---

The Smell of Smoke

The man stumbled as he walked into Vale Hollow just before dawn.

His face was bruised blood flew side from side, ribs cracked, cloak torn at the shoulder.But his voice—his voice carried.

> “They are not like us,” he rasped to the elders. “I saw it—light and shadow, alive. They didn’t fight like children… They fought like something else. They need to leave before……..”

He coughed blood into the dirt, and still the words came.

> “They’ll bring ruin. Just like the Hollow once did.” He continued.

He died that same day. But his story lived.

---

At first, nothing seems to changed.

People still nodded as Aelina passed the well. Yvonne still bought herbs from Old Mena at the market. Children still waved and smiled.

But they noticed the warmth had gone.

The smiles were thinner.

The greetings didn’t last as long.

---

By the end of the week, rumors followed them through the village like shadows.

> “That’s them.” Said a villager

> “Their mother was strange too.” another added

> “They say one spoke to fire…” whispered another.

It wasn't harsh at first. A closed door which has always been usually open. A basket of bread taken back before Yvonne could pay. Friends avoiding their gaze, pretending not to hear their greetings. They were. Now being treated like they were an outcast.

---

Aelina grew tense.

She walked faster now, head down, fists clenched. She didn’t say much, not even to Yvonne.

Yvonne, in turn, grew quieter. She clung to her pendant when no one was looking, as if it could help her to be the girl she was before all this.

---

They passed Marlo one morning—their closest friend since childhood. She was sweeping her front porch. Her father had warned her not to talk or have anything to do with the twins anymore.

Tala didn’t want to look at them. But something inside her couldn't let her be.

“Tala?” Yvonne called, her voice hopeful.

No response came from her

Marlo flinched, then turned and went inside.

Aelina’s jaw tightened. “Coward.”

“No,” Yvonne said softly, “She’s afraid.”

“ You guys, should leave, I will come meet you at your place" came Tala.

This ignited some rare hope then. At least someone still believes and trusts them.

They nodded and left

---

The next day, someone painted a mark on their door in red ash.

The same mark that had once been drawn on the houses of the sick, years ago—back when Hollow fever swept through the village.

The mark meant: Unclean. Dangerous. Keep away.

Later, Tala came seeing the messages and what she has heard from the villagers, she urges the twins to leave

“ You guys, really have to leave, is not safe anymore" Tala said amidst fear of what will become of her friends.

“Where do we go from here? Here was our mother's,and we were born and grew up here” Aelina muttered.

" We can always come back, but right now I feel we are not safe anymore. Don't you see it? The cold stares,the changing habit and these warnings.

Aelina knows what she said was true but deep down she doesn't want to leave Vale Hollow.

But they had to make a decision.

Tala wiped off her tears,held their hands and say

“ Don't worry i will always come to find you"

Then she left

Later that night,

Aelina tried to wipe off the warning. The paint stained her hands.

Yvonne cried that night.

---

One morning at the bakery, the baker turned them away.

“We’re closed,” he said.

The shelves behind him were full of fresh bread.

---

They weren’t safe at the market anymore either. Aelina reached for a jar of dried roots, and a hand slapped hers away.

“Don’t touch that,” the vendor hissed. “We don’t want your kind near our food.”

Aelina wanted to lash out. But she didn't

Not with so many people watching.

---

Then the stones started.

Small at first—thrown at their feet when they walked past. A warning.. One struck Yvonne’s arm and left a bruise.

They didn’t tell anyone. There was no one left to tell.

---

At night, their home grew quieter.

The silence no longer felt peaceful. It was heavy. Watching. The walls creaked in the cold, but even the wind seemed to carry whispers now.

---

One evening, Aelina stood at the window, arms folded tight.

“They hate us,” she said.

Yvonne sat on the floor, back against the wall, voice barely above a whisper. “They fear us.”

“What’s the difference?” Aelina snapped.

But Yvonne didn’t answer.

---

Days passed.

And with each one, more friends vanished from their lives.

The hair dresser who used to braid Yvonne’s hair.

The old man who taught Aelina how to sharpen a blade.

Gone. Or pretending they never cared at all. All loathed them.

Even Aunt Vivienne stopped coming. And that felt like the final betrayal.

---

One night, smoke crept in through the cracks in their windows.

Someone had set fire to their shed.

A warning.

---

They doused the flames before they spread. But the message had been sent:

Leave. Or burn.

---

They didn’t sleep much after that.

The village that once raised them now wanted them gone.

But neither girl said it aloud yet.

They weren’t ready to leave.

Not until they had to.

--