“I’m not stable, Bishop.” Iris laughs and shakes her head. “You of all people know that. Iris, the crazy one. Iris, the one who can’t do anything right. Seri is the one you want, not me.”
“Stop that,” I say. “If you’re crazy, then so am I.”
“Well,” she says, snickering softly, “that explains a lot.”
She inhales deeply and then closes her eyes as she lets the breath out. Her body goes limp, and I lean close, grabbing her arm again.
“Let me see your eyes,” I say. She opens them slowly, but they’re dull and unseeing. “That’s it. Keep looking at me, you hear? Don’t you close your eyes again.”
“She deserves this life here with you,” Iris says quietly. “She deserves the comfort and security you can offer her, and she deserves to have all of that without my interference.”
“But, you were here first.”
“I’ve already been here longer than I was supposed to be. Besides, it’s Seri you love. It’s time for me to let go.”
“I…I love you, too, Iris. I love all of you.”
Her eyes close, and she lets out a long, slow breath. For a moment, she isn’t breathing at all.
“Iris? Iris!”
A moment later, her eyes open wide, and Seri lets out a scream.
“Iris! Oh, my God! Iris!”
Tears stream from her eyes as I cradle her in my arms.
“She’s gone! She’s gone for real this time!”
“I know,” I whisper into her hair. “I know she is.”
I hold Seri for a long time, trying to make sense of everything while she cries for her dead sister. I can’t pretend I truly understand what just happened, but I’ve never completely come to grips with everything going on inside this woman. I don’t think I’m supposed to understand, so I just hold her, stroke her hair, and cry with her.
Seri’s sobs eventually wane. She uses her uninjured arm to wipe the tears away and then looks down at my leg.
“You’re hurt!”
“I’ll be okay,” I tell her. “It’s just a really big splinter.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Don’t worry about that now,” I say. “Do you remember what happened?”
/>
“Yes.” Seri sniffs and wipes her nose. “I heard gunshots, and then the door flew open. I knew it was Kyle. I was so, so scared when he came through the door holding that knife. He was coming toward me, and I didn’t know if you had been hurt. That’s when…that’s when it happened.”
“What happened?”
“I was me,” Seri says softly. “I was me, and I was here, but at the same time, it wasn’t me. I could hear her talking inside of me—I could hear my sister’s voice. We had been sitting by the Christmas tree, looking at the gift you gave us, and Iris was holding the knife in her hand. She told me it was going to be okay. She said she would take care of me.”
“Iris.” I whisper the name, but I don’t know what else to say.
“She got the knife,” Seri says. “When he came at us, she swung it at him, and we ran. When he knocked us down, she stabbed him. It wasn’t enough though. He was just angrier, and he tried to stab us, so Iris twisted our knife in her hand, and he flinched before his knife hit us.”
“I couldn’t get there in time,” I tell her. “I was too slow, and I couldn’t stop him.”
“Iris stopped him,” Seri says. “At least, she stopped him long enough for you to get there.”