The Gemini

7. Train to Nowhere

Jane-Anne Pearce

今すぐケムルト駅に行かなきゃ.

I mouthed the words written in the frost that blanketed the glass sliding door. My reflection in the glass looked gaunt, and the bags under my eyes were abundantly visible. I looked down at the gray jumpsuit I was wearing, confused.

The hardwood floor around me was covered in ice, and I suddenly realized why I didn't remember anything. I wasn't me. I was her.

"Hello?" I asked, my voice scratchy with panic. "Is anyone hurt?"

I was standing in someone's living room, but the house was eerily empty. The ceiling fan still spun above me, telling me that someone might still be home.

I could hear the creak of a door opening as a girl walked into the room with her hands curled tightly around a baseball bat.

I held my hands up in immediate surrender. "Are you hurt?" I asked.

The girl didn't say anything to me, but her grip on the bat tightened.

"Did she hurt anyone?" I asked, my voice breaking.

"I don't know who you are, but you have a lot of explaining to do." said the girl, standing a little straighter. "I'm not afraid to... use this." The girl swung the bat awkwardly.

"My name's Jane-Anne." I said, trying to show her that I wasn't a threat. I extended my hand to shake, but the girl wasn't convinced. "I promise, I don't want to hurt you."

"You looked like something else." said the girl flatly.

"I do that sometimes." I admitted. "Look, I need to..." I turned back to the writing on the window. "'Ima sugu Chemult eki ni ikanakya.' I need to get to Chemult, wherever that is."

"You mean this?" the girl asked, holding up a passport and a train ticket. "It leaves for Bellingham in an hour, but it's for someone named Jennifer Avery. You just said you're Jane-Anne."

"Jennifer's a fake name. I might be wanted for murder, or something." My mouth gaped open as I realized what I just said. "But I've never wanted to kill anyone, I swear."

This was not going well.

"Who the hell are you?" the girl asked.

"Jane-Anne." I repeated.

"What are you?" the girl clarified.

"Um... half Japanese on my mom's side?" I answered.

"You turned my house into Antarctica," said the girl. "You might have confessed to murder, and now you want to catch some train. What's going on?"

"My memories are kind of a mess." I explained. "I was with my mom and the agents came for me and I blacked out. This is my first time waking up. Listen, I blurt out a lot of things but it's never lies."

The girl dropped her bat slowly. "So, either you're crazy, or this is something out of a movie."

"I could never make something like this up." I promised. "I'm from Atalka. Ever wondered what's really happening there?"

The girl pulled up her pale green hijab to cover her nose and mouth. "Are you sick?" she asked me through the fabric.

"I'm Forbidden." I corrected. "If you saw someone with long black hair and ice powers, that was the yuki onna. She's like my other identity. There are tons of people in Atalka who are Forbidden, and they tried to lock us up."

"Ok..." said the girl hesitantly. She dropped her hijab and put it back over her shoulder, which I was taking as a good sign. "Can you prove any of this?"