“Hello,” Sori yawned, eyes still shut as she tried to get just a little bit more rest. She silently hoped that whoever had called her didn’t want to talk for long or about anything important.

“Hey,” Jessica said on the other end of the phone, “sorry to call you so late.”

“It’s alright,” Sori replied, slowly getting up so that she was at least sitting up, “what’s going on?”

“I have to tell you something,” Jessica explained, sounding more than a little upset, “it’s important.”

“Alright,” Sori nodded, the worry in her cousin’s voice finally managing to wake her up completely, “what’s going on?”

“I have to tell you something important,” Jessica said, “please, try not to be upset. I mean, I know you’re going to be upset. I know that it’s going to hurt you, but please……”

Sori frowned in concern. Jessica wasn’t one to ramble, nor trail off. She always got right to the point, not wasting time on anything she felt was ‘unimportant.’ In fact, the only times she didn’t get right to the point was when she was nervous or scared. Like when they first started to become friends and Jessica had revealed to Sori that the family – Sori’s parents included – often called Sori a mistake. Hearing that had stung a lot more than Sori would ever vocalize and Jessica knew that. That was why she hadn’t come right out and said it.

Whatever Jessica wanted to say……could it be just as bad.

“Jessica,” Sori said, trying to sound comforting, “just tell me what it is. Please.”

“You have a brother,” Jessica said, voice a whisper that Sori almost missed hearing.

“…….what?”

“He’s twelve,” Jessica said, just a quiet as before, “and he wants to go to Dark Lake when we go back.”

“……..” Sori opened several times, but no words managed to get out. Her brain wasn’t formulating a response either.

“He doesn’t know about you,” Jessica kept going, unable to shut even though she really wanted to stop talking, “we weren’t allowed to even mention you when he’s around.”

“……..” Sori finally managed to find words after another long pause, “is he normal?”

“Yeah,” Jessica nodded, tears starting to fall. She wished that she could avoid telling Sori, but it had to be done. The other shifter had a right to know everything.

“They replaced me,” Sori gave a small broken laugh, “they got what they wanted, a normal child. not a mistake like me.”

“You aren’t a mistake!” Jessica cried, “You’re perfect as you are. They’re wrong, stupid, and foolish.”

“Thank you for telling me,” Sori said and Jessica could tell from her voice that she either didn’t hear her or decided that she was wrong, “I need to go. I need more sleep.”

Sori hung up and Jessica sat along, crying while she hugged her phone tightly to her chest. Beside her Krystal hugged her sister, trying not to cry because she needed to be strong for the older girl.

“I never should have told her,” Jessica whispered, “I wish I never had to tell her.”

“I know,” the younger nodded, “I know.” Jessica looked so broken that Krystal couldn’t begin to imagine how hurt Sori was.

 --

Sori sat on her bed, staring blankly at the wall. Her mind had finally gone blank after running over what Jessica had told her an hour or so before. She kept hearing those words over and over again and it made her want to scream. She wanted to feel betrayed, yet couldn’t seem to find a reason why. She couldn’t be mad at Jessica and Krystal for not telling her. They had just wanted to spare her feelings, knowing that it would upset her. She still wished that they had told her, but just couldn’t seem to feel any anger.

She wanted to be mad at her parents, but couldn’t for some reason. She could think of countless reasons to hate them, but none of those reasons made her feel anger. They had given her away, but all she felt was sadness and self-loathing. They called her a mistake among other things, but all she felt was pain as she wished that she was normal. They had replaced her with a normal child, and she just wanted to curl up and die.

She should hate them! She should want to kill them for all the pain that they had caused her simply because she wasn’t exactly what they wanted. Yet their actions only made her hate herself, never them. It was twisted and wrong, yet their actions only made her hate herself and everything that made her who she was.  What right did they have to make her feel that way? How fair was it that they did something wrong but she was the only one who suffered.

Without another word, Sori got up and left the room.

--

Ravi yawned as he walked down the hall to the training room. He’d foolishly forgotten his jacket in the training room and he was going to need it the next day when Jihu took him outside for some training. He would have forgotten it completely if the room hadn’t suddenly gotten so cold thanks to someone kicking the heater – he’d kick that person’s if he found out who it was.

“Th light’s on,” Ravi frowned slightly as he noticed the faint glow leaking out from under the door, “wonder who’s up at this hour.”

He could hear the sounds of something hitting things inside and wondered if someone was trashing the room. But that was silly because who would vandalize a room within an ISBIP base. A fool, that’s who. It was probably just some agent having a midnight training session before a big mission. Even so, he was careful not to make too much noise as he opened the door.

He froze when he saw Sori in the middle of the room, panting from the work out. That wasn’t what made him freeze, though. no, the tear tracks on her face and red eyes were what drew his attention and made his stare in shock.

“Sori?” he asked, slowly entering the room, “what’s wrong?”

Sori didn’t even look at him, more focused in the punching bag before her. she let out an inhuman growl before changing into a massive bear and swatting the bag. The chain holding the bag off the ground snapped with the force of Sori’s attack and the bag went flying, hitting the far wall so hard that Ravi wondered if the whole base heard the thump. The bag fell to the ground, leaving several cracks in the wall.

“Sori?” Ravi called again, slowly and carefully inching closer to the girl as she changed back into her human form.

Sori finally turned to him and his heart shattered at the broken look on her face. Sori looked down, tears starting to fall once more and she bit back a loud sob. She fell to her knees, crying into her hands as her body trembled with the force of her sobs.

“Please,” Ravi whispered, falling to the ground beside her and pulling her into his arms, “tell me what’s wrong.”

“They replaced me,” she cried, “they replaced me.”

“Who?” Ravi softly urged her to tell him more, “who replaced you? Who would ever want to replace you?

“My parents,” she whispered before losing her words to her sobs.

Ravi hugged her tighter, quickly realizing what had upset her. If her parents had replaced her, that meant that they had a new child. That just…….it made Ravi so mad. Sori was perfect in his eyes. Sure she could be a bit cold at first, but that was a result of her parents giving her up without a second thought and people thinking low of her because of it. Under all of that ice, however, was a sweet girl who cared deeply for her friends. She might not be all girly or humours, but she was so companionate that it didn’t matter.

Alright, so Ravi was a bit blinded by his love for her, but that didn’t mean that Sori wasn’t a great person. How dare her parents replace her with a new child. How could they be so cold? So heartless? Did she really mean nothing to them? So little that they would have another child just to fill her place? how could they do that to their daughter?

“Please,” Ravi whispered as he pulled Sori tighter to him, “please don’t cry. They don’t deserve your tears. You’re so much better than them. You’re brave and strong, loyal and caring. You’re perfect.”

Sori’s cried quieted a little as she considered his words, but they didn’t stop completely until she passed out from exhaustion. Ravi simply held her, telling her over and over again that she was perfect. Eventually, he fell asleep as well and Jihu found them several hours later. Ravi quickly explained the situation and Jihu gave them the day off to rest, clearly worried about Sori. The whole day was spent with Sori curled up in Ravi’s arms in her room. She woke up a few times to eat or go to the bathroom, but mostly she just laid their silently staring at the wall. She wasn’t crying anymore, but Ravi knew that she was far from ok.

A/N: hey! I’m back!! It was, like, weirdly hard to get back into writing after taking time off. Hahaha it was like being back at college after reading week, all your determination is gone and you’re just sitting there wishing the day was over so you could go back to sleeping (at least that’s the way it went for me).  I kept putting off writing this, but once I started, I didn’t stop until it was done! Anyway, I hope you all had a great holiday season, filled with lots of awesome memories and family (I know I did).