There are two ways you can look at a dream. A dream could just be a picture in your mind, just something your unconscious mind thought up that has no meaning. A dream could also be the universe trying to tell you something; maybe you have a hidden desire. Alison Drake didn’t know what to think of her dream when it occurred, but she knew one thing. It would change her life forever.

On a cool summer night around 3 am, Alison laid snuggled next to her calico cat, Marble. She typically never dreamed, so when she did, she assumed it was something important. Ali didn’t even realize she had fallen asleep, but when a face exactly like hers appeared in her view, she knew something had to be wrong. She didn’t see the likelihood that a mirror could be hovering in front of her, so there could only be one explanation...Genna. Alison sprang up to face her better, but as she did, the figure’s slender pointer finger slowly drifted to her lips. She stared intensely into the ice blue eyes that she’d seen in the mirror for 17 years, and had seen on her sister for 16. That was before she died a year ago. “Genna...” Ali said almost in a whisper “, is that you?” A sly smile appeared across her sister’s face and a piece of light blond hair fell across her eye. “I’ve missed you,” is all Genna said in return. A silent pause of disbelief fell over the room, and Genna’s figure seemed to finally realize Alison was confused. “You’re probably wondering why I’m here,” she said while playing with the comforter at the foot of the bed. Of course I am, Ali screamed in her head, you're dead! Genna just stared at her. She eventually got up and walked to the desk they used to share. She picked up the picture of them and stared at it for a moment, then slammed it face down on the desk. She whirled around, and her face changed. She looked terrified and as if she’d burst into tears. “You have to find my killer!” she screamed. “You're in danger Ali, and you don’t even know it.” Ali was dumbstruck at the statement “Your killer?” Ali examined the phrase with careful thought. “Genna, they told us you killed yourself.” Genna just stared at her as if to say Ali was dumb. “Did you really believe that, Alison?” Ali tried to grab her sister’s hand, but as she reached, Genna pulled away. “Find her,” Genna singsonged, “before it’s too late.” Her image began to fade and she was gone.

Ali woke up with a sharp feeling of terror running through her veins and the obnoxiously loud meowing of her distraught cat in her ear. Sweat poured down her face like she’d been standing in the rain. It had all seemed so real, but as she glanced at her desk, the picture was still there in its upright position, and her comforter was just as it had been when she fell asleep. She looked at her clock which read 4:15 am; she’d been sleeping for about an hour. She wanted to go back to sleep and return to her dream, but she knew her dreams didn’t work that way. They had to have a distinct purpose; she just didn’t know what it was.

Genna’s death had seemed so un-mysterious. It happened the Friday of the first week of summer. Everything seemed so normal, that was until she tried to wake Genna up. She yelled her names a few times, with each time getting more irritated. Finally, she climbed up to the top bunk of their beds, to shake her sister into consciousness, but as she grabbed Genna’s arms, she felt a cold chill run through her body at the icy touch of her sister’s lifeless corpse. A scream of shear terror erupted through the house. Alison’s parents were away for the weekend, leaving their brother Max as the only person to come to her rescue. In his first few moments of haziness after arriving at the door, he stared in shock at the sight before him. Max then pealed his hysterical sister off of the other with a force that shook the floorboards of the room. Ali hit the wall as she was thrown from her sister.

When the cops arrived, they raced into the back room the girls shared. They appraised the scene upon arrival and saw a distraught girl was screaming and crying in the corner of the room, being soothed by her presumably older brother, and an almost exact copy of the girl lying on the bed without motion. The coroner's report said Genna had died from an overdose in the middle of the night.

Looking at their family now, you’d never guess Ali ever had a twin. You rarely saw the Drakes all together. You’d see Alison at school, Max at the gym, Mr. Drake in the office, and Mrs. Drake through the big bay window, drinking. All in all, the Drake family is as it’s always been. But Ali always felt like there was something missing, that there was something her family had kept from her. And now she worried that it had something to do with who killed Genna.

Alison’s dad was never home, so she just needed to wait for her mom to pass out on the couch after a few drinks, like she did every night around eight, so she could snoop around in her father’s home office. A file cabinet sat against the wall where she knew should be her first place to look. It was a five drawer cabinet marked with names, one for each member of the family. She gravitated towards it, hoping whatever she needed would be in there. But she searched through Genna’s drawer for hours and found nothing meaningful to her. As she was about to give up and close the drawer, something caught her eye. It was a yellow piece of paper with a RI symbol for Radley Institute in the corner, but the name at the top wasn’t Genna’s. It had her name on it. She read the date on the top of the page, September 4, 2011. She remembered that weekend. She’d been bored because Genna still hadn’t gotten back from music camp yet, and Max was always at the gym. She distinctly remembered being home that whole week, so why would there be a paper for a mental institute with her name on it? Then she saw it. She didn’t know how she could have missed it before, but the handwriting used for a signature on the bottom of the page wasn’t hers, but Genna’s.

Alison woke up early the next day, hoping to catch her dad on his way out for work. But when she asked her father about the Radley paper he looked at her like she was mental, as the paper suggested, and rushed out the door to work. Her mind still boggling, she decided if he wouldn’t give her answers, she'd get them herself. On the top of the paper is a small warn out number. As the phone line began to ring she got more and more nervous. And as the perky voice on the other end answered, she thought she'd die.

She arrived at a big brick building, almost like a castle. It was unclear even in her mind when she decided to come here. Her gut told her that whatever she needed to know, she would find at the institution. It was nothing like she was expecting. A gothic style black fence raced around the premises and there are flowers in beautiful shades of yellow and pink. Driving up to the elegant building she’d never guess that it was a mental institution. It seemed so peaceful. And upon entering she was greeted with the sight of a gigantic room with marble flooring and high ceilings. The smell of fresh baked chocolate cookies filled the air. She smiled sadly, remembering that those were always Genna’s favorite. Alison made her way to the big blocky desk at the far end of the room. She introduced herself to the lady behind it, but was instantly recognized. It’s not like she wasn’t expecting to be noticed. From what she gathered, Genna had been a patient here instead of going to summer camp. And everyone who saw Ali’s face would no doubt remember her, even if she had no idea who they were. So she took her itinerary and made her way down the long white halls to “her” old room. They had “kindly” placed her in it because it would be familiar. Too bad she’d never been here before. She entered to find a standard plain room with two beds, and a table in between them. The only thing on the table was a flashlight. She took a minute to look around, but she didn’t get long to get comfortable before a perky brunette pounced on her when entering the room. She asked so many questions at a mile a minute that Ali couldn’t keep up. She just smiled and nodded and listened to her talk, pretending she knew what she was talking about. From what she gathered this girl had been Genna’s roommate while she was here, and had continued living in the institution long after Genna left.

Later that night as she laid down to go to bed, she remembered one thing the girl had said, “Do you still write in that diary of yours.” She remembered all those letters from years ago that Genna wrote at summer camp. And one thing in particular stood out in her mind. One section triggered something. At the time she hadn’t taken it too literally, but now it had so much more meaning. Genna had written to her a week before returning home. In that letter she said “I've been keeping a diary. It’s like I’ve been living in a crazy house, sis. I’m not supposed to have it I guess, so I keep it hidden in the little crack in my wall behind my bed.” And she remembered how mad and upset Genna had seemed when she got home. Almost like she thought she might get in trouble if someone found it.
The crack she was talking about was in her room. Which meant the diary would be behind Ali’s head at that very moment. So she waited until her roommate was positively asleep and searched for the crack. She touched a soft edge of what seemed like a book and pulled it out. She grabbed the flashlight kept on the table for emergencies and flipped open the book. In the very back was an entry written a couple days before Genna had gotten home from camp. The entry was entitled “I never told anyone and I never will.”

Dear Diary,
I never told anyone they sent the wrong twin away. Everyone at the institution thinks I’m Alison. I guess I knew it was wrong, but I didn’t want her to remember the things she did, I only want to protect her. I remember when my parents first told me “I” should go to the institution, thinking I was Ali. Mom was always too wasted to notice who was who, and dad wasn’t home enough to care. They’d heard every time she got angry, every time she freaked out, and every time I was hurt by her, but Ali couldn’t remember anything ever happening. I knew it would kill her if she remembered, so I played along. I asked them to pretend I was going to music camp. I knew the real Ali would never want to go there, so I’d be able to go to the institution without her ever knowing. Everything worked out fine, the secret is safe, and I think this time apart might help Ali’s subconscious rest. I know she would never intentionally hurt me. And I could deal with little bruises If that’s the entire price I pay for my sister to be happy.

All at once Ali’s world fell apart. The glass between her conscious and unconscious mind shattered, and she instantly saw all the gory images of the brutally violent encounters with her sister. Her memory paused on the last image that appeared. It was her sitting over her sister with the pill bottle clearly in her hand and a frightened look on her sister’s face. What Genna had told Alison was right. She was in danger, of herself.