Twins

I am used to sleeping with my body wrapped around my brother’s body. We are royal. We are twins. So it is decreed that the power within us shall not be split in slumber. We must cleave to one another. So it has always has been and so I have taken comfort in sharing our sleep. People watch us sleep. They have always been given access to us in this state, our subjects. They file through all night long, past the royal bed. Now, though, it is much harder for me. His body grows cold in the night and his eyes sewn shut will not greet mine to comfort me when I wake from troubled dreams. The embalmers have done a masterful job of keeping his face…