Ghost of the Girl I Was

I didn’t ask why the apartment was so cheap, or why the landlord looked at me like he’d seen a ghost. I place the box on the kitchen side and look out the window at the busy road underneath. My phone dings.

DAD - Text me the address and I'll drop it all round after work tomorrow.

ME - Flat 4B Walker Street x

DAD - Thumbs up

I put my laptop on the desk and start to unpack the few belongings I have. A knock comes from the door, and I open it. "Hi, I'm Dan. My girlfriend left " He stops, eyes looking at me. "I'm Selene." "Oh, can I grab it? It's in the bedroom." I step aside, unsure what to make of him. The color drains from his face. He steps into the bedroom. He comes back out and hesitates, holding a frame. "You said Selene?" Unsure if he should ask. "Yeah," I breathe. "Why?" The air thickens between us. "You look like her." "Who?" He turns to the bathroom and leaves. "Excuse me?"

"Dick," I slam my door, shove my tea into the microwave, make a cup of tea, and sit at my desk looking out. Then I see him standing with a woman with my hair. She looks into the window. I blink, and they are gone. I lock the door and put the bookcase in front of it. I walk into the bathroom and look into the mirror; a face, my own face, stares back at me, but the hair isn't mine it's a shade darker. I turn and see a girl identical to me looking at me. She smiles and floats off. I follow her until we reach my laptop, her finger hovering over the letters: L U N A M I L L S.

I look at her, and she looks right back at me. The past so present. My sister, my twin sister. My body goes cold. "Luna." Her expression is not sad or angry, just tired. I finally see her, all of her. The way she doesn't quite touch the floor, the scar on her chest peeking out from her clothes, the cut on her cheek from the bike ride as toddlers. She was 4 when it happened. We were both 4. I remember the blood but not the cause, her chest ripped like a candy bar wrapper down the middle, her screaming and then silence. I ran to find Dad, and we raced to the hospital. I remember sitting in the waiting room, Mum and Dad arguing, and me wanting to play again. But then the doctor came out and told us she had gone to the rainbow in the sky. That was the day I became an only child to a single parent. That's what they told me.

But she is standing face to face with the ghost of my sister, her face and my face the only difference the scar. "I missed you," we say in unison.