Izalia stared at her double and her double stared back, both equally surprised and confused. Her double took a step backwards, eyes wide, her coat dropping from her hand and landing on the ground with a soft thud. 

"Um..." Izalia struggled for words. This was definitely not part of her plan. Just seconds ago, she had decided to keep herself a secret and not tell her double until necessary. 

That plan went flying out the window.

"W-who are you?" her double stuttered, the words falling messily from her mouth. 

"I don't know how to say this, but I'm—"

"My twin?" Her double's eyes lit up with anticipation and excitement. 

"No, I'm—"

"My doppelganger?" 

"No! I'm you!" Izalia finally shouted, sick of being interrupted though she quickly remembered that that was her, and they were the same person.

Her double blinked once, then twice, and Izalia watched as the confusion and panic set in. 

Izalia held out her hands, ready to dash forward if her double fell. "Please don't panic."

"Uh... sure..." her double swayed a bit but caught herself on the stairwell behind her, taking a step back and silently allowing Izalia into the house. "I'm Iz."

"Yeah, I know." Izalia forgot she had begun to go by Iz instead of Izalia as she had thought it sounded less foreign. She took a step into the house, still waiting for Iz to fall and collapse in a heap of unconsciousness. 

"Mom and Dad are, uh, gone shopping for a while. Do you, maybe, want to talk? Or something?" 

Nodding, Izalia led them to the kitchen table, sitting in her seat she usually sat in for dinner. Iz took the head of the table, giving a small smile for clearing her throat which ended into an awkward silence. 

Izalia finally coughed. "So, uh, questions?"

Iz let out a breath of relief. "Tons. Why are you me? How is this possible?"

"Time travel." Upon seeing the look of complete and utter confusion on Iz's face, she furthered her statement. "I know it sounds impossible and improbable, but it's true. There are things you have yet to know, and I'm here to help fix a mistake that was made."

"A mistake? What do you mean 'mistake'?" 

Izalia pursed her lips, trying to suppress her own rising panic as well as figuring out a less confusing way of telling Iz. Just thinking about what could happen if she messed this all up only helped in resurfacing the swirling questions and thoughts that drowned out everything else. She had to force herself to push down her panic and take a deep breath.

"Well, you see, what happened was I—you—died, um, a few days early," Izalia trailed off upon see Iz's face drop. 

"I what?" 

"Yep." Izalia blew out an awkward breath as she let out a just as awkward laugh. She scratched the back of her neck, not sure if she should continue or not. The news to anyone would be startling, to say the least, and to pile all of this information on one person at one time is just too much to handle, and Izalia recognised that by the look on Iz's face. "I'll just come back another day..."

Iz slowly nodded, her mouth open and her eyes staring off at something behind Izalia. 

"Okay. I'll just go, then."

She only nodded again, and Izalia only had to guess that she wasn't even processing the words at this point.

Izalia stood up, gave an awkward smile then promptly left, ready to leave the tense awkwardness behind. Of course her double would act that way. How else would one act if they were told they died but they're also still alive? The whole thing was confusing and only caused stress and an unhealthy amount of panic that consistently showed up at the most inconvenient of times. But this had to be normal, right? Izalia pondered on this for a second. But, wait, it couldn't be, though. Or could it? How many others had the chance to make their death right, according to the books? Was she the only one? If so, what made her special? And if not, how many people died too early and came back but nobody noticed? 

Shaking her head, she strolled down the street, trying to clear her mind of her rapidly changing thoughts. Her feet pulled her towards the park that lied just on the outskirts of the city, occupied only by a few small children and chatting parents. The kids ran past her, screaming and laughing, flailing their arms and jumping around the piles of snow that heaped up at the corners of the playground from the snow-ploughers.

Izalia realised she wasn't even cold despite the snow around her. She felt quite the opposite, actually. She was relatively warm, almost the perfect temperature. Odd things were definitely happening, and she didn't know if she liked it or not. Obviously the chance to relive the next two weeks had to be the upside to all of this. In the end, however, no matter what happens, she's going to die. That was certain; that was also what scared her the most. 

If she couldn't pull through with what she had to do—and she still didn't quite know what she exactly had to do—she was going to just go poof. Nothing but air and dust. 

Izalia sat down at a bench with a sigh, her eyes following the little kids around the playground. Death had told her she needed to figure out why she died too early. But how? Of course, she could watch her double go about her life until the day comes where she dies. But by then, it would be too late since she'd be dead. The only other option was to find out what caused her premature death and prevent it so she would die on time, which was the weirdest and scariest thing to think. 

She slouched down on the bench, blowing out a puff of air and watching it form into wisps that curled up into the sky. And then she looked down at her arms which were doing the exact same thing. She was slowly evaporating until she faded into nothing, every trace of her ever gone. 

One of the little girls came up to her and pulled herself onto the bench next to Izalia then looked at her. "Why are you alone?" she asked in her squeaky childish voice. 

Izalia frowned and looked at the girl. Who was she to ask that question? What if she was waiting for someone? What if she just wanted to take a walk and decided to take a short break? What if she came here to kidnap a child so she wouldn't have to be alone?

"I don't know," she simply answered, staring at the little girl.

"Do you want to be my friend?"

"Um." Izalia had no idea how to answer that. Those were the kinds of questions asked in pre-school when two kids shared a juice box or a toy and that suddenly made them the bestest of friends forever.

"Good! My name's Sam. What's your name?" Sam replied enthusiastically, giving Izalia a quick smile that revealed all of her missing teeth. 

"Izalia."

"Oh, I like that name! It sounds like a princess's name!"

Who was this happy? Was she this happy when she was a kid? No... right? 

"Thanks," she said simply. While she liked kids, it was only to a certain extent and this kid had crossed that certain extent a while ago. 

Suddenly, Izalia saw the man from across the park, his hands in his pockets—as always—staring at her with an intense gaze that sent a shiver down her spine. He may have identified himself as a detective, but she saw him more of a stalker than anything. When he saw her look at him, he gave the slightest of nods and pointed to something behind her. Confused, she ignored the little girl's annoying chatter and looked over her shoulder but saw nothing. And when she looked back, he was gone as if he were never there. 

—

Voila! I think I'm going to start updating on a schedule since every day is getting kinda hard. Don't what that schedule will be yet, but I'll figure it out by the next chapter update!

I'm always open to constructive criticism and comments.

Also, don't forget to vote if you liked the chapter!

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