One Thing I Won't Forget

Two

                                                                                            Alana

I sat up in bed as the sudden noise of something falling woke me. Every noise since finding out that I have a twin has made me jump, and has made me question everything. I stared up at the ceiling, oddly enough where the noise had come from.

 The only problem with the noise coming from the ceiling? The attic is above my room, along with it being above Alexander's room. Our parent's room was on the main floor, and we had taken the rooms up here due to them being smaller.

 As my door opened up, I saw Alexander appear, the hallway light making his figure look dark. "Alana?" He whispered as he opened my door more. "Are you up?"

 "Yeah," I replied, leaning over to turn the lamp on my nightstand on. "Did you hear that crash?" I rubbed my eyes to get the sleep away, and then looked over at him.

 Neither of us have truly been sleeping well since Mom and Dad passed away, and truly, the community has shown more interest in our well being than our own family. "I did. And I know you didn't like the idea the first time I mentioned it, but I truly think that we need to go into the attic."

 "But-"

 "Something up there could be broken," he interrupted. "Whatever is up there Mom always took care of the object, it's only right that we do the same."

 "Do you know where the key is?" I asked as I uncovered my body and got out of bed. "If we can't unlock the padlock, we can't get into the attic anyways."

 "No, but I'm sure we could find it in their room somewhere. There is that floorboard Dad would always have to fix, maybe it's under there?"

 "Maybe," I replied as we walked out of my room and down the stairs. Neither of us have even opened the door to our parents room since we were pulled out of school early.

 Standing outside of their bedroom door, Alexander laid his hand on their doorknob. Neither one of us wanted to enter, but we wanted to make sure whatever was in the attic that had fallen wasn't broken. Slowly, he turned the doorknob and carefully pushed it open.

 "Do you remember which floorboard it was?" I asked as we stepped in. Their room was perfectly clean, as it usually was. Mom always liked the house to look as though it was for an open house, rather than it looked lived in. Grandma is the same way, so maybe that's where she gets it from.

 "No," he started to slide his foot on the individual boards as he walked around. "But I'm sure that we could find it by trying to move the boards around and one will move slightly."

 I slid around on the floor, until I heard a shifting noise and looked down. The board underneath my feet was shifting back and forth as I moved my foot. "Alex, this board moves. Help me get it up?"

 Alexander hurried over to me, and helped me pry the board up. Sure enough, there was a set of keys, along with a little bit of hidden money. However, all we cared about were the keys, hoping that they were the ones to the padlock for the attic.

 Making our way up the stairs, Alexander stopped at the top. "What if this is a bad idea?" He turned to face me, and worry covered his face. "What if there is a reason that we were never allowed in the attic?"

 "And what if the answer to who Alaina is is in the attic?" I asked. Suddenly, I realized that roles have reversed and I was the one who wanted in the attic more than anything now. We didn't know what was truly up there. Now was our chance to find out what Mom loved up there so much, what she hid up there to the point that keys were hidden in the floor. "What if there are pictures of her, or maybe even adoption papers or a death certificate so we at least know what happened to her? We have a sister, Alex. I have a twin somewhere in the world possibly."

 As the worry left his face, determination set in. "You're right. We have a sister somewhere, and we deserve to know if she is dead or alive, and where she is." He pulled the ladder out of the closet in the hallway, and set it up underneath the door for the attic. Walking up with the keys in his hands, he stopped before reaching for the padlock. "Are we sure?"

 Looking up at him, I walked towards the bottom of the ladder and went up the first couple of steps. "Absolutely. Unlock it, we need to make sure nothing is broken anyhow."

 As he unlocked the door and pushed it inside of the attic, he climbed in and I followed. For some reason, my heart started to race. Maybe it was because we were doing something we always were told not to, maybe it was because for the first time I was doing something that I always wanted to do.

 Once we were fully in the attic, we looked around us. There were piles of boxes, old hanging pictures, and photo albums. Taking a few steps into the attic, I stopped and stared into what I thought was a mirror. The only issue with the mirror? The mirror had legs, and wasn't that of a mirror at all. Standing in front of me, just as shocked as me, was a human being. "A-Alex."