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Because if I really was about to go through with this absurdity right now, then really, what the hell else wouldn’t I do, right?

I had plenty of chances every second to say to hell with it, but I purposely chose to keep my dissents and lips close. Out of pure bafflement, shock, whatever, I don’t really know.

Either way, I kept a tight lid on, simply watched as Amelia effortlessly lifted her slumbering sister into her arms, followed along drenched in a dream-like daze as she hauled her away within the dense thicket of a nearby forest, before gently laying her against the snow-powdered stump of the biggest tree there.

“Feels wrong just leaving her here…” I muttered.

“There are worse places for a vampire to take to slumber,” Amelia said, sharing none of my disquiet. “As you would know yourself.”

Between an abandoned building reeking with decomposing rat carcasses and a snowy patch of the earth beneath tall naked branches… well, when she puts it that way…

“Our sole aim in this game is to convince others of our close bond, yes?” stepping back from her snoozing sister, Amelia whirled around toward me, the red-white striped band around the sleeve of her black dress the only thing my eyes could see. “Or of you and my sister, at least. A simple task, if a little gratuitous. Let us get this over with as soon as possible.”

On paper, sure, this plan of hers was probably the luckiest loophole I could have gotten. If Adalia was out of the running, then what better replacement could you ask for than her literally double?

.....

Amelia was her twin through and through minus the drawbacks of her sister’s ailment. Nobody would bat an eye, nobody would know the difference… except for the, uh…

“How do we explain the change in your hair color?” I asked, batting my gaze towards the flutter of her raven locks flowing with the passing breeze.

“We don’t,” She simply said with the same indifference. “Much like the bond between you and I… we’ll lie.”

Then, in a blur of black, I saw as she weaved her arm across the air, and with it permeating our surroundings I could feel a slightly firmer, harsher breeze manifest.

For a second it blew, then it stopped, and with a literal blink of an eye, what used to be flittering strands of pitch-black contrasting with the white of snow everywhere became an extremely familiar shade of murky silver-gray.

Adalia—I mean, Amelia… threw me a sort of accomplished look, tossing her now pale hair in a showy manner.

“A simple illusion,” she said, her voice, and her inflection, one of the only things left keeping her as her in my gaze. “You now see as I will, as I wish, as will everyone else.”

“What about your eyes?” I asked once I managed to find my voice buried beneath a large slab of disbelief. “They’re still black.”

“As was hers,” Amelia nudged to her slumbering sister. “Once before. We’re twins, after all. The gray you now see, the hue of her locks, the murky paleness within her gaze, are all merely prominent marks of a disfigured soul. Sangumet. Her transformations. All as consequences.”

It was like I was rammed by the most nonchalant speeding truck by the way she just dropped that load of information on me. Why didn’t it click? It should have clicked for me. One of the many, many things Adalia has lost, and they were practically staring right at me…

“Hair is a simple enough alteration, a mundane process,” She continued on. “But replicating, even fabricating the illusion of possessing the look in her eyes… that requires knowledge, experiences of a damaged soul of which I’ve no understanding of. No, we’ll simply have to make do as is.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t even know if there was anything to say.

“Besides, regardless,” Amelia turned away, striding with confidence in the direction of the bustling festivities. “You humans were never exactly the sharpest.”

You can say that again… here I was, living proof of that.

“Now come,” She urged through the buzzing rustle of shrubs and bushes ahead. “The sooner I am able to relieve myself of this nightmare, the better for us both.”

I didn’t follow after right away, for a while longer, I chose to hang about. Adalia’s peaceful expression was one I could stare at for all eternity without it ever feeling dull in the slightest.

Little flakes of snow were slowly amassing atop her head already, and seeing that, I bent low, putting her santa hat back on her as carefully as I could without pestering her. But as close as I was to her, even if I had shouted, tripped, or screwed up in any way else, she wouldn’t have stirred one bit.

That’s just how fatigued she was. All this effort and strain just to be able to experience a semblance of fun, of normality… of love. Really, how can a soul be so broken… yet also be so strong?

Adalia really was something else…

“Be back in a bit,” I whispered to her unheeding ears, pecking her lightly on the forehead. “Try not to be too upset with me once you wake up, alright?”

She didn’t respond. Not that I expected her to anyway. Then, quickly before I get reprimanded by icy-cold snark, I chased after Adalia’s doppelganger, emerging out of the woods, and spotting her slender figure of gray-white already far up ahead of me.

And really, seeing her, drawing up next to her, was probably the most disconcerting dissonance I’ve ever experienced up to this point. My eyes adamantly only saw Adalia, but my brain wholeheartedly kept begging to differ.

It was a violent clash, a mind-boggling contradiction. A breathing, living paradox essentially. Adalia’s face, but Amelia’s strut. Her gray hair, but her jet-black gaze. Her soft voice, but her heavy tone.

Felt weird, felt wrong. Then again though, was this really wrong? Amelia stated outright already, didn’t she? Walking like this, acting like this? How she was, was exactly how Adalia used to be.

Her past in the present given form. Or as close as it could get anyway… and if I’m at all honest with myself… then it really wasn’t a pleasant sight seeing her like this.

“So, where exactly are we to converge in order to partake in one of these games?” Amelia asked me, folding her arms together in non-Adalia fashion. “From what I can surmise, they don’t seem to be strenuous an undertaking. So long as you are able to hold your own, that is. I rather you not burden me with your acts of ineptitude.”

Christ, her harsh words from her gentle face. My brain’s about to bloody implode into pink gooey chunks around my skull, I swear.

“The event doesn’t start for two more hours,” I said, regaining my composure. “Nothing to play just yet.”

“What?” Amelia glared at me with those fierce eyes. “Why?”

“It’s how it’s organized,” I attempted to explain. “The events are just ways for people to net more points in the contest. Between events, the common way to get points is actually to…”

My words faded, as my eyes trailed ahead.

Speak of the devil…

A lady approached forward, appearing out from the crowd. I recognized her immediately and the distinct faint click of her pen. She was the first judge I was confronted by once upon a time ago on a bright and early morning.

Do I still even remember the question she asked? Something about borrowing money?

Let’s see what she has to say now…

“Oh?” briskly, the judge’s beady eyes flicked up from her clipboard, turning away from me entirely before blinking rapidly in rousing interest. “Hmm, something seems different about you.”

“The lightning, perhaps,” Amelia answered, meeting her scrutiny head-on. “It is rather common for the time of the day to deceive even the best of us.”

“Lightning,” The judge muttered, leaning closer, eyes squinting, lips narrowing, my heartbeat surging, then shrugging… she pulled away. “I suppose so.”

“Anyway,” I hastily said before she could notice any more discrepancies. “You got a question for us?”

“Right, right, of course,” She raised her board, readied her pen, and cleared her breath. “Yes or no, you would forsake your own happiness as long as your significant other is as happy as can be.”

Mmm, tough one. A question worthy of a dilemma alright. Do you be selfish or selfless? Well, the answer’s clearly gotta be…

“No,” came a voice.

“Yes,” came mine.

The judge blinked, and I blinked right after. In total silence, and with a little sense of intrigue sticking to her expression, she began jotting down her assessment on her pad.

“You know, usually, I get synchronized answers whenever I ask this question, and they’re almost always yes’s…” The judge glanced back up at us, and with a small wave, parted away. “Something you two might want to discuss, maybe?”

And as the lady faded away from sight, her suggestion, her question, was immediately disregarded. Scoffing haughtily, strolling defiantly, Amelia continued marching on.

“Mindless queries,” She sneered, her face, Adalia’s warping in contempt. “But I suppose it is necessary to achieve victory.”

‘You want to answer more?”

“But of course, it’s as you said, the game is yet to commence, we might as well,” sounded her soft voice, carried by the billowing wind, gray-silver locks blowing over me as I trailed closely behind. “Besides, it’s what my sister would have done.”

“So that question back then,” I asked, momentarily halting in place. “Did you answer it as yourself, or did you answer it as Adalia would have.”

“Well,” Amelia glanced back, her lips forming an inexplicable smile. Adalia never smiled like that, spoke like this. Or has she? “Wouldn’t you like to know?”