At first, my mind didn't connect to the shape-it was like a silhouette in the mist. Out of nowhere it tilted its head in a way that hit a very old, very specific nerve inside me.
That titl. It was Noah's tilt.
The way he used to grin before daring me to jump into the lake or sneak into the bakery without letting mom know.
But this time, he wasn't grinning.
His face was too still. The smile didn't twitch. The eyes didn't blink.
All I could feel was his gaze pressing in my chest, he never once looked directly at me.
I ran.
Branches scratched my arms. Brambles caught my hoodie. I tripped twice, maybe thrice-once badly enough that I though I'd split my knee open. But I didn't stop.
Not until I was back at the front gate, shoving it open with my number fingers and nearly slamming into Aunt Mara's arms as she stepped outside, holding a watering can.
She blinked at me and said nothing. She was studying my facial expressions for too long.
"You've been back there, haven't you?" She asked, not accusing, not surprised.
I didn't answer.
She just nodded like she already knew what I was about to say and turned back inside.
I followed her and went straight to the bathroom to wash my face. I looked up and saw the mirror was covered with the towel just like I left it. Hesitantly, I removed the towel off the mirror.
He was there again.
Noah.
He was behind me in the mirror.
I touched the glass. He did it too-half a second late.
I jerked back. My breath fogged the surface. He mouthed something I couldn't hear, but I exactly knew what It was.
"Come back."
That night I locked the bathroom and stacked every book I owned in front of it. I didn't sleep, I just sat on the bed with the lamp on.
The night passed and nothing happened, thankfully.
Aunt Mara brought me toast in the morning and said nothing.
Boy, this woman must've survived a war in another life, the way she handles silence like it's furniture.
But I caught her staring at my closet door.
She sighed and said, "I lied."
"What?"
"I've seen Noah."
"Everyone has right?" I asked her.
"No. No one did but I did."
I froze.
"What does that mean?"
She looked at me and said, "Once, when you were five. I came here to your mom. You introduced him to me and said he was your twin. But when I asked your mom, she just...looked away."
I swallowed hard.
"He is real, right?"
"No." She said gently. "You were real. He was...something else. A split. A part of you that carried something you couldn't hold."
"I am not able to understand anything." I whispered.
"I mean," she continued. "He came from you, not beside you but inside you. He isn't your brother. He was your shield. You imagined him because you got no one by your side. I faced the same thing when I was a kid and my brother died, drowning in the river."
I couldn't breathe.
"Where is mom?" I asked shaking.
"No worries, she is at my home in Bogsville. She is getting her therapy there. All this time, everyone around you have lied. When you were young, you were all alone, had very little friends. One day, your mom noticed you were talking to someone in the backyard. When she went to check, she was no one. You told her about Noah. She though as you grow up, you'll forget him but you didn't. She told everyone to ask accordingly to your behaviour. But everything as a limit, and you crossed it."
"How?"
"Well, you behaved differently and your mom was not able to understand your behaviour."
"No,it's not possible!" I shouted.
"Calm down, and relax ok? No need to worry, everything is fine." She said sweetly before leaving my room.
I couldn't breathe.
I locked myself in my room, tore through old notebooks, drawing, anything I could find. I needed proof. I need to know. And I found it.
A sketch, buried behind a folder.
Two figures, again.
Both me.
One smiling.
One with the eyes scratched out.
On the back, in my handwriting was:
"Only one of us gets to stay."
That night, I heard the mirror crack.
I didn't check nor did I move.
But at 5:30 am, I opened my eyes to find my journal on the floor.
Open to a page I hadn't written yet.
It said:
"You are not Eli, anymore."