6.

Outside the Appleton family home, a car honks its horn twice. Its Gavin's friend Mike, who like on the first time this day came around has come to pick Gavin up. Being freaked out by what is happening, Gavin begins to move towards the front door though he stops himself before he can get there, if there are answers to be had then Gavin is compelled to at least hear them out despite the fact that strangely enough they may come from his mother.

Rita had watched as her son moved towards the front door and she was still looking at him when he stopped, having decided to stay. The car outside honked twice more. Gavin went outside, asked Mike to give him a few minutes then came back in. He resumed the position he had in a corner of the kitchen.

'There is a gift that has been running in my side of the family for generations' speaks Rita. 'It is not so strong in me, but it is there all the same. My mother had it, her mother had it and so on, now it looks like both you guys have it too and it may just be stronger in both of you than what it is in me.'

The school bus pulls up outside. Ashley moves to get her things. Gavin looks at his sister half in amazement with the fact that she is considering going out to it without hearing mum out. Gavin is usually the more rash thinking twin where Ashley has always done the good thing, the right thing, the expected thing, so her actions in this moment appear at least a little strange.

'You are not going to get on that bus, are you?' he asks.

'Of course, there is no reason to skip school is there?' ... this comes like a sort of jab at her brother ... something certainly is not right here.

'Ash ...'

'Ashley, listen to your brother' mum says with a definite surprise to how her daughter is acting.

Ashley looks at her brother and smiles the moves towards her mum, hugs her, kisses her on the cheek and says, 'love you mom.'

And then she is gone, outside and about to get on that bus.

'Go with her, get on that bus. Make sure your sister gets to school' Rita says to Gavin as she points the way outside.

In one way he doesn't want to do that and in another he knows he has to, so off he goes after his sister while also letting Mike know that they'll hook up a bit later.

'Good morning, Joe' speaks Ashley just after the bus doors opened.

'Good morning, Miss Ashley, is the brother not joining you today?'

'I am here, I'm here' speaks Gavin rushing to make sure that he is indeed going to be on that bus.

Being slightly ahead of her brother, Ashley makes her way down the bus, she sees that older boy Jake who is sitting by himself. Before Jake can turn to see Ashley coming his way, she slides into the seat next to him.

'Hi' he says as a large smile consumes his face.

'Hi yourself' she says while beginning to smile herself.

Jake wasn't expecting this but is glad of it. Gavin stops for a moment, almost silently asking his sister 'what are you doing?' Ashley is still smiling. Gavin moves to the back of the bus and sits as the bus begins to move. A couple of minutes pass and Ashley, while still in her seat, turns to look back towards her brother. Gavin is asleep.

If you were to assume at this point that Gavin doesn't make it to class you would be right, in fact it might even be said that he didn't make it to school at all, however Ashley does get to school and is in class for roll call unlike the last time this day played out. Gavin, well for him something else was about to happen.

The older twin by only a matter of minutes, awakes to pure darkness. From how the stone-cold floor he lay on felt, it was clear that he was not wearing the clothing with which he had left home in. For starters Gavin was barefoot. His arms were not covered by the sleeves of the top he had been wearing. He soon gets to his feet and begins to tremble. His legs feel weak, Gavin feels weak all over, and he just about managed to stay standing.

'Hello' he calls out trying to manage to make out where it is that he could be.

Whatever clothing Gavin was wearing only came down to just about being over his knees. It felt flimsy, soft as it were some kind of gown that someone might wear during a stay in hospital. He could all of a sudden feel a cool breeze hit his shins and feet as if there is some kind of cool place up ahead and its coldness has moved towards Gavin though this moving breeze soon passes. Taking a step forward was a difficult task though he did manage to take two steps before calling out another 'hello'.

It wasn't particularly cold in this place, well part from how the ground felt and that brief breeze Gavin had come into contact with. Maybe there is a refrigerated room close by. At this particular moment he couldn't help but begin trembling all over. Every part of him now felt even weaker than it had a moment ago. He was barely able to take a third step forward let alone attempt to remain standing. He managed to stop himself from falling though and almost as soon as he was back down on the floor, Gavin passes out.

Rita's day, once her children have left, continues just as any other day would. She puts the finishing touches to dinner then looked at her watch. She then looked at the clock on the adjoining dining room wall and the two times matched. It had begun to get dark outside and both Ashley and Gavin had yet to return home.

Rita moved to the front door and made her way outside. There was no sign of anything strange in particular, though something told otherwise. The school bus would have already passed by now and passed a good forty- or fifty-minutes prior.

Half past ten in the evening and Rita really begins to panic. Neither of her children have arrived home. She knows something is very wrong and she somehow knows that things are at least a little different from how they should be. Yeah, the day does seem to be repeating, but at that, it is going a little differently than how it went last time around.