The Devil was once a fallen angel.
***
You know that feeling when a nightmare about a loved one comes true? Like a premonition, but worse since it is about a loved one. The seemingly never ending days you spend feeling like you're trapped and paralysed, only re-living the moments of said nightmare. Continuously blaming yourself because you knew it would happen, but didn't do anything to hinder it, or to even slow the process so that you could spend more time with that loved one and cherish every living, breathing moment with them. Even though they turn out to be different. Not as you had known them your whole life. But you still love them anyway. Well, the person you thought you knew.
She had died. But it was the end of my life...
An abnormal, stabbing summer cold ran along with the wind in our quaint American town, just west within the outskirts of Chicago along the 294 Interstate. It was a town that was barely recognized or even seen, but it was bustling with its own life, different from the city life. Arisa and I had snuck inside our high school to set up another of our infamous pranks. On Tuesday, the Spring break was to end and each student who walked through the homeroom doors of S2-3 would fear for their life, as with most others in the south-block of our high school. It was like a less fatal Russian Roulette. Which homeroom was next? We had been intricately placing these pranks in our school ever since ninth grade in different places in the south-block all the time - but no-one had suspected us. The school became familiar with these common pranks, but took no measures to stop it. Maybe they had tried, but with the wrong people. We wouldn't have known.
Sometimes after a break, we'd move to the East Block to riskily try and prank the Seniors. Some were a success, but others were a complete failures as the Seniors had more protection since it was their "most important academic year" therefore they "couldn't risk distractions". Arisa had found the looks on everyone's faces completely hilarious. And she couldn't wait to observe the prank this time. However, I felt as though she was crossing the line with this prank.
"W-we should have... stuck with last year's prank, Arisa..." I whispered, shivers shrouding me from head-to-toe. My teeth chattered in between words.
"You are such a pussy, Ayuna!" She yelled, but only because she knew she could. Her voice boomed the insult down the empty halls.
If I wasn't too scared, I would have screamed at her. Arisa pulled out a cherry bomb from her large rucksack and a smirk ran across her moonlit face. She was planning to make the firecracker go off when the door opened. The match would strike and light the wick of the firework, leaving only a few seconds for people to get out of the way before it explodes. It was supposed to be harmless, since the doors are very high up, so the cracker would explode from above a safe distance.
Trembling with fear, I realized the worst possible outcomes to derive from this prank.
"What if someone gets badly injured from this? We could get into some serious trouble Arisa. They'll know it's us for sure." I began to panic. "Oh my God, what if someone dies?"
"For God's sake, Ayuna," she grunts, "no-one is going to get hurt. More importantly, they won't know it's us."
"Why couldn't I have had a less... evil twin?"
"Well sucks to be you 'cause you're stuck with me for life!" She giggled and it echoed through the derelict school, bouncing off the freezing walls and shady corners, and thrusting chills up and down my body.
As she rummaged through the bag for something else, I tenderly reached forward and grabbed the cherry bomb. I didn't want to go through with her devious plan - I never did. For all those years. She made me. I had endured the less risky pranks with water bombs and sandbags, but this -- fireworks! -- was too far. Someone is bound to get hurt, I thought.
"You little b-"
Even though she was a million times faster than me, I ran for my life out of the classroom and down the hall. Irrespective of how long it had taken her to set up, I had wrecked her gear as I left the room. Panting, I continued turning corners and opening classroom doors to obstruct her path in the narrow hallways.
"AYUNA!"
Fearfully looking behind, I notice that her speed was increasing and she was catching up to me so with all the remaining energy left inside me, I sprinted forwards and took an unexpected sharp turn to baffle her yet I forgot about the staircase. Pain shot through my body all at once as I fell with my legs colliding with each step until I finally landed on my left. I was absolutely sure that my whole body was bruised. The floor was made of freezing granite. But the firework had landed safely beside me. Before I could get up, or even think of getting up, Arisa jumped down the first flight to the second platform where I lay in mild pain and grabbed the cherry bomb, smiling with triumph. But I lay there on the cold, hard floor, knowing that her similarly cold heart would feel even the slightest remorse.
"Ayuna?"
I had played this trick on her for as long as I can remember.
"Get up! Stop fucking around."
Panic and anxiety began to sweep through my body alongside the pain as I heard the anger rise in her voice in her continuous yells. I had put in a lot of effort to stay as still as possible. She edged closer to me. So close that her breath was snaking its way down my ear:
"AYUNA!"
While mid-scream, I reached up and grabbed the firework from her palm. Arisa was holding onto the body of it as tight as she could. I was holding on the strings.
"GET OFF!" She screamed. I refused. Tears began to form in my eyes from the pain of the grip and from falling down the stairs. Neither of us were pulling on the firework, simply holding it.
"Why the hell are you crying? You really are a pussy, Ayuna!" She teased. Before I could even say anything, she pulled out a lighter from her pockets. A crumpled cigarette had fallen out along with it. She flipped the lighter and a naked flame danced to the tune of my pain. Was this a threat?
"Ayuna if you don't let go, I'm going to set it off!"
Building up courage, I had managed to choke out, "go ahead, you only have one firework."
She carried on threatening me with the lighter, inching it closer to my fingers. The heat from the flame began to sting, but I had endured it until the fire had kissed my skin. Instinctively, I had moved my hand, screamed as loudly as possible and stepped backwards.
Arisa had not expected me to react so the flame fell through and she had toppled over backwards from my scream. I stopped focusing on the minor scratch on my skin and instead noticed that the cracker had been lit. And Ayuna was falling. But not to the ground -- she was falling down the next flight of long, hard granite. She only had a few seconds to throw the bomb away. I only had a few seconds to grab her. But we were both immobile, staring at each other as she was falling. This time, in contrast to how fast we were running and grabbing, everything was slow. I heard every sound of the firework as it exploded, every crackle rang through my ears, intimidating me with permanence. Her screams filled my mind. They weren't normal screams, she was screaming my name as she fell. Screaming my name in pain as the firework exploded in her hand. My vision blurred. All I could see were blurs of red flying all over the place. Red, mixed with bright orange and yellow and white. Finally, I screamed.
[UPDATE]: I've changed Vanessa's name to Ayuna and Inessa's name to Arisa.
[UPDATE 2.6.16]
[UPDATE 3.9.16]
UPDATE: 13.2.17
UPDATE: 19.2.17
UPDATE : 18.11.17
UPDATE: 25.6.18
YOU ARE READING
Dead Twin
Horror"She's your twin. Just like you'll never forget her, she'll never forget you." Ayuna leaves her sister's grave behind in Chicago as she moves across the globe to her family home in Japan. She did not expect to be haunted, nor did she expect to unfol...
