After another minute of Idrel and Liza forcing me to watch as Mom tortured Elya she finally let her go. She fell to the ground and I heard a large crack as her head hit the stone the arena was made of. Elya couldn't speak anymore, she opened her mouth but no sounds came out.
"Liza, come and bring your sister upstairs. Make sure that she isn't dead."
Liza and Idrel stopped holding me against the wall, but as soon as they let go of me I fell to the floor as well. I couldn't stand up anymore. My whole body was shaking, and my mind was telling me to do a million things at once. Take Elya. Run. Kill Liza. Kill Idrel. Kill Mom. Run. Leave them all. Run. I didn't have any more tears, I couldn't even feel my eyes anymore. Liza walked over to where Elya was, but instead of picking her up in her arms, she used her powers to do that. I watched as she moved her hand and Elya started floating. There was this purple glow all around her body. For a moment, Liza stopped and stared at Elya while she was floating. She moved her back and forth a bit and Elya's arms and legs flew around. What was she doing? Right after she stopped and continued to carry Elya up the stairs, I heard her laughing. She was treating Elya like an object, like something she could just control. All it took was me hearing her chuckle for a single second and I couldn't hold myself back. My legs started to work again, but by the time I noticed that I was already halfway to Liza. My hand was in front of me and I had created water on the spot. Another second passed and I was right behind her. The water had placed itself over my now-formed fist, but just before I was able to hit Liza something hit my stomach so hard that I couldn't breathe. After I gasped for air, I was able to see Mom holding me. She had picked me up off the ground and I couldn't move.
"Your opponent isn't Liza. Get back to your side, Aryet. Your match is starting."
She threw me across the arena, but I had no trouble landing on my feet this time. In fact, I couldn't feel any pain when I landed on the ground. I couldn't feel anything. It was like my body was moving for me, and I was just watching it happen. Idrel was already on the opposite side of the arena when I heard Mom counting down.
"Three, two, one, begin."
Not even a second had passed after Mom gave the signal to start and I was already in the middle of the Arena. Idrel had made a ball of fire, and she threw it right at me. I dodged to the left and sprinted at her once more. She started to run away, but she was creating and throwing as much fire as she could at this time. I only saw after the fourth or fifth throw that in my left hand was a rope of water that was running alongside me. Every time she threw another lump of fire at me my left hand would swing in front of my body and the rope would follow. Sometimes the water would join the fire and turn into steam, but every single time I was able to see my left hand, even out of the corner of my eye, the water I controlled was there with it. Eventually, I had backed Idrel into a corner of the arena, and as she was trying to throw another ball of fire at me I dashed at her and slammed my right hand into her stomach as hard as I could.
Idrel screamed in pain, and I heard some of her bones crack when my fist made contact with her stomach. She was struggling to breathe and fell backward after tripping over her own feet. Her head hit the ground, and I heard another crack. I dashed over and put myself on top of her, preventing her from moving in any direction. She immediately tried to create fire again, but before she succeeded I started hitting her as hard as I could. I lost control of my body again, and I watched as I hit her again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Each time my hand would come back more fully painted red. Whatever part of her face wasn't covered in blood was covered in tears and snot from her nose which had been broken. It didn't matter. If she were in my position she would be doing the same thing. Both of them, Liza and Idrel. They're both only ever complaining when things don't go their way. She threw a fit when she burned Dad? If I was Dad I would've returned whatever pain she gave me right there and then. They only ever cry, beg, and plead when they know that there's no other way for them to take advantage of their situation. The moment they have the freedom to act as they want to they'll go back to hurting people, to tricking them. These weren't people who deserved for me to stop hitting them just because they were hurt, they weren't people who deserved to ever stop feeling pain. The thing that I looked at was even more disgusting than before, and I started hitting her, trying to make whatever freak of nature that had replaced my sister go away so she would feel the pain that I'd been working so hard to make. I hit her again, and again, and again, and again, and again, blood was all over the ground, and again, her head stopped moving, and she stopped trying to struggle, and AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN. I heard the sound of Mom's power and I could no longer move my hand. I looked up and Mom, and she was smiling at me.
"Good job, Aryet. You beat Idrel and gave her the punishment she deserved so I wouldn't have to. You really do love your mother."
She messed with my hair.
"She isn't dead yet, so I'm going to take her into the capital so she can learn more when she comes back. We want students, not skeletons. In the meantime, go and help Liza with Elya. She has probably woken up right now and she's definitely not going to let your sister take care of you."
She was telling me to take care of Elya? What happened to punishing her for losing? Was this some sort of te-
"I'm not testing you, Aryet. However, I'm glad that you are constantly thinking about learning. You don't need to prove that you'll listen to me any more than you just did. Now go up and help your sister get better."
I ran upstairs and when I got to the kitchen I found Liza trying to force a spoon of some kind of food into Elya's mouth while she was screaming at her to leave.
"Just eat the foot, Elya!"
"Leave me alone!"
"Don't be such a baby-"
I couldn't control myself. At this point, Liza must be asking to get hurt. Every single thing that comes out of her mouth, every action that she takes is so obnoxious. Any parent who wasn't as nice as Mom and Dad, or at least who wasn't as nice as they were would be done with her by now. Maybe they would've thrown her out on the street, or maybe they would hurt her every day. If they did, would she ever learn to shut up? Would she ever learn to care about the things and the people around her? I was about to learn that for myself, as I dragged her out into the courtyard.
"Let me go! Aryet, it hurts! Let go!"
"Shut up."
When we got out to the courtyard I threw her by her hair to the ground.
"What are you doing?!"
"Don't play dumb Liza! You think you just get to hurt Elya until she's crying, begging you for mercy, and then get upset when she doesn't let you force food down her throat?"
"I'm helping her get better!"
"YOU MADE HER THIS WAY!"
"If I hadn't listened to Mom she would've hurt me instea-"
"Yeah! That would've been a better outcome than what she did to Elya! What you did to me? That wasn't just wrong that was sick. Don't act like you were just doing what Mom told you to do."
"I was!"
"Then you're sick. You're a sick person who doesn't know when to not listen to someone. You SHOOK HER!"
"What?"
"When she was in the air as you were bringing her up the stairs because apparently, you can't hold your own sister in your arms, you shook her and watched as her arms and legs flew around and you laughed!"
"I just-"
My fist flew out in front of me and I heard the loudest crack yet when it made contact with Liza's face. She flew back and onto the ground, and she was bleeding from her mouth. The blood from Idrel had barely dried and I had already gotten more on the same hand. This was going to be a pain to wash off.
"Both you and Idrel seem to have no understanding of how to be a good person. Idrel, well I don't know what happened to her. One day she was my shy, curious sister who wanted to do something with her powers, and now she's some emotionless tool for whatever Mom asks her to do. But you, you always understood everything that you were doing. Whether it was faking being sad so you could get an extra cookie, or forcing Elya to do whatever you wanted and then giving me that stupid fucking smile when I caught you torturing her. I just gave Idrel the lesson I wanted her to learn so I'm going to spell it out for you as well."
She was faking tears while looking at me. Her hand was placed over her mouth and I saw drops of blood come through the gaps in between her fingers.
"If you ever do something like that to me or Elya again, if you ever "just listen to Mom" when she tells you to hurt us - I don't care. Anything that I think is an example of you being a horrible person counts. If you ever do anything like that, you won't have to worry about being punished by Mom anymore. I'll kill you in front of everyone before she can lay a finger on me."
She had picked up a large bush in the courtyard, and she was holding it above me. She had been trying to bring it over my head without me noticing, but I heard it being uprooted. She dropped it, and I took a few steps forward so I wouldn't get hit. The bush landed behind me, and I grabbed some water from its leaves and threw it at Liza as fast as I could. It hit her in the head and she fell face-first onto the ground.
I soon saw blood in a puddle around her head, but I decided to leave her in the sun.
She could get herself inside.