The Twins

By reddit user nichonova

Once, there lived a pair of twins who were completely identical from the crown of their head to their toes. The two spoke with the same intonation, the same drops and rises in their speeches, the same soft voice. The people around them always threw the two the same uneasy look, as though uncertain of their own vision. Or maybe they just didn’t feel comfortable around them.

Jill and Janet, the two were called. Being identical meant that nobody could really figure out who was who. They shared a mental bond that was so great, they knew when the other was injured.

Like that time when Jill accidentally cut her fingers on the fence, Janet jumped and spilt paint over her canvas, and the tiniest scar appeared on her finger.

Or that time when Janet stepped on a nail, and Jill woke up with a cry, the bottom of her foot blooming a red dot identical to the size of the nail.

It was a curse, they decided, and decided to keep it secret. The townsfolk weren’t adverse to burning witches alive. Just the other day, a suspected witch had been drowned in the lake.

So when Janet got trampled by a horse-wagon, Jill was out cold for three days. Janet was buried as soon as possible to help Jill to cope with the loss.

When Jill awoke, she was beyond grief. She cried for the whole morning, tearing out chunks of her hair. Her mum found her sitting in Janet’s bedroom in a daze, fingernails cracked and bloody, with wounds in her hands that looked like they could have come from wooden splinters