gayannabeth

So, this is a story idea I started working on about a week ago. If you didn't fully read the summary, here it is again: content warnings for sibling incest, bdsm, and water sports, among other things that I'll tag when they come up. Other than that, hope you enjoy!

Being a twin sucks. Being an identical twin sucks even more. Nothing is ever really yours. Everything you have is shared with someone else. We look the same, our parents have us wear all the same stupid clothes, sign us up for all the same extracurriculars. We keep taking the same classes. Hell, we even managed to end up in the same program at the same university, which we start in September. He keeps doing this. Ever since we got old enough to choose our own things, he kept choosing the same things I did - and he swore it wasn’t intentional, and blamed me instead. The nerve! Even our names were similar - Victor and Richard, or Vick and Dick, for short. How does Dick even come close to being short for Richard? It’s ridiculous. We didn’t even have our own rooms. Our parents hadn’t expected twins, and they had been completely unprepared to take care of two babies. Their house didn’t even have another room to put one of us into, so for the first eighteen years of our life, we shared. I had hoped that we’d be able to room apart in September, but of course, the university went and assigned us as each other’s roommate. I couldn’t even blame that one on Dick.

That morning, when I woke up, I specifically selected my outfit to try and avoid matching his, but he still managed to wear something nearly identical anyway. Then, when we went for breakfast, we both ended up with a bowl of the same type of cereal. While we ate, our parents pretended not to notice the glares we kept sending at each other. Finally we finished, then our parents rushed us out into the car so we could drive all the way out to London to visit some family or another. I think they were some cousin and his mom (our aunt) and step-mother?

For the first hour and a half, the drive was uneventful and boring. We quickly got onto the four-oh-one, driving into and through Toronto and Mississauga. We had to stop in Milton so Mom could pee, and then Dad went and got himself a coffee from Tim Hortons, which took way longer than they expected. As we drove back to the highway, Dad started driving a bit more recklessly.

We were running a red light when it happened. As we crossed through the intersection at well over the speed limit, some big truck blared its horns at us. I had just enough time to look up in alarm at the massive grill barely two metres from my face before everything went black.

Dick was here with me. Wherever ‘here’ was. It was dark out, which was odd since last I checked, it was nine A.M. in the middle of summer. We were surrounded by trees. I looked up, but there was no moon, no stars, and no clouds that would block them out even. There was nothing but an empty black void. I turned to look at Dick. “Of course you end up in my afterlife.”

“Oh, you seriously don’t think you can blame me for that, can you?” he retorted.

I rolled my eyes. “Can’t have anything to myself, huh? Even in death.”

“How do you know we’re dead and not having some dumb shared dream?” Dick asked smugly.

“We just got flattened by an eighteen-wheeler. I don’t think surviving that is possible.”

“Then where are our parents?”

“They survived,” a voice said. Dick and I both turned to where it had come from.

Standing only a few metres away from us, on the edge of whatever strange forest clearing, was a cloaked figure. A hood obscured their face. Pale manicured hands were visible at the ends of their long sleeves.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“That’s a good question,” they responded. “I’m a reaper.”

They reached up and lifted the hood up off their head,  revealing the face of a gorgeous woman. Her hair was long and black, and it fell down her back as the hood was removed. Her eyes were a stormy grey colour and lined with dark eyeliner. Her lips were painted with black lipstick. She had a smirk on her face. “This is quite the odd situation,” she said as she removed her cloak entirely, letting it fall to the ground where it promptly evaporated. Underneath, she was wearing a small dark purple strapless dress. Her feet were bare, and they were done up just as immaculately as her hands. “I’m supposed to give you some options. Normally people don’t get those when they die.” She sipped something out of a cup I could’ve sworn she hadn’t been holding before. “Normally, it’s just straight to whatever afterlife they believed in: some underworld - although those have fallen out of fashion as of late - heaven, reincarnation, or even total oblivion. Although, my boss doesn’t really like that, so as of late they’ve been assigning random afterlives to them. I especially like it when I get to send them off to some obscure afterlife from a religion no one even remembers. But very rarely, they want the newly departed to be given a choice.”

“A choice of afterlife?”I said. “I’ll take whatever doesn’t have him in it.” I jabbed my thumb towards my brother.

The woman laughed. “Oh, no. Nothing like that. The choice is between going to whatever afterlife you already have lined up and, well, life.”

“Life?” Dick asked. “You mean we could be resurrected?”

The woman nodded. “Yes, that is the word. Normally we don’t even offer that as the choice. It’s normally between whatever afterlife and reincarnation. The last time this happened was… I don’t know if I even existed back then, actually. It was a long time ago. Regardless, if you do take that choice, you will wake up this morning in your beds. The clock would be ever so slightly rewound for you. From there, you go about your lives as normal.”

“We’d just die again,” I said. “That truck-”

“Will not be a problem. The event that caused your death simply won’t happen this time around.”

“How?” Dick and I both asked at the same time, before turning to glare at each other.

“You’ll see.” I swear that the woman’s smirk got even bigger.

I turned to stare at Dick. He stared at me right back. I tried to think, what would he choose? It was hard. He would undoubtedly want to pick the resurrection - who wouldn’t? But he would also know that I knew that, so maybe he would pick staying dead? Just to spite me? No, he’ll pick life, obviously. But what if he was thinking the same things I was thinking?

I turned to the woman, my mind still not made up. I grimaced. I’ll just pick one.

And then, simultaneously, both of us said, together, “can you bring me back to life?”

I whirled around to glare at my twin, but I could no longer see him. The entire clearing was gone. It was now entirely dark. I could hear nothing.

I sat up straight. My body was covered with a coat of sweat, my breath coming out in soft little gasps, my hair was dishevelled, and falling in front of my face.

Something felt different. I tried to think back to the odd dream I’d had. I could remember it clearly - the truck, the dark clearing, the woman, Dick. I turned to glance at his bed, but he wasn’t there. In his place was a girl, about my own age, with long light brown hair.

Actually, our room was ever so slightly different, but at the same time, I couldn’t tell what had changed. The girl looked at me and gasped. “Vick, is that you?” She clamped her hands over her mouth. “What happened to my voice?”

“Um, yeah, who-” I mirrored her movements. “Oh my god.”

We both looked at each other, then scrambled out of bed and into our shared bathroom. I flicked on the light switch. I turned towards the mirror and gasped.

Looking back at me, next to the reflection of the strange girl who I was starting to have a sneaking suspicion was Dick, was a girl identical to him/her. The same light brown hair, the same hazel eyes, the same cute nose, the same lips that were oh so kissable.

We still looked the same. I expected to resent that, but I… I kind of liked that. We were both cute. Rather than whatever boring clothes we had worn to bed last night, we were both dressed in cute nightgowns. Mine was a light blue colour, my twin’s was a light green. We turned our heads to look at each other.

Dick licked her lips. “Holy shit. We’re hot.”

I nodded. “Yeah…”

“You know, I kind of don’t mind we still look the same. That’s weird, right?”

I nodded. “Very weird.”

Then there was a knock at our bedroom door, and our Mom’s vice called, “girls, get up. We have to get going soon.”

What?

What?

I was pretty sure we had both been boys last night. Right? I could clearly remember that. Had our parents’ memory been messed with?

Dick and I bolted out of the bathroom. We needed to figure out whatever new names we’d been given in this new weird reality. I snatched my phone off my bed-side table, Dick grabbing hers as well. I took a moment to register how instead of the boring see-through phone case I’d had previously, it was instead bright pink and decorated with red love hearts. I quickly pressed the power button, and the lock screen showed up. I paused for a moment to register how instead of the default background, I now had a cute selfie of myself in a pretty sundress, my left hand held up just below my face in a v sign. I wanted to admire just how pretty I was, but I quickly unlocked my phone, entering the same passcode I’d always used (and, incidentally, the same one my twin always used, our shared birthday).

I frowned. Rather than my usual home screen, my phone now displayed a plain white screen with text that read ‘Hello, my name is’ followed by a blank space with a blinking text cursor. I looked up at my twin and held up my phone. She was looking up at me too. She glanced at my phone, then held hers up to show the exact same screen.

So we had to pick our own names, huh? I put my phone down on my bed as I tried to think of a name I wanted. It wasn’t hard. I’d often thought about changing my name so that I wouldn’t have one so similar to my twin’s. I’d come up with a few cool sounding names before, but they’d never really stood out to me. Then I started trying out girl’s names, and that was a lot more fun. I eventually settled on one I really liked, but I’d never expected I’d actually get to use it since I had been a boy. But now, here I was as a girl. I could use that name.

My name, now. I typed it out.

‘My name is Erin.’

I smiled as my phone accepted it. It briefly displayed some text reading, ‘Welcome, Erin,’ before returning to a home screen which was mostly the same save for the background, which was once again a selfie of myself, this time in a swimsuit. I blushed slightly at how little it left to the imagination. I quickly pressed the power button again, putting my phone back down on my bed-side table. I looked up at my twin, who had put hers down too.

“What did you pick?” she asked me.

I smirked. “Erin.”

She smirked back, looking like she was holding in a laugh. “That’s a pretty name.” Then she actually laughed.

I scowled. “What’s so funny, sis?” I put emphasis on ‘sis.’

“Eris. I picked Eris. I’ve had that one in mind for years. Never thought I’d get to use it.” She continued laughing.

I tried to scowl, but I found I couldn’t really hold it. My name was pretty now, why should I let my twin ruin it with her own name?

“Well, I’ve had mine in mind for years too.”

Then our Mom knocked on our bedroom door again. “Erin, Eris, come on. We don’t have all day.”

What?!

We had only just picked those names, how did she know them?

I looked at Eris. Her eyes were wide.

“That was freaky,” she said.

“Yeah…”

The rest of the morning was eerily similar to the previous version of it. I picked an outfit from the assortment of strange new girly clothes in our closet - some ripped skinny jeans and a light green v-neck t-shirt. Eris picked an identical pair of jeans and a similar top, coloured blue. We took a bit longer to brush our hair - that was new, but it was as though our bodies knew exactly what to do already, and were just going through the same movements we always had. We had the same breakfast as each other again - this time some waffles with maple syrup and some blueberries.

Then we all got into the car and set off on the drive to London once again. The drive as well was similar. Up until Milton. We still had to stop for Mom to pee, and Dad still insisted on getting a coffee that took longer than expected. But, as we approached the same intersection where we had died the previous time, our Dad stopped at the red light and waited. The same truck drove right on through the intersection without interruption. The light changed. We got back on the highway.

We were still alive.

And we were twin sisters.

gayannabeth

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