The Other Sister
Emily had a twin.
She knew she did.
Her sister, Claire, had been with her since birth.
They had the same birthday.
Shared the same room growing up.
Wore matching dresses because their mother thought it was cute.
But one day—
Claire was gone.
And no one remembered she had ever existed.
It started small.
Emily called Claire's phone.
"The number you are trying to reach is not in service."
She went to Claire's apartment.
Someone else lived there.
A stranger.
Emily checked old photos—
Claire wasn't in any of them.
Family albums, school pictures, even their childhood birthday parties—
It was just her.
Alone.
She asked her mother.
"Mom, where's Claire?"
Her mother frowned.
"Who?"
"Claire. My twin sister."
Her mother laughed.
"Emily, you're an only child."
Her father said the same thing.
So did her friends.
So did her coworkers.
It was like Claire had been erased.
But Emily remembered.
She remembered the time they switched places in middle school.
How Claire had a tiny scar on her wrist from a bike accident.
How she hated olives and always picked them off her pizza.
It wasn't a dream.
It wasn't in her head.
Claire had been real.
And Emily was going to find her.
She dug through her apartment, looking for anything—a journal, a note, a single photo with Claire's face.
Nothing.
But inside her closet, buried deep, she found a box.
An old shoebox.
She didn't remember putting it there.
She opened it with shaking hands.
Inside—
A single Polaroid.
Her and Claire.
Together.
Smiling.
Emily let out a breath of relief.
Proof.
But then she flipped the photo over.
Scrawled in black ink, in her own handwriting, were the words:
"DO NOT LOOK FOR HER."
Her heart pounded.
She hadn't written that.
Had she?
That night, her phone rang.
An unknown number.
She hesitated, then answered.
Silence.
Then—
A whisper.
Familiar.
Desperate.
"Emily... please stop."
The line went dead.
Emily dropped the phone, her hands ice cold.
It was Claire's voice.
But if Claire had never existed—
Who had just called her?