This happened four months ago. For context, I’m 17 and I live with my parents in a small suburban town called Fox Avenue. Population: 3476. Like I said, small town. Everyone knew each other, it was like, the town had no secrets. Sometimes it felt nice to know what everyone’s doing. Other times, it was like having a not so secret stalker always watching your every move. Fox Avenue has 3 main places - the town centre, the beach and the forest. Lucky for me, my family and I lived right by the beach. Our house was technically on it. It’s warm all year, so a good swim never hurt anybody. There was only one high school and one primary school in our town. I’m now entering 12th grade. Only one more year left in this hellhole. Some people call Fox Ave paradise but that’s all bullshit. This town is creppy as hell. Half of the population is over the age of 80 and batshit crazy, so seeing an old granny running around the street naked isn’t an uncommon sight. Anyway, back to the story.
The weekend the incident took place, my parents were out of the state on a business retreat. As they were leaving, my mom handed me some money for pizza and told me I could have Avery over for a sleepover. I was ectatic. Avery had been my best friend since we were both around 4 years old, so my mom letting me invite her over while we were alone for the night, was even better than I imagined. I called her over right as my parents drove out of the driveway. Since we were practically neighbors it didn’t take her long to come knocking at my door. We hung out, drank some wine we found in my dads cabinet (whoops), ate pizza and watched corny rom-coms. At some point, we completely zoned out (wonder what got that kicked in), so she decided to run down to the kitchen and get us some aspirin. I agreed and she lazily got out of the bed. I waited for her while watching another corny rom-com. I waited some more. And some more. What the fuck was taking her so long? I decided to go check up on her. Shit, what if she fell down the stairs or something? No way, I would’ve heard that. When I was walking down the stairs, I swore I heard two people talking. I thought it was just my drunk mind, so I continued walking. When I got to the kitchen, I froze. Avery was chatting with a woman. The woman was wearing an oversized hoodie and black biker shorts, shark slippers and had her brown long hair up in a messy bun. I’ve never seen that woman in my life. Avery noticed me staring.
“Uhh, Tina? You okay?” she asked.
“Who the fuck is that?” I asked, basically spitting the words out of my mouth.
“Are you that drunk that you don’t even recognize your sister?”
My heart sank.
My sister?
Sister?
I’m an only child.
“What are you talking about? Avery, I’ve been an only child my whole life, you know that!” I argued, on the verge of a panic attack.
“Haha, really funny, Avery. Did you two drink the wine out of dads cabinet?” the woman asked. It was the first time I’ve heard her speak. Her voice sounded identical to mine. And then I took a good look at her face and body. Fuck. She looks exactly like me. She sounds, looks and acts the same way that I do. Wait. I remembered something I read online not too long ago. Doppelgängers. They’re basically you from another dimension, or whatever, and they come to our world and try to replace us. Shit. I ran to Avery, grabbed her and ran to my bedroom. I almost broke my ankle running up the stairs. When we got to my room, I slammed the door and locked it. I sat down on the bed and started hyperventilating. Avery was on the floor, gasping for air.
“What th-“ she stopped mid sentence. “Are you okay? Tina, what happened? How did I get here?”
“What do you mean how did you get here?! I just saved you from that.. that thing!” I screamed at her.
“Tina, what thing? What are you talking about?” she asked, frantically.
“Do you seriously not remember? You went down to get some aspirin for us and then saw my ‘sister’.”
“Aren’t you an only child? What sister, Tina?”
Oh my god. She doesn’t remember. How does she not remember?
There was a knock at the door. Oh shit.
“Who the fuck is that? Tina?” Avery whispered.
“It’s her.”
The door knob started rattling. Avery screamed and ran to me. Just as she dove on the bed, the creaky door opened. Slowly, I stood up. Avery begged me not to go but I knew I had to. I walked over to the door and stuck my head out. I looked left, right and saw…
Nothing. Absoluetly nothing. I sighed a sigh of relief and looked back at Tina.
She was gone.
I froze. Where could she have gone? My room was small with no space to hide, except for under my bed. I crept down and looked under it.
And saw myself staring back at me, smiling widely.