Capture
Cora is acting...strange. To say the least.
Strange in the sense that she wants to spend time with them. With Osian. They had never seen eye to eye. Hell, they barely tolerated each other and if Cora could have it her way, Osian would be kicked out of the house and never heard from again.
Which, again, is why it's so strange that she's asked them to go shopping with her.
Things hadn't been the same since Osian developed their mutation 11 years ago. Some kind of panic attack had turned them into a (in Cora's eyes) vicious and dangerous freak of nature. Harsh words for a 13 year old to say. Harsher words for a 10 year old to hear.
And now, at 21 years old, she wanted to rekindle their sibling relationship?
Unlikely.
But, Osian held out hope.
Like they always had. Every day.
So, now they were at a small shopping plaza two hours away from their home.
Cora lead the short mutant around, stopping at pop up stands to look at both cheap and expensive items and trinkets.
Osian reached their gloved hand out for a moment before hesitating and furrowing their brow. After a moment, they smiled and took the gloves off, letting their soft, furred hands free. They flexed their fingers, staring down at them.
If Cora wanted to rekindle their bond, it would be with the full version of Osian. Not the hidden one.
So, they took off the other glove and then their shoes, stuffing the uncomfortable items in their bag with a relieved sigh. Then, they lowered their hood, exposing their large fluffy ears and then let their tail uncurl from their pant leg and sway freely in the air. Better.
But something was still missing.
With a grin, they shook out their paws and then raised up to walk on tiptoe. There we go. Much better.
They walked over to where Cora had migrated to another stand. As she turned around, her eyes darkened for a fraction of a second before she corrected herself and gestured to them with open arms.
"You look great!" She said with a smile, the corners of her lips twitching slightly as she moved to tuck hair behind her ear.
Osian grinned and their ears twitched, Cora's eyes immediately flicking towards the motion before looking away.
"You know, I'm kind of surprised you asked me to come shopping with you..." They remarked, rubbing at the back of their neck with a sad smile. "We never really got along, huh? I'm happy about this. I am, but it still feels strange." They added with a laugh. Cora nodded in agreement and laughed as well.
She smiled at them, her brown eyes sparkling with something akin to...hopefulness maybe? Osian knew he had made the right decision by saying yes. They could finally rebuild.
They went around to the different stalls, laughing and talking about random things. Their childhood memories and plans for the future. Cora talked about her job and Osian talked about their college classes. A librarian, they had decided. They wanted to be a librarian.
"There's a stall a little bit further down that sells records. Mom said she wanted us to take a look for her collection." Cora spoke up after looking up from her phone and pointing down the street, tucking a stray hair back to where it fell from with her free hand.
Marnie Warren, their mother, was a sweet older woman who enjoyed collecting records. Mostly jazz or classical, but anything was fine as long as it was able to spin on her record player.
She usually liked looking at the records herself, though, but if Cora was saying that their mother had asked for it personally, then they would believe her.
Osian nodded and their tail flicked behind them, curling happily at the thought of their mom.
"Sure. I'd like to take a look too, I just got my own player for when mom's not home. It has a slot for cassettes as well; how cool is that? I wanted the CD player as well, but it's just too expensive right now." The mutant rambled and started walking in the direction that their sister had pointed out.
The number of humans and mutants had dwindled by now as it was later in the evening. Even more so as they made them way down the street.
There were a couple of stalls with four other people milling about, talking with the dealers and each other.
"Oh! There it is." Osian picked up the pace and walked towards the lit up stall. A woman was standing behind the table with her back facing the two as they approached.
"Excuse me? Uh, I was wondering if you had any jazz records? Maybe...Butteryfly Dreams or Burning Spirits?" The mutant asked, tilting their head to the side.
The woman turned to face Osian and shrugged lazily.
"I don't know, kid. Take a look around the back of the stall. Should be some good ones back there." She replied with a sigh.
"Will do. Thanks." Osian gave a two finger salute and walked behind the stall, crouching down to look through the record bins. They flicked through a couple of the sleeves and began humming quietly to themself.
They spotted an album that intrigued them and picked it up, tilting it slightly to see what the record's condition was.
Nothing came out.
Huh.
Maybe the lady had accidentally put an empty sleeve in and didn't realize it. With a shrug, they put it back and picked up another, but it was the same thing. Nothing in it.
Furrowing their brow, they quickly realized that there weren't any records in any of the sleeves.
"Cora? Could you come back here for a second? I uh...found a record you may like." They called out, tail landing down on the ground and making a soft thump noise.
Osian heard footsteps but didn't bother to look up.
"I noticed that none of these records have...well...records-AH!" Their entire body flared with pain as a boot came down on top of their tail. Hard.
"What was that fo-!?" They whipped their head around to glare at their sister but stopped when they saw a tall man standing over them, his boot was the one currently pinning them in place.
"I'm guessing this is the mutant?" He asked sarcastically, looking to the side.
"Yeah." Cora responded, leaning against the wall while looking at her phone.
Osian's eyes darted between the two.
"Cora...? What-?"
"Oh god shut up. Are you really that dense? Did you really think I'd ask you out here to 'rekindle our relationship'? Grow up, Osian. You're a freak and nothing more." She scoffed, not even bothering to look up from her flip phone.
All that hope. Shattered.
Osian's ears drooped down beside their head.
"So you paid for someone to come beat me up?" They asked, looking back up at the taller man.
"Hmm? Oh, dear brother, no. No no no..." Cora pushed herself off the wall and laughed. It was mean. She crouched down before Osian with a cruel smile, but her eyes held nothing but pure joy. Sick and twisted joy.
"I was offered money to have you taken away. Obviously, I refused-"
"So then what-"
"-Refused the money. I'm already plenty satisfied with how this has played out." She flicked their nose and stood back up.
With a sigh and roll of her neck she motioned towards the man.
"I'd like to get home on time. If you wouldn't mind speeding this up." She spoke dryly.
Osian opened their mouth to speak but a cloth was quickly pressed over the lower half of their face. They let out a choked noise and tried to break free, clawing at the man's arms and digging into his skin.
Before their eyes rolled back, they could only think of their parents. How sad they would be. How they would wonder where their son was. They could feel fatigue taking over their body and they struggled harder but it was still weak. With one last strangled breath their arms dropped and they passed out.
The last thing they had seen was the pure, unfiltered joy on Cora's face.