Warm, callous hands lifted up a sob-wracked limp body.

“Shh…shhhh…always such a cry baby short stuff. You never really got over that phase did you? And you’re what? Eighteen? Really? Hey, come on now baby, stop crying and smile for me will yah?”

But Tiffany simply wrapped her arms around her older brother’s torso and pressed her face into his warm, breathing chest.

She was unwilling to look him in the face. Unwilling because she knew it was only a face that would soon be vanishing from her eyes for a second time. She couldn’t bear the thought of staring into the eyes of a brother who she had lost so many years ago only to lose him again. So she shut her eyes tight and burrowed deeper into Jaxon’s chest and just cried.

Tiffany was too spent and too mentally depleted to even try to uphold any semblance of a front. She was being barraged by too much of her tortured past to even warrant an attempt at maintaining her walls that kept her sane. Where was the use in retaining her barriers when they would only be demolished once again?

“God Stephanie…you’re really starting to annoy the hell outta me you know? Come on! Open your eyes and look where we are! Don’t you remember our dream of coming to this place? Don’t you want to see this wonderful country that houses our wishful reveries?”

“…”

“Stephanie! Open your goddamn eyes before I throw you to the lions!”

At that exasperated exclamation, the young girl popped her head up like a groundhog at the start of spring.

She had always been dying to see the lions, giraffes, wildebeests, hippos and rhinoceroses of Africa. Her and Jaxon had made childish plans to go there when they were capable.

And sure enough, there in the far-off sun-lit-fiery horizons was the majestic silhouettes of the maned-beasts, lounging and lazily spread out on their bellies, their harem of lionesses and cubs spotted about around them. The setting sun made them slightly drowsy.

Lions are borderline crepuscular creatures, meaning they are mostly active during the twilight periods of the day.

They should just be getting ready to start hunting soon.

“Incredible…” Tiffany couldn’t help but exclaim in a breathy whisper, having been totally taken awestruck with these regal creatures before her. They were indeed known as the king of beasts for a reason.

The stunning backdrop of the setting sun only made the scene that much more amazing and awe-inspiring.

Tiffany watched, still clasped in Jaxon’s arms, as the male languidly sat up on his haunches and opened his bone-crushing jaws wide, letting out an almost lethargic yet still daunting guttural roar from the depths of his carnivorous throat, rousing his mates from their slumber.

“Amazing beasts aren’t they? Pure sinew and muscle beneath that sleek coat, a machine bred to simply kill and eat, kill and eat, then kill and eat again. Yet they do it with such svelte beauty and grace. They were bred to dominate, to rule, to survive and satisfy the most basic and primal of needs with such skilled elegance. They demand attention without seeking it, wield authority without compelling it. Such power and clarity to their existence. Like a physical living life force embodied into every iota of their being.”

“And still…the sun sets on them,” Tiffany murmured, watching the colossal fiery orange globe with a wary and callous eye.

“…You’re wrong…it’s sunrise and the day has begun anew once more.”

Tiffany watched silently.

And sure enough, the sun was rising, not setting. Bathing the entire plains of the imposing Serengeti in swathes of brilliant glorious red blazing radiance, practically illuminating the entire landscape with b exuberance and lively energy. So full of searing passion and blinding intensity.

Tiffany felt her heart swell with wonder despite it being bruised over and over again. It was hard not to be taken with this grandiose scene.

Just then the male lion roared again, this time it was domineering and very much full of supremacy and authority. She and Jaxon were safe only because the king of beasts deemed that they would be allowed to stay so. It was out of his courteous permission, not of their own right.

Tiffany was reminded of the insignificant place she held in this heart of the land.

She was being permitted to live.

And would die the moment they saw fit.

Survival of the fittest.

“Everyone of us needs to survive and endure everything. You need to live and continue on despite everything. I think we both know that you no longer have the desire to end your own life. So why then make the rest of your existence miserable and insignificant? Sprout. People like you and I, we were born to lead, born to dominate and overshadow others with our brilliance. You will not be happy until you’ve reached higher than the blazing sun. And even then, you’ll only strive even further to reach for the stars. We have so much raw energy and so much passion to be simply left to smolder and be covered in ashes. Don’t let yourself burn down to nothing but embers. You need to burn a hole in everything you touch. Leave your mark. The world is your oyster. Blaze a freakin’ trail through the effin’ stars and all that mumbo jumbo hippie dippie . Heck I don’t even care if you destroy the world with your brilliance sprout! It’d be a better world for it anyways. The world could use with another apocalypse to ing raze all those horrid excuses that dare to call themselves ‘men’ to the ground!”

“You’ve gotten more foul-mouthed in heaven Jax…”

“Who says I’m in heaven?”

“…You came to me from hell? Then…would that not make your advice a direct one-way ticket to the depths of Hades?”

“Just because I’m not in heaven doesn’t mean I automatically default to hell sprout.”

“…”

“How presumptuous are you to assume that what we believed as humans concerning post-death would be dead-on right?”

“Pun intended?”

“Yea. Witty of me eh? Look. Just scrap all the religious stuff you’ve ever heard in your life. What happens after death…well I can’t tell you much, but it’s not a clear-cut heaven and hell as we humans believed. All I can say is that it’s like a messy amalgam of different things we’ve been exposed to. Throw in a pinch of Buddhism, a smattering of Islam, a teaspoon of Christianity and a whole pitter patter of other various things and you have…a very complicated after-death-existence that doesn’t even warrant an explanation.”

“So are you considered good or bad? And where are mom and dad and Dom and babygirl?”

“They’re around. No worries. We see each other often enough. As for me, we both know I’m not the greatest person to have ever lived. Let’s face it; your brother was and still is no saint. Which reminds me, saints don’t really exist… Anyways! Side point there! Regardless, my love for my family, for Lexi-belle and…for you, it was more than enough to get me into the good books. It’s not so hard to fall under Saint Nick’s ‘good list’ it seems.”

“So Santa Claus is real?”

“Would you believe me if I said yes?”

“No.”

“Didn’t think so.”

“…”

“…”

Jaxon finally set Tiffany down on her own feet.

He wasn’t really in actual existence so he didn’t have a body and didn’t really exert energy, but still, carrying around his grown sister is no mean feat. Even for his ephemeral self.

But…

…the loving brother never let his beloved baby sister’s bare feet touch the dusty ground of the Serengeti. Instead, he set her on top of his own bare feet. Her smaller feet perched on his, her toes digging slightly into the backs of his feet as she tip-toed a little to peer curiously over his shoulder at the stately felines by the quickly rising dawn horizon.

Jaxon wrapped his arms securely around his sister’s waist and began to sway his feet a little, rocking their bodies to the silent beat of the Serengeti coming to life around them and their own in sync beating hearts, pulsing against each other through their chest and their shared warmth. The boy pressed his cheek to the temple of his beloved and wonderful sister, wordlessly humming what little he could recall of a tune that he vaguely remembered their mother singing to him as a child. He had been long gone from the world of frail and delicate human bodies. His mind was a little muddled and unclear at times in the more intricate details of his short time spent in the confined existences of a human corporeal body.

He breathed in the spicy cinnamon scent of the girl in his arms and suddenly remembered how his Stephanie used to smell of lavender shampoo and Johnson’s baby lotion. Their mother had always loved the scent of lavender and found it soothing. The boy remembered how he would ‘steal’ a three-year-old Stephanie away from their mother after little Stephanie had been given a bath. He would hide her in his bed and snuggle her onto his chest, breathing in her clean and soothing scent he now always associated with babies and the love he had for his sister.

Stephanie was the first person who needed him. The first person who relied on him to care for her and protect her. Jaxon felt purposeful and needed and even at a young age, set a goal to strive for the stars in order to be better able to safeguard his sister.

He knew Stephanie always thought he favored Lexi. And in truth, that was not such a far-fetched belief.

Their entire family favored the angelic child. Being the baby of the family granted her that favoritism from everyone. But no one complained or was red-eyed at the attention lavished upon Lexi-belle, not when they all loved her to distraction and was guilty of the same preference for her.

But what Stephanie never really knew was that she was his first.

His first person.

And that was something no one, not even Lexi-belle, God bless that child, could ever take the place of.

Stephanie was his person.

And it just hurt so damn much to see his sister, who should be blinding the world with her all magnificence, reduced to such a mundane and unself-fulfilling life.

Stephanie, or rather, Tiffany, was more like Jaxon than she could ever know.

They both had the desire to prove the world wrong.

The underdog always wins.

At least in their books.

There was just so much defiance in their existence.

Right from the get-go, neither he nor Stephanie were given the chance to even subsist. But against all odds, they fought and came out on top again and again. Even if in the end, his life was claimed by tragedy, Jaxon felt he had given his life a good run and died more than a winner in every standard.

And he was sure his Stephanie would only serve to outshine him.

She just needed a slight push.

“Stephanie…smile bright, love bright, live bright. Scorch the world worse than Russia’s ‘scorched earth policy’ and then some. Don’t be like this anymore. Promise me.”

“…”

“Promise me you’ll be bright enough for the both of us. I was never really given the chance to really shine. So you have to do it. Be bright. Bright and shiny.”

“…”

“Promise me sprout.”

“I promise to not be D&D.”

“Dungeons and Dragons?”

“No. Dim and dull.”

“…That’s not good enough. You can be not dim and dull and still not be bright and shiny. Don’t wimp out on me.”

“…”

“ STEPHANIE! Do you even know ho