"Grabbed the wrong one."
Alexei's heart was loud in his chest as he read the message written in soot on his twin's otherwise crisp, white polo. Yet Louis lay unharmed on the couch - peacefully asleep as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn't been missing for two nights straight.
Two nights ago was their birthday. Like any proper birthday, they had a nice kicking bowl of punch. Alex had made it-- extra kicking too, just the way Louis liked it. Liked it he did; he drank a lot. He was passed out on the couch before all the guests had left. He was passed out on the kitchen floor when Alex was finally alone with him.
Alex stared his brother, who was becoming more like a stranger every year. And yet, every year, this stranger would wish, in front of everyone, that he and Alex were identical. And he would smile, and the crowd would smile back and coo at him.
Alex wished he was more like Louis, instead of fucking Alex. Alex had an ugly birthmark, and heard voices, and heard their promises of death and what would come after. Not Louis. Louis played sports and had girlfriends. He was loved, and he was approached for help, and he was touched.
Alex's gift, which had been in form of a sterilized exacto knife, was perfect, really, if the wish hadn't been just Louis bullshitting.
Alex gently rolled up his brother's sleeve. Pristine. Perfect. The markings that Alex had delicately crafted were gone in just two days. No scale-like scars winded up his forearms to mirror the ones on Alex's.
His eyes stung. It had been so hard to be precise, so hard to even will himself to make the first cut. His chest heaved, and his eyes leaked a lot, and his ears rang, but no ringing could block out the shrieking from the walls. No tears could hide the figure approaching from the shadows, twisting in anger at being tricked.
His fingers tightened their grip on Louis' shirt, stirring Louis awake. As Louis's vision grew clearer, so did the fright on his face as he realized that all this time, all these years, Alex really wasn't that crazy.
Louis' face mirrored the horror Alex felt, yet surprisingly, Alex heard himself laugh, thinking that: maybe in this sense, they were finally identical.
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Prompt by Ukulele Child on the Writing Prompts app.
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Hexborn
Short StoryHorror one-shots, short stories, poetry. 1. Mistaken - His missing twin returns with a chilling note. 2. Loom - synecdoche poem, a parasitic relationship Idk why this collection was self-titled, pretty embarrassing tbh
