The Forest's Secrets

Chapter Seventeen: White

Just a few minutes later, Taime, Eli, Brooks and another officer sat in the room with the doubled mirror again. The kids sat to face the mirror, Brooks opposite Eli. The other cop stood near the door.

The kids seemed to be completely opposite, Eli looked cold and sick, her eyes were dark with anger. Taime didn't seem to ever stop smiling, he was always moving in some kind of way, his eyes were warm and friendly.

"Are you related?", Jamie asked curiously. Both kids shook their head in unison.

"How old are you?", the officer kept asking.

"Sixteen!", Taime replied happily.

"Who is older?", the man wanted to know.

Now Eli replied, she was talking quietly:"We're the same age. Day, year, hour. Minute. Maybe even second."

"It's actually fascinating", Taime explained excitedly. He seemed to be wanting to say something more, but Eli shot him a dark look.

"What is?", Brooks asked interested.

"That we're the exact same age and look the exact same?", Taime asked back.

"Do you know the reason that Elisa is here?", the officer asked the boy.

"Elisa?", the teen asked and giggled. "That's not Elisa. That's Ali!"

"Do you mean Eli?", the officer continued confused.

"Nope", the boy giggled," A-L-I. Ali."

"So you lied to us about your name too?", this question was directed at the girl.

She now had a smile on her face too, but a much darker and sinister one. Her voice was filled with disgust, as she said:"Elisa exists. Or well, excited. Not anymore."

"What is that supposed to mean?", the officer growled threatening.

"That I changed. I was Elisa, for a short while. But that's not who I really am."

"Yeah, she's Ali!", Taime chimed in.

"Both of you, shut up!", Brooks yelled.

It was quiet for a short while, then Ali said:"You know what, I do want some sweets."

Taime grinned, as he pulled out the pouch again. He handed her a cherry lollipop.

As Ali unwrapped it, Brooks asked:"What is your real name then? And who was Elisa and what happened to her?"

The girl popped the Lolli into her mouth and replied:"My name is Alistor, Ali in short. Elisa Waters never really existed, it was like a persona. And I can play my roles, other than the idiot here."

Before Taime could complain, Brooks continued:"What do you mean with that?"

Ali didn't reply, but Taime did so in her place:"Well, we just want a normal life too. I was done trying quickly, but Ali managed to do this for sixteen years! We were assigned families after we got conscious, those families lost their new-born because it was too weak. We were supposed to be part of our families, whilst still being in touch. I suck at acting tho."

Brooks looked confused, and so Ali continued:"It's kind of hard to understand. We don't know who started this. We know that we were supposed to be the perfect humans, but something went wrong, alone with the looks. And then there's all the differences, I don't need sleep, Taime does."

Now the boy continued again:"I can go into the sun, Ali can't. I can't act, she can. She's also a lot smarter and way better at disappearing. I'm stronger, she's more dangerous. I'm a hugger, but Ali hates touch. She's super sensitive. She also doesn't need to eat, but I do."

"So you were an experiment?", Jamie Brooks asked in shock.

The teens nodded and at the same time replied:"Yes."

"So you're not human?", the other officer chimed in, he seemed very interested.

"We are", Taime started, then Ali finished:"Just modified."

"Where do you come from?", Brooks questioned.

"The forest has secrets", the kids replied in unison," Just leave them be."

"No, this is important. We'll go there later. How many differences are there between you?", Jamie continued.

Taime laughed, as Ali replied:"There's no use in going there. They are all dead. And we could name differences for hours, we have about seven hundred by now."

"Ali you make that sound so harsh!" Taime complained, as he pulled his hair tie off. The teens now looked almost identical, except for the eyes and clothes.

The girl nodded and replied:"I'm sorry. They are all dead, which isn't a pity, some died naturally. Ashly was part of this. Fate too, but she doesn't seem to remember."

"Right!", Taime exclaimed, he seemed as if he had remembered something,"They helped do this!"

The other man left the room, as Brooks said:"You killed Ashly as redemption. Why didn't you just make your case at court?"

Now both kids laughed. Then Taime replied:"You don' have the tech to determine what's wrong with us. We'd look like crazy idiots and they would have gone free, whilst we might have ended up behind locked doors."

The door opened again, Fate came inside. Ali could see Gabriel, he looked angry that he couldn't come in too.

"I thought...", Fate started, then her voice broke off and tears fell down her cheeks.

"That's what I meant", Ali whispered towards Taime. The boy nodded, he seemed to understand something now.

Then the girl stood up and went up to Fate. She pulled up her sleeve. "Swear by your life that you don't remember this, if that's the case", she demanded, then showed Fate the inner side of her elbow.

Fate stared at the ink in Ali's skin for a few moments. "I swear by my life, I don't remember anything", the girl replied.

Ali nodded and turned around. "Taime?", she asked.

"Fate didn't lie. She doesn't remember", the boy replied, his smile seemed washed away, his voice sounded hollow and empty.

Just a moment later, he snapped back to normal again. Ali put the lollipop back into her mouth and sat down next to the boy.

"How would you know that?", Brooks asked in disbelieve.

"It's in the air", Taime laughed," There's so many things giving away a lie. Try me."

Ali smiled and said:"I ate something in the past four months."

The boy immediately turned to face her and angrily asked:"How long?"

"About a year", the girl replied.

"You know the exact date, stop lying", Taime demanded to know angrily.

"Fine", Ali groaned," Halloween two years ago!"

"And if sweets didn't count?", Taime kept asking.

The girl rolled her eyes and sighed. Then she replied:"The last complete and normal meal was on Christmas three years ago."

"I hate you", the boy groaned.

"This seems pretty set up", Brooks remarked.