You were ten years old, the first time you tried to kill your brother.

Twins are supposed to be shared souls, but you didn't feel that way. You never did. Since you were aware of yourself, you were also aware of that person who possessed your face as an imposter. You felt shivers. You were five years old then.

When mom and dad weren't with you, your brother taught you a language with crayons that didn't appear in lullaby rhymes.

You told Mom that day, but she just laughed and put the drawing in a frame. Every time you saw it, you felt that this was not a child's drawing, but instead, it was a warning.

On your seventh birthday, a little girl teased you about the "too nerd" theme of the birthday. The next day she didn't come to class, apparently she had an accident at home.

"She was disrespectful. "

Your brother had said when he heard the news. You suspected he had something to do with the accident, but you had no way to prove it.

His erratic behavior, stories from another realm, and the smile he sometimes offered you after a disheartening story overwhelmed you. You had given up trying to make anyone believe you. No one could see what was behind your brother's mask.

He looked at the sandwich you offered him as if by looking at it, he could unravel its ingredients and the poison you put impregnated in the mayonnaise.

Your heart was pounding with joy? fear? You didn't know. You tried to remain calm, but your soul grew more desperate as time grew stickier and your brother still hadn't eaten the sandwich.

Then he did. Relief, like the tide, took you with it, but it only lasted a few moments. After that, nothing.

He finished eating the sandwich, but there was no trace of those symptoms that rat poison offered you. His eyes did not lose their calm. He did not begin to agonize or tremble.

The spark of resentment inside you fanned into a fire. After the first failed attempt, you tried again to murder your brother. You tried electrocuting him in the bathroom, burning him in the kitchen, throwing him down the stairs, and drowning him in his sleep.

But he wouldn't lose his cool. He just chuckled as if his brother was tickling him. It made you sick.

One night, you heard him again talking in that strange language. You could only catch a few words like mother, egg, selection, and invasion.

You slid back the blanket and glanced sideways at your brother's bed. Your breath choked in your throat. A long creature made of shadows was talking to your brother on the edge of his bed.

He was aware of your presence.

He turned to you, and you met his eyes. Your heart stopped. He was not human. He couldn't be human. Nor did he even seem to resemble creatures you've seen before as demons or angels. It was simply not of this world.

Then you stood up, shaken with sweat on your neck. Your brother tried to comfort you. A nightmare?

It was not possible. You didn't remember falling asleep. But every time you tried to remember the creature, it became fuzzier like a watercolor or a dream.

You hurried to draw it before it faded from your memory. You showed your brother and asked for explanations. You suspected he messed with your mind and memories. There was no other explanation.

Mother found them when your younger brother started crying, cornered by your questions.

You turned fourteen when your mother announced she was pregnant again. A new sibling was on the way. The joy of the news was tinged with dark tones when you remembered the creature from another world.

When you met your new brother, you felt the same cold shiver run down your spine. Your brother's eyes were the same as the creature's eyes.

You knew no one would believe you. You tried to push all your doubts to the bottom so that no one could see it, but it was in vain.

One night, you heard your brother talking in that strange language with your new sibling. Despite being three months old, your new brother was fluent. You peeked out the door, and all the swarm of doubts and fear you'd been carrying around since you were five came flooding out. You had to kill them. Both. They were not of this world. They were cuckoos in someone else's nest.

When you turned sixteen, you did it. You tricked your twin brother, you put him to sleep, and together with the baby. You buried them in the forest behind the hill of your house.

You couldn't kill him, but at least you could keep them in the ground for the rest of eternity.

That day rained a lot, your boots ended up muddy, and it was hard working to lower the coffin with your two living brothers inside. When you finished, an almost manic relief ran through your body. Although it was sad to savor the victory alone, you felt you had accomplished your mission.

The planned eternity was shortened to a week because after seven days, your brothers were found, and you were imprisoned for fratricide. Your lawyer tried to plead mental illness, but you refused, so they ended up taking you to the gallows.

The only thing you regretted was not being able to kill your brothers. What would happen now? That creature from another world had said invasion.  Was it planning to occupy human wombs to spawn more monsters? Just thinking about it made your heart shudder.

When you were led to the gallows, to your surprise, your brother was there in the audience watching as he held a calm-looking baby in his arms. In that sea of people, you were then able to see him. It wasn't just your siblings that had the otherworldly creature's eyes. There were several children, babies, and adults with that look. Other people's siblings. Expectant for your death.

The invasion had already begun without you realizing it. You had had this idea embellished by stories that invasion would be abrupt and violent with the creatures descending from ships and subduing the humans.

But apparently, it had already begun. Slowly and calmly without any mother realizing that she was raising a cuckoo that invaded her nest.

The executioner placed the rope around your neck. You breathed the blue sky and felt the prick of all those otherworldly gazes on you. He pulled the lever, your body fell, and your neck snapped.

But you didn't die. You could not die.

You looked up, searching for your face. Your brother didn't look surprised. He was smiling as he always used to.

Then you proved the popular belief right. After all, the twins shared the same soul.

Nota de Autor:
Esto fue hecho para un reto en inglés de ciencia ficción. Gracias por leer <3