The thunder was as loud as she expected. The pitter-patter of rain against her window and ceiling sounded like a sinful lullaby mocking her of her current condition. With a sigh, she sat on her bed, idly stroking her legs. Her skin felt rough. So she reached out for her moisturizer and squeezed a hefty amount into her palm. Slowly, she lathered her legs with it.

Over and over her hand slid from her kneecaps to her ankles. She repeated the process over and over and over again. For hours the repetitious cycle continued. She savored the moment. And she knew he too, savored the moment.

"It's time to sleep, Carina. Lay down and leave all your worries to the night." She heard someone whisper.

She tilted her head to the side and looked at the person who always wore white. She then smiled and bobbed her head. Slowly, she laid down on her bed and pulled her blanket over her body.

When the lights in her room were turned off, she felt a gush of wind blow past her. Wondering where it came from, she craned her neck from left to right, and there, just a few meters to her left, she noticed that the lock on her double-glazed window was unlatched. Sheer curtains moved ever so lightly with the wind. A whistle also came with it, ominously singing a lullaby. But her broken heart remained still. No matter how scary or foreboding the whistle was, she never felt any form of dread from it. "Ti's the wind, that's all," she murmured as her eyes shut tight, clouded with tears.

***

She tried to run him over with her car when they first met. He was a rich bastard. The son of a wealthy businessman. He was her senior. Andre Salazar was the embodiment of a god. His gorgeous face and status in life set him above everyone else. But for reasons unknown, she caught his attention.

Their love was like lightning. It came fast, strong and loud.

They loved each other without a care in the world. They had no friends because they both were too possessive of each other. They were a duo. Always will be a duo.

But all that changed when Andre's twin brother came into view—Kevin, a sweet and caring boy. He was the exact opposite of Andre. He took her breath away. She fell in love with him too. But that came with a price.

***

Carina was startled when she heard the familiar creaking of her bedroom door. Alarmed, she got out of bed and headed toward her vanity mirror. Opening one of the drawers below it, she fingered for the knife she had hidden there. But alas, the knife was nowhere. They must have taken it again, she thought to herself. So she sighed and then frowned when a cold wind swept past her. It forced her to turn around.  With a heart, a bit too steady for what she perceived would come, she looked everywhere. With glazed eyes, she stared from one corner to another. Shooting scrutiny at any shadow she may find unnatural.

"Tis night is dark and cold. Lay back in bed and rest. Sleep, my love. Sleep."

Yes, she must sleep. There was nothing there but the wind, she thought to herself. So she took a step forward. But before she could take another step, a voice whispered again. "Look at me. Look at me and see me for who I am."

Carina froze. She shivered at the eerie familiarity yet difference in the voice. The voices were two, despite all who refused to believe them as true. She heard them both all the time. Both demanding. Both caring. Both wanting. Both needing.

Her musing was disrupted and a scream instantly escaped her mouth when her bedroom door swung open. Light seeped inside her room from the fluorescent in the ceiling of the hallway. Squinting her eyes she kept her gaze on the door, waiting for whoever was bound to step inside. But as the seconds ticked by, no one came. So she walked toward her door, shut it close, and trudged back to her bed.

But before she could lay back down, she sensed that someone was behind her. Again. He was there again. Instinctively, she turned toward the location of her vanity mirror but when it registered to her that her knife was no longer there, she steeled. As predicted, she was pulled back against a hard warm body. Lips brushed against her ear whispering, "Tis the wind, and nothing more."

Yes, tis the wind and nothing more, she repeated mentally as a warm hand wrapped around her waist. Carina knew better than to protest. So she closed her eyes and savored the warmth those arms gave her. The wind. The wind was warm.

Breathing.

Breathing.

Warm ragged breath swept past her nape and that continued for minutes. Occasional murmurs of, "Tis the wind and nothing more," brushed past her ear. And in no time she relaxed.

"Look at me."

Carina slowly opened her eyes and with her still leaning on the warm body behind her, she gazed at the reflection in the mirror. He looked just as she remembered. So was the other.

***

Andre hated her when he found out that she developed feelings for his brother. He cursed Carina but eventually forgave her. Their relationship continued. However, Kevin became a shadow that loomed above and between them.

Carina tried to ignore him. She knew Kevin had also developed feelings for her. But even with that knowledge and her ever-present need to be with him, she remained with Andre.

Then one day, Andre was no more and she awoke inside this room. This room, where there was nothing but the wind. Nothing but two distinct voices every night.

***
He watched silently as she stared at his reflection in the mirror. It was he who caused her to be that way. It was his selfish desire that made her eyes dull. It was he who turned her pinkish skin into pale vampire-like whiteness. Because she no longer was allowed to bathe under the sunlight.

She was bound inside that room to forever live in confusion and uncertainty. In that room, she must remain.

He met her when his brother introduced her to him. She was everything he ever wanted. His brother Andre always gave way and he thought he'd also do the same when he told him that he had fallen for Carina. But Andre refused to give her to him. He refused and it broke him. So he broke him too during a car race.

"This the wind and nothing more." He whispered to her ear again, hoping she'd continue to relax under his hold. Her eyes pinned on the mirror, squinting, wondering, and hurt made him frown.

He had done everything he could to have her, but as his eyes caught sight of the third reflection in the mirror. He knew it was impossible.

"Why are you here? You're not supposed to be here," he heard her whisper. He couldn't help but wonder if she asked him or the other.

"Leave me alone. Please leave me alone," she murmured again. But instead of releasing his hold on her, he pulled her tighter to him.

"I don't want you. And you! You said we'd always be together. Why did you leave me? Why did you make him leave me!"

Her words were meant not only for him but for the other too, that, he was certain of. Then it came, the shift.

"You said you will never leave me?"

He leaned his head closer to her ear and then answered, "I'm here, can't you see?"

"Andre is it you? Is it really you," she asked.

As always, he said yes. Taking advantage. Taking what he needed. Taking her. Even with him, the other, just standing there. She'd never be able to tell the difference. He was his twin, after all.

Her questions continued. And he continued to listen. She cried and screamed. Then screamed and cried.

"Hush now, Carina. Tis the wind and nothing more. Tomorrow when you wake, things will be different,” he whispered to her ear.

She smiled.

He smiled.

But the other frowned. Tears dripped from his eyes. Then after, anger rose anew.

He gently guided her to her bed and there, he lay down with her. His arms went into places that made her scream. His lips claimed her quivering ones as he pressed his body to her petite frame. Then he entered her.

Again and again.

An hour later, Carina watched in silence as the man left her bed and walked out the door. She lay still, eyes wide with tears dripping from them.

"Twas the wind, and nothing more," she murmured.

Then as always. A cold hand grabbed her arm. The other, the shadow who remained after the other left loomed above her and he touched her in the same places the other had. He entered her the way the other had. They were the same in many ways. Both wanting. Both, needing her. Both demanding. Except, one was warm, the other cold.

Tears continued to flow from her eyes as a cold hand brushed over her lips.

"Tis the wind and nothing more," it whispered to her.

"Yes, tis the wind and nothing more," she replied. Although she knew it wasn't. She had known years ago that none of the two would ever let her go.

As the cold touch continued to slither its way around her body, landing on places that were left warm by the other, Carina went in and out of sleep. And in that cold room, she cried silent tears. Not even a hick-up was heard. But she cried. She cried until the dark figure above her had its fill and disappeared along with the coming of dawn.

Her body was in pain. But just as always she murmured, "Tis the wind, and nothing more." She then laid still, hoping that the pain between her legs would subside. She took deep breaths, heart in agony, head trying to calm itself.

But she can never relax. She never had and she never will. Because in just a few hours, come nightfall, when everything was once more hidden in the dark, they would come again.

The warm and the cold touches.

***

In the hallway, a woman in white shook her head as she watched the youngest heir of the Salazar family step out of the forbidden room. Though she had many questions, she was warned never to ask. The woman inside that room was a special person to the young master. Though none of them had truly seen her, they were told that she was a very pretty woman. A woman with whom the young master lived with since he was sixteen. A woman whom the young master loved dearly.

The young woman in white was told that the woman inside the room was the girlfriend of the young master's twin and that she lost her mind when he died. It was said that the family felt bad for her so they took it upon themselves to keep her inside the psychiatric hospital that the Salazar family owned.

But something never felt right about it. If the woman was Andre's girlfriend, then why was she living with the young master Kevin? Why was she treated differently, not like a patient but like a prisoner? No antipsychotic medicine was ever delivered to that room. It felt as though, young master Kevin wanted to keep the woman insane.

Slowly, she walked toward the door and leaned the side of her head on the cold wood.

"Tis the wind and nothing more."

Those words were repeated over and over again. The young nurse shook her head as she stepped away and told herself, she shouldn't intrude. Whatever the young master does to the woman whenever he comes was not her problem. Nor was it something she needed to know.