The door is locked.
The twins looked at each other, perfect mirrors of panic reflected in one another’s eyes. Behind them is the world they’ve been yanked violently away from. Two little lives, perfect but for Charlie and the rest of the second grade snuffed out in an instant. It’s too much for them and they cling to each other and begin to cry.
Life was supposed to be different.
Their young but developed minds comprehend that something has gone awry with their death. The world they knew is beside them and the door to the next is somehow barred in front of them. Both try and pry the door open but their skinny arms are not up to the task. They can see the light coming from behind the door and a voice calls to them, but the door will not open.
Holding each other the girls evaluate the fate that’s befallen them and feel despair. They recognize that the room holding them, their prison, is the bedroom they have spent the last several years decorating only nothing looks to be quite right. The pink walls are still there but the look is a pale reflection of their reality before they were killed.
The room fills with a dark presence and the twins, still holding one another, realize instinctively in their nearly identical minds something terrible. This fearful presence was once there mother. Once, but no longer, the form confronting them is angry and wears a horrible expression which never crossed their mother’s face in life. She looks at them and the marbles, where mom’s loving eyes used to be, pass over them with anger.
“Come with me,” the stranger who was once there mother commands, “Come with me into eternity and we will be together.”
The twins look at each other, it’s all the communication they need, and know the answer to their mother’s demand.
“No,” they say standing together, each sister gaining strength from the determination of the other.
“You can’t stay here,” their mother and killer says.
“We want--,’’ one twin begins.
“—daddy,” finishes the other.
The woman in front of them steps backward struck by an invisible blow that neither twin can see. “You can’t have him,” she screams, “You belong to me. You belong to me and no other, you are mine.”
The room appears to dim, the pale, not quite light, flowing into the dark form that was once their mother. Her anger appears to darken everything around her, and when their mother speaks her voice drips venom, “You are mine. I killed you and I will have you forever.”
Their mom disappears leaving the twins trapped in a room they cannot escape from.
Chapter 1
Tim winces, hand to his jaw and he’s afraid that it’s going to end up bruised. Hopefully mom will get home from work late again or he’s going to hear it when he walks in the door disheveled as he is. He sighs. Though he hated his father’s time in the army at least there all the kids had been in the same boat. Everyone’s mommy or daddy deployed. Some of them not coming back and all of his friends were respectful of their parents’ service. The children were the real band of brothers he thought, all in it together.
“Your daddy’s a drunk.” The taunt still reverberated through his mind made all the more potent because it was more true than not. Still, there were things you simply didn’t say in the schoolyard and as far as Tim was concerned this is a big one. Thankfully he’s almost a head bigger than the other boys his age, unfortunately there had been three of them. He felt his jaw again and frowned, there was probably going to be a bruise. Vaguely he wondered if he’d broken that boy’s arm, but seeing his mom’s car in the driveway the issue is temporarily forgotten.
Crap, he thought, dad wouldn’t have said a word, might not have noticed, but mom’s going to lecture me. Head down he saw that the sleeve on his new shirt was also ripped. At least he’d given better than he’d gotten. Feeling like one of the condemned he slowly trudged up the concrete porch, cringing at the un-oiled screen door’s protest and letting himself in.
Something was wrong.
His mom was in the kitchen and her cheeks were puffy. Dad was also in the kitchen with an unusual air of sobriety about him. Sober at four o’clock Tim thought, now that’s unusual.
“Timmy, baby,” his mom rushed towards him and he felt himself enveloped in a fierce hug. He winced at the pain in his jaw and half-heartedly returned the gesture in the manner all seven year olds have long since mastered. His mom pulled away and gave him a once over, somehow missing the dirt and tear on his shirt. “Tim, there’s been an accident,” she sniveled and he saw tears start to fall from her eyes. The sight was oddly frightening.
His eyes darted around the house, where was his sister, what had happened to her? There she was. He saw her munching on popcorn, oblivious to the world, in front of a cartoon in the living room. Emma was fine. Mom and dad looked all right… He thought back, mom’s sedan had also looked normal. This whole mental inventory took less than a second but he was stumped. He looked up at his mom, again seeing the tears, “What happened,” he asked.
Mom sobbed once more, took a deep breath and knelt down before him at eye-level. “Your cousins Sarah and Sammy, and their mommy they’re,” she paused, swallowing deeply and appearing unable to continue. After a long pause, “Tim, they’re gone.”
Lucky them, Tim thought, “Where did they get to go?” He was oddly aware of his father’s head shaking in disgust towards his mother. Reality began to dawn on him. Oh, no.
“They’re dead Tim. They died in an accident or something.” Mom’s sobbing began in earnest and Tim let himself be swallowed up in a hug that this time he returned. He even felt his father’s hand rubbing his head. His own tears felt hot on his cheek and still mom kept him in her embrace. Sarah and Sam couldn’t be gone. He’d just visited them and Aunt Cynthia a few weeks ago. For a young man who’d spent most of his life moving from place to place, courtesy of the Department of Defense, the twins had been his only true friends. Constants in his inevitable world of change, they couldn’t be gone.
“You okay Timmy,” she asked, releasing her pressure slightly.
No, he thought, not at all, not one little bit of okay. He shrugged wiping snot on his good sleeve, “Sure, mom, I’ll be okay.” What else was there to say?
“We’re leaving for Oregon in the morning, get a bag packed, okay Tim.”
Oregon? The immediate prospect of the next four days stuck in the backseat surfaced almost more strongly than the news of his cousins’ deaths. Oregon? The state was okay, but the drive was unbearable. Unbidden, words he’d heard the older boys use on the playground came out of his mouth, “Shit mom, you can’t be serious.”
Her eyes widened and he felt himself released from her hug.
His father’s eyes flashed dangerously, “Don’t you speak to your mother that way Tim.” His voice was quiet but tinged with steel that Tim recognized from other youthful indiscretions.
“Sorry mom,” he immediately apologized, eyes towards the linoleum tile on the kitchen floor.
His mom held up a hand and shook the comment away, “Its okay Tim, but what’s wrong with Oregon, you like it there.”
He gave her his best ‘you must be stupid look,’ quickly removed at his father’s raised eyebrow, “Mom, I hate that drive, especially now with Emma. It’s awful.”
She paused from wiping tears with a paper towel his father handed her and gave him a small smile, “Oh, yeah, me too. Your grandma called, we’re flying.”
He blinked. An airplane was very cool. The coolness faded almost as quickly as he processed the words and but he found himself immediately overcome with a strong feeling of grief for the twins and his aunt. The grief crushed him and he felt himself once again in his mother’s arms. Sarah and Sam simply couldn’t be gone. Shit, he thought again, life’s not fair.
Chapter 1 continues, but thanks for reading!
