'I don't quite know how to tell you this.' The doctor held her clipboard close to her chest. 'You're having twins.'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoFzE658zrU
'But that's great!' Brian hugged his wife, whose bulge was clearly visible beneath the white hospital sheets.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4G52V8nn9x
'They have different fathers.'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCSR1dL6EwK
Brian's smile began to fade. 'What do you mean?'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4kELAOSxMQ
'It's a rare occurrence. One in a million, I'd say. It's called superfecundation. It's when the two eggs are fertilized by different sperm within one ovulation cycle.'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOes3JV0mgM
'Becca? Tell me it isn't true.' 862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtPWYtPaijk
The woman in the hospital bed is silent for a moment. 'I'm so sorry.'
The girl, they called Christine. Christine was theirs. The boy, they didn't name. He went to an orphanage.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzgpGWHKG4x
They never talked about it again, not for the eight years after the twins came out. Not for the eight years before the fire.
'We've got another job. The target is WestGo Insurance. They're popular, and they're getting more and more powerful. Knight Finances doesn't want this. Our task is to break up WestGo, and it seems like it'll be pretty simple. The CEO, Gareth Greene, his office is on the 37th floor of the highrise office in the city. All we need to do is get a big enough fire going. With all the employees, all the brains, and the main center of the company gone it'll have collapsed enough for Knight Finances to take over the market.'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa30mF8DaH0
Hughes, despite his age, was one of the most respected members of Floor Twelve Minus, and was the second in command. His leaving would have been upsetting, no doubt, so many members almost considered it a blessing that his son had failed the final Trial of the Bind.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgeltFrM9hU
He was a skilled magician, excelling in the arts of fire and telekinesis. Revival was a power hardly needed in Floor Twelve Minus, and typically only the High Priestess could revive something as difficult as a human.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD4VxK3bKhZ
It had become clear, after Xavier's trials, that Orla had lost the position of High Priestess. Once the new female magician turned 27, they would inherit all the power of the High Priestess - and the old High Priestess loses it all.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt4YXGGtL3c
Orla had lost it all, and thus she served no more purpose. Floor Twelve Minus was quick to dispose of her, making Hughes the one to answer to.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡscSl2MICQ5
There was tension growing within the members. The ability to pull power from the Void, the ability to perform magic, was hereditary. They liked to keep track of all the magicians they knew. So they developed the system that satisfied them all. Every member would impregnate a non-magic woman through the means of an affair, and through any means break all bonds but take custody of the child. They would train their child, almost always a son, and on the child's 27th, they would take the place of their father.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8RqbjHmP4s
When the child was a girl, they would know that there was to be a new High Priestess.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfWo1ZcSMPW
The problem was this - the system had worked for over a century, and the four High Priestesses in that time were all within the system, leading them to believe that no magicians existed in the world outside of Floor Twelve Minus.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNwN2ju5w30
But here they were. Without a known High Priestess.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡII4U3l7zW7
'Are you all paying attention?' Hughes demanded, attempting to gain the same authority of Orla while she was in power. But he was rattled, too.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3jKURa3XAw
Without the High Priestess, Floor Twelve Minus was in danger.
'Rebecca?' He hadn't talked to her in almost a year.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3QV9J8mx4S
'Get away from me, Hughes. We should never have done that.'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM88CLKrSqJ
'Becca, what is it?'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR39XBMYums
'You have a child.' She spat. 'I gave him away to an orphanage. Angelhouse.'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXTwF17hsNk
'Oh my god.'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOnSeVXlrUY
'Just go. You can have him if you want. I don't want to see you again, ever.'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtHfbHrFrXZ
'I'm going. I'm sorry.'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡleWDcbiffP
'No you're not. You men never are. Now get out of my sight.'
Christine knew she had done it. However impossible, she had saved the man. She was growing increasingly confident that her memories of the fire were more than childhood imagination. It had been her. She did the fire. And she could do it again.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8T8ZXOtazv
She gazed at the candle on the desk in front of her.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhlz1iz48PI
This is stupid.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBtSgchaIiR
It may be, but it may also be real.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxvFYpd8X1W
A hissing flame appeared and the wax began to glow.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQWbHjzNbFM
She licked her fingers and squeezed the fire to put it out.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ3RyZ0V6Lb
Again? You're hallucinating. See your psychologist.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfEHX11RaP7
No, this is happening, this is really happening.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQSA39NZLb8
The bright red bulb appeared again, brighter than before.862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUvDvZhrpGS
'I did it.' She breathed, softer than a whisper. 'I saved the window washer.'862Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9p9199yZNt
'I made the fire.'
and then Add to home screen.