Aria and Aura exchanged glances, deciding not to mention their own rather pleasant by comparison backstories.
Aria, not knowing what to do or say, said nothing, folding her hands lightly in her lap. She leaned against Jaden’s side, watching as Aura’s eyes went cold and a drop of liquid helium dripped off of her finger, and resisted the urge to laugh outright at how protective her older sister had become. But she said nothing, instead trying to offer comfort without outright saying it.
Aura sighed, once the silence had gotten overwhelming. “I owe you an apology, Dan, for trying to freeze you. I was scared, and you talking about rape so casually kind of absolutely panicked me. But that’s no excuse, I still shouldn’t have splashed you with superfluid helium. That was just uncouth no matter how you slice it. So… Will you accept my apology?” She extended her hand to Dan, saw the glittering drops of helium on it, and thought better of it. “Um on second thought, maybe no handshake.”
Hearing what Jaden said, Aria flinched. But it would make sense, in a twisted way, and… “Yvette! Oh my god.”
Aura’s eyes went wide. “Yvette? What about Yvette?” She seemed quite concerned, probably scared that Aria would be having an emotional breakdown like she was when she’d found Yvette’s body.
“It would make sense, wouldn’t it. And it would explain her eyes. Silver-colored, like yours, Jaden, except paler and shinier. Our cousin.” She had been older, the role model to both Aria and Aura. “She… Well… I found her, in the woods, we’d gone on a camping trip and she’d vanished after dinner and hadn’t returned by morning. I went looking and I found her. It looked like she’d cut herself up... Thirty-five slashes on each wrist. I counted. Trying to figure out. You know, what had happened to her. But I don’t know if she’d hurt herself. Her eyes were wide-open like she’d been scared and there was a number seventy carved into her chest. There was a silvery metal all over her legs and her shoulders like she’d tried to build armor over herself. And there wasn’t a knife anywhere around her.” Aria was trembling as she said it, terrified. “I think she must have been one of us. It would have made sense… What element is seventy?”
“It’s… Ytterbium. Oh my god. Yvette.” Aura said. She went to wrap her arms around Aria, saw the helium beading up, decided not to. “God damn it I’m so scared I can’t even hug my little sister.”