Dear Twin Sister (On-Hold) - (For Editing)

VII

7 days.

I was only allowed to stay for 7 days and then I had to go back.

The following day would be the first day of school and my parents would only allow me to miss that day to prepare myself. But that was all I got.

The first thing I did was search the room.

My aunty never had kids or she might in the future if she got married again. So we had a whole room to ourselves. Like a second bedroom.

The bedroom my sister and I shared when we were here was average sized with a big bed in the centre. There was a closet that we only ever added to and never cleared out.

There was a shelf with novels by a certain author  Kylie adored and collected like some priceless figurine. Danielle Steel. And a couple of our school books that we studied over the breaks.

A standing fan stood at the left edge of the bed, in case there was no electricity at night to work the air conditioner.

I would sleep on the right side because the fan hit there better than the left, where it was placed.

I started with the bookshelf, I ransacked it for secret notes or letters. Kylie would have hidden it somewhere I'd never look.

After a while, I moved to her bedside and checked the tiny table on her side.

I pulled out the drawers and checked underneath and inside. All I found were pens, a notepad, a pack of rubber bands, some packets of mint and a fairly used walkie talkie.

Where did she even get one of those?

I check beside the bed, underneath the bed, under the mattress and even inside the pillows.

Finally, I head over to the drawer.

The drawer was always a mess. Kylie and I never saw a reason to arrange it since we would onto be staying a while. We were twins and luckily we could fit into the same size of clothes, so we'd just wear whatever.

It would have been the perfect place to hide a secret message.

Like a deep-sea diver, I dove into the heap of clothes. Digging around for anything, anything at all that could help me out.

In the process, I began folding the clothes. The mess was just too much to handle and the more I scuffled around, the messier it got.

When I was done with arranging it all, I realized that the closet had absolutely nothing that could have helped me.

With a deep sigh, I crashed onto the bed.

If Kylie didn't hide anything here, then where.

Not so shockingly, I fell asleep. Much too exhausted from my trip and my treasure hunt, my body gave into rest.

When I woke up, it was dark outside. I could hear my aunty in the kitchen not so far away and could scent something delicious.

Checking my phone, I understood that it was currently 8 pm and I had been asleep for five hours. The most I had slept since we lost Kylie.

I got off the bed and rubbed my eyes, yawning as I did so. My aunty would sooner or later come to get me, so instead of waiting, I went to join her in the kitchen.

With two pair of hands, dinner was ready in a jiffy. We ate in the living room because neither of us was mentally ready to use the dining table. Where my uncle and my sister had last sat here before passing on.

When we were done eating, we spent 15 minutes in front of the tv, trying to fill in the silence. I didn't like it, so I retreated into my room.

The bedsheets were new.

I believed my mother had told my aunty to take out the old ones, probably thinking it would help me accept my loss better.

It didn't. It made me miss her more. It made me angry, having lost something that could remind me of my sister. And it made me sad. Knowing that those sheets were just a replacement and that Kylie was gone for good.

A strange noise pulled me out of my depressed state, as I laid on the bed. I glanced curiously around the room, trying to find the source of the noise.

Once again, it came and left as soon as it arrived. But I was able to make it out as one similar to the noise my daddy's radio made when it was on the wrong channel or had a bad signal. Static?

The third time I heard it, I was able to locate where it was coming from. The bedside table.

I pulled the drawer open and noticed a red light glowing from the walkie talkie. Was someone trying to communicate with her? Did they know what had happened? Most especially, who was this person?

"Hello?" I assumed they hadn't heard me as I was sure something had to be done to speak into it, but I couldn't recall what to push or probe from all the movies I'd seen.

"Are you dead yet?" Was the first thing I heard.