When booze becomes an option, there's something wrong...

These flowers, pretty as they are, are a bit creepy. Perhaps because I'm hoping that it would be from Mister Ludo/Walker. Jeez, I really have to see a psychologist for this problem.

"Hi.. Did we come at a bad time? Do you like the flowers?" a female voice asks behind me. I instantly freeze. Sure, the person doesn't sound threatening, but there's always that small chance that someone is pointing a gun at me. Footsteps approach me, and from what I hear, I figure there are two people. God help me!

I turn - and two smiling faces are waving at me. There's not much to do other than gasp.

Oh dear mother of pearl... I'm DEAD, aren't I? Because THIS, this can't be real.

The right words just don't come to mind. I stand there, open-mouthed, breathing hard. 

"Mom, are you okay?" the black haired girl asks me.

"I think she's having a stroke... or a panic attack. Maybe we should call a hospital. She's turning green, oh man," the second girl, who has short brown haired, pointed out in a worried tone. I stand there with my hand in front of my face, unable to grasp what I see.

There's only ONE thing that comes to mind that might help me out of my stupor; a very strong drink.

I chug down about four more drinks (yes, FOUR!) before pointing my visitors to the outside table.
It's pretty obvious that I'm NOT delusional. These people standing in front of me are real. Not just any kind of people either. They're my daughters, Liana and Keira, daughters who're supposed to be dead.

"Can any of you two explain to me that I'm not crazy, and that I'm seeing two people here that are thought to be dead?" I demand in a shaky tone.

"Dead? Ohhhh... Well, crap.." Liana looks at her twin, but Keira shrugs, deciding to take over this speech.

"Okay, let me start from the beginning I shall we..."

"It was gonna be our first day of high school, and Liana and I were SUPER excited about it. We were both hoping to do well academically and stuff, and maybe get a scholarship to go study further. But of course, you know that never happened. Right before we entered the school building, some weird guy approached us. Of course we wanted to run away screaming, but what he said stopped us in our tracks. He offered me the chance to be apart of a scientific experiment, for those kids who have some issues with their looks. So yeah, I was interested, because I wanted to look normal, without this black skin. He told us then to go to the science center immediately. We didn't question him."

"You followed a stranger?!" I interrupt my daughter. "For God's sake, Keira, Liana, you know better than that. To ditch a day from school, to run after some guy with an experiment.. And you don't even call me!"
"Shhhhh, mom. Please just let me tell the story." She waits a minute for me to control my temper, then continues.

"So there we were, in front of the science center. Liana could have stayed at school, but she came with me, the awesome sister that she is. But there was still the problem with school and not letting anyone find out about us leaving.

"Mr. Mystery brought us a BIG surprise, using our DNA for some kind of project. Next thing we knew, clones of us were standing in front of us. The only noticeable thing was that Liana's clone's skin was a tad bit lighter. But no one would probably pay attention to that."

"I looked at Liana with an uncertain expression. She only carried a smile on her face. And that made me realize, maybe we should go through with this. Mr. Mysterious told us that he would take care of letting our family know and all that crap."

"So our double took our place in school. Mostly they were shells, who weren't going to react unless addressed directly. Our friends would notice, and the teachers would think were a bit depressed, but that would have blown over. In theory."

Keira stops abruptly, and Liana takes over.

"It was a good thing we weren't there that day, to be honest. Because if we were, we'd probably be dead. "

"We only heard about the fire disaster a month later, while we were lounging in a hospital, Keira still waiting for treatment. I wanted to go home, because I knew... Knew that people thought that WE were dead, because they had probably tested DNA or whatever those people do, and they'd believe it was us. It was heartbreaking, to say the least."

"We were stuck there for a lot longer than we'd think we would be. Sure, Brooklyn Heights, the city we were at, was nice and all, but after a time, you wanna get back to where you belong."

"You'd expect that this treatment would be over quickly. Unfortunately it wasn't, and we were stuck there until we reached young adult stage, when the last stage of "skin conditioning" could happen. I sat there, everyday, in the pink styled hospital bedroom wondering when we'll be able to home."

"That day finally came, but it had already been months after we had got there. Keira was optimistic, probably because she looked human now with her new skin color. She asked me if I would miss the city, and the tall buildings if we came home. I said 'no' immediately."

"And so we got our plane ticket Mr. Mystery gave us long ago . I think the reason we went in the first place is because he told us he would let everyone in our family know and stuff, like call you and tell you we love you. We did actually send some postcards, but none were ever returned. I figured you moved town or something."

I look at the "new" Keira. Blimey, she definitely looked different. I hadn't known she detested her Grim Reaper skintone, and I feel guilty about that now.

Bursting out in tears almost, I grab my girls in a tight hug. Long had I thought them dead, and I still feel that gap in my heart at night when I'm alone. Will that feeling ever heal now that they'r back?

The kids were just excited as I am (well, less, probably) to meet their "new old" half sisters. They ended up staying for dinner, and we all scurried to get a seat at the outside table. There wasn't enough space, but we managed.

Maybe life isn't that bad, after all...

~♥~

I know the backflash pictures should probably have been in black and white, but I don't think people would be able to see the different between the skin colors of Liana and her clone.

ANYWAYS, I'm happy to have these girls alive again and back in the story!

Ciao!

:)