Darkness

Darkness
Ashlyn

“No matter what you say, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

Ashley’s voice was cold and unyielding, like ice pressed directly against my skin. Her words were sharp, slicing through the already-thin thread of hope I had been clinging to. I had humbled myself repeatedly, nearly begged her to stop whatever it was she was planning, but it was as if my voice couldn’t reach her anymore. Like I was yelling into a void that only echoed with silence and resentment.

“No one ever sees me,” she said, almost in a whisper, but the bitterness in her voice made it sting more than a scream. “It’s always you. Always you.”

Her words felt like a blade buried deep into my back, twisting slowly with every syllable. I swallowed hard, forcing myself to stay composed even as my heart cried out in a desperate, silent scream.

“And you think,” I said, my voice low but firm, “that if I disappear… they’ll finally see you?”

She looked at me, direct, defiant, and unafraid. Gone was the girl I once ran through the rain with, the sister who used to hold my hand during thunderstorms and whisper secrets in the dark. That person… that version of Ashley no longer existed.

“If you’re gone, they’ll have no choice but to look at me. I’ll be the new you,” she said with conviction as she stepped closer. There was no hesitation in her voice, no flicker of doubt in her eyes. She spoke as if she were reclaiming something that had always belonged to her, something I had stolen.

But it wasn’t true. I never took anything from her.

“You want people to acknowledge you, to see you finally,” I said, trying to steady the tremble in my voice. “But you don’t even recognize who you are anymore!”

I couldn’t hold it in. The frustration, the pain, it all burst out of me like a dam breaking.

“You don’t need to be me, Ashley! You never did! You are you! But you can't accept that because you’ve chosen to live in envy, drowning in it.”

She laughed suddenly. A dry, bitter, mocking laugh that echoed in the hollow space between us. It sent chills down my spine. That laugh didn’t belong to my sister. It belonged to someone else, a stranger wearing her face.

The Ashley I knew… the one who smiled just from sitting beside me, the one who loved our family unconditionally… she was gone.

Maybe she had been gone for a long time, and I was just too blind to see it.

And maybe, just maybe… she was never really there. Maybe everything we thought we saw in her was a carefully crafted lie, a performance to mask the rage, the jealousy, the darkness that had been eating away at her from the inside all along.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” she suddenly shouted, her voice trembling with fury. “You’re the reason! You’re the root of all this! Everything wrong in my life is all because of you!”

I shut my eyes. Her words cut deep. Deeper than I expected.

Was it true? Was I really to blame?

But I couldn’t let myself be swallowed whole by that guilt. Not now. Not after everything.

“I can’t change what you believe,” I said quietly, my voice barely above a whisper. “I’ve told you everything. I’ve laid my heart bare for you. I’ve tried to show you how much you matter to me… how much I love you as my sister. But you can’t accept it. You can’t love yourself… So how could you ever accept love from anyone else?”

She smiled at me. But it wasn’t the kind that reached her eyes. It wasn’t even real. It was full of deception. Of grief. Of a girl who had already lost everything that made her human.

And in that moment, I knew.

The sister I once dreamed of… she was gone. What remained now was a shadow, dark and angry, haunted by the love she could never accept and the life she thought she deserved.

It hurt more than I ever thought possible to see her in this state, like a stranger. She was no longer the Ashley I remembered from our childhood; there was no trace of the vibrant, cheerful girl who used to teach me how to smile through the tears.

The sister I once knew. Even the one who pretended to be Ashlyn when I had no memory of who I was had vanished completely.

What’s left now is someone consumed. By anger. By envy. By emotions that must’ve been festering deep inside her for years.

What happened to us?

How did we end up in this situation?

Was it something I did?

Was I the reason she turned into this version of herself?

Where did I go wrong?

I don’t know. I honestly don’t know what I did to deserve this kind of hatred.

Inside me, something is breaking because all I want is to tell her that I never intended to steal anyone’s love, anyone’s place, that I would never, ever try to take something from her.

But she won’t see that now.

I keep looking for the twin sister I grew up with, the one who used to laugh freely, whose confidence lit up any room. But she’s gone. The Ashley in front of me now is a shadow, full of bitterness and blame.

She suddenly ran her fingers through her hair, like she was trying to pull herself together, trying to push back the storm that was clearly threatening to burst. Then, she wiped the tears from her face. Tears of anger. Of deep, unresolved hurt.

She began walking toward me.

Each step felt heavy, deliberate. I couldn’t breathe, I was frozen, preparing myself for whatever was coming. Would she slap me? Scream at me? Walk away for good?

When only two steps separated us, she halted.

She glanced around the room and then let out a hoarse, hollow laugh.

"Mom thinks I didn’t notice," she began, her voice low but filled with weight, "that she loves you more than she loves me."

I froze.

"And Dad?" she continued, letting the words drip like poison, "He says he sees us both equally. But that’s a lie. It’s always been a lie. They never treated us the same."

Every word she spoke tore at me like shards of glass.

I didn’t want to hurt her. God knows, I never wanted this. But she was already lost, buried deep in the darkness.

I wanted to say, That’s not true, Ashley. Mom and Dad love us both, but I couldn’t.

Because I knew… she wouldn’t hear me.

She wouldn’t believe me.

Our eyes met.

Hers was red, raw, and on the verge of spilling again. Mine… filled with silent terror. I couldn’t hold her gaze. I was too afraid of what might come next.

Then she reached behind her pants.

I tensed, following the movement with wide eyes. My heart thundered in my chest.

She pulled out… a handkerchief.

Just a handkerchief.

But still, I couldn’t relax.

Something in her eyes had changed.

It wasn’t the gaze of a sister anymore.

It was the gaze of someone who had long suppressed her pain and finally decided she’d had enough.

She dabbed the last of her tears with her other hand, as if it were her final act of weakness. Like she was done crying. Like this was now about action.

"I don’t want to be your enemy, Ashley," I whispered, barely able to speak, forcing the words out through trembling lips.

But then she smiled.

A smile I couldn’t read. Part grief, part hatred, part something more dangerous.

"Too late," she whispered back.

And then, without warning, she lunged.

Her hand fisted my hair, yanking my head back. I gasped in shock, too stunned to react.

Before I could scream, she pressed the handkerchief against my nose and mouth.

A sharp, sickening scent flooded my senses.

Chloroform.

No, no…

Panic flared. I tried to fight, to push her away, but my limbs quickly betrayed me. The world spun. My heartbeat raced wildly, then slowed, then…

Darkness.

The last thing I saw was her face, unapologetic and determined.

And then, nothing.