Our Secret

The flame of our match had no idea of the greatness before it, no notion that it would become one of the greatest blazes in the history of the town we once shared.

It was like a raindrop of yellow heat that crept up the wood, blackening it, charcoaling it, nearing our fingertips. In an instant, we dropped it and the flames leapt like an uncaged tiger into the night, a living wall of yellow flame.

But it didn't start out this way. We should know, we have been sisters since birth. This is the secret that we never shared.

The name we had, Laura and Emily, and this is how the world we once shared disappeared. We believed in ghost. Our parents don't. Their mistake.

Every night. Like clockwork. 8 pm sharp as soon were in bed, they go off.

Every night our parents would fight with each other. Complaining about what bests for us. The fights getting louder and louder with each passing day. Together we would cry ourselves to sleep. In our world, we are safe.

In our world, all we have is each other. We dance together. The one thing we love most in the world, other than each other. When we dance, we dance together combining our strength and drawing our passion.

Passion.

We build on this. Filling our anger and our pain and our sorrow and our joy. And putting it all into our dance. We live the music, feel it. Every note, every sound, ever harmony has our body vibrating from the end of our hair to the tip of our toes. Combining both energies into the one body that we share.

That is how we survive every day and every night. We both go by many names.

We are both daughters.

We are both sisters.

We are both family.

We both share this crazy, unpredictable and spontaneous world. But we are of one mind.

Because of this, the world tries to break us apart. Every day the parents we share would organize frequent trips, day and night, too numerous doctors, counsellors and physiatrists.

We don't let them get to us.

They just don't understand how we live.

Only one of us can be seen throughout the twenty-four hours of a single day. Emily is seen through the lights of the day and Laura is seen through the light of the moon.

We do not fight, we complement each other.

Before we switch, we both write in the journal we share about our day or night and any events that we have. This is how we communicate with each other. In our world, all we have is each other but we are content. Going through our lives, where we are forced to be a part off, we live knowing that the friends we share love us both.

We are together. We are one, now and forever.

Yet a single truth is always nagging at the back of our mind. That the world can take away what it gives. It was a truth that our parents endorsed. The truth our friends loathed. And the one we dared not to say. That one day, we could lose each other.

We are afraid. The thought of losing each other is unbearable. But we hope that day would never come to pass. So we live every day like it's our last. With each journal entry that fear diminishes. The fights grow, and our strength prevails.

But one night, after Laura's entry, something changed. The pages after were empty. Laura was awake for the entire night. Emily didn't write.

The world changed.

'We' became 'I'.

'Our' became 'My'.

Emily was gone. For the first time in sixteen years, Laura had watched her first sunrise. Seeing how the light chases the monsters of the night away. Words wouldn't compare how the world was different.

The parents we once shared were overjoyed that 'I' was normal. But it isn't. Not without Emily.

Without Emily, there is no world where 'I' feel complete.

That's why 'we' did it. The burden 'we' once carried.

Emily died so that 'I' could live. But it's not the ending 'we' wanted.

As 'I' write these words, the room fills with smoke.

This way 'I' can be with my sister again.

'I' will not take over 'We'.

'My' will not consume 'Our' world.

As the room collapses under the weight of the higher levels. As the flames escape through the cracks of the wooden floorboards on the upper level. The weight of the overhanging beam comes crashing down, crushing the countless bodies.

This is our secret. We were desperate.

Together as both Laura and Emily, we destroyed those who tried to force us apart.

We will take this secret to our grave.

They may accuse us of being phycological unstable. But we don't care. They just didn't understand the world we once shared.

We know that no matter what, we will be together. Our parents may only mourn one of us.

We don't care which one. But together we will haunt them for eternity.

The passion we shared in, life and death.

But is that truly the end of our tale. We did neverlike endings.