The Fury Within

It was only the soft click of a door latch that woke me.

No footsteps against the plush carpet in my bedroom.

No shouting to get up.

No alarms.

Just the soft click of the door to my room closing in on itself.

My eyes fluttered open, I instinctively pulled the blanket up towards my chest.

"Alex?"

"Morning.." I muttered back, letting the blanket drop slightly in relief. The voice that filled the empty spaces in my room belonged to my twin brother, Jackson. My ride or die, my platonic soulmate, my best friend.

"Come on, we've gotta go."

His voice carried that sort of desperate tone to it, as if he was trying his best to hide whatever emotion he was feeling.

That was typical of Jackson, he hid his feelings so that he could support everybody else with theirs, and only when he was alone did he break.

Often times, he wasn't alone, I was sat there, right beside him. I had coaxed him through so many difficult times before, as he had done with me, we were a package deal.

It had always been that way.

In fact, I can't actually pin-point a single day that we had been apart. Our school had tried to separate us once as children, during a school trip to a Science Museum, they had put us into different groups. Not for long.

We soon broke away from our groups with the sole intention of finding each other again.

That was the day that people had learned that separating us was just not a good idea.

Our mother had tried to tell them this before, no one listened to her, until we gave them no choice but to.

Our mother- our sweet, dedicated, wonderful mother- who worked three jobs to keep our household afloat, who had been our sole caregiver after our father walked away from her on the day we were born, who had raised us to respect those around us and look at everyone with nothing but kindness and respect.

Yet, here we were, on our first day of college, being sent to the opposite end of the country to our mother. We were leaving her alone with our younger sister, Gracie, who had recently turned four, and was the light of our lives.

Jackson's call brought me back to reality. "Alex, come on! We have to go!"

I sighed, dragging myself to the edge of my bed, my blanket still wrapped around me, trapping me like I were the contents of a burrito. "I don't want to get up..."

I heard Jackson groan from across my room, I glanced up to him, he had both of his hands on his face, dragging them down either side of his cheeks, elongating his features. "I really don't care, get up." He snapped back, bending down to grab the clothes that I had picked out the night before. He threw them towards me. "Get up, now."

He turned back towards the door to my room. "See you in five. Downstairs." He added, before grabbing the handle and pulling it open, stepping out to let me change in private.

That was just Jackson, short and snappy, you had to learn to love him, really. He was a hard fish to catch, but once you had him? He was the sweetest person you'd ever meet, mostly.

Jackson and I had always known we were different, special. Maybe that is why he acted as he did. However, this College we were going to? It was designed for children of brilliance, smart and talented kids who were the top of their classes, top of their year, top of it all.

Maybe we wouldn't be so special compared to these kids... Hopefully.

I had always hated being seen...