Emily and I are twins. But completely different.

Our faces don’t even match. She is chubbier than me, and I am a bit taller than her. She works as a librarian while I work as a businesswoman. We aren’t that close either.

But there was one, one disadvantage that haunts us. And we didn’t get to know about it, until I was shot.

***

It all started when Mr. Addison wanted to do an illegal business deal for drugs.

I tore the paper in outrage, and threw the faces in his face.

“What made you think that I’d accept this stupid deal?” I growled. “Our company works for people to make their lives easier, not to destroy them!”

One of Mr. Addison’s goons- sorry, employee- stepped forward, Mr. Addison stopped him. He eyed me with anger. “You’ll highly regret this.”

“I highly regret that I let you step in my office,” I retorted. Snapping my fingers, I ordered the security to throw him out.

***

I was chilling in my house, when my phone rang. It was from… Emily?

Weird. She never called me or anything.

Frowning, I answered the call, but I almost dropped my phone when Emily shrieked my name.

“Emily?” I got up, panicked. “What happened? Are you okay?”

She gulped. From the other end, I could hear some other voice growling.

“Emma, they’ll kill me,” she choked, her voice shaking.

“What?” I couldn’t hear her properly. “Where are you?”

“Basement…flat no.23…”

I knew that flat. It was near her library. “I’m coming, Emily, don’t panic… Emily? Emily, you there?”

***

After calling the police, I dashed to Flat No. 23. I sped down the stairs and entered the basement.

I froze when Mr. Addison greeted me by pointing his gun at my head.

“You,” I spat, scanning for Emily. “Why are you here? Where’s my sister?”

Still pointing the gun at my head, he clicked his fingers. Two men appeared, dragging Emily with them. She gazed at me with bloodshot eyes. At least she was unharmed.

“Oh, I haven’t done anything yet,” Mr. Addison smirked at my relieved face.

Before I could do anything, someone smashed something wooden on my head. I fell over, pressing the back of my head, waiting to feel the pain… but it never came. Instead, Emily pressed her head and shouted, “Ow!”

Wait, what? Nobody hit her. Then why…?

Mr. Addison had a wicked gleam in his eyes.

“Interesting,” he muttered, and then pointed at my leg. I jumped out of the way, but he’d pulled the trigger. The bullet went through my leg.

At the same time, Emily shrieked, falling down on one knee as if… as if she’d been shot. And I was just standing there, trying to make sense of all this.

Mr. Addison pointed the gun at Emily.

A panic thought blared through my mind. If I’d got shot, but Emily felt the pain, that meant…

“Oh…” For once, my voice was trembling. “Just let us go…”

“Hmm…” Mr. Addison targeted his gun at me. “Who should I shoot? If I shoot her, you feel the pain. And if I shoot ­you, she’ll feel the pain. Either way, it’s my benefit…”

I was too busy signaling Emily to duck, when I heard police sirens.

A wave of relief flooded me. Emily and I grinned at each other. The police!

***

After my treatment, Emily came to the hospital and sat on my bed. I was about to pinch myself to check whether I was dreaming or not, but Emily caught my wrist and gave me a death glare. “Don’t you dare.”

I realized I’d given her enough torture. I bent my head down in guilt, avoiding her gaze. “Extremely sorry.”

“It’s okay.” But she knitted her eyebrows. “Do you know what happened back there?”

I shook my head. “No idea. Maybe it’s a twin thing? Like you get the bruise and I get the pain?”

“Maybe.” She played with her fingers. “What do we do about it?”

I shrugged. “Just try avoiding getting hurt. That’s all we can do.”

We laughed, like we were actually okay with that.