The Amnesia Twins

Chapter Two: The Vase

BOOM. The book smacked against the wall. Vi got frustrated trying to read it two paragraphs in. The words were all just so swirled around and hard to read, not to mention overly complicated and pretentious. Who needs books anyway? Ten hours overanalyzing words, context clues, themes and the 'emotions of characters' was exhausting and unnecessary. A two hour action movie where everything explodes was more Vi's scene. Reading a book? She had better things to do.

Vi jogged for four miles around her house's running track since it was cardio day. She probably should've jogged longer or done more exercises, but she wasn't feeling it. Once she was finished, she went inside to shower and make herself a strawberry/blueberry/banana smoothie.

Her little sister, Mina, was out at the mall shopping with friends. Her older brother, Aiden, was at rehearsal for a play. Her mother was with a client, and her father was at the karate dojo, teaching a class. She was all alone. Completely alone.

Or was she?

As Vi made her smoothie, she noticed that something was wrong. The milk that she had just taken out of the refrigerator was room temperature. She looked through the refrigerator and felt the other food items. Everything else was cold except a singular can of iced tea.

There was another thing wrong: the house felt slightly warmer than she remembered. She checked the thermostat. Eighty-three degrees, yet she specifically remembered setting it to eighty.

She checked the garage and yard. There were no cars. Most people wouldn't overthink it, but Vi knew better. Someone else was definitely in the house. Specifically, he was in the house.

She knew he was coming for her. She knew he was watching. She reached into the cabinet to grab a box of crackers as cover, but managed to also discreetly grab the gun behind it and worm it up her jacket sleeve.

On the inside, her heart was smackering. Her body was overloaded with adrenaline. She felt pumped. Ready. Excited. On the outside, she yawned and dreamily plopped herself on the couch, turning on the tv.

Vi appeared to have her face glued to the television, but all of her attention was going into her hearing for background noises, peripheral vision, and sense of touch. The pictures on the screen, along with the tv's volume, were secondary.

As soon as Vi heard the slightest thump on the wooden floor, she immediately pulled out the gun and pointed it at the blond perpetrator behind her in one fell swoop.

The boy smirked and held his hands in the air. "I'm impressed. I thought I did rather well. How did you know I was here?"

"You can't just put stuff in the refrigerator and expect me not to notice, Aiden."

"Hey, the milk was gonna go bad if I waited. And where did you find your bb gun? I thought mom confiscated it."

Vi chuckled. "Oh, please. I'm slicker than mom. What are you doing here? I thought you were at rehearsal."

Aiden let out an overzealous, theatrical evil laugh. "Trevor dropped me off for a bit just so I could--"

He lunged at her mid sentence. Vi fired the gun, but the bb missed. There was a shatter of glass. She tried to pull the trigger again. Aiden karate chopped her wrist and disarmed her. Vi threw him a punch to the face, but he dodged. Aiden and swept his leg under her. Vi jumped on him. They landed on the couch, her pinning him. Before he could make another move, she grabbed the gun and held it at his head.

Vi smirked. "I win."

She got off of him and they both took a few minutes to breathe.

"You're getting good at this," Aiden said. "Can't believe you were set off by milk."