Written On Trains

Q X K - Jul 23, 2019

Two decades ago, on a Thursday, the twins found Mrs O hanging from the fan of the master bedroom. They missed school on the following Friday, but never again for the rest of the year.

That's why none of us knew they had lost their mother.

Q, the older twin cried every night for years. It wasn't just because she was the one who had to break the news to their father, it was also because she had overheard the voice of his lover in between the erratic phone call.

Their father never really had time for them, but even the death of their mother did not change his habit. He only cared for his playthings.

K, the younger twin assumed the role of an older sibling since the tragedy. She no longer talk with a deliberate lisp, that coy tone was never heard again. While she cared for her twin, she also spent many nights sneaking out of her home to find release.

Mr O didn't hesitate to cremate the body of his spouse, whom he had married because his parents wanted a slice of her inheritance. But the money, land and houses went straight to the twins, despite them being only 16.

Mr O resented them more, because he had to coax and beg for their signatures on the allowance cheques every month. Otherwise he would be near penniless.

Mr O's lover, who was just 25 tried to help him swindle an extra amount out of them by posing as a student counselor.

Every Friday after school, their father would take them to the 'office'. The twins were supposed to talk about their grief and work on coping.

But one Friday, Mr O was overseas and the driver hired was a young speedster, hence the twins arrived early.

Q heard a surprisingly familiar sighs and cries coming from inside the counselor's office. Suddenly memories of the grey Thursday rained hard inside her brain and her heart sank amidst its thunder and lightning.

"I've heard that sound before," breathed Q to K.

The twins waited patiently outside the office, after all, their appointment was supposed to commence at 3pm.Who cares what the counselor does between 2.30 to 3pm, right?

A man came out at 2.45pm. He was young, well-built and good looking. K froze, and for a brief moment, so did he.

Q sensed a vibe of unease from her twin, a  signal only an embryo made from the same zygote could detect.

"Tell me. Now, before our 'counselor' calls us in," Q hissed. She haven't been the older twin for months, but her voice cuts like the knife of a surgeon.

"Later," K the rebel resisted.

Q had to agree, because she had another pressing matter to deal with.

"She's dad's plaything," Q whispered to K.

"What, wait, who? You mean our counselor? She's the one you heard while you told dad about mom?" K asked.

"I'm positive. I think she calls all her lovers 'fluffy stockings'. Who else would say, 'You're my fluffy stockings!' in between moans?" Q said, thoroughly disgusted.

"I'm going to screw our sneaky counselor. Follow my lead," K instructed Q.

So when the counselor asked about their day, K said, "I had the weirdest dream. I dreamt that the chest of gold mom left us could only be unlocked when the key is bathed in the blood of a secret lover."

The counselor immediately looked intrigued. "Your mom left you gold?"

"Gold bars. Ancient stuff. Our great-grandfather was a miner and he didn't trust banks," Q added.

"I asked grandma. She said it's true. Mom must have been trying to communicate her will from the other side," K noted, looking wistful.

"She also said that's why dad had many lovers behind mom's back. He needed to find one docile enough, perhaps an orphan, to sacrifice," K whispered, her voice losing balls.

Right on cue, Q shuddered.

The counselor laughed. "Doesn't take much to bathe a key, shouldn't a drop or two would do?"

"No, the secret lover has to die first. However, it doesn't matter who the secret lover is or who the secret is kept from. As long as one is a relationship that no one knows about, a secret to one, even, would do. That's what grandma said," added K with an injection of innocence in her voice.

"You should keep the chest safe, then. After all, it is family legacy," the counselor advised, her hand jotting a few things on her notepad.

"Oh the chest has always doubled as our coffee table in the living room, hidden in plain sight. Never opened," answered Q.

On the way home K finally admitted to Q that the guy who came out of the counselor's room was once her boyfriend, one she had seen without anyone knowing. Their relationship started at a club K visited. Initially she wanted to drown her tears in loud music but he showed her other ways to forget her misery. At first it was just drinks, then karaoke, but after that he wanted to introduce pills. K may be a rebel but she wasn't stupid.

"We broke up two months after mom died."

Q knew K's heart had been broken beyond repair, she felt it.

A week later Mr O died in a car crash.

Nobody knew his brakes had been tampered with.

Nobody knew why he went back to the family factory in the middle of the night.

All they knew was that he had received a call, and had rushed out. Somewhere in between his car ended up in a ditch, turned-turtle with him pinned underneath. His wrist had been slashed, and post-mortem revealed that it was made after he breathed his last.

The O family did have an old chest doubling as coffee table in their living room. Inside, a bunch of old textbooks.

During Mr O's wake police arrested a man, the same one whom Q and K had seen at the counselor's office. He was caught trying to break away with the house's very heavy coffee table.

The counselor was caught shortly after. Police considered her case among the weirdest they have seen. She was first named as the accomplice to burglary but when they found her she smelled like dead bodies. Upon search they found a bunch of keys in her tote covered in days old blood.

Forensics confirmed the blood as Mr O's. The fluffy stockings couple ended up in jail for the murder of Mr O.

None of us discussed the death of Mrs and Mr O with the O twins, mainly because e didn't even know they had passed on till our 10 year after school reunion. We sat with Q and K and talked about maths and chemistry, their favourite subjects. When they aced their year end examination, we thought there was nothing abnormal about it.

Q ended up happily married. She had put behind her dark past, work past the guilt she felt over the ruined lives of her parents, the man and the counselor.

K is now living with a split personality disorder.

P/s: Wrote this after drinking too much meal-replacement shakes. They made my thoughts morbid! Disclaimer: This is fiction, please don't do pills or sneak out of home in the middle of the night.

11:30 PM · Jul 23, 2019