My twin sister Anna got married to her fiancé, Josh, a few days ago. Anna and I have always been inseparable. She is my best friend. I was over the moon when Anna told me that she was engaged. When she asked me to be her maid of honor, I was almost as happy as she must have been when Josh asked her to marry her.
On the day of the wedding, I had a doctor’s appointment and went straight to the church from there. When I arrived, I met up with the other bridesmaids. I was surprised to see that they weren’t wearing the pink dresses Anna had picked out. Instead, they were all wearing long, black dresses. I was still wearing jeans and a blouse, and Lillian, one of Anna’s friends, asked rudely, ‘You’re going to change, right?’ I told her of course I was, I brought my dress with me. When I got back in my dress, they all looked at me in shock. Lillian snapped at me, ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’ I was so confused. Though I was supposed to be maid of honor, the bridesmaids would not let me talk to Anna at all. Instead of being with my sister on her wedding day, I had to sit in the back of the church. Even our mother agreed that I was not to go to the front wearing the dress. I honestly don’t remember much of the ceremony. I was ashamed about apparently wearing the wrong dress, so I just sat in the back and kept my head down. All I remember is everyone crying a lot.
When we arrived at my parents house for the reception, I went to the fridge to get some beer I had bought. Now, I know that beer is not exactly ‘festive’, but it was the brand Anna and I had drunk together when I turned 18. My parents caught us back then and were really angry, but I thought everyone would find it funny now. I was sure that Anna would. However, when my mom saw me with the beers, she grabbed them from me and angrily told me to that I was ‘disrespecting’ Anna. I said that I was sure that Anna would find it funny. My mom replied that I was out of line. I know that a wedding is a ‘serious’ thing, but everyone was so solemn – you’re supposed to have fun too, right?
Everyone at the reception was acting strange around me, like I had done something really wrong. Everytime I tried to talk to someone, they just left me standing there. Some people even seemed to look at me pitifully for some reason, but they still would not talk to me. The worst thing was that Anna kept avoiding me, too. She looked really glum, which was strange because she had been looking forward to her wedding so much. She seemed to be making the rounds, but I never saw her talking to anyone. I finally decided to confront her. I told her that I was sorry about the dress, but that she hadn’t told me about the change and I didn’t know what I had done wrong. She didn’t answer, but looked at me with a look of disdain that she has never given me before. I then asked her why she wasn’t with Josh and whether anything had happened between them that was upsetting her. She told me, ‘I’m not here for Josh. I’m here for you’. I have no idea what that was supposed to mean.
There is one thing that happened a few days before the wedding that I should mention. Anna didn’t want a bachelorette party, but her, me, and a couple of friends went to get drinks to celebrate a little. That evening, I really messed up. I was to be designated driver. At first, I drank only Virgin Coladas. The others were getting more and more drunk though, and they seemed to have a lot more fun than I did. I thought that one or two cocktails wouldn’t hurt. The others were too drunk to realize what I ordered. At the end of the night, I was more tipsy than I realized and ended up crashing Anna’s car. Fortunately, nothing major happened – Anna only got a few scratches and I bumped my head pretty badly, but other than that, we did not have any injuries. Anna was really mad at first, but I thought she would have gotten over it by the wedding.
My parents were really mad at me too after the accident. They cried a lot after the police told them what had happened. I think they were really disappointed in me. Josh came over that night, too. Even he cried – I think he was really upset that my sister got hurt, even though her injuries weren’t bad. I still feel really guilty about drinking and driving and maybe the accident is the reason why everyone is acting so weird around me. Maybe Anna is still mad about it, but I feel she could have told me that instead of not telling me about the change of dresses and then being angry that I didn’t know about it.
The worst thing happened after I went to bed after the reception. I had just fallen asleep when Anna came into my room. She was still wearing her wedding dress – the white fabric almost seemed to glow in the darkness of my room. There were dark stains on her dress. By the looks of it, she had spilled red wine down the front. I think she must have been drunk because she starting talking about how I had ruined everything, how it was all my fault, and how she would make me regret it for the rest of my life. Her face was distorted with rage – it almost looked unhuman. I was in shock. Her voice sounded weirdly raspy (Anna is a stress smoker, so I guess she had gotten drunk on wine and smoked a few cigarettes). I started crying and asked her what she meant. She let out an unearthly shriek and jumped at me. She raised her hand as though to hit me and I instinctively closed my eyes, but she must have missed me because all I could feel was a gush of cold air on my face. When I opened my eyes again, she had left. I woke up several times during the night and heard her wailing every time. Not just crying – wailing. The next night, she suddenly stood next to my bed. She was just standing there, wailing and showing no reaction when I tried to talk to her. I must somehow have fallen back to sleep with her standing there. I don’t remember her leaving, just that she was suddenly gone. Since then, she has come to my room every night. Everytime she wears her stained wedding dress. I don’t know why she is tormenting me. I’ve been meaning to talk to her about it during the day, but she’s always left the house before I get up. She just comes to my room at night, berating me, crying and telling me that she will ‘never let me have peace again’.
I told my parents about her behavior, but they refused to have a talk with her. They even said that I was imagining it. They said that I had to understand that Anna was not here anymore. I told them that I knew that she lived in an apartment with Josh now, but that she obviously came to our house every night. I’m really frustrated that they don’t believe me. I don’t want to go to bed tonight. To be honest, I am terrified of Anna.