Agatha

CHAPTER ONE

THREE YEARS AGO

"Daddy, can we go swimming?" Isabelle asked. Her father looked up from the paper he had been reading. He glanced out the window. Raindrops danced on it in perfect unison, crisscrossing each other in a race down the glass.

"Izzy, it's pouring rain. How about tomorrow? The weather is supposed to be really nice this weekend."

Isabelle rolled her eyes. She glanced around the room. Lindsey was sprawled on the carpet, her sole focus on the book in front of her. Mom was in the kitchen.

She dashed up the stairs as subtly as she could. The floorboards creaked, just as they had every single day for as long as Isabelle could remember. Their house was old, the same house her father had grown up in, and his father before that. It was a huge home. Enough bedrooms to accommodate three generations of Lawrences. It stood alone in between a forest of thick trees and a grassy meadow constantly occupied by herds of sheep. Behind the house sat a lake, just deep enough that Isabelle could touch the bottom and come up again before running out of air.

She burst her bedroom door open, to find just who she was hoping to see: her duplicate.

Well, not really. They were very different from each other; Isabelle being the one who wouldn't stop talking and offering random information and Agatha barely uttering a word if she could help it. But when you put the two girls side by side in front of a mirror, you wouldn't see any of that. All you would see is double of those piercing blue eyes, twice the silky blonde hair, and identical innocent smiles.

Only one of them isn't so innocent

"Do you wanna go swimming?" Isabelle asked, sitting down on the floor so she could be eye-level with her sister, who was cross-legged on the carpet and had a pair of scissors in one hand and a half-made paper snowflake in the other.

Agatha glanced out the window, just like their father had done minutes before. "It's raining."

"It's more fun when it's raining. Lindsey said so."

Lindsey, had, in fact, said so. Just not that day, or in that context.

Agatha squinted. "What did Daddy say?"

"He said it's fine." Isabelle lied.

Her sister sighed, standing up and placing her 'creation' on the dresser. "It's too cold to swim."

"Once we warm up," Isabelle suggested. "we'll be fine. It'll be fun, Aggie."

"Okay."

"So, what're we waiting for? Let's go."

Both girls strode out of their room, and down the creaky stairwell. Isabelle motioned for them to leave out the back door. Agatha furrowed her brows but complied. Once outside, they pulled off their dresses to reveal swimsuits underneath.

"Race you to the lake," Isabelle grinned.

Agatha grinned back and took off running after her sister. Reaching it first, Agatha sucked in a breath and held her knees to her chest as she jumped inside. She broke the surface with a splash, eyes shut tight as a similar splash sounded beside her. Coming up for air, she opened her eyes and smiled.

"I win."

Isabelle sighed, defeated. One other difference between the girls was the Agatha was uncharacteristically fast and much better at sports, but not competitive at all, whereas Isabelle would give her kingdom for a win against her sister.

"I have an idea," Isabelle thought out loud. "Let's see how long it takes us to touch the bottom and come back up. Loser has to make the winner's bed tomorrow."

"Deal. You go first."

Isabelle took a deep breath and dove underwater. Kicking her legs, she touched the mucky bottom with her fingertips and pushed with her feet to rise back up.

"Nine seconds," Agatha said.

'I counted eight."

And now it was Agatha's turn, who repeated her sister's actions, only in seven seconds instead.

"Best out of three," said Isabelle, who refused to accept her sister's win once again. She insisted that this time they bring up a rock that sat at the bottom of the lake. What Agatha didn't know was that after her turn, Isabelle had switched the rock for a brick that not even their older sister could carry without help. It was dark underwater, so she wouldn't be able to see or tell the difference between texture and weight. Easy win for Isabelle.

"So you just swim down and carry it up. It's easy, I did it." Isabelle explained.

Agatha nodded, breathed in and dove down. Counting seconds in her head, she moved her hands around until she found the brick. This is heavy, thought Agatha as she picked it up with difficulty and pushed up. Almost there. But as she neared the surface of the lake, she found her breath running out, and the perfect timing for her leg to get caught in underwater plants was certainly not this. But alas, as she struggled to free her foot, even dropping the brick, Agatha ran out of air and went limp as she slowly sank down.

And the smile that had formed on Isabelle's face when the second count passed her own, slowly became non-existent as the ripple in the thin layer of water that would indicate her twin sister coming up never came.

PRESENT DAY

"Good night, Isabelle. Sleep tight." Her mother kissed her temple before tucking her neatly under the covers.

"Night, Mom," Isabelle replied with a smile. Her mother smiled back, flipping the light switch. The room flooded with darkness. Once alone, Isabelle turned her head to the right and stared at the empty space where a second bed used to be, just as she had every night for the past three years.

She sighed, closing her eyes and drifting to sleep.