Chapter 3

3

When she finished her call, I wiped my eyes and tried to act normal.

Mom looked at me, her expression now filled with genuine grief.

"Your grandmother is dying. I have to go back to the village to say goodbye."

The news shocked me, but it also felt like a stay of execution.

"I'm coming with you!" I blurted out.

I didn't actually care about my grandmother; we moved to the city when I was tiny.

I had no connection to her or that creepy village.

But I was dying to see Blackwood Falls for myself.

I wanted to know why everyone was a twin and why one had to die.

But Mom refused to let me go.

She didn't want me near that nightmare of a town.

She said we had worked too hard to escape the curse.

Mom packed a small bag and left for the village immediately.

For the first time in a long while, I felt safe.

While she was gone, the guy next door, Caleb, took care of me.

He was sweet, kind, and a total gentleman.

He called me Tinsley with so much affection in his voice.

He had been in love with my sister, and he had no idea he was talking to Layla.

Pretending to be an idiot was exhausting.

Seven days later, Mom returned from the village.

She looked like she had aged twenty years; her hair was graying and her eyes were bloodshot.

A few days after her return, she took my hand and spoke solemnly.

"You're not good at school, Tinsley. You should drop out."

"Find a nice, honest man to marry. I need to know you're taken care of before I go."

I wanted to scream that I wanted to be an engineer, but I was living Tinsley's life now.

Maybe this was my punishment for what I did.

I couldn't fight her.

Two weeks later, I married Caleb.

He was an only child and a city boy, which made Mom very happy.

But I felt like I was dying inside.

I got pregnant soon after the wedding, but instead of joy, I felt a crushing weight on my chest.

I was afraid, though I didn't know exactly what of.

The paranoia I had been hiding for years only got worse during the pregnancy.

The anxiety never left me.

After nine months, I gave birth.

Mom was thrilled.

Caleb was over the moon.

But I felt nothing but cold dread.

I looked down at the two identical babies in my arms.

The curse had found me, even in the city, even with a man who had no siblings.

I fell into a deep depression.

Caleb was incredibly supportive, trying his best to comfort me.

He and Mom took turns helping with the babies, but I felt like there was a boulder sitting on my heart.

The years went by, and the boys turned eight.

The older they got, the more anxious I became.

Then, Mom got sick and decided to go back to Blackwood Falls.

She wanted to die where she was born.

One afternoon, while I was in the kitchen, she called me for the last time.

Her voice was weak, and she told me she was fading fast.

Caleb and I packed up the kids and drove toward the village I both feared and craved.

The secrets I had buried deep down started to bubble to the surface.

We arrived in the middle of the night.

Mom was barely hanging on, lying on a wooden board in the middle of her old courtyard.

Caleb broke down in tears, but Mom never even opened her eyes to look at me before she took her last breath.

The villagers whispered their prayers and slipped away to their homes.

The courtyard was pitch black, leaving just me, Caleb, and the boys.

According to the local tradition, the son-in-law had to keep a vigil over the body all night.

I settled the boys into a bedroom and fell into a restless sleep.

I woke up to the sound of the wind rattling the windowpanes.

I heard something moving outside.

Thinking of Caleb out there in the cold, I decided to take him a jacket.

As I climbed out of bed, a dark shadow flickered past the window.

I jumped, but told myself it was just a bird or a bat.

I grabbed a coat and stepped out into the yard.

The body was still there on the board, resting on two tall stools.

A piece of wet yellow paper covered her face, making the scene look even more sinister.

I looked around, but I couldn't see Caleb anywhere.

Maybe he went to the outhouse?

There were no lights in the yard, and the darkness felt heavy.

I didn't want to get too close to the body, so I walked along the edge of the wall.