Falsi Dee and the Chilling Truth

Moments after conjuring him, Falsi felt his presence like a dark cloud passing over a sunny day. 

“Well, well, well,” said the dark cloud sending a chill like ice down Falsi’s spine. “What do we have here?” The cloud, who goes by the name of Schaden Freude, sized her up. Falsi was a small girl; she was a twin and twins always came out smaller since they were only given half of the womb to grow. In the presence of the Schaden Freude, however, Falsi made up for her size by answering the cloud in a large booming voice; a voice that projected more confidence than small Falsi actually felt. 

“I have reconsidered your proposition,” She boomed. 

Schaden Freude grinned a sinister grin and encircled her. Falsi’s declaration hung in the air, frozen like ice. Falsi shuddered as she inhaled a cold breath, her exhale dancing out of her trembling lips like smoke. 

She had felt this cold trembling sensation before when she and Schaden Freude had first met. When he had proposed something that, at the time, seemed unthinkable. At a time when she and Veri were still on the same team. 

Once upon a time, a few years into Mr. and Mrs. Dee’s marriage, things started going south. Mr. Dee had recently been demoted at work. Money was tight and so were the tensions. Mrs. Dee found a job as a nanny to pick up the financial slack when she caught an extreme case of baby fever. The Dees, like so many other couples, decided a baby was just what they needed to mend the tear in their marriage. They tried and tried to get pregnant until almost a year had passed and Mr. Dee was ready to throw in the towel. 

“There is still one resource we haven’t tried,” Mrs. Dee reminded him. And with some persistent convincing, he agreed. They would make a deal with Schaden Freude.

Nine months later, Mrs. Dee gave birth to two healthy baby girls, Falsi Dee and Veri Dee. In exchange for the children, had to allow Schaden Freude to curse them with the power of his choice. He gave Falsi the power to take and Veri, the power to give. 

Throughout their childhood, their parents encouraged the children to use their powers to benefit their community. Falsi would take money from the greedy, rich and powerful, and Veri would give that money to the less fortunate. By balancing out a society of inequality, Falsi and Veri quickly became household heroes. 

Well… Veri became a household hero. She was the good-doer, after all. She was the one donating her time, energy, and money to help the less fortunate. Falsi became a symbol of unfairness among the wealthy she often took from. The wealthy argued that they had earned that money. How was it fair that Falsi should take it from them and give it to those who hadn’t earned it? 

There were riots and protests all demanding the removal and execution of Falsi, claiming that she was a thief. 

“They hate me!” Falsi cried. 

“They just don’t understand,” Veri said in a soothing voice. “They don’t understand that what I give to the poor is what you take from the rich. They like to believe that I just create it from thin air.” 

The reasonable side of Falsi knew this to be true. She told herself every day that the good-doing was a joint effort, that Veri couldn’t give without Falsi taking. But that didn’t make the public outrage any easier to endure. 

The twins continued their hero work but every mission, something grew stronger inside of Falsi. At first, it was just a little prick of annoyance, of frustration. Someone compliments Veri on her good deeds and then glares a nasty glare at Falsi. Prick. Veri gives a homeless man a gourmet dinner that Falsi had taken from a wealthy couple’s anniversary date. Veri got praised while Falsi got scolded. Prick. 

Then, one day, Falsi took something bigger. The Governor of their state passed many laws that benefited the rich. Tax breaks, spoil-system government jobs, and more. Falsi was outraged by his power to undermine all the work she and Veri were doing to equalize the wage gap. 

So that day, that one fateful day, Falsi decided enough was enough and took the Governor’s position and handed it over to Veri. 

“Please give the governor position to Michelle,” Falsi instructed. She had scouted Michelle out, watched her for weeks. Watched as she stood for her beliefs at her small office job even after being overlooked for being too radical. 

Veri argued that this wasn’t the best idea. That the Governor would be outraged and send more angry mobs after Falsi. She argued that people wouldn’t listen to Michelle because she hadn’t been voted into the position by her own merits. But Falsi wouldn’t listen. Finally, Veri sighed and gave in knowing that whatever the outcome, Falsi would face the consequences, not herself. 

Just as Veri had predicted, almost every citizen in the state was off their rocker over the situation and all anger was directed towards Falsi. And even though Veri had given Michelle the governor position, and anger against Michelle’s policies were not directed at “angel” Veri, but directed at strong, sweet, sensitive Michelle. 

And this made Falsi the angriest of them all. 

It was as if every little thing had been a pebble rolling down the side of a mountain until one pebble was finally strong enough to trigger a whole avalanche. Falsi was bombarded by this avalanche inside of her, this rock slide of envy and jealousy, taking the form of rage and anguish. These rocks built up into mountains just to be blown to bits by the next trigger, the next envy avalanche, the next fire of rage. Falsi no longer saw right and wrong, black and white; she saw red and she felt green. She no longer saw Veri as her sister and teammate but as a competitor, a rival; her worst enemy. 

That’s where Schaden Freude came in. He watched the partnership between Veri and Falsi come undone as Falsi faced ridicule while Veri was praised. Schaden Freude is an expert in all things envy. He understood Falsi’s avalanche of rage and took advantage of it. 

He crept up on her little by little, day after day. Veri, noticing Falsi’s shivering, asked if she was alright. 

“I must’ve caught a cold,” Falsi told her. But Falsi could tell it was anything but: she wasn’t shivering because she was cold. No. She was so hot with rage that the tips of the fire had turned blue, so hot that they felt cold. She was cold because Schaden Freude’s dark cloud has seized her at her weakest point. Falsi hadn’t even met him yet, but she could tell by the feeling of his presence, that Schaden Freude was bad news. 

“What do you want?” She asked the cloud through trembling lips. 

“I want to help you, Falsi,” Purred the cloud. “I know something you don’t.” 

Falsi gulped with unease. 

“If you don’t want to know, I’ll just be on my way--” He turned to go. 

“Wait!” Falsi exclaimed and Schaden Freude grinned. “I want to know.” 

“You have the power to take. Your sister has the power to give--” 

“I know that. Of course, I know that!” Falsi scoffed. She crossed her arms for warmth but also in defiance. What a joke. 

“Well, of course,” The grin continued. “You didn’t let me finish. I have a power too. Could you guess what it might be?” 

“To not freeze in a blizzard?” Falsi mocked, her lips blue, teeth chattering. Schaden Freude’s smile fell at her remark. 

“Hmm. Very amusing, are we?” He said, looking anything but amazed. “No, I’ll tell you my power. It’s the power to hold.”

“Hold?” 

“Yes, to hold. And how could this be of use to you? Have you ever wanted to take without having to give?” 

Falsi thought about this. She thought back to a moment when she came up with a plan to solve all her problems. She was going to take away the anger of the people who hated her. Then a new problem emerged. Just like how Veri couldn’t create money in thin-air to give to the poor, Falsi couldn’t take anger and then make it vanish into thin air. The anger still existed and she had to give it to Veri for Veri to give it to someone else. Since whoever she gave the anger to would then in turn be angry at Falsi, the sisters declared the mission to be a failure and agreed to return the anger to its original owners. 

“Well, of course,” Falsi told the cloud. “But it also isn’t right to take without giving.” 

“It may seem that way on the surface. To take the rich’s money, per se, and then withholding that money instead of sharing it with the poor seems cruel.”

Falsi agreed. 

“But if you look beyond the surface, you would see you are still helping the poor by comparison. You are bringing the rich down to their level so they too are poor.” 

“So then no one is poor,” Falsi understood. Then I could be a hero all on my own. Falsi thought to herself, another pebble added to the pile of envy, hunger to succeed beyond her sister’s success. 

“Yes. I conjured you today to tell you this and also to propose a deal. I will hold whenever you request of me. Deal?” 

The thing is, although this deal made sense to Falsi and appealed to every square inch of envy inside her, something stopped her. Something her mother used to say when they were kids. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. 

“What’s the catch?”

“Well, it would only be fair if, in exchange, you will take whenever and whatever I request of you.” 

He offered his blue claw for a handshake. 

“I’ll have to think about it.” 

“Think quick, child, for I don’t think you want me to change my mind.” 

She did think, just not very quick. It took about a month. A month of ridicule and shame and pebbles and pricks and fires of rage. The deal stirred inside her like a potion, steeped, stewing, poisoning her thoughts until finally, she conjured up Schaden Freude to tell him the good news. 

“I have reconsidered your proposition,” she said as soon as she felt that familiar chill. 

He once again offered his claw for a handshake and this time, Falsi outstretched her own hand of frozen fingers to accept. 

As soon as their skin touched, the chill began to dissipate and she began to warm up to what she perceived as a comfortable temperature. The deal was solidified. 

“Wonderful,” He purred. “Any first requests?” 

“Yes. I’d like to take the ‘power of giving’ from my sister, Veri Dee.”