Doppel Chills

Chapter 1: Silhouette

It was almost 9 o'clock at night when my younger sister and I were coming home from university. Our last class finished at 8 pm but we decided to stopped by some shops to buy necessities.

As we walk down the quiet and dark street side by side together, I suddenly opened the topic about our cousin who lives with us and goes to the same university as us.

"Hey, do you think that he is on rebellious phase right now?" I asked without looking at her.

She looked at me and said my cousin's name like questioning if I'm talking about the same person that she was thinking.

"Yes. He's been around his friends a lot lately, and to be honest, I dislike his girlfriend. She's been a bad influence on him, don't you think so too?" I continued.

"I feel the same way. He's neglecting his studies just to meet with her." She replied.

Before I respond to my sister, I shift my bag to my front because my back shoulder was getting stiff. I was carrying a backpack while my sister was using shoulder bag. I'm the type to carry almost all my school supplies, thinking that I'd miss something if I didn't.

"His mom has been asking me a lot about him. I just don't know what to say."

"I suggest you don't say anything, you'll just get caught up in it. Let him deal with it on his own." She told me with a concerned tone.

"Easy for you to say. I'm just worried about hi-..."

I was about to finish my sentence but my sister used her elbow to get my attention.

"What?" I asked.

"Sshhh." She pointed at the direction of our house on the 3rd floor"

We are renting a three-story house. The landlord lives in the first and second floor and we are renting the 3rd floor. It was comfortable enough for us since their first floor is in the garden which you have to use another stairs to get there, then we have to pass by the 2nd floor door to get to the 3rd floor.

I looked at the direction where she was pointing at. We were walking up to the gate of the house by the time I saw my cousin's silhouette sitting down through the window and it seemed like his back was facing the window, we couldn't see his face at all. My sister and I tried to make out of what he was doing. That time, only the light in the kitchen was working, the lightbulb in the living room was broken. It was kind of dark but the kitchen light made the inside a little bit clearer.

We didn't say anything but we both saw the same thing. As I was opening the gate, I called his name.

"Psst! Psst! What are you doing?"

My sister tapped my shoulder to stop me from making noise.

"It's already late, you're waking up the landlord, it's embarrassing."

Ignoring my sister's warning, I continued but with a lower voice this time.

"Hey! Psst!"

This time, my sister and I saw my cousin's silhouette turned around to look at us from above without saying any word.

"Just open the gate!" she said with an annoyed voice.

I opened the gate without looking away from my cousin. He was staring at us until we reached the inside of the gate where we couldn't get any glimpse of the window from the 3rd floor anymore.

As we were going up stairs, I thought of a silly idea to tiptoe and open the door with force and scare my cousin.

I put my hand on the doorknob with my sister behind me waiting.

"Waaahhh!!"

I shouted and open the door at the same time.

My sister and I peeked to the corner where you find the sofa leaning against the window.

"Huh?..." I mumbled with confusion.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"I don't know...Let's go to his room?" I suggested.

"He run so fast. His room is in the attic you know."

We both walked towards my other sister's room to get to our cousin's room. We found my sister and her boyfriend playing games and was paying half attention to us when we open the door of her room.

To get to my cousin's room, we have to get in my sister's room first and climb up the stairs to reach the attic.

"Are you there?" I called my cousin's name in a loud voice.

"sshh! What are you doing? He's sleeping!" My other sister said.

"Huh? no he's not!" My sister answered from behind me.

"We saw him earlier sitting in the living room." I added.

My other sister and her boyfriend stopped playing for a while and looked at each other with confusion.

I smirked while my sister who I was with walked up to my cousin's room to check on him.

My cousin peeked from above the stairs to see what's happening.

My sister and I saw his eyes kind of red and with messy hair indicating that he just woke up from a long nap.

"What is it? It's noisy" My cousin said as he rubs his eyes.

My sister and I looked at each other.

"Okay... You're playing joke on us." I said.

My other sister was wearing an annoyed and serious face at the same time to let us know that we were distracting them from playing game. While her boyfriend was looking at his phone the whole time.

"That's not possible. We saw someone sitting in the living room from outside." My sister said.

My other sister chuckled and responded without taking her eyes off her phone "you're the one playing jokes."

"Maybe it's your boyfriend who were there to scare us" I accused.

"Right? That make sense!" My sister continued.

"We've been here since the last hours playing games. We haven't stepped out from this room unless we need to use the toilet." She looked at the toilet next to her door "and the toilet is right in front of us."

While my cousin was looking at us for a while. My sister and I watched him went back to his bed to sleep.

I suddenly felt chills all over my body. I could see that my sister felt the same as we looked at each other with horror. We kept staring at the hallway going to our rooms and the living room. We both didn't want to step out from my sister's room. We froze in one place; we didn't want to move. Our back was facing my other sister's door, we were standing there quietly and noticed that my other sister and her boyfriend were looking at us with disbelief. I could see from their faces that they noticed our scared expression and realized how scary the situation was.

We were just staring at each other for some minutes when a slight cold breeze coming from the hallway behind us brushed our exposed skin.

We didn't dare to look behind...

All we could do was scream.