Bound by Blood
Short fiction
We came into this world together, bound in flesh, our faces forever turned toward one another. They called us Abel and Cain, but we were two souls trapped in one tortured body, mutual prisoners until death would grant its release.
Our condition was rare. Conjoined at the torso, we shared a single continuous circulatory system but had our own separate heads and brains. Physically inseparable, yet mentally divided, I envied even the most mundane human freedoms that were denied to us.
As infants, our parents tended to us with impartial love, but as we grew and our personalities diverged, familial bonds strained under the weight of constant care. I perceived the pity in their eyes that greeted each new humiliation forced upon us by our condition.
They saw Cain as the cheerful innocent, Abel as the sullen burden.
By adolescence, our divergent spirits warred within the prison of our shared flesh, and while Cain smiled at the world and spoke of trust, I nursed a growing bitterness as I contemplated the injustice of our predicament.
Why had fate chained me to this cursed existence?
In my dark moments, I would stare with loathing at my eternally grinning counterpart, resenting his oblivious optimism. Sometimes while Cain slept, I contemplated smothering him with our shared pillow, finally granting myself peace, but I stayed my hand, fearful of consequences.
Unknown to me, Cain harboured his own resentments, hidden beneath his guise of good cheer. In unguarded moments when he thought I slept, his beatific smile would twist into a grimace of disgust as he glanced upon my sulking face, so the poison ran both ways.
The rupture came on our 18th birthday, when our gathered family and friends toasted Cain but ignored me, the brooding albatross. In anger, I announced my plan to sever our tether and live as separate beings. The idea horrified Cain, who could not bear to lose his brighter half, and he tried to appease me, but the damage was done.
In secret, I began researching methods to enact my desperate plan. Little did I know Cain too scoured medical textbooks at night, seeking the path to freedom from his cursed brother, but our plotting was invisible to the other…until fate intervened.
The critical moment came during a family trip to the lake. As we sat for a photo, Cain suddenly lurched toward the water, pulling me along involuntarily, and though he laughed it off as an accident, I perceived the murderous gleam in his eyes, and knew my time was short.
Redoubling my efforts, I made contact online with a back-alley surgeon, known for his discreet assistance to those with reasons to avoid questions. If successful, the risky procedure would grant me independence at last. If unsuccessful…but I dared not think of failure now.
The doctor requested a high fee, which I diverted from the family college fund. The day before my appointment, I told Cain we should spend some time apart to “find ourselves.” He reluctantly agreed, cowed by my newfound courage, and I almost pitied him then.
The fateful hour came. While our parents slept, I slipped into the night, Cain strapped by my side making half-hearted pleas for reconsideration, however my mind was set as we arrived at the dingy backroom clinic.
Cain seemed to resign himself as the anaesthetic mask descended…yet at the last moment he lunged, toppling the table and crashing us to the floor! Dark rage suffused his features as his hands locked around my throat. The surgeon fled as Cain and I struggled, our severance forestalled.
Summoning all my strength, I reached for a scalpel torn free in our fall, and with a final apology, I drove the blade into my brother’s back, feeling our shared blood soak through our shirts, joined as ever. His grip loosened as a look of sorrow crossed his face, but the darkness of death did not take me.
With Cain’s last breath, an incredible peace came over me. For the first time the full beauty of our union was revealed — I did not need to take this drastic escape. All my years of suffering fell away as cosmic oneness overcame division and hatred. Forgiveness washed over me, but all too late.
My other half was gone.
They found me hours later, cradling Cain’s body, our blood commingled. No punishment could equal my torment as I realized the terrible folly of my actions. Seeking mere freedom, I had destroyed the one soul with whom I was meant to share each breath.
Truly we were born to cleave together unto the end.
I write this now as I await that blessed reunion.
