She follows him, as she has always done.
It isn’t a wise decision, but she has never been wise when it comes to her brother; she cannot blame him for his disdain, for the chaos planted and sowed in his heart from the moment his first breath filled those festering lungs and their mother’s own heart ceased beating.
Their father called her Vida - life - for he felt a quickening of pride and a blossoming of hope as she tumbled forth into the world, a small spark of happiness too soon crushed by the horrified eyes of her mother as she struggled to deliver yet another babe, a bigger babe. Muerte he was called, for he took a life to feed his own - or so their father cursed, his misery bleeding into hate at the sight of the colt struggling to stand while their mother’s skin cooled in the dewy morning grass.
Abomination, they called him. Cursed child, death-bringer.
Vida loved him still - even as he became the dark creature they branded him. Even as the love died in his heart and left a black, rotting hole for which nothing good could grow.
And so, she follows him into the dark - into the cold water that thrashes and tugs against her, deeper and wilder until she thinks perhaps she will not follow him again, or anyone. The sea floods her nostrils and coats her tongue in brine, wild eyed panic paralyzing her in water tossed by a winter storm. Hours pass and her muscles spasm and fail and the water rushes to claim her.
Perhaps this is his final gift to her, the sister he has grown to despise. A trick, a trap - a final farewell.
As soon as the thought passes her mind, the sea spits her out amongst a rocky shore, bruised and shivering with a cold that cuts straight to the bone. She can’t smell her brother on the breeze any longer - he was lost to her amongst the waves. Alone and disoriented, she drags herself away from the water and inland, coughing up the remnants of salt and sorrow lingering in her wheezing chest.
Everything is unfamiliar, and for once - as the winter cold forms crystals on her sodden body - she feels the tickle of regret at having given all of herself to a reckless beast who may never care for any of it.