Page 13 of Stag

The guy behind me lowered the knife and stepped around me. It was that blonde blade-obsessed guy, so that made sense, but was I any safer with him in front of me with them?

“Dunno, boss. He’s a bit small.”

“Small? You’re one to talk, you lanky fucker!”

He laughed, waving the knife. “I got skills, little man. You got any skills?”

“Not bedroom ones, clearly, bruv.”

“What were you arrested for anyway, bruv? You’re doing community service, and that’s because you committed a crime like a bad boy. Well, and you were dumb enough to get caught. We kinda like our employees to avoid doing that.”

Jesus fuck. I wished I’d never followed that fucker down the alley, not for the first time since I did it. How would they take to this news anyway?

I cleared my throat, trying to smooth my hair back down after my helmet probably made it look like… well, their attempts at hairstyles.

“Look, it was a mistake, that’s all. Some cunt decided I was… and I wasn’t, anyway, I was just watching over her, keeping her safe, like, and they got the wrong end of the stick. I’m the victim here.”

They eyed each other, and why was everything they did so creepy?

“Stalking, huh… Useful skill, but we don’t take nicely to men doing that shit to women.”

“That’s how you met Cass though,” the blonde guy pointed out, and received glares from the Bennetts and the big guy, “What? You did.”

“You stalked people too? See? It’s so easy to accidentally do that shit. All I do is follow her around to make sure nobody hurts her, or touches her, or something. It’s all above board. I’m her protector.”

“That she doesn’t know about?” The big guy, the one they called Marco, not that it mattered, stepped forward, a bloody hand reaching for my throat.

Claudia

She was definitely following me around. I’d starting keeping a diary on my phone, times I’d seen her when I was out and about, and there was definitely a pattern. A pattern of creepiness. What happened to my twin? She used to be fun and we spent so much time laughing together, and now she was just intense and… this wasn’t normal behaviour at all.

For the first time in a long time, I regretted moving so far from our parents, but she’d had that great job offer, and I’d decided to move with her, because I can do my work anywhere, and now I was wondering if I should have just stayed there. I just wanted my independence, and I thought that’s what I was opting for by moving here with Marissa. Instead she’d become my keeper. She seemed to decide that my wellbeing was her responsibility, when she should have been helping to empower me. I’d had to work so hard to build a life without her controlling it, but now she was getting out of hand.

I was in bed, the edge taken off the darkness by my small nightlight, staring at my phone and it was a ridiculous time of the morning, like almost five am, but I couldn’t sleep. I felt like she was awake too, and right outside my door. It was creepy as hell.

Something made me want to check, so I climbed out of bed as carefully as I could, having no idea if I was moving as quietly or stealthily as I felt I was, and when I reached my door, my fingers hovered above the handle for a moment. Was I being crazy? Was she crazy? Were we both? Was I hoping to find her, or not find her, outside my room? I stared at the handle, my fingers lowering and folding into a gentle fist. Should I put a lock on the door? How would she react if I did? Why was I suddenly feeling unsafe in my home, and not because of any external force, but my own sister, my own twin? The other half of me.

I backed away from the door, biting my lip and forcing the crazed thoughts out, because I was making myself nuts over this. She wasn’t outside my door. She wasn’t spying on me, or stalking me. It was all coincidence, right? We’re twins. Maybe we just end up in the same places because we’re so alike. Yeah, that has to be it.

I climbed back into my bed and set my phone aside, grateful for my nightlight gently glowing in the corner. I’d been unable to sleep in full darkness since I lost the ability to hear, because without sight or sound, there’s just nothing. I panicked the first few times I tried, screaming into the void, until the light flicked back on and mum or dad stared down at me with so much pain and sorrow in their eyes. We’d learned pretty fast that almost dark was okay, but fully dark, pitch dark, was a hell no.

I finally drifted off to sleep as the world was starting to lighten outside my curtained window, and I slept fitfully until my sister woke me at eight thirty with coffee.

“You look exhausted, sis. Are you not sleeping again?” She sat on the bed with her own coffee, while I took deep inhales of mine, like I hoped the caffeine would start to permeate my system through my olfactory sense, another one that was heightened since I was reduced to four of them.

“Restless,” I murmured, because my hands were too busy to sign.

“Do you need the sleeping meds again? I can get some today for you.”

I shook my head. Even though in the light of day, she was behaving like a normal loving sister, and my fears of last night seemed insane, something about being medically comatose in the night was terrifying. What if something happened? What if she did something?

A light touch on my hand had my eyes lifting from the steaming liquid I was desperate to chug as soon as it cooled enough.

“Do you need to talk about it? Is something bothering you?”

I shook my head, blowing on my mug to try and speed up the cooling process.

“You can talk to me about anything, you know that. Is someone causing problems for you?” Yes, you, or at least I feel like you are, even if you aren’t.