𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓇𝑒;
//
Eddie looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie.
All spindly limbs & hunched posture, Eddie's hair hung in dirty blonde curtains around his angular face. Big, sorrowful blue eyes peered out, framed with dark eye bags & a smudged blur of yesterday's eyeliner. An oversized, striped mohair sweater draped from narrow shoulders, the sleeves hanging loose over his hands. Only the tips of his black polish-adorned fingers peeked out from the enormous knitwear, along with two, sparrow-esque legs, wrapped in close-fitting black denim. A hefty pair of steel-toed Doc Martens graced his feet, which were pointed into the earth beneath the rusty swingset.
He sat alongside his twin sister, Eliza. She was largely the same, a narrow, androgynous thing with chains hanging from her skinny jeans, red eyeshadow around her eyes & torn fishnet smothering her arms. A holey, overly large black t-shirt decorated her top half, & her blonde hair fell in straggly pigtails over svelte shoulders. She perched on the faded red seat beside her brother, worn Doc Martens kicking backwards & forwards in the dusty pit beneath the swings.
"I don't know..." Eddie's voice was low, as if he were trying to keep a secret.
Eliza's blue gaze drifted over to meet her reluctant brother's. "Why not? It'll be fine. She might even crack a fuckin' smile for once."
"Or she'll think I'm crazy, 'Liza."
The twins shared everything. Clothes, eyeliner, secrets, posters with dogeared corners, music taste, crushes on unattainable rockstars. They'd been practically joined at the hip since birth & despite their tumultuous teens, the bond between the two hadn't broken. Even at their worst, the places nobody comes back from, the twins continuously pulled one another back into the light.
"Come on, Eddie--! She's gotta find out sooner or later."
Eddie's mouth twisted into one of abject disdain. This didn't seem like a good idea, but his sister rarely steered him wrong. Sighing, he hopped down from the swing with a dull thud. "Y'know, if this lands me in a psych ward, you better haunt my ass there, too."
A wide smile spread across Eliza's ghostly visage. "Just try & stop me, little brother!"
Originally written and shared as part of Verbuary 2021: https://tinyurl.com/4sxz9tjn
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