More footsteps burst into Elisio's room. Two men in nursing outfits immediately restrained me, pulling Tia Lidia away like I would harm her. I never would, the only person I harmed was Elisio.

“It’s not your fault, Dario” Elisio said crouched next to me as a man uncapped a syringe and plunged it into my forearm. I did not even struggle against him, feeling my limbs shaking, my chest crushing into itself. 

 “Stop blaming yourself. It’s killing you, bro”

I started fading in and out, Elisio the only thing I could still see clearly. “Don’t leave me." I begged as the drug overtook me, sweeping me away into darkness. Elisio ruffled my hair as he once did when we were kids, his injuries all gone. Not a single drop or scrape. He looked healthy. He looked alive.

“Don’t worry Dario, I won't ever leave you”