Dead Twin

4

This is a dream.

My mind wouldn't have played tricks on me like this, would it? Blinking heavily and shaking my head to snap out of the "trick", only made me believe it to more real.

"I hadn't let them escape." Dad began. "We buried Arisa thousands of kilometres from where we are now. And we did the same with Amon. And after that... the events of 1989 shook the towns. He followed us, and so did the others. Arisa... she's following Ayuna. That means the others are..."

"Suzuya, you said that it was your fault...?" Mom snapped. For a moment, it seemed as though she was calm, yet she still sounded just as baffled as I was. Perhaps she was attempting to comprehend the situation. "And you hadn't let them escape...?"

"I had fainted like Ayuna. And I also experienced a dream... like Ayuna." There was fire in Dad's lungs. But he wasn't so quick to put it out yet. "After my dream... I saw the other world."

Mom scoffed snarkily. "Other world? Have you been smoking again? Is there crack in your system, Suzuya?" She sounded like she was going to burst out laughing.

I knew how dad felt, because this time he hurried to put out the fire in his lungs.

"Rani, it's real. The other world is another... dimension, of sorts, that's connected with ours. The same places, the same time. They're similar to jinns, only they can't see us, so we cannot see them. This thin veil or something disconnects our view of them. They can only be seen if we go into their world, or if they become aware of ours through contact and come into this world, which is what causes all the pain and chaos. It's the place people with pain and vengeance go to when they die. It is the afterlife for those seeking revenge."

"This is the kind of shit my parents tried to force on me, Suzuya. Look at how that turned out: I left them."

"Believe me, Rani. I know how stupid it sounds when you first hear it but it can't be any more true. When my twin brother died, he followed us and I saw the signs. Arisa is following Ayuna and my poor girl just saw her first sign. Amon didn't know he caused such a big massacre in 1989, and neither does Arisa." He paused for a moment, as if to warn my mother.

"When he arrived with us, he told me he noticed the spirits walking among us. He could not see them before. They take possession of a live person's soul. They kill the people they possess. They want to kill. It is the only way for them to live again. I didn't understand the signs at first, but I have to stop it for Ayuna."

The moment of silence that pursued after was, in my guess, my mother giving my father a nasty side-eye.

"Listen, when the first town began to notice the changes in its residents," Dad started, breaking the contemporary silence, "they called in a paranormal expert from Tokyo and he was told about the spirits. He told us that the only way to get rid of them was to let them escape the world they were trapped in, and the only way to do that was to send someone in. I was the only person in all of the neighbouring towns who had a connection with someone from the other world. The expert called a group of mediums, and they sent me in. We were only seventeen at the time, but Amon was my guide and we were determined to put an end to the horror. I tried so hard to put them all at rest but --"

"Suzuya if you don't be quiet now I will leave this house and this country right away!"

Her sudden yell startled me, causing me to stumble backwards and knock something off a table. Immediately, the house went silent. Fearing being caught, I ran quietly into the dark room opposite the kitchen and hid behind a sofa. I was as still as ever, yet I dreaded the pounding in my chest would give me away. Peeking from behind the sofa, I noticed Mom standing outside the kitchen door, looking directly into the room I was hiding in -- towards my direction. She made her way over and I ducked down, praying I wouldn't get caught. That was definitely a conversation that I wasn't supposed to hear.