The Devil's Twin Sister

My sister and I were twins, but we were polar opposites of beauty and ugliness.

She was a masterpiece of porcelain skin and ethereal grace, everyone's golden girl.

I was born covered in coarse, dark hairDa monster rejected by the world from my very first breath.

They lured my sister to a remote compound, torturing her while she carried a child, promising to make her wish for death.

Wish for death? I smiled. I'll show them that divinity and demons share the same womb.

And I? I was born a devil.

When I woke up, the surgical lights above were so blinding I couldn't open my eyes.

I instinctively tried to shield my face, but my limbs wouldn't move.

A voice with a thick, rough accent drifted into my ears.

"Look at that. This freak is actually alive?"

I gasped and forced my eyes open. My boyfriend, Caleb, was standing next to a woman wearing a dark headscarf, her skin weathered and tan.

His handsome face looked sharper and more menacing under the clinical white lights.

"You said you were taking me for surgery so your family wouldn't mind my looks," I said, my voice cracking as I struggled to look at him. "You said we were getting married."

Caleb let out a cold snort.

"You don't need a mirror to know you're a lost cause, do you?" He looked at me with pure disgust.

"But even if you're covered in that disgusting fur, your kidneys should still work. Your corneas might fetch a decent price, too."

His gaze scanned my body like a cold x-ray. Cold sweat soaked my back as I began to thrash against the restraints, begging him.

"Caleb, are you in trouble? You told me looks were superficial. You said you loved my soul..."

The woman standing by his side suddenly cackled. Her deep-set eyes narrowed as she studied me with a predatory grin.

"Oh, he loves you, alright. To us, every inch of you is a treasure. But before we harvest the fruit, we need to run a full diagnostic."

I didn't believe her. I kept twisting my body, screaming questions at Caleb, desperate for a different answer.

Caleb seemed to grow tired of my voice. He backhanded me so hard my vision went dark.

"Shut up, or I'll chop you into pieces and feed you to the stray dogs right now," he snarled.

I saw a flicker of something in his eyesDa momentary hesitation. I went silent instantly, letting them draw my blood and haul me off to a dark, damp cell.

I huddled in a corner, nursing the bruise on my arm where the needle had pierced me. I watched the other women trapped in that room through half-closed eyes.

They were barely clothed, many covered in mysterious scars or wearing blood-stained bandages over their eyes.

Most of them looked at me with hollow, numb expressions. A new arrival was nothing special to them.

"Crying over a little blood? You newbies are so soft," one whispered.

"You'll get used to it. I cried when they took my first eye. By the time they took the kidney, I didn't have any tears left."

"Yeah, being stuck in this hellhole... death would be a mercy."

Their voices were flat, devoid of hope. I shivered as the reality sank inDthis was all Caleb's long game.

A month ago, I had posted a personal ad looking for a man who didn't care about my appearance or the dark hair that covered my body.

Plenty of men came, but they all fled in disgust the moment they saw me.

Only Caleb looked at me with bright, puppy-like eyes.

I didn't care that he was a broke nobody. I planned to give him everything I owned once we married.

I still remember the way his eyes sparked when I handed him my bank cards.

I thought it was love piercing through my ugly exterior to reach my soul.

Now I realized it was the look of a predator finally cornering its prey.

I buried my face in my knees, my body shaking.

The other women ignored me, some even scowling as if my trembling disturbed their sleep.

But in that dark corner, unseen by anyone, my lips curled into a slow, dark smile.

It wasn't easy.

It took a year, but you people finally found me.

I spent three days in that dark room, piecing together information from the women's whispers.

This place was the headquarters of a cult known as The Order of Eight Sorrows.

To the public, they were a famous local charity, but behind closed doors, they were a den of monsters.

Strangely, they didn't worship a traditional god. They worshipped a figure they called the Sky King.

Their leader was a man named Silas, a supposedly enlightened priest who claimed to be one step away from divinity. He was a ghost; only the elders had seen his face.

My boyfriend, Caleb, was known here as the Watcher. His job was to lure people in and ensure no one escaped the compound.

The woman in the headscarf was Matron Mara. She was the one who handled the runners.

A woman who had her bone marrow harvested multiple times told me she saw Mara drive a stiletto heel through an escapee's eye.

The girl died from the sheer agony.

Everyone was forced to watch. No one tried to run after that.

They usually started with non-lethal parts to squeeze as much value out of a person as possible.

But as I listened, I kept thinking about the way Caleb looked at me in the surgery room.

When I was finally dragged before Mara to have my corneas taken, I gathered my courage and looked her in the eye.

"If she won't give up her eyes, take her heart," Mara told the doctor coldly. "Do it while it's beating. The vitality is higher, and the price is better."

I glanced at Caleb from the corner of my eye. As expected, he stepped forward to stop the doctor.

"Didn't the labs say she has an extremely rare blood type?"

Mara turned to him, her brow arching. "So?"

"I'm saying, a blood type like that is worth more if we keep the source alive. Anyone can give a heart, but rare blood is hard to find."

Mara's expression turned playful. She squinted at Caleb for a long time, a chilling smile spreading across her face.

"You want to keep her?" she asked.

Caleb's pupils dilated. Before he could deny it, she cut him off.

"You're right. I shouldn't take her eyes or her heart."

Caleb exhaled, but Mara wasn't finished.

"We should just drain her dry."

My head spun. The doctors lunged at me, pinning my arms to the table. Just as the needle touched my skin, I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Valeria's next treatment is in three days!"

Mara's smile froze. She signaled the doctors to stop.

"You know Valeria?" she demanded.

I spat out a tooth that had been loosened during the struggle. "Everyone wants to be beautiful. Especially a politician's mistress. How could she resist the temptation of eternal youth?"

I hadn't met Valeria many times, but we had history in the dark corners of the web.

She dealt in everythingDstolen youth, human traffic, and the extraction of life-essences.

With her political connections, Valeria's business was booming.

But time was her enemy. As her beauty faded, her lover's interest waned. She was desperate. That's when I made my move.

People saw me as a monster, but few knew my secret. I could turn hair and nails into a special substance that could reverse aging.

"Organ transplants only delay the inevitable," I whispered as Mara leaned in. "But I see the swelling in your neck. It's lymphoma, isn't it? Transplants won't save you when the cancer is in your blood."

I leaned closer to her ear.

"You know Valeria's beauty returned overnight, but you don't know the secret. My concoction can grant you fifty more years of life. But the ritual is a sin against nature; a person only gets one chance."

Mara went silent, her lips pressed thin.

That night, everyone saw me enter Mara's private quarters.

No one knew what happened, but by dawn, I was Mara's new personal assistant. I was moved into a private room with a view.

As Caleb led me to my new quarters, his expression was a mess of confusion.

"Spit it out," I said, bored.

"I thought you were a fool. I actually felt a little guilty, thinking I might find a way to let you live. I guess I overthought it. Someone like you doesn't need saving."

I let out a sharp laugh.

"What? You're mad your pity was wasted? You men never learn. Women aren't born weak. We don't need your crumbs of mercy to survive."

He went still, stunned. I walked past him without a second glance, ignoring the venomous eyes watching us from the shadows.

That night, I met the person I had replacedDa tall girl with pale skin and deep-set eyes. Her name was Roxanne.

Because of Mara's orders, she had been kicked out of this nice room and moved into a windowless cell next door.

As I was unpacking, she leaned against my doorway, her eyes dark with hatred.

Hoping for a peaceful start, I offered her the bird's nest soup Mara had sent to nourish me.

She didn't take it. She just glared at me with pure malice.

I felt a little awkward standing there with the bowl.

"You think you're special now?" Her voice was raspy and weak. "You're just a tool. Once Mara finds a replacement, you'll end up exactly like me."

I blinked, remembering a rumor from the pit. A girl had given up a kidney and remained weak ever since, eventually sucking up to Mara to stay alive.

"You weren't an assistant. You were her private doctor, right?" I took a sip of the soup, blowing on the spoon calmly.

After all, a woman in Mara's position wouldn't want the world to know she was dying.

Roxanne's eyes flickered. She stepped inside and slammed the door, pointing a finger at me.

"In this place, talking too much gets you killed."

I stopped eating and looked her dead in the eye.

"So what? I'm not like you. Caleb recommended me. I'm not some freak they just dragged in."

She thought I was scared. She looked smug.

She didn't realize I was just trying to control my urge to beat her senseless. I finished my soup in silence and got up to wash.

Roxanne wouldn't let it go. She grabbed my arm and knocked my toiletries to the floor.

She looked at the dark hair on my skin and sneered.

"You really think you need to wash that face? The last girl who tried to replace me... I personally dug out her eyes and took her limbs. She died screaming."

"It didn't have to be that messy. But I suggested it to Silas. I even turned her ashes into porcelain."

Her face froze as she finished the sentence.

I was staring at her with the eyes of a starving wolf.

But I forced myself back to calm. I watched her swallow hard, trying to stay brave.

"What's your name?" I asked softly.

"Roxanne," she stammered.

I looked at her for a long beat, then let a submissive smile crawl onto my face.

"Roxie, I'll be counting on you to look after me then," I said, sounding like a harmless idiot.

Roxanne exhaled, putting her arrogant mask back on. "As long as you know your place," she said, before practically running out of the room.

The moment she was gone, I squeezed my fist until my knuckles turned white.

No one knew I had a twin sister.

Unlike me, she was born beautiful. Some said the sky glowed with holy light the day she was born, and she always carried a faint, mysterious scent.

She became a famous spiritual healer, a goddess to many.

And I, the monster, was kept hidden away at home, never even registered as a citizen.

But my sister never hated me. She fed me, clothed me, and taught me her secrets.

"What I do defies nature. One day, there will be a price to pay," she used to tell me. "If that day comes, don't be sad. Don't seek revenge. Just live your life."

She died a year ago. I almost lost my mind.

I used every connection I had to reach Valeria. She told me the truth. My sister, four months pregnant, had been lured away and murdered by their rivalsDThe Order of Eight Sorrows.

They didn't just kill her. They dismembered her and turned her bones into porcelain.

That was the moment my plan was born.

I turned myself into the desperate woman looking for a husband, waiting for a wolf like Caleb to bite.

I didn't expect to find Roxanne here.

But it didn't matter. Since she was so loyal to this place, she could go to hell with the rest of them.

I hadn't walked in the sun for a long time. For the first twenty-five years of my life, I lived behind a screen, connected to the world only by a cable.

After my sister's death, I forced myself to adapt to the crowd.

It was that training that allowed me to stand in the compound and endure the stares.

Before I became someone important, people usually threw stones at me.

I played my part wellDthe shut-in, the coward, the freak.

Since I took her room, Roxanne had been turning everyone against me.

They would pull away when I walked by. When clients came, they told me to hide so I wouldn't scare the money away.

Eventually, Mara started telling me to stay in my room.

Roxanne was thrilled. She'd walk past my door with her head high, looking at my room as if she still owned it.

One night, I invited her in.

The moment she sat down, I made my move. "Let's work together."

"Together? Why would I need you? Because of one favor you did for Mara? She won't protect you forever."

I shook my head.

"Mara didn't keep me just because I saved her. She kept me because I'm Valeria's most trusted agent. Mara wants to swallow Valeria's entire network, and I'm the bait."

Roxanne's face went pale.

Then her suspicion returned. "If you have that much power, why come to me? You could just kick Mara aside and go straight to Silas."

I sighed and shook my head.

"You think Mara hasn't thought of that? She injected me with a new drug. If I disobey, I'll wish I were dead."

Roxanne went quiet. I knew she had been given the same leash.

"What do you want?" she finally asked.

"I'm tired of being controlled. I've contacted Valeria's people. If you help me, you'll be second-in-command when we take over this place."

She studied my face, weighing the lie.

She had no reason to doubt me. My looks meant I could never be the face of the operation. Roxanne, with her curves and her face, was the perfect front.

She agreed. Together, we began sabotaging the Order's organ trade, funneled most of it to Valeria. Silas was furious and punished Mara severely.

We thought we were winning until a bloody man was dropped at the gates.

He was a high-ranking politician from across the border, wounded in an assassination attempt. The compound doctors were terrified to touch him.

Roxanne stepped up. That was when I learned she used to be a brilliant surgeon.

The surgery was a success. When the man woke up, he called Roxanne an angel. He even told Silas he wanted to take her with him.

Silas was impressed. He told Roxanne she could stay as an elder, equal to Mara, or leave with a new, prestigious identity.

To everyone's shock, Roxanne chose to stay.

The politician was stunned. No woman had ever rejected him.

But Roxanne just smiled and looked toward Caleb.

Silas saw it instantly. He laughed and threw a massive celebration for her promotion.

Everyone was happy except for Mara.

I remember watching Mara's face under the fireworks. She looked like she wanted to tear Roxanne's throat out.

With the politician's favor, Silas handed most of the business to Roxanne.

Mara lost her power, and I lost my status. I was kicked out of the nice room and sent back to the windowless cell Roxanne once occupied.

Roxanne moved back into her old room, gloating every time she saw me.

I pretended to be devastated. When I finally cornered her, she didn't even let me speak. She backhanded me across the face, knocking me to the ground.

My mouth filled with blood. She grabbed my collar, laughing.

"I stayed to show you all that I don't need crumbs from Mara or Valeria. I can take what I want."

"Aren't you afraid I'll tell Silas you were working with the enemy?" I wheezed.

Roxanne laughed harder. She picked up a syringe filled with a blue liquid and knelt beside me.

"Mara was too soft on you. This is the new version. The pain lasts much longer."

She jammed the needle into my neck.

The world went black. My head felt like it was exploding. It felt like a thousand ants were eating my bones. I screamed until I passed out.

When I woke up, I was still on the floor. Roxanne was watching me from a chair.

"Still want to talk to Silas?" she asked sweetly.

I shook my head frantically, swearing my loyalty. I promised to give her all of Valeria's business.

She left satisfied. But the moment she was gone, I crawled into Mara's room.

I told Mara that Roxanne was still talking to Valeria, planning to wipe Mara out for good. I threw myself at Mara's feet, sobbing.

"Please, Mara, she gave me the new drug. It's a hundred times worse than the old one. I can't take it... help me..."

Mara's face was like stone. After a long silence, she spoke.

"I guess it's time to use my last card."

The card was Caleb.

Mara knew Roxanne was obsessed with him. She stayed for him.

So, under Mara's orders, I went to Roxanne with a plan. I told her I knew a way to help her conceive Caleb's child, ensuring her place at the top.

Roxanne was desperate for it. She began to trust me, leaning on me for every detail of the plan.

And finally, it worked. Roxanne was pregnant.

But Caleb's reaction wasn't what she expected.

He didn't look happy. He looked terrified. He stormed into her room, his fist raised, before he caught himself.

He told her that the ritual I used was a forbidden black-market curse. He said Mara was already on her way to tell Silas.

Roxanne's face turned white.

"It's too late for talk," Caleb hissed. "We have to get rid of Mara." He turned his glare on me. "You caused this. If you don't help us, I'll end you right now."

I nodded, pretending to be terrified while I fought the urge to laugh.

Roxanne handed me a customized vape, identical to the one Mara used.

"The cartridge has been swapped. Switch it with hers and then put hers back later. Got it?"

That night, a shipment came in at the docks. Roxanne was watching the perimeter when I ran toward her, covered in blood.

She pulled me aside, looking frantic. "What happened?"

Before she could finish, Caleb stepped out from behind her. With one swift blow, she dropped like a sack of grain.

When Roxanne woke up, she was under the bright surgical lights.

She tried to move, but her limbs were bolted to the table. Her mouth was taped shut. She looked like a pig ready for slaughter.

I stood over her with a scalpel, smiling gently.

"You're reacting well to the anesthesia. But since you're pregnant, I can't give you too much. It's bad for the baby..."

"Anya... what are you..." she muffled through the tape.

I leaned down and whispered.

"Just hold on. This is exactly what you told my sister, Seraphina, before you cut her open."

Her eyes bulged. Her entire body began to shake.

"It's okay," I comforted her. "It won't hurt. I have a very steady hand."

I enjoyed the sheer terror in her eyes.

It turned out that even a butcher is afraid of the knife. She was afraid of the blood, afraid of the slow, agonizing end she had given so many others.

She had opened up innocent people, taken their parts for cash, and tossed them away like garbage.

Torturing someone to death is a slow process.

The human body is surprisingly resilient, especially when you keep injecting adrenaline to keep the heart pumping.

I didn't want it to end quickly. I wanted her to watch herself fall into hell.

I watched her body go into spasms. She began to foam at the mouth, blood seeping through the tape.

But I didn't feel the rush of revenge I expected. My heart just felt empty, like a cold wind was blowing through a hole in my chest.

I had been on a table like this once, as a child.

I was dying of kidney failure. My sister had given me hers.

"No matter what you look like to the world, you're my family. I'd give my life for you," she had said before the anesthesia took her.

Now, the only person who ever loved me was gone.

I snapped back to reality. Roxanne was dead, her eyes wide, her face a mess of foam and blood.

But it wasn't enough. Not even close.

Mara didn't think Roxanne's disappearance would be noticed so soon.

Silas was supposed to be in deep meditation for another two weeks. During that time, the elders ran everything.

But Silas returned five days after Roxanne vanished.

Since I was the last one seen with her, I was the first to be interrogated.

"I don't care about your petty squabbles," Silas said, looking at me with a calm smile. "But Roxanne was under the protection of a very powerful man. I need to give him an answer."

That politician. And I was the sacrificial lamb.

I was hung by my wrists over a massive, industrial cement mixer. A few days ago, I had dumped Roxanne's remains into it.

The gears were grinding, inches from my feet. Just as I thought I was going in, a guard whispered something to Silas and handed him an object.

"Stop!" Silas shouted.

I was cut down and dragged to his feet.

"I hear you're very close to Valeria," he said, his voice pleasant.

I froze, denying everything, but he just laughed.

"Don't be scared. Business is just business. I want to know about this talisman."

I bit my lip, staying silent, playing the part of the terrified servant.

Silas signaled his men to bring out a black case. Inside were rows of blue syringes.

"This is the newest strain. Tell me the truth, and I'll give you the lab. You'll never have to answer to Mara again."

Like a stray dog finally finding a master, I broke down. I crawled to his feet, sobbing.

"That talisman... Mara made it from Roxanne's child. She said it could steal the life from those around it to extend the life of the owner."

"And she chose you as the target, Silas."

Mara was dragged into a warehouse. Caleb was the one who pushed her in.

I stood outside, listening to the muffled screams.

My palms were sweating. I was the one who hid that talisman in Mara's room.

Mara had only told me to kill Roxanne. The rest was my own invention.

But Silas could never know that.

The screaming stopped. The door opened, and a bodyguard signaled for Caleb and me to enter.

My stomach churned. I couldn't avoid it anymore.

Inside, I nearly gagged. Mara's hands were shattered. She was huddled on the floor in her own filth, begging for mercy.

When she saw me, she found the strength to scream.

"She framed me! I told her to kill Roxanne, but I don't know anything about a talisman!" She banged her head against the concrete until it bled.

I forced my heart to stop racing and looked at her coldly.

"You say I framed you? Didn't you tell me that an infant's soul is hard to tame, but a blood relative can seal a contract? Didn't you say it would take his life for yours?"

Mara collapsed.

She had a secret. Caleb was her biological son, the result of an affair with a wealthy man who died years ago. She had hidden him in the country and slowly moved him into the Order.

She thought it was a secret, but as her doctor, I had noticed their matching rare blood types long ago.

A DNA test confirmed it. That was when I built this trap.

But what shocked me was Caleb. He stood there, watching his mother break, and he didn't blink.

Silas seemed surprised too, but he didn't dwell on it. He held the talisman in front of Mara's face.

"Mara, if you won't confess, I'll have to perform a ritual to release the infant spirit inside. It's an act of mercy."

Mara turned gray. The terror in her eyes was palpable.

I didn't understand why until I saw Caleb's face. He was pale with fright.

Silas waved a hand, and his men brought in a heavy statue of the Sky King.

The moment Mara saw it, her fear turned to pure despair.

She looked at Caleb one last time, let out a haunting laugh, and then bit down hard.

Blood sprayed from her mouth. The guards rushed to save her, but she had bitten off her own tongue.

I saw Caleb take a step back. His muscles relaxed.

He was relieved.

Silas's "mercy" was a gamble. A regular priest would soothe a spirit. But the Sky King was a demon-slayer.

If Silas used that statue, the infant spirit would be enraged. The backlash would hit the hostDMaraDand anyone sharing her blood. Caleb.

Mara was a monster, but she was still a mother. She had sacrificed Roxanne, but she wouldn't let her son be destroyed by the ritual.

Silas wanted more answers, so I was dismissed. As I left, I saw them bringing in bags of clay.

I looked at Silas one last time, glancing significantly at the talisman.

That night, I was summoned to a locked room filled with porcelain.

I looked around at the various jars until my eyes landed on a specific vase.

It was painted with a summer lotus scene and a short poem.

"The waves are like mist, the beauty is drunk, the oars sway as she leans against the rail."

My eyes stung with tears.

"I didn't know you were a fan of porcelain, Anya," Silas said from behind me.

I wiped my eyes and turned around. "It just reminds me of an old friend."

"Oh?" Silas smiled. "Did they like porcelain?"

"No," I whispered. "She just loved that poem."

Silas's expression turned strange. He walked to the vase and ran his hand over it.

"Do you know why I keep these? They aren't particularly valuable."

I shook my head.

"These are made from the ashes of people who betrayed the Order. I keep them here to sustain my own life."

I backed away, trembling. Silas just smiled.

"You can stop the act, Anya. A girl with no heart or brain couldn't have pulled off what you just did."

My heart hammered against my ribs. I thought he was going to kill me.

But he just kept smiling.

"I told you, I don't care about the infighting. I want the strongest person by my side."

He looked at me with expectation. I let out a breath and smiled back.

"Since we're being honest, maybe we should talk about how I can extend your life for real."

Silas didn't answer right away. He gestured for me to sit.

"Before that, would you like to hear my story?"