No Dogs Allowed

Choose Those in the Shadows Or Be Lonely in the Sun

(ty for reading, u r very much appreciated :D and many thanks for 7k reads, that is a lot of people taking some time on this crazy story, and for that, thank you thank you. the little star waves hello)

Range test. Weapon of choice: throwing knife, death-proofed, mostly. Target: whoever's in the way. I.e, my brother and me.

I had memorized that exact second, that first meeting, when the exams began. When my brother had faced me no longer like my brother, but like a hunter. Like the other half of his soul was nothing but stubborn game he couldn't quite snag in his clutches. I'd tell everyone I didn't know why we had gone from allies to enemies, why my brother had abandoned his promise before I even had time to consider its gravity, but that wasn't very honest. I knew why. Worst, he knew I knew.

I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees. A drop of blood splashed from my nose to the hardwood floor. I coughed, gagged, on it, like it was syrup going down my throat. I reached out and clasped the dagger in my hand.

"It's like you're trying to fail."

I turned myself over to sit down. I slumped against the cold stone wall. Seoul screamed and bustled away outside, where I'd never reach. My fingers tightened around the hilt.

My brother stood at the other end of the room and watched me with cold, black eyes. He tossed the knife from hand to hand. He said, "You really take the Omega stereotype to heart. You can't even throw a blade straight."

"Shut up," I hissed. "We're not speaking."

"We aren't?" Elias sneered. "Ah, that's right, I forgot about that."

"What?"

"Your cowardice," he spat. "Afraid Appa is going to wring your neck for chatting?"

"Appa would wring my neck for breathing and then some," I snapped. "Who are you to say anything? You won. Are you happy?"

"Who is happy here?" Elias tossed the knife in front of him, face tightening. "Be happy when you're out of this place. Don't tell me you're such an idiot that you think there is anything to do in here but survive."

"Kill your brother while you're at it," I suggested.

"Maybe Umma should have been teaching you this—" He kicked the knife towards me. "—rather than telling bedtime stories and playing board games, then. Sounds like a shortcoming you will have to find a way around."

"I've been going around for six years," I snapped. I hauled myself upright, but my ribs ached from the effort. "What—what do you want from me? You've never once told me, you just do what they want, win every fucking test we have to take, never spare me a goddamn word. Two halves, is a fucking joke." I pointed the knife at him. "What do you want?"

Elias glowered. There was a storm in that gaze, a type of stare that pierced right into my soul and yanked fragments of it out to squash under his heel. The kind that wished me Hell in a hand basket. 

"It's my life or yours, Echo," he hissed. "Umma might have put her bets on you, might have chosen you, but it'll be my life." He pointed his knife at my forehead. "She bet on the wrong fucking wolf."

I stared. "Umma didn't choose me."

"Oh?" he hissed. "Then tell me, who did you choose?"