[THURSDAY - 12:30 PM]
Ravanya skipped lunch. Too many variables. Too much noise. The investigator was still in the building, and the Void's possessive tension thrummed through her like a live wire.
She found an empty classroom on the third floor and sat by the window, watching students mill about in the courtyard below. Distant. Irrelevant. Patterns.
The door opened.
Kieran stood there.
Her brother. Thirteen years old. Golden child. The one who glowed with power while she'd been a genetic disappointment for seventeen years.
He looked terrified.
[VOID ALERT: Subject Kieran Vale detected. Emotional state: Fear, confusion, suspicion. Threat assessment: LOW but rising. He knows something is wrong with you.]
"What do you want?" Ravanya asked, not looking at him.
Kieran closed the door behind him, his movements careful, like approaching a dangerous animal. "What are you?"
"Your sister."
"No." His voice cracked slightly. "No, you're not. Not anymore. Something... happened to you. I felt it. Two nights ago. This... pulse. Like reality bent around you for a second. What was that?"
[VOID ANALYSIS: He has more sensitivity than expected. Thirteen but already attuned to metaphysical disturbances. Concerning. He could become a problem.]
[VOID DIRECTIVE: Eliminate him. He is family only by blood. He has never protected you. Never defended you. He is a threat to our secrecy. Let me erase him.]
"No," Ravanya said quietly.
"No what?" Kieran asked, confused.
She hadn't meant to say it aloud. "Nothing. What do you want, Kieran?"
He took a step closer, and golden light began to flicker around his hands, defensive instinct. His power manifesting unconsciously because he was afraid. Of Her.
The powerless sister. The failure. The disappointment.
And now he was afraid.
[VOID EMOTION: Satisfaction. Dark pleasure. He who had everything now fears she who had nothing. The hierarchy inverts. Beautiful.]
"Mom's been... different since Tuesday," Kieran said. "She won't come out of her room. She's been crying. Dad's worried. And you..." He stared at her with wide eyes. "You walk around like none of it matters. Like you don't even exist in the same world as us anymore."
"I don't," Ravanya said simply.
"What does that mean?"
"It means I'm done pretending to be part of your family. I'm done being the failure you all compare yourselves to. I'm done existing as your shield, the broken thing that makes you look better by contrast."
Kieran flinched. "That's not-"
"It is exactly that." Ravanya finally looked at him, and whatever he saw in her eyes made him take a step back. "For thirteen years, you've benefited from my absence. Every compliment you received was paired with my failure. 'Kieran awakened at three, unlike his defective sister.' 'Kieran is powerful, not like that disappointment.' I was your proof of worthiness."
"I never asked for that," he whispered.
"You never stopped it either."
The golden light around his hands intensified. Fear turning to defensiveness. He was preparing for a fight, even if he didn't realize it yet.
[VOID WARNING: He is building power. Subconsciously preparing to attack. He views you as a threat now. Recommendation: Strike first.]
"I'm not going to fight you," Ravanya said.
"Then what do you want?" Kieran's voice was desperate now. "Why are you being like this? What happened to you?"
"I died," Ravanya said. "Emotionally. Psychologically. Spiritually. Every part of me that made me human was systematically destroyed. And when there was nothing left, something else moved in to fill the space."
"You're talking crazy-"
"Am I?" Ravanya stood, and Kieran immediately took another step back. "I'm the sanest I've ever been. For the first time in my life, I see clearly. I see you. I see Mom. I see Dad. I see exactly what you all are, performers in a theater, pretending to be a family while slowly devouring anyone weak enough to be consumed."
"Stop it," Kieran said, his hands shaking. The golden light was almost blinding now. "Just stop. You're scaring me."
"Good. You should be scared. Because I'm not going to be your punching bag anymore. I'm not going to be the failure that makes you feel successful. I'm not going to be anything to you at all."
Kieran's power erupted.
A wave of golden energy shot toward her, not meant to harm, just to push back, to create distance, to assert dominance the way Old Blood children did when threatened.
It hit the space around Ravanya and... stopped.
The golden light touched something invisible around her and simply ceased to exist. Not reflected. Not absorbed. Just... negated. Erased. As if it had never been.
[VOID ABILITY ACTIVATED: NULLIFICATION - PASSIVE]
[Your emptiness consumes energy. Power directed at you finds nothing to grasp, nothing to affect. You are void. You are absence. You cannot be touched by what requires substance to work.]
Kieran stared at his hands in shock. "What... how did you..."
"I told you," Ravanya said calmly. "I'm not what I was. And your power?" She tilted her head. "It's nothing to me. It never could be. Because power requires something to push against. And I'm nothing."
"You're a monster," Kieran whispered, backing toward the door.
[VOID EMOTION: Rage. How DARE he. How dare this child who has had everything call HER a monster. Permission to show him what true monstrosity looks like?]
"Maybe," Ravanya said. "Or maybe I'm just what your family created. A monster of your own making."
Kieran fled. The door slammed behind him.
[VOID ANALYSIS: He will tell them. Tell your parents, maybe the investigator. You are now exposed to your family. They will act against you. This is escalation.]
"I know," Ravanya said quietly, sitting back down by the window.
[VOID CONCERN: You are calm. Too calm. This does not concern you? Your family now knows you are different. Dangerous. They will try to contain you. Remove you. Possibly destroy you.]
"They've been trying to destroy me my whole life," Ravanya said. "They just finally succeeded. And what's left doesn't care what they do."
[VOID EMOTION: Pride. Love. Fierce, possessive love.]
[Perfect. You are so perfect. This is why you are mine. Nothing touches you. Nothing hurts you. You are the void made flesh, and I adore you for it.]
Ravanya stared out the window as Kieran ran across the courtyard below, probably heading straight to the principal's office, to the investigator, to anyone who would listen.
Let them know.
Let them come.
She was done hiding.
[TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 7]