15. The Wonder Twins
Chapter 15
The Wonder Twins
B ellagio - Las Vegas, Nevada
April 17, 2018
(4 Days Before Death)
“Darlene?”
Together they had saved Lucio, but at what cost? When her sister’s hand slipped from hers and she lay completely still, Dolly panicked. She picked up Darlene’s badly injured body and brought her into her arms. She sobbed. The tears that flowed were endless.
“Please, please wake up. Please. Please.”
“What are you doing?”
Startled, Dolly's head whipped to the right. Darlene stood behind her. Not as the six-year-old in her arms, but as the woman Dolly knew her to be. When Dolly looked down, she noticed young Darlene was no longer cradled near her breast. It was a version of her. She wore the white shirt and jeans she’d chosen to put on when they left the canyon. A version of her on the bed in the hotel suite with blood spittle all over the front of her white shirt.
“What is happening?”
“I dunno,” said Darlene.“Do you remember when I told you about that vampire? The one that is the father?”
Dolly nodded.
“I think this is his place. We need to leave,” Darlene whispered.
The girls saw the darkness shifting. To them, it appeared thick, alive, scaly, like a coiled snake around them. It got tighter and closer.
Dolly laid the version of her she held back down into the darkness. It moved swifter like smoke and washed over the physical body they both had departed from. She looked at her sister. “I don’t understand any of this.
“Me either,” Darlene whispered. She knelt at Dolly’s side. They stared at the Dolly who lay before them like a sleeping beauty. “Is that how Lucio sees us now? He must be so scared for us.”
“For you, he doesn’t want me,” mumbled Darlene.
“That’s not true. You heard him say it,” Dolly said.
Darlene rolled her eyes.
“He has always said we need to accept that we are one,” said Dolly.
“We aren’t one,” said Darlene. “You are you and I am me.”
“We saved Lucio as one. And now look. She… that’s who he sees, Darlene. He sees us as one. Maybe we are? Maybe that is the key to all of this.”
“No, I dunno. What does it matter? I think she’s dead. And that creepy ass vampire is here. I can feel him. He’s coming for us.” Darlene looked up at the smoke shifting down closer to them. “I think we’re trapped in him. This is his hell.”
Tristan’s anger was like a nuclear explosion in his chest. It almost made him react. Lucio seized control of him. The trio stood before them and Lucio stepped forward. Lamont blinked rapidly and then exhaled a deep sigh. Lucio's left brow went up when his young recruit stumbled backward out of a trance he seem to be locked in. Lamont looked around the room as if he didn’t know how he got there. Then his eyes shifted to Lucio and Tristan with equal shock. Last, he looked down at Russell and saw Charmaine with him.
“What the fuck? What the entire fuck!” Lamont gasped.
“Exactly. What the fuck are you doing in here?” Tristan demanded.
“I dunno… boss, I swear I don’t—fucking know?”
“My sister is hurt!” Russell said. He wheeled his chair straight to Lucio. “This is Charmaine, her best friend. We want to see her. Now!”
“Your sister is with medics let’s give them—” Lucio began.
“No!” Russell shouted up at Lucio.
Charmaine was confused, as well. She entered the room with Lamont and Russell as if she had dropped in directly out of the dark fog. It felt like an eternity in the realm Liora had left her spiraling in. She shivered through her mental shock and tried to seem normal.
“Russell needs to see her. He can help,” she pleaded.
“Get them out of here!” Lucio said and turned away.
“Fuck you, man! I know you caused this!” Russell said as Tristan stepped forward. “I know you brought back Darlene!”
Lucio froze. He turned and looked at Russell with renewed interest.
Russell nodded. “You don’t know what the fuck you are doing. You are making it worse. That is my sister. I protect her. Not you! I want to see Dolly before it’s too late!”
Lucio looked at Tristan. Tristan looked at Lucio. The fact that Russell understood Darlene’s existence was a detail neither considered. The kid lived with Dolly. He had to be a witness to more than even Dolly knew about.
“Lamont, Tristan. Clear everyone out.”
Charmaine looked at Tristan. He stared at Lucio, confused, but his gaze then moved back to her. He appraised her with a look that made her heart race, then glanced at Russell. “Are you sure Lucio? Marcello is?—”
“Contact Phoenix. Buy me some time. I think Russell, here, should see Dolly.”
“You think?” Russell rolled his eyes. “She is my fucking sister, bro! What you think doesn’t mean nothing to me. I want to see her, or I’ll call the police on your ass!”
“Yo, chill Russ,” Lamont said from the door.
“And you are again?” Tristan asked.
“My name is Charmaine. I’m from Baton Rouge. I’m her best friend,” she said. Russell started toward the door and Charmaine grabbed his chair. She looked at Lucio. He was devastatingly handsome. And so was Tristan, in an opposite way. She could not believe they were… vampires. Charmaine stopped herself. Maybe it was Liora. Her thoughts were being shifted to not reveal anything. And then Charmaine knew. She looked into Tristan’s hypnotic eyes. He was attempting to read her mind.
Be calm.
Liora helped her. Charmaine pushed forward memories of her and Dolly, the times both good and bad they shared. Tristan looked her over again, as she tried to stay unaffected. Whatever his appraisal was, it didn’t raise any alarms with him. Not yet. He nodded to Lucio and went into the bedroom. In seconds, a team of people in dark suits and a medic left with Tristan and Lamont.
Charmaine head turned to their exit. Tristan stood at the door, ensuring everyone had stepped through. He only fixated on her. He then winked and closed the door.
Russell didn’t wait. He wheeled himself into the bedroom. Charmaine glanced at Lucio. He was pretty normal to be—her mind stopped at the thought. Liora was still with her, training her. She wasn’t even about to think of what he really was. She gave him a respectful nod. Lucio stared directly into her. He gave her a slow, lethal nod. She pretended it was normal. And followed Russell.
“Why is she bleeding?” Russell asked, his voice quivered. “Is she physically hurt?”
Lucio entered the room. “She fell. Then she slipped into this unconscious state. She has only wakened once, but even then she was in pain.”
“She? Which one is she?” Russell asked.
“Dolly,” Lucio said. “I haven’t seen Darlene in days.”
Russell nodded in sadness.
“It’s okay Russ, help her. You can do it,” Charmaine said and squeezed his shoulder.
“Do what exactly?” Lucio asked Charmaine instead of Russell.
“I dunno. Russell told me he can feel Dolly when she is in trouble and he can… um,” she stumbled through her lie.
Stop explaining. Telling him you don’t know is fine.
“Be quiet. Just shut up!” Russell demanded of Lucio and Charmaine. Russell went into his backpack. Charmaine stepped back, not knowing what magic tool Russell carried. Nzinga had all kinds of things she used in the forest with them. Lucio stepped forward, curious as well.
Russell removed an old and raggedy doll. Her left eye was missing. She had marker marks scrubbed over her face, and her dress was soiled. He gently put the doll on Dolly’s chest. “ Darlene. I love you. Do you hear me? I—I love you. I want to see you again. I want you to come be with me. I miss you... ” Russell said through his tears.
“Is that Russ?” Dolly asked.
Darlene smiled. “He’s here. He came for us.”
“What?” Dolly asked. “Russell doesn’t know…?”
“About me?” Darlene finished. “Who do you think took care of him as a baby? You? You were jealous of him and a crybaby. I took care of him when Mommy had to cook when he couldn’t sit up and Mommy needed me to hold him while she peed. I taught him to hold his cup. Not you. I told him about vampires. And he understood. He didn’t tell me to shut up saying those things or tell me it wasn’t true. He knew both of us were separate, not one. Then when he was three, you got mad, said you wanted control, and pushed me to be bad. Russell couldn’t stop our fighting. Mommy and Daddy couldn’t understand us, or what was happening. All because you were some big selfish baby!” Darlene said in disgust.
“So they took you to the psychiatrist. The one Lucio thinks is a professor. He used his fucking lyrical board and taught you to lock me away. I pretended when he came to teach me about myself. I knew who he was, and what the vampires were trying to do. You are the dumb one. Not me. I never said a thing to Lucio or you. I didn’t even think it. I didn’t want anyone to know. I just made my plans to escape.”
“Escape where? Go where?”
“Sicily to kill the big bad daddy who is coming for us now. If Lucio didn’t use Russell against us, we wouldn’t be stuck here right now!”
Dolly tried to process the information. There were so many questions she had, but even she knew they were out of time.
“What is Russell trying to do now?” Dolly asked.
“What the professor told Lucio to try with us, something he kind of knew he could use as leverage when he had Russell kidnapped and taken to Vegas. The professor knows too much about us. We should kill him, too.” Darlene decided.
“Explain it, Darlene. To me. Explain what Russell is doing?” Dolly asked.
“Using love. He is trying to calm me. Make me feel loved,” Darlene said.
Darlene smiled. “He was so cute. Only three in his little wheelchair. He’d say, Darlene. I love you. I want to see you again. I miss you .”
Dolly listened to her brother calling for her.
“Okay, I understand,” Dolly said.
“No, you don’t,” Darlene scoffed. “You never have. That’s why I hated you and why Russell secretly hated you. He knew what you did to me. He knew that you were too stupid to protect us. That’s why he left his people in Utah and lived in the hood with you, and even put up with Tyrone hitting him.”
“Tyrone didn’t touch him—” Dolly stammered.
“He did! You just pretended in your head it didn’t happen!” Darlene shouted back.
The truth was a fatal blow to Dolly’s heart. She let tears drop despite her new strength. She felt small and insignificant. She’d done nothing to save or protect any of them from the beginning. It had always been Russell and Darlene.
“I’m sorry,” Dolly said.
There was a roar like thunder in the distance. The darkness was closing in. It must have been Vittorio, he knew someone was in his midst and he was coming.
“Darlene.”
“Hmmm….?”
“We helped Lucio, right?” Dolly asked.
“So?” Darlene said. She seemed enchanted by Russell’s voice speaking to them.As if she were listening to her favorite lullaby. She swayed back and forth.
“Focus sister. How did we do that?” Dolly asked.
Darlene hugged herself and hummed.
“How did we do it?” Dolly asked again.
“We joined,” Darlene answered.
“Right. Look at her. Look,” Dolly pointed.
They looked at the person they existed in. “We can heal her. Together. You and me.” Dolly said and took her hand. “Together. Russell was too young to teach us to do it. He just wanted you back. That professor taught us to separate. He knew how powerful we would be if we united. Lucio kept saying that we are one. I understand now. Russell will be all alone with these vampires if we don’t get to him. He is the one that we need to protect. The one we both love.”
Darlene nodded. She squeezed Dolly's hand.
Together, the girls went to their knees. They both put their hands on the Dolly before them. They closed their eyes and listened to Russell and were united with energy and love.”
Dolly opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. She blinked and her head turned slight to look up at Russell. His prayer stopped midsentence. She sat up and hugged him. Lucio could not believe what he had witnessed. He could not conceive it. He stood transfixed on them. Charmaine covered her mouth to keep from gasping herself. It was then Dolly saw her.
“Charmaine?” she asked.
“Hey, hey girl. You scared the hell out of us,” Charmaine said.
“What are you doing here?” Dolly asked. She let go of Russell and went to her friend and they embraced. “Oh, my God! How did you get here?”
“Sonya had one of her Vega’s parties to host. I came here because we saw Russell on Instagram. I’ve tried to call you. But when I found Russell, he said you were hurt,” said Charmaine.
Dolly glanced back to her brother. She touched his face. “I love you so much, Russ. You always know how to help me and Darlene, don’t you?”