*Duplicate Lies*
*✍️📚A story created and written by*
*Miss Easy*
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*Chapter One*
*A Perfect Illusion*
The smell of clean wood and fresh flowers filled Avina's new home. Sunlight streamed through the big windows of the mansion's main bedroom. Her husband, Dave, was still sleeping soundly next to her. She stretched, a small smile on her face. Just one month ago, this amazing house in the quiet, green areas of Kempton Park, felt like a dream. Now, it was real. Married to Dave, a nice and successful Architect, Avina felt like she was living in a fairytale.
She got out of bed quietly. Her bare feet made no sound on the cool, shiny floor. Today was like every day since the wedding: a slow morning, a walk in the big garden, maybe a call with her younger sister, Ava, who still lived in their old area in Pretoria. Everything was perfect. Almost.
As Avina walked through the house, she always felt a small change in the air when she passed the long, quiet hallway on the ground floor. She didn't often go down this hall, mostly because it ended at one plain door. This door was always locked.
Dave had waved off her question the first time she asked. "Oh, that old thing? Just a storage room, honey. Full of old family stuff. Nothing special." His smile was warm, his eyes kind, and she believed him. But the door, with its heavy, dark wood and a fancy, old-style lock, didn't look like any storage room door she'd ever seen. It felt different. It felt… *hidden*.
That night, a soft cry woke her up. Avina sat straight up in bed, her heart beating fast. It sounded like a baby, a soft, sad sound. Dave was still asleep, breathing slowly. She listened hard, trying to figure out where the sound came from. It seemed to be downstairs, from the direction of that very locked room.
Fear, cold and sharp, made her skin tingle. She told herself it was just the wind, or a dream. But the sound came again, quiet but clear, a tiny sob echoing in the huge, quiet house. She pulled her blankets closer, trying to make herself believe it wasn't real.
The next morning, the memory felt far away, like a bad dream. Avina forgot about it, focusing on her new life. But a tiny seed of worry had been planted. She found herself looking at the locked door more often, feeling curious but also a bit scared.
A few days later, while Dave was at work, Avina decided to tidy his office. He wasn't usually messy, but a pile of old building magazines lay on his big desk. As she picked them up, a small, old, brown envelope slid out from under them. It wasn't closed, and something told her to look inside.
Her fingers shook as she pulled out some old photos. The first few were faded pictures of Dave from years ago, looking younger, with a different hairstyle. Then she stopped, unable to breathe. The next photo was of a woman. A beautiful woman with long, dark hair and striking eyes. A woman who looked exactly like her.So much so, it could have been her own face from a past she didn't remember.
Her mind spun. Who was this woman? Then, she saw the next photo. It was the same woman, smiling gently, holding a little girl. A small child with bright, curious eyes and a shy smile. The girl looked a bit familiar, yet Avina had no memory of having a child. A dizzy feeling washed over her. She knew, deep down, that she had never given birth to a child. So why did this little girl, in the arms of a woman who looked just like her, feel so strangely close?
Avina quickly put the photos back into the envelope and hid it deep inside Dave's cupboard, under a pile of old building plans. Her hands were shaking. The baby cries, the locked room, and now these photos. This wasn't a dream. This was a nightmare starting in her perfect, new home.
Later that evening, Avina called her sister, Ava. Her voice was shaky as she tried to sound normal. "Ava," she began, "I… I need to talk to you. Something strange is happening here."
Ava, always smarter and more direct, knew she was upset right away. "Avina, what's wrong? You sound scared. Is it that house? I told you, it feels weird. Just leave, Avina. Come stay with me."
Avina wanted to. Every part of her body told her to run. But something held her back. A strong need to know. To understand.
That night, the baby cries returned, louder this time, more urgent. They weren't just soft cries; they were sad, long wails, full of sorrow. Avina couldn't ignore them. She knew exactly where they came from.
Pulled by a strong, scary urge to know, she crept out of bed. The house was completely silent, except for those haunting cries. She moved like a ghost through the shadowy hallways, her bare feet cold on the floorboards, until she stood before the heavy, dark wood door of the locked room.
The cries seemed to come right from inside the room, pulling at something deep within her. Her hand, almost on its own, reached for the fancy lock. It was old, but strangely, it felt warm to her touch. With a click that sounded impossibly loud in the quiet, the lock opened. The heavy door swung inward, showing not darkness, but a soft, glowing light.
Avina stopped for just a moment, her mind screaming at her to go back. But the cries pulled her in, and the light shimmered, calling to her. She stepped across the doorway, into the unknown.
The moment she did, the light got brighter, swirling around her, making her blind. A strange, confusing feeling pulled at her, like she was being stretched in every direction. And then, everything went black.
End of chapter