It was 3am on an unsettling Friday night when I read the scariest text of my life. 

“You must beware, for I have taken the dare. The time is tonight, and your murder is in sight.” I read across the screen in horror. “You have 10 minutes to spare, so don’t sit and stare. Save yourself with speed, but know that I will always succeed.”  

I shake my head. This is all so sudden, I think. Across the bedroom, my identical twin sister, Amery, is also sitting up in bed. The look of terror on her face tells me she is reading the exact same message on her phone. 

“What’s happening? What do we do?” My sister asks me frantically. 

“We can hide in Black Prairie,” I reply calmly. I am always the faster thinker, the better thinker. 10 minutes. 

Amery and I dash down the stairs, still in our nightgowns. Our uproarious disturbance wakes up our mother. “Where are you going, Amery, Avery?!” She shouts. She always says my twin’s name first, I think jealously, like I’m the second priority. As Amery turns back guiltily, I grab my father’s gun and yank open the front door. 

“There’s no time for explaining!” I scold, pulling Amery outside with me. 

“Good idea for self defense,” My sister observes, glancing at the gun as we hurry down the driveway, “I should have thought of that.” Yeah, you really should have, I think. 

Black Road stretches out before us, silent and lonely. Only a single flickering street light breaks the vast sea of darkness. I slow down behind Amery and check my phone. “Don’t try to run, for I’m loading my gun. You have five minutes left, try to make them the best.” 

“Who could possibly be sending these?” Amery asks, turning to me with wide eyes. I don’t know how to answer her. 

We enter Black Prairie through a tangle of plants and weeds, ones as unique as those in a botanist’s lab. Amery lifts her gown as she carefully steps over the dead grass. I look down at my own dress, already dirty from splinters and leaves. She always looks better than me, I think, even though we’re identical. 

“Can you walk any slower?” I ask annoyingly. 

“Sorry!” Amery replies, picking up the pace. I stop when we get to a dense area of tall grass.

“Stay here,” I tell my twin, as I disappear through the prairie. 

“Where are you going?” Amery calls after me. I ignore her and check my phone once more. “Take your last breath, 10 seconds till your death.”     

9 seconds. I trudge through the dry grass. Crunch, crunch, crunch. 

8 seconds. My heart pounds. Thump, thump, thump. 

7.    

6. My sister screams. 

5. A group of crows fly away in the distance. I laugh at the irony. 

4. 

3.

2. I gather up my courage, and step beside Amery.

Suddenly, a gun is being held in front of my face. Tears fill my eyes, but I try not to lose myself. Before I can think, the murderer presses the ignition.  

My life flashes before me. Sitting alone at lunch, watching my sister laugh with her friends. Losing last year’s pageant contest to my identical twin, who won. Begging my mother to help me with my homework, but she was too busy doing Amery’s. 

I watch my look-alike fall to the ground right in front of me, as I lower the weapon. Frothy blood oozes out of Amery’s mouth, as she lies there, still as a rock. 

I’ve done it, I think, relieved, I can finally take her place. 

I can’t help but laugh, thinking about the next school poetry contest.