She had the images of herself and the stranger displayed side by side on her computer monitor. She had been staring at them for about twenty minutes, recovering from the shock of it all. She rubbed her eyes. He was right, they were like twins. How? Were they actually long lost siblings? No, there was no chance they were related. Right? She had no brother, she grew up alone.

"Okay," she thought to herself, "let's say we are twins. We are different sexes, so, that means we can't be identical twins. We might be, what is it called again, fraternal twins?" She looked it up, mechanical keyboard clacking.

According to various sources, fraternal twins would be most likely. "But, we look so similar. Fraternal twins are supposed to look different. The other explanation... No, we couldn't possibly be half-identical twins. That's an extremely rare occurrence..." She clicked away from the web articles to stare at the images of herself and her doppelgänger again. She leaned back in her chair and pulled her legs up so she could sit crisscrossed.

Oh, this was uncanny. They had the same wiry, wavy hair texture, though perhaps her hair was softer, and they had the same hair color. They had different hairstyles; she wore hers long, and he wore his in a short messy puff atop his head. Then, they had the same icy blue eyes. Next, they had the same pale skin and the same pinkish undertones. The only other difference was his stubble versus her smooth skin. They both were wearing black hoodies and making the same haughty expression. Their faces were like if someone made a template character in a video game, then made two saves so that one version of the character could be male and another female.

...Damn, maybe they were half-identical twins. "But, then, why didn't my parents say anything? I feel they would have been proud enough to report half-identical twins to news outlets. And again, why did I never see my brother?" She chewed on her bottom lip. In the taskbar, the icon for DChat flashed subtly. An unread message, from her supposed brother, waited patiently for her. "I should reply to that, in spite of how strange he was being. I need to ask him some questions..." She leaned forward to answer him.

Just then, memories of repeated nocturnal dreams dully struggled to the forefront of her mind. Repeated dreams of her life. Dreams where the only difference was that she was a man instead of a woman. There were years of these dreams. "No," she thought, and she repressed this realization promptly. There was no time to process that. She began typing a reply to her doppelgänger.

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By Adaline Guerra