Young Writers Society

Hostility. The word seemed fitting to the cab driver, being able to feel the emotion emitting from the two occupants in his backseat.

They were both staring coldly out their windows, looking at the surroundings that flew past them. The car was speeding away from central Sydney, the scenery becoming less dense with buildings as the minutes passed by.

They both held still postures; their jaws locked and straight backed, a warning sign against any unwanted intrusions.

One of the occupants of the seat, a girl, twitched uncomfortably before sighing and moving back into the position she had started in. Her expression was torn between anger and frustration, causing her strongly cast features to become bolder in a show of fierce beauty.

She breathed in heavily breaths, biting her tongue to keep herself from yelling out thoughts that plagued her mind. She shook her head back and forth, causing a few loose strands from her shoulder length hair to fall into her eyes.

The sunlight that streamed in through the window made it appear to be a strange black colour that was strongly tinged with blue. She quickly tucked the strands of hair behind her ear with lightly tanned fingers, leaning her head in an over exaggerated movement against the window. After a few moments she became bored of her new position and decided to turn her body to look at the person that sat next to her. The boy, who held the same stiff stance she had just abandoned, showed no response to her lingering gaze.

“Stop looking at me.” The order was crisp and strong, no emotion laced in the low husky voice.

The girl scoffed and continued staring, although the boy remained adamant is his choice not to look at her.

“Blaze.” The girls tone mocked the boy’s name as she called it, drawing it out more than necessary. Not being able to ignore her jabs anymore, the boy angled his tall body toward her slight form, his eyes hard and calculating.

The two looked miraculously alike, both having the same shaped face and hard features, both strangely captivating in their beauty.

The only noticeable difference in appearance between the two was in hair colour. Where the girl’s hair was that strange pitch black and blue colour, his was a wild and brightly toned apple red- completely unnatural looking.

The most noticeable feature that they shared was not their uncanny similarity in looks, but the colour of their eyes.

Vivid violet coloured irises that continued to stare at the other, neither backing down.

Seconds - maybe even minutes - of uncomfortable silence passed through the air, the tension pulsating around the two angered forms.

While the girl was comfortable in their stiff stance, Blaze twitched, not being able to sit still as he fought the urge to explode in the passing moments.

As hard as he tried, his hard facade began to crack, his mouth slowly opening and his hands clenching as he decided to break the silence with an outburst of rage.

In one swift movement he threw his arms up into the air, yelling his thoughts. “This is the third time in a year we’ve had to be moved because of you!” His expression was wild, his anger portrayed freely in his eyes, brow furrowing in a hard look of concentration. “I forgave you all the other times because you had good reason, but that fight was completely immature, Onyx! I'm sick of always having to leave because of your mess, why can’t you ever try to be normal?!” His breaths came in sharp gasps, hands clenched into tight fists making some of his knuckles crack under the skin.

The girl, Onyx, stared at him for a moment in stunned disbelief. “Forgave me?” She spat as if it were a dirty word, disregarding the other things he had said. “You really think I need your forgiveness?” She let out dry laugh and continued her rant. “In case you haven’t noticed Blaze, this is the life of a foster child. So stop acting otherwise! Moving should be second nature to us by now, yet you still seem to be moping over our situation! All our lives you’ve continued to play the ‘suffering little twin role and I'm sick of it!” She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts before sending another stiff glare at him.

“Onyx...” Blaze snarled the word, trying to interrupt her but was cut short by a sharp hand gesture she made towards him.

“I'm not finished!” She snapped. “I know you have always shifted the blame on me Blaze for whatever reason we keep moving from home to home, but this is the end of the line! I am not to blame for that fight! The little Blond Bimbo started it and you know she had it out for me since the day we arrived! She was asking for it. She was way overdue for an attitude adjustment!” Onyx’s chest heaved up and down as she took breaths, her temper flaring dramatically, being on a very short leash which appeared to thin out more and more over time.

Blaze was silent as he slowly rolled his eyes in a lazy way, his sister’s antics becoming old. Would she never accept responsibility for anything? “What did she do? Tease you about your hair again? Did she wonder why you think the world has it in for you? Frankly, you’re your own worst enemy Onyx!” He paused for a moment, observing her face as it built with charged anger. “Or, just maybe, it might have been your wonderful personality she put on question. You and I both know you’re just a bucket of sunshine and daisies to be around.” He finished with a satisfied smirk, knowing he was baiting her. To his immense please, sure enough, she bit.

Steadily, as if the world had switched to slow motion, Onyx gnashed her teeth together as another onslaught of words left her mouth. “At least I don’t look like a freaking red haired troll doll! I need sunglasses to look at your hair it’s so bright sometimes!” Blaze instantly dropped his smirk, his expression turning to one of sour distaste as Onyx continued to tear him down from his self proclaimed pedestal. “Oh, and you want to talk about personality’s dear brother, when was the last time you actually said a word to someone other than me? You’re like the king of being anti-social and lamely shy!” She reached out and mockingly patted his shoulder “Not cool, Blazy, not cool.” She sank back into her seat with their annoyingly similar smirk now dominating her strong features, although her irritation towards him was clearly still flashing in her eyes.

Blaze narrowed his stare at his sister, his hair being a touchy subject. How could he help it that it wasn’t exactly a normal colour? Well far from normal upon first look...most thought it had been dyed from the intensity of it.

“Don’t call me Blazy.” He snapped under his breath, not happy she had beaten him at his own game. The nickname had annoyed him from a young age since she had taken to using it. The worst part was that he couldn’t retaliate. Onyx wasn’t a name that couldn’t easily be manipulated into something annoying. The best he had ever been able to come up with in his sixteen years of life being ‘Oxy’ -which didn’t even make sense to him.

Still staring at the other, the charged silence grew even more prominent between them now, both wearing expressions of rage, clearly wanting to escape from the confines of the car.

The clearing of a throat made both of them switch their stares upon the frightened welfare worker, who had witnessed their little rant.

“What?!” They both snapped at her, not having the peace of mind to be civil.

Her eyes widened before she quickly stammered out that they had reached their destination. Neither of the twins had noticed, being too lost in thought.

They opened their doors, Blaze pointedly looking at the ground while Onyx was staring around curiously at their surroundings. They collected their luggage from the trunk of the car, both determined not to look at the other, the welfare worker waiting patiently out of their way on the sidewalk.

Onyx quickly began to move once she had retrieved her possessions, not wanting to be in the presence of her brother any longer.

“Onyx!” Blaze closed his eyes and spoke her name through his teeth, grabbing her shoulder and forcing her to stop in her tracks before she could move away.

She let out a frustrated sigh, practically jumping on the spot as if in a rush to get somewhere. Sighing she spoke quickly, not bothering to look at her brother. “What? Want me to apologise for being so rude to my caring brother in the car? Well I'm not going to so just shut it.” Impatience was clearly making its way into her voice and she struggled more under her brother’s grip.

Blaze sighed and reluctantly loosened his hold on his sister, who walked speedily ahead of him. He was baffled for a moment. Did he imagine it or did she for once actually look eager to reach their surely temporary home?

His thoughts were cut off as he looked up toward the house, finally realising her sudden enthusiasm.

The house was a huge multi-story complex that was set out on an area of well kept land. It was made of a richly coloured stone, old in its grandeur yet still taken wonderful care of. It was surrounded by an array of different flowers and trees, giving it a mystically old fashioned feel.

He choked on a laugh at how vein Onyx could be when it came to material objects. Sure, she was good at putting up her tough exterior and biting retorts, but on the inside Blaze could tell she was a little soft and liked to be pampered. Being a foster child didn’t offer you much leisure in life, something Onyx strongly detested. It was made clear, in those first few seconds when she caught sight of the house, that she would welcome this one with open arms.