I ushered Katie back to her room before I joined the others, seeing as how she was still slightly in a daze after rushing to my room. She had a pillow clutched in one hand while the other gripped the collar of my shirt as I carried her.

Her brown eyes were hidden behind heavy lids, her breathing shallow. She was barely awake when I stepped into the darkened bedroom. I squinted and carefully walked over to her bed, placing her down on the messed up bed sheets.

"You left me alone," she had mumbled when I tucked her back under her blankets. I puffed up some of her pillows and placed them around her while I listened to her sleep-laced voice. "You promised."

I patted her shoulder, taking notice of the way her eyes were fluttering open and close, her chest rising and falling consistently. She slowly slipped into unconsciousness, her voice going softer as she slurred, "You promised not to leave…"

I leaned forward and kissed her forehead as I tugged the comforter up to her shoulders. "Sorry," I murmured.

I shut the door behind me, sparing one last glance at my sister's sleeping form. Her soft snores ricocheted off the walls, travelling down the hallway as I walked away.

After James distraughtly got every one of us to calm down, it was then that I remembered what my boyfriend had told me a while ago. He had a long-lost twin by the name of Shane. The one extra sibling who he had no idea was alive. I sighed.

I wanted to run back up to James' room and lock myself in. Shane wasn't what I expected. I thought there'd be one distinct difference between them. At least one.

Even if they were identical twins, there was bound to be something unique about each of them, right? Maybe Shane could've inherited Alexander's eye colour or have a skinnier body. Perhaps even a slightly odd face shape.

There were none. In fact, if it weren't for the smell of cinnamon- which you couldn't even deduce until you're nearby-, Shane might just be a photocopy of James which came to life after some Frankenstein-like accident.

The similarity between the two was uncanny. Their eyes were the same shade of hazel; a glint of green encircling their pupils. Their cheeks were marked with a soft shade of pink, rising as high as the curve of their cheekbones. They even had identical noses and thin, kissable lips. Is there anything different about them?

Then there was the hair. Shane's hair was a curly mess whereas James' was straight. However, the other's hair was somewhat the same as my lover's after waking up in the morning.

I shook my thoughts away, stopping right by the stairs. Silently, I tiptoed my way down to the living room, where the Diamonds were waiting. At this point of time, James and his twin stood side by side, both leaning against the wall with matching body posture.

One had a rather pissed off look on, whereas the other was calm, his face not giving any sort of clue to what his emotions may be.

Brooke had her head resting in her palms, a tired smile on her lips as she turned to look at me.

The two look-a-likes snapped their gazes towards me when I jumped off the last step. My heart leapt into my throat as I stared at them with wide, shocked eyes, my legs frozen for a moment. I gathered my composure and cleared my throat before going to settle down with Brooke, who was rooted to the couch.

I awkwardly sat next to her, ignoring the focused stares I was receiving.

"Thank God you two stopped arguing," Brooke sighed, straightening her body when I was finally seated.

"But what I want to know is," she suddenly trailed off, her lacy eye mask strapped to the top of her head as she sat on the couch with her arms crossed. She eyed her son's doppelganger cautiously, taking in each and every single flaw of his appearance as she can. "How are you two so alike? Just… Who are you?"

The look on Brooke's face described the situation perfectly to all of us in the room; pure and utter disbelief. Her forehead wrinkled as she furrowed her brows in confusion. She was flabbergasted. She didn't have twins and the only sibling her son has ever had was dead, killed by her own husband.

How the hell did she have a child- her son's twin- without knowing? It wasn't possible!

I caught a glimpse of the two brunettes turning to each another, one bouncing on the balls of his feet whilst the other remained emotionless, face as blank as an empty sheet of paper. Mama Diamond and I awaited a response, hoping one of them would speak up already.

When none of them did, all I could do was stare at the floor expectantly, not knowing what to do.

"Kendall, say something," I heard one of them say. I tilted my head upwards to see who it was and sighed.

"Just answer Brooke's question, James," I told him, my voice soft as my head tried to grasp on the truth unravelling before me. "Or Shane, whichever it was."

Everything stood still. Pain flashed in my lover's hazel eyes as he shifted his gaze to the floor with a frown. His mother allowed the silence to continue whereas I prayed for someone to speak, again. The dead silence heightened my hearing, the beats of five different hearts entering my ears.

After a while, the one person with the most irregular heartbeat cleared his throat, catching all of our attention. My eyes immediately shot up to the tall figure standing by James, glistening red orbs staring eerily at me. It took me a moment to make out the uncombed brown hair that hung above the long lashes.

With a sigh, Shane stated, "My name is Shane Diamond. I've been living with my baby sister and my dad for the past few years in Malle Valley, near North Dakota."

"Your dad," the woman next to me interrupted, her eyes narrowed. "Is Alexander Diamond, am I right?"

"Yep."

"Don't lie to me," Brooke immediately countered with, her body now lifted off the couch as she stood with her arms crossed. "Alexander was meant to be imprisoned for life. How the hell could he be with you?"

The doppelganger glared at her, his eyes almost as frightful as the Estee's herself, obviously unamused by the interference. He looked away just as James started growling softly, as though telling the other off before anything else occurred. Shane immediately straightened as he continued, "I don't know. Dad- Alexander- never really lets us leave house. Allie and I-"

"Wait, Allie?" Everyone's attention snapped to James, whose face was now filled with questions and doubt. The pretty boy's voice dropped as he continued, almost as loud as a whisper, "Allie's dead. For over a year."

Shane's face changed to one of confusion. His lips moved to form words but nothing came out except for a loud, "Huh?"

"Allie's been dead for over a year. Dad killed her by trying to infuse the electric and water elements in her." My boyfriend's fists were clenched tightly and shook with his emotions. "I saw her die, Shane. Don't bullshit me and tell me that my sister's still living, breathing, with you in some place that we all know doesn't fucking exist!"

I was just about to jump between the two boys when I heard a growl. "Back off, Blood eyes." The unruly-haired teenager took a step forward, his eyes now shining red, as though maroon liquid was gathering across his lash lines.

"We both know you're no different from me, Shane," was my lover's reply as he imitated the copy's moves. "We both know we're Dad's –"

"Experiments?" the other brunette interrupted. "Guess what, smarty pants, unlike you test experiments, my sister and I were born with our powers. Allie is very much alive, mind you."

"Allie is –"

"She's been bearing the storm elements since she was a baby," Shane continued, ignoring the fuming twin he had in front of him. "If you don't know what storm elements are, well, they're basically wind and electric."

"Anyway, Dad has always been there for us from as long as I can remember, even though he forbade us from leaving the house. We were home-schooled, our company only one another, some helpers and the tutors that Dad hired, who lived with us." The brownish-red eyed boy softened as the words left his mouth. It was almost as though he was reliving the moments, like they were playing on the wall behind me. A faint smile tainted his lips. However, that expression disappeared as soon as it appeared. A frown casted his face in a dark shadow as he continued, "But he never told us about you two. The only reason I found out was because I decided to snoop through Dad's things while he was gone on some trip, which was basically when I stumbled across a photograph of people who looked like Allie and I, along with some woman we've never seen before."

"Dad kept a shit load of secrets and made sure none of his helpers spilled the beans. They were open with us, but on anything except things that were neither experiment-related nor Diamond-related." With a heavy sigh, Shane's eyes fluttered shut as his fingers were pressed tightly onto his forehead. "Then, on the day of his arrival back home, he disappeared. For months. He returned home a few weeks ago, all bloodied and bruised with a creepy grin and his torn-off arm in his grasp."

"Our house doctor hissed at Dad furiously and dragged him to his room, leaving us dumbfounded and worried. It was then that we noticed the policeman standing at the door calmly before he talked in this monotonous, low voice asking us for permission to enter the household." Shane's eyes rose to meet James', the redness now faded away and replaced by the same shade of green and hazel of the latter. "You know why he had to do that, don't you?"

I caught my brunette cringing from the corner of my eye. I almost wanted to ask what they were talking about when a memory, of which I had repressed since the day my powers came to life, flashed in my head.

It was the day after I first slept with James, when he was in the shower and Alexander appeared at the front door. It was also the day Katie was kidnapped, her kidnapper somehow accessing the house without damaging it.

I remembered my boyfriend's words that came right after the discovery of the note, the accusing, piercing glare he shot at me. "You invited him in here, didn't you?"

James still hadn't told me what that was about, even if I tried asking. Shane knows too, I thought, shifting uncomfortably through the eerie silence as the twins stared at one another, one with a scowl, and the other with a sly smirk.

"Without invitation, creatures like us lose our self-control in new environments," the messy teen explained, his gaze never leaving his lookalike. "Almost like vampires in movies. Without the slightest 'wanna come in', we can't cross through the freaking front door of a stranger's house."

The thought of James losing himself during the face-off between him and his dad crossed my mind, causing me to shiver as the outlines of his inhumane muscles forged onto my brain. The way he stared at me with soulless red eyes, the way he nearly killed me with his strength.

My sudden movements went by unaware.

"But, once we've been allowed in, we can enter and exit without leaving a trace. Like a ghost just passing through." My head snapped up to the uninvited twin once more, his smirk deepened as though he was telling us a funny story. "It's funny how that's the one defect in Dad's experiments, eh?"

Brooke must have noticed the tension arising between the two as she suddenly stepped in, her voice wavering, "Why did you come looking for us now? Why not come before? It's been weeks, a month or two, since Alexander was proclaimed dead. How is he even alive?"

The copy-brunette shrugged. "Dad sent me here to give a letter over to someone," he said, eyeing my boyfriend, who turned away with a roll of his eyes, knowingly. "I got Allie to search up your address and discovered that you lived nearby. I planned to visit James after dropping the item off, except we faced some … complications."

"As for Dad," Shane paused. "He's not exactly normal himself."

A/N : No, none of you are allowed to kill me for updating a month after the previous one. I FORBID IT *waves my hands around like an idiot*
I've just been busy finishing up assignments & school & the extra eoy exams I have for my Saturday class (starts in Dec. SHIIIIIIIT ._.) so I took my sweet time thinking this up.

I honestly didn't plan to finish it here but it seemed like a good enough spot. It might be a little messy but I really don't wanna let you guys wait any longer. As per usual, my head's pounding at the most unreasonable times so I take more breaks than I'm supposed to.

Anyway, hope you like this short installment/explanation-ish thingy! Is Allie really ALLIE? & yes, storm elements. Cause there was a storm just a few minutes ago.

ANDDDDDDDDDDDD actually ... I still need suggestions. As usual, I have an ending. But I don't have the plot I need to get there. ._.

OKAY BYE!

Read, Review, Favourite, Follow!

P.s: I'll answer reviews in the next one, sorry. I'm dead tired right now, i look like this -_-
HEHEHE GOODNIGHT GUYS :3