An hour or so later, I was still lying in my bed. I was unsure of what the time was, but I knew it was late.

I clutched my body pillow to my slim body. I curled around the soft, gray fluff as I sat quietly on my bed, relishing in the dark and quiet surrounding me and my mind.

Everyone knew now. Everyone knew, I thought. Gripping tighter, I smashed my head into the pillow. They know I'm a monster.

How am I supposed to go to school now that my Empathy is out and about and completely out of control?

"I can't ever show my face in Ambrose High again," I bemoaned to my lonely, teenage room.

A knock at my door sounded, echoing throughout my room, making the sound louder.

"Go away, Mom. I don't want to hear it," I called from my spot on my bed.I really had no intention of talking to my mother right now. Or anyone. Ever again for as long as I lived. I felt horrible for hurting the people there. I hated myself for hurting Aiden, but I can't do anything about it now. What's done is done. The oak door opened.

"Actually, it's not Mom," my sister's voice rang out as she entered my room for the first time in a long time.

I snorted, "What are you doing in my room, Gemma? I don't want to see anyone." My sister gave me a concerned look, perfectly shaped eyebrows furrowing the exact same way that Mom's did whenever she was worried.

Gemma walked over from the door to my bed. I sat up, still clutching the body pillow to me like a protective shield. Gesturing with her hand, she asked, "Can I sit, Marvy?" She used the old nickname she came up for me when we were little kids. I didn't respond in an affirmative, opting instead to turn my head away from one of the many sources of my problems these days.

I felt the bed dip a little, confirming that Gemma sat down on my mattress. "You know, you could have told me you were able to do that. I would have been able to help you out," she said, placing her hand on my thigh.

I looked at her hand for a second before raising my eyes to her face. "What was I supposed to say Gemma? What could I say? You don't understand at all what I can do! I hurt the boy I care about more than anything else and now everyone thinks I'm a freak! Enlighten me, Gemma, what in God's name was I supposed to say?"

"Well," Gemma breathed. "For starters, you could have told me that you developed into an Empath."

I was about to continue my rant, ready to berate her for everything wrong in my life. I stopped, processing her words carefully in my mind. What?

"What?" I spoke, my voice quiet. "What do you mean by that?"

She rubbed her palms on her leggings. A drop of sweat ran down her temple. She was nervous. And she had every right to be. "Vel, you didn't think I wouldn't be able to tell an Empath from a regular person, did you?" she asked like it was so simple, so obvious.

"Gemma," I said, irritation coating my voice. "Cut the bullshit. How do you know about being an Empath?"

My sister gulped. "Where do I begin?" she asked, more to herself than to me.

"Start at the beginning," I snapped at her.

"Okay, fine. Don't be such as smartass," Gemma breathed. She shifted her weight, tapping her chin in deep thought. "Well, I guess it all started when I had my accident, where I almost died in the Summer of 2012."

The Summer of 2012, Lake Superior. I completely forgot about that. It was such a horrifying event that I blocked it out of my mind for over five years. Before Gemma and I were cold as ice to each other, we were close, extremely close for being sisters. But one event changed everything. Mom, Dad, Gemma, and I went up North for three weeks in June of 2012, just for some fun. While we were there, Mom and Dad decided that all of us would swim in Lake Superior and it was fun, at first, but it didn't last long. Gemma and I were near a rock that overlooked the giant lake and it was a long way down. But Gemma and I didn't care, we were young and stupid and children. All we cared about was us having fun. However, we got too close to the edge and I don't remember a lot that happened, but I do believe that I pushed my sister off the rocks and into the lake. It took me a while to figure out that Gemma was drowning and drowning fast.

"Well, I had an intense feeling of being helpless, drowning in the water. I didn't know what to do so I just let the water have me because I couldn't fight it anymore. I sort of remember Dad jump in and grab me, but the oxygen was not reaching my brain properly and I think that's what caused me to start reading people's emotions. Because I had a traumatic experience happen to me."

I swallowed a large lump in my throat. "You mean to tell me that I'm not the only one in this family who has this curse?" I asked.

Gemma shook her head. "It's not a curse, Marvel. I don't know what it is, but I do know that we get it if something traumatic happens," she explained, leaning away from me.

"Like your near-death experience."

"Or Dad dying." She glanced down at her hands, which I know realize were resting in her lap and nowhere near me.

"Tell me something," I said. My sister looked up. "How come I can't read your emotions and why was I able to basically blow up the party tonight?"

Gemma looked away from me, her eyes directed to her lap. "Empaths can't read other Empaths. I don't know why, but we can't. Believe me, I've tried. And when you started showing signs, I tried extra hard to see what you were feeling." The words "I can't" filled the silence.

I nodded, taking in that response. "Okay, but that only answers part one of my questions. Why was I able to blow up the lights and throw people back against things?"

"That, I don't know. All I know is that you are very powerful," she responded. Gemma just shrugged, as if she was battling herself over something only she knew and I wanted so badly to know what she was thinking. Feeling. Anything for me to know that Gemma and I were on friendlier terms. "And that the more emotions you absorb from other people, the more you lose of yourself, your true feelings. That's why Empaths need something, someone, to keep them grounded and human. That's why we're paired up with someone we can't get a read on. You know that saying "opposites attract". Well, it could not be more true in the sense of an Empath."

My sister got up from my bed, standing near it and me, but not too close just in case I explode with emotion again. I looked up at her, my eyes squinting at her expression, deep in thought.

I patted the place to the right of me. Gemma plopped back down on it, causing the both of us to bounce a little off of the mattress. Little bursts of giggles escaped us as we settled down.

"When were you going to tell me that you were seeing one of my best friends?" I asked, my voice quiet and expectant.

Gemma tilted her head to the side, her lips pursed in thought. "I was going to tell you. Believe me, I was. But not about Peri," she answered, wringing her hands in her lap.

My eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Gemma sighed deeply. "Part of the reason that Dad's death destroyed me was that he was so understanding of my sexuality. He was the first one to find out, completely on accident, by the way. He was the one person I could talk to about being gay," she said, leaning against me. Huh, I completely forgot what it was like to be this close to my sister. It hasn't been like this in so long that it slipped my mind entirely.

"You know you could have told me you were gay," I told her, resting my arm over her shoulder in a comforting gesture. "I wouldn't have judged you at all."

Gemma nodded her head into my side. "I know. But we weren't close when I found out that I liked girls. I wanted so badly to tell you, but you hated me back then and I... I just couldn't."

"So you found out how long after the accident?" I asked, tightening my hold on her. This whole time, I never knew just how much Gemma was suffering. How much she needed me and I wasn't there for her.

"A year after."

Holy shit, four years. She's known for four years that she was gay. The accident started all of this. Back then, when I found out that Gemma was alive after nearly drowning, she was distant with me and I took that to mean that she hated and blamed me for what happened. She could read my emotions all during that time, feeling what I felt. She didn't hate me, she just couldn't stand to feel my emotions and guilt about her almost drowning.

My hold tightening even more. "When did you realize that you liked Peri and she liked you?" I asked gently.

"A few months before Dad died. We wanted to keep it a secret because we weren't sure that it was going to last and when he finally died, I needed her. You weren't there to offer any support, but Peri was and I liked having her around. She kept me grounded and in control. It only got to be really serious when school started up again," she explained, removing herself from my side and my grip.

"So it is serious?" I asked as Gemma wiped a stray tear from her face. She nodded.

"Jesus," I whimpered out. "You really like each other, don't you?" She nodded again, backing away from me.

"Do you hate me for this?" She sounded so sad and confidant that I would hate her for the rest of her life.

I shook my head. "No, but I do wish you told me sooner about you and your relationship with Peri. I wouldn't have blown up like that had I known what was going on beforehand." I blew out a breath before continuing, "That, and I wished I knew you were an Empath as well because I have so many questions."

Gemma chuckled. "Man, we really are related, huh?"

I laughed along with her a moment before I thought of something. "Gemma, I'm so sorry for everything. I'm sorry for how I've treated you in the last five years. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you and I'm most sorry that I hated you for so long even though you did nothing wrong," I told her, facing her and staring straight at my sister. "We're sisters, this is the only relationship that lasts forever, so we need to stick together no matter what happens anymore."

Gemma smiled brightly. The first one I've seen since we were little. "No, Marvel, it's not your fault. But as long as we're saying things, I guess I should apologize, too." She swallowed. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about being an Empath, I wasn't sure how to tell you, but now I know I should have done it as soon as it developed in you. And I'm sorry that you thought I hated you all this time. I didn't, I don't, but I thought it was easier to just say nothing and be distant than anything else."

I smiled at her. I lifted my arms out to my sister, the smile not even remotely fading from my mouth. "Come here, you," I told her. Laughing, Gemma rushed into my arms, little sobs leaving her lips. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm here and I'm never leaving again."

Gemma and I spent a good couple of hours just hugging each other and explaining our thoughts. I glanced out my window and noticed that the dark, black sky had begun to turn into a light blue, telling me that it was now very early in the morning.

"So, tell me again about this opposites attract thing," I said as Gemma got out of my grip. She sat straighter on my mattress, dark bags underneath her bright brown eyes. It looked like she really needed a good cry and to make up with me and I with her. She looked exhausted, but didn't tell me otherwise.

Clearing her throat, she explained, "Well, I've found that there are some people in the world that I can't get a read on. Other Empaths, for one, are people I can't read. But that's a story for another time. I was able to form a relationship with Peri because I would never know what she was really feeling and I liked that, I liked not knowing what was going on with her. I always found it to be a huge invasion of privacy with the people I could get a read on, but I can't turn it off around other people. And you found that with Aiden. I could absorb his emotions whenever he was around, but I didn't think he would like it if I told you how madly in love he was with you."

I processed the information given to me. "How are you able to control it so well?"

Gemma lifted her shoulders. "I don't know. I guess I just realized how much being an Empath matters. Normal people can't do what we do and I manage to help those in most need of wanting to feel something, no matter the cause or reason. I'm able to bring comfort to people by understanding what they're feeling."

Helping others. Just to feel something. What did she mean by that? How different would it be for me to help people than with Gemma? Would it be the same experience? Would I be able to help?

She continued talking, " It's like how you knew that something was wrong with Mickey. He was severely depressed and in pain. You saw that and got him help before he could hurt himself more. You didn't give up on him no matter what, because he's our uncle, he's our family, and he's Mickey. You gave him a chance when no one else would."