The Death of a Sister

"This is all my fault. I shouldn't have let her walk home alone. I should've walked with her."

Mom replies, "It's not your fault, Tessa. Emersyn will be home soon."

When Emmi doesn't show up for dinner, I start worrying, calling her frantically, just praying she is okay. It's 10:00, and I'm getting ready for bed. I'm still worried about Emmi. I walk down the stairs to talk to my parents.

At the bottom of the stairs, I ask, "Dad, where's Emmi? We need answers. We need to call the cops."

He responds, "We should wait till morning. She'll come back."

I am furious with him over this.

Mom repeats, "She'll come back. You'll see."

I exhale, "This isn't like her. She wouldn't just disappear. I would know."

I don't get any sleep because I can't stop thinking about her. I know something is wrong. She's not one to just disappear.

When Mom comes into my room in the morning, I tell her, "I told you something was wrong. Can we call the cops now?"

She replies with terror in her voice, "I'll get your dad, and then we can."

"Okay, please hurry."

By the time my parents walk in, I'm already on the phone with dispatch.

"911, What's your emergency?"

I replied, "My sister is missing."

"How long has she been missing?"

"After school yesterday."

"What's her name? Could you describe her to me, please?"

"Emersyn Rose Davis. She is 16, has long platinum blonde hair, bright emerald green eyes, and is about 5'6"."

"Police will be arriving soon."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, have a good day."

"Bye."

I go to the door with my parents in tears waiting for the police to arrive. They arrive within minutes, and dad lets them in. They start by introducing themselves.

"I'm Detective Bailey, and this is Officer Nicholas," says Bailey. They add, "Could you tell us about Emersyn?"

I reply, "She is my identical twin sister. She is 16, has long platinum blonde hair, bright emerald green eyes, and is about 5'6", just like me. I stayed late after school yesterday, and she walked home alone, but when I arrived, she wasn't there, and we haven't seen her since.

"Is there anywhere she could be?"

"No."

"Does she have a boyfriend or a friend she could be hanging out with?"

"No, they broke up last week."

"What is his name? Can you describe him to us?"

"His name is Colton Flynn. He is 16, has honey blonde hair and cobalt blue eyes."

"Do you know how tall he is?"

"He is around 6'."

"Is there any way they could be back together?"

"No, she would tell me. She tells me everything."

I continue to answer their questions; my parents also answer some questions.

The police bring in a few people to question. They get into a deadlock. We start to accept the fact that Emmi may never come home. A couple of days after coming to terms with the truth, we get a letter in the mail from my uncle. He says he is Mom's brother. I didn't know Mom had a brother. In the envelope, there is a check. On it, it says $20,000 to help with the investigation for the disappearance of Emersyn.

It's been one month since the disappearance of my sister. I get out of school and walk home, but I take a different route than usual. When I was about halfway home, I spotted a backpack that looked like Emmi's. I walk over, pick it up and realize it is Emmi's. I look inside and see the black notebook she wrote about everything. I open it up, see what's in it and run home petrified. When I arrive home, I show Mom what I found. She looks at the last couple of pages.

She looks up at me, says, "You're not Tessa. You're Emersyn. We need to take this to the police immediately."

We get to the police station, and they go through the notebook. They realize Tess wrote who had kidnapped her. They bring Colton back in to question him, but they never tell him he killed Tessa, not Emersyn.

The detective questioning Colton comes out of the interrogation room and asks, "Why did you switch that morning?"

"We switched because she didn't want to stay after school to work. I had to anyway, so I did what she needed, so she didn't have to."

"You're a good sister. We asked Colton his motives. Do you want to know why he killed your sister?"

"Do I want to know?"

"It's up to you, but it might put some closure on things."

"Okay, I want to hear this."

"The reason he killed your sister was that he was in love with Tess."

The judge sentenced him to life in prison without the ability of parole.

I need a little bit more closure on this whole situation.

I ask one of the officers, "Is there any way I can go talk to Colton. I need to hear it from him."

The officer replies, "I don't see why not. You will have to see him through glass, but as long as your parents don't care, I think it's fine."

My parents say, "If that is what you need to make you feel better, then yes, you can talk to him."

Dad drops me off at the jail to talk to Colton. I get to one side of the glass, and they bring him out to the other. He doesn't look like himself.

He starts the conversion with, "Hi, Tess."

"I'm not Tess," I say. "I'm Emersyn."

"There's no way I killed Emersyn."

"No, you didn't; I'm right here. The day you took her, we switched places before school. She talked all about it in her notebook. That was the only way we knew it was you who killed her."

"Crud, I should've gone through her bag or gotten rid of it differently."

"Can I ask you one thing?"

"I guess?"

"Why did you kill my sister?"

"I thought it was you."