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nt-hales-author · 10 months ago

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Twinsies

Word Count: 1,887 - A Short Dark Friendship Tale Tw//dark themes and allusions

Beginning: Halloween is the most underappreciated holiday. Despite the holiday season that is upon us on October 31st, schools continue and work goes on. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, people get a whole week off from school, maybe work if the company doesn’t hate them, but not for Halloween. The last day in October. One day off shouldn’t hurt anyone.

Aleena Barnstein believed there would be no consequences for missing school on Halloween. Her mother doesn’t care for the school system and told her as long as she graduated, she could live her best life. Kaia Banderra, her best friend, did not have the same kind of mother but she knew how to bend the rules to go to the Halloween festivities with her best friend.

The Dark Unicorn Halloween Parade was the event of the year. It was a celebration of past Halloweens. The girls, Aleena and Kaia, have gone every year together since middle school, even if they had school. The girls did everything together like playing video games, exercising every day, wearing matching outfits, and even eating the same foods, except anything with gluten because Kaia was allergic, even to the smell of it.

The girls planned to go see the Dark Unicorn Halloween Parade. They would leave school and head to the starting point on Jasper Street. Standing at the starting point means when the last float passes, it would be an opportune moment to leave and eat lunch before the crowd disperses. For lunch, they were going to have pizza bites, of course, Kaia was going to have the gluten-free version. But the girls loved having matching lunch boxes and matching lunches. Then, both get home by 5:30 for dinner, and back out for trick-or-treating.

In first-period English, the girls came to school in costume as the twins from The Shining. They put on matching blue dresses and backpacks so they could look eerily similar. Their English teacher commented on how well done their costumes were and even started mixing up their names in class as a funny joke.

Aleena drops her pen on the floor on purpose so while picking it up she can let Kaia know the Uber is about to arrive. Aleena’s mom doesn’t mind paying the Uber charge since it means her daughter won’t be hitchhiking in from school.

After first period, the girls walk straight out the door and don’t look back. It’s not hard to leave school in a crowd of people. The teachers are all in class getting ready for the next class, and the ones that stand in the hallway are watching out for girls with short skirts, spaghetti straps, or some other dress code violation they would never punish boys for. It’s Halloween; all the girls are attempting to get away with not wearing the usual school clothes. No one's checking the door to make sure students aren’t leaving.

Middle: The girls get into an SUV that’s spacious enough for them to put their bags on the ground. They both look at the driver, noting in their head his scar. They do their best to show no expression and be as polite as possible. It wouldn’t be ideal for them to be standing in front of the school waiting for another Uber. The driver has a scar over his left eye that reminds them of the scar from The Lion King. Aleena confirms to the driver that they are going to Jasper Street for the Dark Unicorn Parade. Kaia puts her phone in her bag and starts talking to the driver. Kaia believes it’s important to show Southern hospitality. He drives the car but doesn’t answer any of Kaia’s questions. Some Uber drivers love to start up a conversation, but this guy seems to only want to mind his business. The girls whisper as silently as possible about the cool scar on his face. They notice the guy keeps looking at them in the rearview mirror so they slouch to stay out of sight. Once they are at their destination, Aleena takes out her phone and tips the man $3 through the app just in case he gets upset by the fact Kaia kept trying to talk to him.

The girls step out of the car with their backpacks and onto the sidewalk next to all the bystanders. Everyone is screaming, dressed in costumes, having a fun Halloween. They hate that they have to wear their backpacks, but since they’re not going back to school, they couldn’t leave them. About five minutes later, the girls see the first float start its engine. It’s a huge blown-up black and grey unicorn driving down the street. The girls stand next to each other while holding hands watching the float go down. They point at the ones they like and make cute little jokes. Aleena tells Kai a joke she’s been working on. She says, “Hey, look at that ghost. Why do you think he’s on a treadmill?” Kaia knows where the joke is going and she says why. Aleena responds, "Because he has to keep his 'ghoulish' figure." Aleena questions if she gets it. Then Kaia says she has to go to the bathroom, but Aleena doesn’t want to leave. Kaia asks her again to go with her, but Aleena says it’s only a few feet away. Kaia gives up and stomps off to the bathroom.

After five minutes and realizing it’s not fun standing alone, Aleena thinks to herself it’s a bit selfish to make her friend go alone so she heads to the bathroom.

Aleena waits outside the bathroom for ten minutes. Kaia doesn’t come out. Aleena goes in and calls out Kaia’s name. After disturbing looks from other women in the bathroom, Aleena checks in and under every stall. After the last woman leaves the bathroom, it’s eerily quiet. Aleena pulls out her phone from her pocket and sends several text messages to Kaia. Her first message is calm. She asks Kaia how much longer she will be in the bathroom, but after 5 more minutes, Aleena checks the bathroom again. Empty.

Aleena leaves the bathroom and heads back to the spot where she and Kaia were standing. She sends more texts to Kaia, this time in a more furious tone. Her mind starts to race after her last message goes through.

“Stop playing this isn’t funny.”

“Stop being angry with me and let's go.”

“I hate you; you’re always dramatic for no reason.”

“You’re really going to do this to me. I wish we were never friends.”

As soon as she sends the last one, her throat starts to constrict and her eyes start to tear up. Kaia, in the past, has gone off in fits of rage when Aleena doesn’t do what she wants. She rarely says when she’s upset and she just leaves. Aleena assumed Kaia could walk 100 feet to the bathroom by herself and let her see the entire parade.

Aleena decides to move on and go back to watching the parade. She feels lonely but focuses on the parade in order not to see all the people smiling with their friends, laughing, and having a good time while she and her friend are separated.

20 minutes later, and the parade is over. Kaia has still not shown up. Aleena keeps texting Kaia but gets no response. Aleena requests an Uber and sends it to Kaia. She's hoping the request will draw her out and they can go home. When the Uber arrives, Kaia is still nowhere to be found. Aleena sits in the car and asks the Uber to wait while she takes a call. Aleena calls Kaia and the call goes straight to voicemail. She tells the Uber driver to go and he turns his head and asks if she's sure.

Aleena recognizes the driver as the man with the scar. Shocked by his return, she freezes in the back seat. He repeats his question and asks, “Are you sure?” In that moment, Aleena thinks to herself she should run, get a new Uber, keep looking for Kaia, or just leave her. When Kaia gets upset with her they usually aren't ditching school, so her mom would pick her up or she would walk home. This is different.

End: The man questions her again, and Aleena says she's sure she's ready to go. The man drives Aleena to her house. Aleena gets out of the car and says thank you. She tips the man $5 and tells him to have a nice afternoon. Aleena checks her phone to see if there's any text from Kaia, but there is none. Aleena goes into her house and takes a nap on her couch. When her mom gets home, she wakes her up and asks her about the parade. Aleena dodges her questions and tells her mom Kaia didn’t leave with her. Her mom asks if she's called her and Aleena confirms she tried. Her mom tells her to call again and if Kaia doesn’t respond, she'll call her mom. It's 7:00 pm, so Aleena's mom decides it's time to call Kaia’s mom.

Knowing that Kaia didn't have permission to be at the parade, she asks Kaia's mom if Kaia was around to speak to Aleena. Her mom says she's not back from school but she'll get back to them when she can.

Both Aleena and her mom are concerned, but they wait by the phone for 2 more hours until Kaia’s mom calls back. Kaia’s mom asks if Aleena saw Kaia at school. Kaia’s mom tells Aleena’s mom she talked to the school and she was absent from most of her classes. Aleena’s mom offers to come over and look for Kaia.

Aleena starts to feel sick to her stomach as more concern grows for her best friend's whereabouts. She thinks back to Kaia’s request for her to go to the bathroom. She feels an unsettling amount of regret over not going with Kaia to the bathroom. She checks her phone and sees no new calls or texts from Kaia. She texts Kaia one last text saying she’s sorry and she hopes she’ll come out and forgive her. Aleena stares at her phone for 5 minutes before deciding to take more drastic measures.

Aleena goes into a social media app to check and see her best friend's last location. 5 minutes ago, Kaia was at Aleena’s house. Aleena stares at her phone, checking to see if the map was correct. It showed Kaia's last location to be at Aleena’s house. Horrified by the fact she didn't check sooner, Aleena checks every room in her house to see if Kaia slipped inside. Kaia is not in the house. Aleena thinks to herself maybe her phone is here. Aleena checks her backpack. She checks the bottom pocket to see Kaia’s phone. Aleena looks at all the message notifications and realizes her best friend is truly missing.

Aleena’s mom comes back and tells Aleena her best friend was found dead outside of town. The police believe she was picked up by a hitchhiker then dumped on the side of the road. Her mom tells her the cause of death was an allergic reaction. Aleena looks in her bag. The one that matched Kaia’s. She finds an epipen. They had switched bags.