In advance, I apologize for any typos and mistakes. I am in a hurry, because I have to go to a birthday party after a few minutes, but I really need to tell you all of this.
Johanna, Jo for short, was the nicest girl I ever knew. I’m not even kidding; she volunteered for community work, helped if she was asked to, basically an angel on earth and I’m not just saying this because she was my best friend.
She probably got it from her mother. She always made tea and had some sort of pie ready when I, or anyone else, came over to visit Jo.
Let me tell you a bit about her. She did have a quite unlucky life. She got pregnant, got married and that was amazing, yes, but later bad things started happening to the Mallory family.
You see, Jo had a twin. Her name was Tessa and we went to kindergarten with her. They were identical, nobody could tell them apart unless they knew the little trick that a few others and I knew; Tessa had a birthmark on her left wrist while Jo had one on her right.
Most of the time, though, teachers didn’t have to look for the birthmarks; they all knew Jo wouldn’t hurt a fly meanwhile Tessa was a completely different person.
Tessa was a trouble maker from the start. We all knew that in kindergarten and sometimes even challenged her to do some stupid things like throw something at a teacher or write a rude word on the dry erase board. Nothing too extreme.
Later on she started stealing things. Not much, but for elementary schools those were equivalent to a bank robbery. She’d manage to take other student’s lunch money, pencil’s, notebooks, one time she even somehow stole a giant encyclopedia one kid always dragged along to school with him. Nobody except Jo, Tessa and I knew. I have to admit I was, and still am, astonished by how she managed to do all this, but still not get caught, not once.
But things got worse when we started the fourth grade.
I mean fucked up, straight from The Omen kind of shit.
She… she almost fucking beat a little kid to death. I wish I could tell you I was exaggerating, but I’m not. God, it was even more awful when you get to know that the kid was her neighbor and was only 4 years old. He ended up in the hospital after she had repeatedly hit him with her fists and, if what I heard was true, stabbed him with a pencil 2 times in the abdomen.
She, however, ended up being sent off to some sort of boarding school that I never looked up. Now that I think about it, it probably was something else.
Needless to say, Tessa’s parents got all the blame afterwards. Finally, the father couldn’t take it anymore and just left everything and it was just Jo and her mom from then on. I truly admire how they managed to stay so lovely even after all of this.
Since the day Tessa went away, everybody just stopped talking about her; including the remaining Mallory’s. It was like she was just erased from the town and from our minds.
Anyways, Jo would’ve been 17 today, so I decided to write this down in her memory. Actually I don’t know if she’s gone, I just know that she disappeared without a trace.
She disappeared on July 19th. It was extremely hot that day and she and her dog went off to the river for a swim. At 6 (Jo promised to be home at 5), her mother got worried, because Jo was always punctual, and decided to go after her and found the brunette lying on the striped towel, sunbathing while music was blasting in her ears.
The dog, which was by the tree, immediately ran over to her mother as she came by. The girl, however, didn’t notice the woman, so she had to touch her shoulder to get her attention and be reminded of how late it was.
But I told you Jo disappeared, right?
She did.
Let me explain it to you. She and I met up the next day and went off to a trip to the mall. Afterwards, we went to the food court to get lunch. We both ordered hamburgers and sat down, enjoying our meal. She raised the burger to her mouth and took a giant chunk out of it as if she hadn’t eaten fast food in years. That’s when I noticed it.
There was a birthmark on her left wrist.
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Update:
I’m scared. Posting this was my worst idea yet. I should’ve kept it to myself. Jesus Christ, I shouldn’t have posted this. But now it’s too late and now it’s pointless to delete this.
What happened? She sent me a text. Well, that isn’t too bad, right? Yeah, no, the text pretty much means I’m really, really fucked.
"I know."
Exactly that at 11 pm yesterday. Just two words, but they managed to keep me up the whole night and become paranoid of every noise. I don’t think I need to explain why I screamed when I heard the noise of the tv remote hitting the floor. It was my dad, who fell asleep with it in his hand, and I sighed from relief when he and mom rushed in to check on me.
I’m not going to go to school tomorrow and I’m definitely not going to go outside. I’m not risking anything. I’ve always been a coward, so don’t expect me to update again with an epic fight scene and how I unmask Jo as actually being Tessa. It’s not going to happen.
I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid she’ll come here and my mom, not knowing, will just let her in and if I tell anyone else the truth, they won’t believe me. I mean, why should they? Most of these people have forgotten Tessa completely. Plus, nobody has found a body.
They will never fully believe me until they see a body.
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Credits to: Eudokia
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