"Huh!?" Taiga sat upright, his face brimming with disgust, revulsion, and true disturbance.
"What are you talking about?!" he shouted, his expression now full of anger as he stepped further and further away from Silver. "Everything I've said was the truth. Shin's been treated like that since he was an infant."
"I don't doubt you, Taiga. What I do doubt, however, is whether or not all that abuse actually got to Shin."
Taiga reflexively grimaced.
"What are you talking about?! Of course it did! It would get to anyone."
"Anyone but Shin. You're the closest person to him in the whole world. He'd tell you anything. Has he ever brought up this insecurity? Has he ever told you he felt inferior? Has he?"
Taiga bit his lip.
"No, he hasn't, but that doesn't mean anything. People don't tell others what they're going through until they've gotten over it. Everyone hides stuff like that, even from their loved ones. No—especially from their loved ones."
"No, Taiga. You don't tell anyone until it's too late. You hide yourself from your loved ones."
Taiga forced a laugh.
"You seriously believe Shin doesn't think he's inferior to me? Use your brain, Silver. Think back to everything we've been through. There's no way anyone could be in his shoes and still think they're equal to me."
He took a step forward.
"Back when we were twelve, who asked you out again? That's right—it was Shin. And what did you do to him? You rejected him point-blank. How do you think he felt when he saw you dating me a few years later? Couldn't have felt great, could it? So how about you get off your moral high horse and stop throwing around baseless accusations? I love my brother more than you could ever imagine."
"Would you still love your brother if he were better than you?"
Taiga's hand clenched into a fist as veins began bulging throughout his arm.
"Yes! Yes, of course I would," he replied adamantly.
With that, the imagined Silver disappeared from Taiga's view, and hundreds of mirrors filled the forest. From every conceivable angle, mirrors materialised, all reflecting the same image into Taiga's retinas.
Taiga saw his furrowed black brows exuding hatred and disgust.
Taiga saw his dilated pupils leaking a darkness that consumed the little love left in his eyes.
Taiga saw the veins that had cemented themselves across his forehead.
Taiga saw the blood trickling from his lips, caused by the ever-increasing force of his teeth biting down.
Taiga saw his pale hands curled into fists, riddled with blood vessels clawing beneath his skin, desperate to escape.
Taiga saw the life leave his own eyes.
Then he collapsed to the forest floor, striking his head against a mirror directly behind him.