MATED TO MY TWIN'S MATE

Sky hummed a tune; it was one she'd heard a sparrow tweet earlier that morning when she woke up and smiled at the view of a soft palette of pastel hues painting the horizon. As usual, she was about her daily chore of cleaning up her twin sister, Diane's room. It was like a battlefield, with discarded clothes all over the floor, socks peeking out from folds like abandoned flags, lipsticks rolling around like marbles, powders of broken eyeshadow staining the floors in rainbow colors. Even the closet doors were stark open, half-empty. Sky shook her head and heaved a tired sigh as she began the process of cleaning things up. The owner of the room was fast asleep on the couch with her limbs splaying haphazardly while she snored. She stank of booze too. Sky stooped and stood; swept and mopped; sorted and organized the sorry sight into looking as good as new. When she was done, she moved to the balcony, which was a small open attachment to Diane's room. There were several painting items also lying homeless there, including a nearly completed painting of Diane's that instantly caught Sky's attention. Although she and her sister never got along, Sky was always intrigued by her talent and sometimes wished she could do something unique too. Enthralled by it, she picked up the canvas and held it up to see the full picture of what was painted on it. Sky smiled when she saw the portrait. It was a painting of a certain popular swimmer that Diane was obsessed with and often bragged that she was going to be his wife one day. “Tyren? Rylan?” She tried to remember his name. In a blink, the canvas was snatched from her grip. Sky jumped at the sight of Diane's angry face burning right into her skin. “How many times have I told you never let your filthy hand on my things?” Diane howled. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—” Diane pushed her shoulder roughly, and Sky staggered to the back. “Haven't I warned you enough?” Diane shoved Sky's shoulder forcefully the second time. The latter reeled back, hitting the bars of the railings. “I said I'm sorry…” “And I hate it when you tell me that!” Diane lost it and thrust her sister backward in anger, with both her hands . Sky's face was coated in instant horror when her body spiraled off the railing. The cold morning air whistled past her, as her body hurtled down the building with an inexorable pull of gravity, onto the ground below in a loud thud that was instantly accompanied by a growing pool of red. Her body jerked briefly before finally going stiff. Diane's body froze as she stared down at the sight. Her mouth hung open in shock and chills crept unrelentingly underneath her skin. She let out a scream so blood-curling that even the silence was startled by it. “What the hell is going on?” Maya, their mother, who was just getting a whiff of the problem, hurried to the scene in her bathrobe. “Why did you scream like—” Their mother paused at first, now taking in the new sight of her favorite daughter staring down unsettlingly. Maya's body instantly tensed up with a loud gasp and her veiny hands moving to cover her mouth. She squeaked, unable to make any words. “What… how did—” Instantly, Diane bolted away from the balcony, out of the room to nowhere in particular like one who had gone crazy. “Diane!” Maya finally could scream as she hurtled behind her sprinting daughter, down the stairs. Maya finally caught up with Diane, holding her back. Diane was trying to squirm her way out of her mother's grip, but the latter held her firmly. She fell to her knees, clasped her hands over her ears, and shut her eyes tight as if trying to block out the terrible image from a moment ago. “I didn't mean to push her! She fell, she… she fell!” Diane screamed, consequently bursting into tears. “I didn't kill her,” she sobbed, “I didn't kill her!” “Yes, you didn't kill her,” Maya agreed while still trying to calm Diane down. “You only made a mistake, baby,” she added and hugged Diane tightly to her chest. “It's alright now,” Kate wiped Diane's tears with the tip of her dress. “It is not alright…” Diane sobbed. “I saw how she looked at me right before she fell, mum,” she bawled uncontrollably. “The horror on her face!” Diane felt suffocated by guilt and fear and anguish. Despite the strained relationship there'd been between her and her sister, she couldn’t deny the sorrows bleeding her heart at losing that enemy she had grown up with, let alone being responsible for that loss. Diane doubled over and retched uncontrollably, coughing and breathing hard while Maya continued to pat her back gently, “You need to get a grip on yourself girl!.” She muffled more tears, her body wracking vigorously. “How can you say that mum? Her body is down there… we have to do something. Maybe she's still alive? Let's get an ambulance…” She looked around frantically. “My phone… my phone, where's my phone!” “Diane!” Maya bellowed. “You need to snap out of it. Not even a werewolf survives after falling from such a height. We're just as normal as humans without a full moon, remember?” She grabbed Diane's shoulders to get through to her. “But….” “Do you want to spend the rest of your life in jail?” Maya threatened, and as soon as Diane heard the word jail, she looked at her mother fearfully. “I don't want to go to jail,” she whimpered. "You won't if you cooperate and allow us to take care of this as silently as possible. You need to have a clean slate for your future, understand?” Diane sniffled and nodded. Sky's body was rolled up in an old carpet and kept in the garage to be disposed of later in the middle of the night to avoid getting caught. It was pouring relentlessly that night. A bolt of lightning forked through the brooding sky, revealing jagged silhouettes as the thunder boomed with a guttural noise that seemed to announce the two women and the corpse they carried. Diane went back into the house to get them raincoats, which they put on before lifting the body again and whisking it towards the car. Maya took the keys and opened up the back seat. They fitted the carpet into the back seat, and the car swallowed its silhouette as the door slammed shut with a muffled thud. The soft swishing sound of the rubber blades consistently sweeping off raindrops on the windshield stopped. Maya pulled the car over by the side of a bridge, and they began the process of trying to get the rug out of the car with constant grunts and sighs of struggle. Finally, they were able to get it out and lay it on the wet ground. “Oof!” Maya huffed tiredly and wiped her nose. Diane squinted from the wetness of the wind, staring ahead at the stretch of the road lit up by the headlights. “You good?” Maya asked. Diane nodded despite her heart pounding fast like it was going to explode. They picked up the rug again, and after a short swing for momentum, hurled it over the bridge and watched it sink into the river with a thud and splash. The mother and daughter hurried back into the car almost immediately and zoomed off without taking another look back.