Chapter 2The Parasite

Because some of our shared organs were under twice the normal load, Olivia and I had a daily regimen of pills to keep our body’s systems in balance.

But today, after Mom set down the pills and a glass of water, Olivia did something unusual. She insisted that Mom leave the room.

The second the door clicked shut, Olivia snatched the pills.

But she didn’t take them. Instead, she lunged at me, forcing them into my mouth.

“Swallow them! Parasite!”

Her eyes were wild, her fingers digging brutally into the soft flesh under my chin, trying to shove the pills straight down into our stomach. I gagged, the bitter coating dissolving instantly on my tongue. I twisted my head, thrashing, knocking the glass of water over. Cold water splashed across our clothes, our skin.

But the pills went down.

I clawed at my throat, trying to force them back up.

“Are you insane?” I rasped. “That was your heart medication!” I took a ragged breath. "I just took a double dose. Don't you get it? If you poison me, you die too!"

A twisted, triumphant smile spread across her face.

“Perfect, isn’t it?” she said. “If I can’t be happy, neither can you. I can’t take another day of this. So let’s just die together.”

She didn’t understand. Or maybe she just didn’t care. An overdose of her heart medication was poison to my relatively healthy system. And with her refusing her dose, her own failing heart would quickly drag our shared circulatory system into collapse.

It was a suicide mission where she took us both out.

I couldn’t get the pills out. They slid down my esophagus, carrying all of Olivia’s hatred with them. The bitterness traveled from my throat to the pit of my stomach.

She watched me swallow, panting, a victor’s smirk on her lips. She was so focused on her win that she didn’t notice the color draining from her own face, a visible, ashen gray creeping over her skin.

My sister was a complete and utter idiot. She always had been.

She never seemed to grasp that we were one entity. Her loss was my loss. Inflicting pain on me meant she felt it too. And yet, she had an endless supply of stupid, self-destructive ideas, all aimed at taking me down with her.

The effects of my overdose and her lack of medication began to hit us, fast and hard.

Olivia’s breathing became sharp and ragged, as if an invisible hand were squeezing her throat. Beneath our joined chest, I could feel her heart hammering like a trapped bird. Her face was a mask of pain, but her unfocused eyes were still smiling at me.

“Feel that?” she wheezed. “I’m dying. And you, the parasite, you get to die with me. My own personal tombstone.”

Tears of pure rage streamed down my face. “Shut up, you idiot!”

The poison in my system and her failing heart were strangling us from two different directions. I could feel our shared life force draining away with terrifying speed.

I screamed until my voice cracked. “Mom! Help us!” I shrieked. “Mom, get in here!”

By the time Mom burst in, Olivia was unconscious. I held on just long enough to gasp, “She didn’t take her pills… I took a double dose…”

Then my world went black.

I woke to the sharp, sterile scent of antiseptic. A doctor was speaking in low, serious tones to my mother. I heard Mom’s voice, thin with a desperate hope, ask if there was any chance for a separation.

The doctor’s tone was heavy. “Their case is incredibly complex. With current medical technology, even with our best efforts… we could only save one of them.”