Introduction
Jewel is in a bad mood
and Oliver is a liar.

[Oliver]

«Hello, my name is Echo Waters and I am in a bad mood.»

That's what my twin sister, Echo, would probably say if she was narrating right now.

Excuse her, though. She has been through a lot lately- we both have- but she had it worse. It is very long story, which started one year ago, when our dad died. Mom had recently inherited a mansion from a distant uncle of hers and we moved there. She had only met him once (when she was five), but I guess making an impression is her job.

It had been a week since we had moved in, when weird things started happening. The weirdest? I caught my sister crying. She never does that, at least not in front of people. The only time I had seen her cry in sixteen years was at dad's funeral, and she tried her best not to.

Back to the point.

It all started when we were having dinner with mom.

«So... how do you like the house?» mom asked.

«House is an understatement. Last night I got lost on my way to the bathroom. Thank God I bumped into Alfred and he showed me the way back to the attic.» my sister replied. Echo and I share the attic because we are both too stubborn to give it up. Alfred's real name was Damon Rowney and he was our butler. He was new to the job, but he was doing pretty well. Echo called him Alfred to annoy him.

«Not now...» I muttered.

«Echo, don't be rude. How was school?» mom asked and I mentally facepalmed. Those were never good subjects.

«Just the usual. I was being called a freak, everyone was avoiding me. And it's just week one here; not that I mind, really. They are all--» Echo started aggressively.

«I said not now!» I interrupted.

«So are we just going to pretend it didn't happen?» she replied.

«Please don't... Can't we have a normal dinner for once?» I muttered again.

«Well, of course you don't care. You weren't the one that killed him.» she said ignoring me.

«How many times do I have to tell you, Echo? You didn't kill your dad!» mom argued.

«I know what I saw, and I saw what I did!» Echo yelled.

«It was just your im--» mom started, but was interrupted.

«Yes, I know. Just my imagination. You've been saying that ever since I learned how to talk!»

«Echo, not now! Leave it for later!» I told her.

«Oliver, shut up! We all know what mom thinks about me.»

«I knew I should have taken you to a mental hospital when I still had the chance! But it's never too late, I can still arrange s--» mom yelled at her.

«I am not the crazy one here!» Echo yelled back, her face redder than her hair.

«That's it! Go to your room and don't you dare come out! You are grounded!» mom shouted and Echo stormed upstairs right after she muttered something about hating the weekend.

«Mom, why are you so cruel?» I asked mom once my sister was out of earshot.

«I am not cruel, I am honest.»

«Yeah, but this might be the only way she can process dad's death. Give her some space.»

«Oliver, she was always like this and you know it. It is disappointing.»

«Mom, don't be rude. Goodnight.» I said and went upstairs.

Echo was lying on the couch, squeezing a nerve ball so hard it looked like it would explode.

«I know that deep down she blames me too. Deep down she knows I killed him.» she mumbled as I entered the room, squeezing the nerve ball harder, as if it was mom.

«Echo stop it! It was just an accident, you didn't kill him!»

«Get out. I want to change.» she muttered and I did as she said, only to hear something falling and Echo grunting.

«What did you break again?» I asked from outside.

«Nothing, I just stumbled over a box and turned it upside down.» she replied and I went inside. She was looking through the stuff that had fallen out. «I found this cool necklace, though.» she held up a chain necklace with a silver compass hanging from it.

And those were the six words that ruined our lives.

There was a knock on the door.

«Who is it?» Echo asked in a bored kind of way.

«It's me, can I come in?» we heard Damon.

«Yeah, Alfred, come in.» she replied.

«What happened? I head a noise. And I brought you your dinner, Echo.» Damon was in his mid-twenties. His dad had died about a year ago and he had never met his mother. He was also the one that found uncky William dead. He grew up in the mansion, as his father worked there as a butler before him.

«It was nothing, the genius here tripped over a box.» I said and jerked my head towards Echo.

«Well done genius!» Damon told Echo sarcastically.

«Alfred, do you happen to know whose this is?» she asked and Damon started shifting uncomfortably.

«It must have belonged to his niece, Ariadne Drane. She lived here until five years ago, when she disappeared.» it was clear that he didn't want to talk about it, but I had to ask.

«Disappeared? How?» I asked.

«She must have ran away, because there was no break-in, so she wasn't kidnapped, and all her stuff was missing. After that happened, your uncle erased her from the will.» he wasn't telling the whole truth, I could see that, but I didn't push him. He obviously didn't like the topic and Echo seemed to notice too, because she changed the subject.

«Do you know what this means?» she asked Damon again and showed him the back of the compass.

«Im- Imyrth? No, I've never heard of it before.» Alfred replied, but looked sideways. I chose to ignore that.

«Okay, thanks.» my sister said and put the necklace on, while Alfred left. After he was out of earshot she took the plate he brought her and emptied it in a trash can.

«Echo, put that down! It's not yours! And why on Earth did you throw your food away?»

«We inherited the house and everything in it, didn't we? It is technically ours now, so I will keep it. And I'm not hungry.» she replied.

«You haven't eaten in two days.»

«Shut up, plus one.» she said and I glared at her.

«I was born first.» I replied and she scoffed.

«Who told you that?»

«Mom, duh.»

«Of course she told you that you were born first. You are her only son, her light, her reason to live!» she mocked me.

«Shut up!» I replied embarrassed and the bickering started. I might  have thrown a pillow at her face when I told her to shut up, but there is no proof of that.

About an hour later, we went to sleep, but not soon after, I woke up to hearing noise in the room. I looked around and saw my sister on the couch hugging a photo frame. If I didn't know better I'd say she was crying.

«Echo?» I asked and she jerked her head up in lightning speed, looking terrified (but also with a murderous look in her eyes).

«What?» she snapped.

«Are you crying?»

«Wh- No! Why would you think of that?»

«Because you are  and there's nothing wrong with it.»

«I am not crying! I never cry!» she whisper-shouted.

«Just tell me what's wrong! You haven't slept at all have you?»

«Sleep is for the weak.» she said and I shook my head.

«Echo I will get mom. I will tell her you were crying.»

«She won't care. She hates me. And you will be lying because I don't cry.» she smiled proudly.

«Fine, whatever suits you. Just remember that these walls you bring up will fall one day and you will be helpless. That's when all the pain will come out and--» she interrupted me. And I wish I hadn't been right that night.

«Shut up and go to sleep.»

«With pleasure.» I replied and went back to sleep.

{Echo}

«Hello, my name is Echo Waters and I am in a bad mood.» is not what I would say. Don't trust my brother, he is a sly one. And of course  I wasn't crying.

I hid the picture I was holding under my pillow. It was a photo of my dad, my brother and I. Mom wasn't in it, but I didn't really care.

Don't get me wrong, my mom might hate me, but I don't. She might act like I'm rubbish and I might act like I don't care, but I am a liar.

Even after everything that happened, even after I broke down in front of her, she insisted I needed help, but that's not the point.

Who cares about my mom, anyway?

Oliver says I had it worse than him. He is lying.

I will get to that later.

After Oliver went back to sleep I tried to do the same, but I couldn't. Something was bothering me. I looked out of the window for a while and when the sun rose, I woke him up.

«Oliver. Oliver, wake up. I will choke you with your pillow. I will destroy your X-Box.» I said shaking him. That last one woke him.

«What the hell, Echo?» works every time.

«I was just checking if you were listening.» I said and gave him a cheeky smile.

«What do you want? It's six in the morning!» he replied checking his watch.

«Something's not right.» I told him.

«What?»

«I don't know, you tell me! That's why woke you up.»

«Can't you feel it?» he asks seriously. «It's me planning your murder for waking me up!» I stare at him.

«Really? Is that the best you can do?»

«You woke me up because you have a bad feeling?»

«It's not the first time!»

«And I guess not the last either?»

«You guess correct. I think something's wrong with the compass on the necklace.»

«Wake me up when you find out what it is.» he said in an attempt to get rid of me.

«I know what it is. I was testing you. Get dressed, we are going to the garden.» I said and he groaned.

«Why can't you sleep like normal people do?» he said getting up.

«Many reasons. First of all, I am not normal. Secondly, I get bored. Three, I think a lot. Fou--»

«Okay, I get it. Now get out.»

«You have two minutes, if you are not out by then I will come in to check if you fell asleep.»

Ten minutes later we were both dressed and at the garden.

«Okay, look at the sky. There's the sun rising, so that's east.» I said.

«Get to the point.»

«The compass is new, nearly untouched, so why does it show the wrong way? It shows the the exact opposite.»

«Is that why you woke me? The compass is broken.»

«But it is accurate, only the other way round. That doesn't make any sense.»

«Echo, let's go back to sleep. It's nothing.» I frowned

«Of course you would say that. Dad would have believed me.» I said.

"I am not dad, am I?" he replied coldly and went inside.

I frowned at the sun, then at the compass and followed my brother.

My brother was always the "good kid" of the family. Mom was always proud of him, whereas I was a disappointment. I still am.

Don't get me wrong, I am a lot of things -disobedient, rude, mean, distrustful- but never in my life have I been jealous.

Walking in I bumped into Alfred.

«Hey Alfred.» I said.

«Good morning, miss Echo.» he replied.

«Mom isn't around.»

«I know, just payback for calling me Alfred.» he said and I glared at him.

«Whatever, Alfred.» I scowled.

«Don't you sleep? It's six and a half in the morning.» he asked.

«Nah... I'm bored of staring at my eyelids all night. I'd rather do it whenever my mom's awake.» I laughed.

«Did you eat the chicken I brought you last night?» he asked.

«Yeah. Don't tell Shelby, but it was awful.» Shelby is the cook. She is great at her work, but I've heard from George the gardener that chicken isn't her best, so I improvised.

«Liar. You threw it away, didn't you?»

«Guilty. How did you figure it out?» I asked. «Wait. Don't tell me; Oliver told you on his way in, didn't he?» he nodded. «The traitor.» I muttered.

«I have to go tell Shelby to start with the breakfast. Don't throw that away too.» he told me. That was weird... I thought Shelby had the day off. I must have messed up the schedule.

«Bye Al.» I replied and went back to the attic before my mom woke up and told me off for leaving it.

Oliver was asleep, again. He had fallen on his stomach on the bed, but something was wrong.

«Wake up, you idiot! I'm bored!» I whisper-shouted at him and threw my pillow.

«No you're not. You want to talk about that damn compass again.» he muttered.

«Maybe I do. Come on! I have a hunch!» I told him, but froze as I realized what I had said. He looked up at me. «You know what, forget it. Go back to sleep, just don't listen to me.»

Yeah, you say. What would be so bad about having a hunch? Probably that fact that these were the exact words I had said before we went to the kitchen the night our dad died.

Mom and dad were arguing again, and we got in the middle. Things got bad after that...