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“My Other Half” is a short story submitted by Marilou Almano for Gully Books‘ I Love To Write Day.
Have you ever felt like you were someone else? When talking to anyone, do you feel someone inside you wanting to get out?
Because I always do.
I smiled to myself the moment I saw it in the mirror. Slowly, my smile disappeared, and my face became emotionless. Seconds later, tears slowly streamed down from my cheeks.
I covered my eyes and started crying loudly.
“You are weak.”
I stopped crying when I heard that emotionless voice from somewhere. I got the chills since I know that I am alone in this house.
I checked the door but no one was there.
I just shrugged my shoulders and washed my face, but I was shocked when I looked at the mirror again and the person inside was me…. But her face looked emotionless, and a single tear was streaming from her right eye!
“W-who are you?” my voice was shaking while I asked myself in the mirror.
“I am you,” she whispered and smiled before she slowly wiped her tears away.
I stepped backwards when I heard her cold voice.
Am I imagining things?
I asked myself.
I stopped stepping backwards when I felt my whole body being pressed against a wall.
“Don’t be afraid; I am not like them. I won’t hurt you,” she said.
“I won’t hurt you because you and I are one.”
“W-What do you want?” I asked her again.
“I just want to help you to be like me: calm, wise, and strong“
I hate it when I get startled by just a simple tap on the shoulder from the people around me.
I hate it when I can’t decide on my own and someone else decides for me, but I am the dumb person at the end of it for trusting their decision.
And most of all, I hate it when I just let them talk shit about me because I am too weak to defend myself.
Thinking about these things that I hate, I become desperate to be the person that she is.
I hurriedly ran to the front of the mirror.
“But how are you going to help me?” I asked her desperately, wanting to be a different person.
“Always carry me with you and don’t ever forget about me, ” she said, and sweetly smiled for the first time.
“B-but how?”
“I am actually always with you, but you always forget me.”
“W-What do you mean?”
“Courage, Cora, Courage. I am your courage, your other half. I am always with you, but you always forget me and you always choose fear over me, the fear that always makes you—us weak. For one time only, Cora, please choose me and everything will follow. Use me as your first step to being you— the whole you, no doubt and no holding back. “
She spoke.
“Please Cora,” she said, and slowly she disappeared, being replaced by my shocked and puzzled face.
