The sister in the dark

Chapter 20

I break down in desperation. Rose is gone, all this was for nothing. I risked my life for her, multiple times, but it wasn't worth it. My conscience speaks in the back of my mind again. "Maybe Rose is dead," it says, "Maybe she died young, like Hamika,"

Those words provoke my tears, and my knees hit the hard concrete of the tunnel floor. The poem my sister wrote drifts out of my pocket and onto the ground. I pick it up, brushing aside a stray teardrop that falls onto the page.

I look back through the lines, and as I read, it slowly dawns on me.

Rivers of blood, Death is now nigh-didn't Charlotte die by the river? And where it said her spirit above, her ghost in my mind; I now know what your conscience insisting that you are the most vile thing on the planet feels like. She must be experiencing the same thing. Of course she would. Love for my sister swells up inside me. Although she is not here right now, she has never been closer in my heart.

Then I see something on the floor. One of Rose's lockets, the heart shaped one with spiral patterns. I pick it up, my heart beating. Rose loved this one especially, she would never willingly leave it behind. Maybe she was forced to drop it or someone stole it...

No. I can't think about that now, I have to open it up to see if there's anything that could lead me to where she is.

Inside the locket are the same photos that have always been there. The one of Rose and I sitting with our back to the camera, the sun setting in front of us, and the one of Mother and Father hugging when he left for the war.

I prise them out and turn them over, hoping for a note on the back.
Nothing. After all this, I was wishing for something that shows it was worth it. But, evidently, there's nothing.

I turn to Hirah, about to ask her what we should do now, but I am interrupted by footsteps echoing down the tunnel.

"Hide!" I whisper, hurrying into the dark shadows at the back of the room at the end of the tunnel. Hirah ducks behind a curtain, leaving me to search desperately for somewhere to conceal myself from whoever is coming.

But I can't find anywhere suitable for hiding a 13 year old girl, so as a last resort I stand behind the door.

The person, or should I say people walk into the room. They slam open the door, sending it flying into my nose. I guess I shouldn't have stood there, it was a really stupid idea.

Before I can stop myself, a little squeak of pain slips out of my mouth. I lose all hope of being unheard when one of the people says, "Did you hear that?"

It's a voice I recognise, but it seems like my memory has shut down due to panic. Realisation of who it is dawns on me when the second voice answers with, "It sounded like it came from behind the door..."

The voices, they belong to Olivia and Emily. My enemies, not just bullies but people who will go out of their way to maim me, maybe even kill me. And they know where I am, alone in a dark room.

But, I consolidate myself, they don't know it's me, they must think I'm someone else, but maybe they know it's me, maybe they've been following me all this time, waiting for the time to strike, waiting to stain their hands with my blood...

I screw my eyes tightly shut, hoping that this is a dream, a nightmare, anything but reality...

It's real, I can feel it. The creak as the door slides away to reveal me standing behind it. The feel of warm breath on my face. The hiss from Emily that makes me lose all hope of living to see tomorrow.

"Well," She snarls, "Look who it is. Rose's twin! I know just what to do with you!"

My blood runs colder than ice at her words.

"Come on Olivia. We have a criminal to punish."

Olivia ties a scarf over my mouth to stop me from screaming and binds my arms with a piece of rope behind my back. They lead me, angry as ever, out of the tunnel and through the grey morning light of the school's woods and towards a tower, a tower with a small room at the top.

I try and fight out of their grip as they pull me up the stairs, ready to meet my impending fate.

But it looks like I'm not the only one they've captured so far.

So I guess I'm with my sister after all.

Just not in the way I previously thought.