InsaneJournal

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James smirked as he walked towards his room, secure entirely in himself and his Power. His Power that had shattered everything his precious older brother had. He'd disguised himself and had driven Sarah away with the harshest words he knew of, knowing she would confront his brother later. Then he had confounded Erik's mind with a spell, making sure he knew what had been done, thought he had done it, and that he would not protest her leaving.

It was sheer genius!

Chuckling darkly, he opened his door and entered the darkness.  As he opened his mouth to say the word that would bring up the lights, hands closed around his throat and shoved him against the wall harshly.  Struggling, he reached for Power, gasping the words for the lights.

As they snapped on, he saw Erik's face but the lines he knew to be kind were twisted into a rage.  James froze in the wake of it and then felt the snap of something around his throat.

He screamed as all of his Power was abruptly gone, all of the invisible lines it flowed through to him suddenly shut off.  His hand scrabbled at his throat and Erik stepped back, allowing him to slide down the wall towards the floor.

"You won't get it off," the elder of the brothers hissed.  "I made sure it was charmed just for you, little brother.  And me - only my hands can take it off."

James glared at that, finally fighting down the terror, and spat, "Then I'll make sure to keep them intact when I kill you."

Erik's smirk at that was like a lance of frost.  "Hence why it’s required that I be very alive to remove that collar from you.  I'm not the simpleton you seem to think I am, James."

"And how would you know what I think of you?"

Hands closed around his throat again, lifting him up to slam against the wall again.  And terror took control of James again as Erik shoved his face into his.

"I am no fool, brother!  Did you think I wouldn't guess that you were the one that set all of this up?"  He laughed at that - the laugh of a man gone mad and who knows it - and continued, "I've always known the jealously that brewed inside you, little brother.  That's why you took it up so quickly when your precious Power was discovered by the hedgewitch."

"So what that you know?" James managed to growl.  "Your precious Sarah isn't coming back even if you tell her I'm the cause.  I made sure of that."

"I know."

"How...what?"

Erik smirked and pulled out something that had been tucked into his belt at the base of his spine, waving it.  "You shouldn't leave your journal out unprotected."

James' face turned vicious at that and he hissed, "I'll kill you for this!"

"With your bare hands?  You haven't the balls to get yourself that dirty, little brother, and you know it.  That's why you learned to control your precious Power.  Now let me give you a lesson..."  Erik slammed him against the wall again, enjoying his groan of pain far too much, and gave him a Death's Head smile.  "Power does not make you untouchable.  And just because you cannot spare the thought of getting your hands dirty does not mean others won't."

"You..."

James gasped as Erik twisted his neck sharply to the side and pressed his face closer, his lips brushing against the line of his jaw as he spoke again.

"I don't care about getting my hands dirty if I need to, little brother.  And if it suits me, I would kill you myself for what you've done to Sarah and me.  But...you're family, so I'm going to give you time to mend your ways."

"So you're going to take this collar off?" queried James as innocently as he could.

"So you can burn me alive with a mere word?  No, no, I'm not that stupid."  Erik smiled and turned his brother's face back towards him.  "You'll wear this collar into the day you die if I so wish it.  And never touch your Power again."

"No!  You can't!"

Erik just chuckled darkly at that and stepped back, leaving James to slump against the wall.

"Can't I?  Why, little brother, I already have."

With that he left the room, his hands shaking and the rage he'd held back coming out fully.  His fist smashed into the wall as he reached his room and entered it, locking the door behind him.  Erik stood for a moment, just breathing, then he lunged into motion with his face a mask of fury.

An hour later, he lay on his side in the wreckage of his room, a picture frame cradled to his chest.  He stared down at it for a long moment, this tiny sketch that his Sarah had made two years ago of him and James.  Back before the Power.  Back when they had been brothers.

Now Sarah was gone.

And his brother was gone.

And now, with what he had done, the man he had been was gone.

Sitting up, he chucked the picture into the fire and then began to laugh in the middle of the wreckage.

"You were right, little brother," he said to himself after the fit had passed, his eyes distant.  " 'Sorry' seems to be the hardest word to say."