The Empire Of The Rose

Decoy [I]

I remember how many times I had deny it, how many times I didn't accept it, Eleanor's death was something I would never see as a fact but now at the moment I was actually having doubts and believing for the first time what others had told me endless times.

Even if she stood there in front of me it now seemed nearly impossible that it was really her. I stared at her struck, the girl had her long blonde hair falling down in small waves, her green eyes shinned with fresh tears and her brown dress looked a bit worn out, but it really did seem like her.

"Is that all you're really going to say to me?" Eleanor asked me as she stepped closer making me step back.

I looked at her and shook my head.

"It's not really you." I told her as I narrowed my gaze at her.

"Alice, it's really me." Eleanor told me.

I shook my head.

"No, William is just messing with my head. You're dead!" I told her, I refused to get my hopes high only for them to be crushed once again.

"Actually, it's not; it is really Eleanor, your dear old friend." William said as he came into view.

"This isn't real; I'm tired of your games William, just leave me alone." I told William making him chuckle in response.

"I'll leave you ladies alone so you can fix the unfinished problems you have." William said before he left.

"Are you alright?" Eleanor asked once we were alone in the hallway.

"I'm not doing this; I'm not going to pretend that you're not dead." I said as I turned around and walked back into the bedroom; I was tired of this fake reality, of constantly living in a fantasy.

"Alice, please just listen to me. The girl that they found dead in the Academy wasn't me but my twin sister Kathryn who I didn't know existed until recently." Eleanor told me.

I shook my head.

"That's not true." I said as I pushed to the side this sudden uncomfortable feeling I was feeling in my throat.

"It is Alice, Kathryn was abducted when we were newborns, my parents never said anything because as time passed they lost hope and they assumed that they would never get my sister back so at the end they decided to pretend as if it had only been me since the beginning. In my opinion what my parents did was awful, I lived a whole life without knowing that I had a half of me somewhere in the world, Alice I had to stand back restrained by William's guards as they killed my sister, I tried to free myself once I heard her screams of raw agony and pain but I wasn't able to do anything." Eleanor said as she walked towards me, but I instantly flinched back creating as much distance as possible between us, it wasn't because I feared Eleanor or didn't believe her but it was due to the sudden pull I felt towards her.

Before Eleanor or I could speak someone entered the bedroom and stopped cold on his tracks once he saw us.

"Did William let you see Alice? Eleanor you know what can happen to you or Alice if William fins out that you went behind his back and saw Alice." Andrew told her.

I looked at Andrew confused.

"You know who she is?" I asked him.

Eleanor looked at Andrew and me.

"You two know each other?" Eleanor asked us.

"It's a long story." Andrew said dismissing the whole matter.

"Actually, it's not, Andrew attacked me, I killed him but before he died Andrew drank some of my blood so now he's back from the dead." I told Eleanor.