The Wrong One

Two more weeks passed. Sian’s mom had come home and now Sam’s face was all over the television. Bryce had called the authorities in Florence, and they hadn’t found anything.

Now, CNN, FOX, and all the other major television stations were covering her disappearance. The phone was constantly ringing and Zacky was pretty much living at the house. Every once in a while, one of the other guys would come and check on him and Sian, making sure there was no news.

It was the same routine. Sian would wake up, run downstairs, turn the television on, make coffee, wait for her mom, Zacky and Kyle to wake up, and spend hours in front of the television. Once it became late enough, Zacky would walk her to her room and she would spend hours tossing and turning until she finally fell asleep for a few hours.

Finally, they received word of Sam. They’d found out she had bought a ticket to go to Rome, but she never boarded the train. The only reason they’d found out that information is because she’d used her bank card. They tried to track her through the card, but that was the last time she had used it.

Another three days passed and one Saturday, Zacky burst into Sian’s room before she had woken up. She sat up with a start, and looked at the clock. It was five in the morning.

“Zacky, what’s wrong?”

“I’m going to Italy.”

“What?” Sian asked, confused.

“I’m fucking going to Italy. I can’t stand sitting here doing nothing anymore. I think there’s a good chance I could find her faster than they could.”

“Zacky, that sounds dumb. They know what they’re doing.”

“No, Sian, they don’t know what they’re doing,” Zacky said, coming to sit on the side of her bed. “They took weeks to find out about her bank card. That would’ve been one of the first things I did if I was there.”

“Zacky, what if someone took her? If you go to Italy and start asking questions, you could get taken, too.”

“I don’t care; I’ve got to find her.”

“You can’t just go gallivanting off to Italy.”

“There you go using that big word again.”

“You have a band and responsibilities. Where the hell are you going to stay or start looking for her?”

“I don’t know. I’ll figure all that out when I get there.”

“Zacky, this sounds stupid.”

“Come with me.”

“Excuse me?” Sian asked, sure she’d heard him wrong.

“Come with me, Sian. Help me find your sister. You know her better than anyone.”

“Obviously I don’t know her that well. She went to Europe and I had to find out from my mom who’s not even here long enough to know the shower’s broken.”

“You still know her better than anyone. Don’t you have that twin thing?”

“What twin thing?”

“That twin thing where you guys are connected.”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. We’re twins, Zacky, not sci-fi characters.”

“I thought all twins had this connection.”

“The only connection Samantha and I had was the womb we shared. We’re completely different, Zacky.”

“So you won’t come with me?”

“No, absolutely not. I think you need to leave this up to the authorities. They’re doing their job.”

“Fine,” he said and stood up.

Sian watched him walk to her door where he paused. He turned back and looked at her.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to do something with your life?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Think of this as an adventure, Sian. You get to be the detective. Not only that, but you get to see Europe.”

“No, Zacky. I’m staying here.”

“Alright,” he said and pulled her door open, closing it behind him.

Sian sat up in her bed thinking for over an hour. Finally, Kyle came into her room looking concerned.

“Did you talk to Zacky?” he asked her.

“Yeah, I did.”

“You think he’s right going to Europe?”

“No, I don’t. I think he’s going to get himself killed or worse.”

“Yeah, I agree with you,” Kyle said, sitting in her desk chair.

“He asked me to go with him.”

“What?” Kyle asked.

“He wanted me to go with him; he thought Sam and I had that twin connection thing.”

“You two?” Kyle laughed. “Yeah, I highly doubt that. You guys are nothing alike. It’s weird enough there’s two of you. It took me forever to be able to tell you apart and I’m your brother.”

“How did you finally do it?”

“When we were younger and at that girl from down the street’s pool party. I saw your scar.”

“My scar?” Sian asked, confused.

“Yeah, the huge scar on your side.”

“You know about that?”

“Well, I know you have it.”

“That doesn’t tell me how you can tell us apart, though. You can’t always see my scar.”

“Well, yeah, but then I could. In middle school when you started to excel in school you started to use bigger words, and that’s how I was able to tell.”

“That’s weird.”

“The fact that you used bigger words or the fact I noticed?”

“The fact you’re our brother and you couldn’t tell us apart,” Sian joked.

“Yeah, I guess I get the vote for the worst brother of the year, huh?”

“No, you don’t.”

“Why don’t you go with him?” Kyle asked in all seriousness.

“I don’t think it’s our place. The authorities are doing their job, we should be doing ours.”

“What exactly is our job?”

“Sitting here and letting them do their job.”

Kyle nodded and stood up.

“He leaves at seven if you change your mind,” he said and left her room.