Imposter

6

"Cait - what - fuck - "

Noah staggered out of the car, looking down at the girl that was the mirror image of the one next to him, and his eyes widened in shock and fear.

"I - I -" Noah shook his head. "This isn't right, I don't believe it, since when did you have a twin?"

Ekat shivered and blinked back tears as she knelt next to Caitlin, the real Caitlin. "She doesn't," Ekat whispered.

Just then, her phone buzzed with multiple texts. Unwilling to look at Noah or the girl she killed, Ekat checked it.

Nathan. Nathan who had been texting her all day long. Nathan who's sister was lying motionless on the ground. What have I done?

Hey did you see that car crash just then?

It's close to where I saw you the other day?

I'm getting there right now.

And to Ekat's horror, she saw a figure, tall and lean running towards them.

Yeah I'm getting there soz this is kind of a weird conversation

You're probably sleeping I'll stop yeah

And then she saw Nathan skid to a stop, staring at the scene - Noah, his sister's imposter, and on the ground, the girl that was his sister.

"What the - "

He looked at Ekat with her phone, Noah's glassy eyes, and the body on the ground, and something clicked. Ekat could see it.

"You - you're that girl I saw the other day. You're Ekatarina, you're the girl on the street, you're - " he took out his phone, and before Ekat could move, he dialled, and her phone started ringing.

"What the actual fuck?" Nathan demanded at the same time as Noah, and Ekat's eyes brimmed with tears as she looked down at Cait's body.

She screwed up.

She'd never screwed up before.

And then the floodgates crumbled and Ekat let her tears fall as she raised her arms to the sky and Caitlin's skin fell away, leaving her a slim pixyish girl with strange features and the hair that gleamed with the moonlight.

"I'm so sorry," her voice came out as a whisper. "I'm so, so, sorry."

"Who are you?" Noah demanded, stepping forwards. "What have you done? Why did you look like - like" his voice broke. "Her?"

The road was absolutely dark but for the moonlight, and it reflected off Caitlin's blood, Ekat's tears, and Noah's car. "I - I'm a shapeshifter," she choked out. "Caitlin called on me because she hated - she hated how she was treated, she wanted someone to help her... So I did. I... Helped her. Made friends for her. It's my job."

I killed her

"No," Nathan shook his head. "I don't believe you, this is some trick, this isn't right, TELL ME WHY MY SISTER IS LYING DEAD ON THE GROUND?!"

"I can't."

The sirens were starting in the distance, and Ekat knelt by Caitlin's body. "I'm so, so, sorry."

Noah had stepped away from Ekat as though he was repulsed by her, and that hurt even more than Nathan's accusing gaze. "Noah..."

"Don't. Just don't," he looked down at Caitlin. "How could you? How long has it been you? How could you do this?"

"I love you," Ekat whispered before turning back to the body and kissing Caitlin on her forehead. "I'm sorry."

And she left the two boys in the night as she ran off into the trees.

~~~~~~~~~~

There were questions, of course, and there were explanations. Fake, of course.

Ekat heard it all as she returned to Caitlin's bedroom a few days later, looking through where she had lived for days, surveying where Caitlin enjoyed sitting, where she did her hair, where she wrote...

A letter lay on the table, labeled simply Für Ekat. (Get it? Für?)

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You wouldn't believe how much you have changed my life for the better, how much you have influenced my positively. I cannot thank you enough for that, and you have been a great friend. I brought two necklaces - on the table. They each have one of our hairs in it (sorry I picked up some of yours from the bathroom floor). I hope you remember me the way I'll remember you. The beautiful girl that floated into my life and made it better. I love you Ekat.

Love, Cait.

P.S. I left your mermaid recommendation in the envelope.

Ekat couldn't take it anymore. She cried, she cried waterfalls for hours. She shuddered and curled up on the floor, tired and drained and feeling like some part of her had shattered and flown away, never to be the same again. Caitlin had left her what she always wanted, and Ekat killed her.

The locket she put around her neck, resting it over her heart, and cried again.

The next day, Ekat walked to the beach. She took the locket meant for Caitlin and buried it in the sand dune that she had sat on with Noah all those days ago, and cried as she did so, burying those two hairs deep within the sand, almost like a ritual in which she sealed the grave with her tears.

"Hey."

Ekat spun around and faced the boy that was the cause of it all, and her tears welled up again.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered again.

"I know," Noah replied, running a hand through his rumpled hair, and Ekat resisted the urge to help him.

"I - I'm leaving," Ekat muttered

"Oh."

"I guess this is goodbye."

"Aren't you staying for her funeral?" Noah asked sharply, and Ekat shook her head. "I already saw her off just now," she pointed at the sand dune."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Where're you going?" Noah blurted out, and Ekat smiled weakly.

"Away," Ekat replied simply.

She looked down towards the choppy sea and sighed. "I... I did.... I mean... I actually love you."

"I think I did too," Noah kicked at the sand. "But I'll always love her more."

Ekat nodded her acceptance. "Goodbye," she said as she turned away to the sea, heading down, wiping away her tears. She stopped for an instant at the water's edge, almost looking back, before she heading in slowly, deeper and deeper, as the water closed over her head and Ekat closed her eyes.

~~~~~

"I found this in her room," Nathan said to Noah, holding out a piece of paper. The mourners were all leaving, and the two of them were sitting together at the front row.

"What is it?"

"A bucket list. Her's and... You know..."

"I know."

"I'm going for her. Great Barrier Reef. Grand Canyon. Stuff like that." Nathan paused. "Do you want to come?"

Noah looked across the empty room. "There's nothing left for me here."

Nathan nodded. "For Caitlin.... And Ekat."

"For Caitlin and Ekat."