Page 1 of Sin & Fall
Prologue
ZACK
THREE YEARS AGO
“Kat?” I call up to my sister from the bottom of the stairs. She doesn’t answer,again.
Making a point of stomping on each step, so she knows I’m annoyed, I head up to her room.
“Kat, seriously? Dad’s been giving me shit all evening because you skipped class,andyou missed dinner again.” Of course, when she misses college, it’s my fault. I’m her twin, so to him, I’m also her keeper.
Lucky for me, he had to leave for work so only had time to verbally abuse me this time. I could do with the breathing room for my bruised rib that he so lovingly gave me last week to heal.
Kat has been acting weird for months—maybe even close to a year by this point. Fuck do I know. She constantly skips classes, barely acknowledges my existence, and has stopped hanging out with her friends. It’s not like her. Kat’s always been more of a rebel than I am. She’s also always been the only person I could truly rely on.
She was the one who convinced me to get my first tattoo in some random guy’s garage at fourteen, and was the one who taught me the best ways to sneak out of the house. I smoked my first joint with her, and she taught me how to steal a car.
But she’s always wanted out of this dump, and despite all the delinquency, she’s made sure to put her education first. Hence why Dad blames me for being the corruptive influence. As long as her grades are good, she can get away with anything.
He’s never hit her. I’m the lucky one who gets the joy of those bonding experiences. But I don’t resent her for that. Kat’s the one who patches me up each time.
About a year ago, I was playing video games on the couch when I caught her sneaking in as the sun was rising. Thankfully, Dad wasn’t up yet. He would have beaten my ass red if he saw her because, according to him, I should be looking out for her in the first place. He forgets that she’s the oldest twin by a whole minute and thirty-three seconds. Kat never lets me forget though.
When I followed her up to her room that morning, she looked like death. She’d been out with her best friend, Alina, the night before and most likely crashed at her place. I asked her what happened, and she told me I was too young to need to know. It was like in those few hours since I last saw her, she’d aged way beyond our twenty years.
I chalked it up to her having a fallout with Alina.
The last words she said to me were,“Leave me alone.”
Since then, she’s been completely silent, and she rarely graces us with her presence. Dad wants her to get professional help. Every time he brings it up, she quietly returns to her room and locks herself away. That’s not my problem. When I’m not at home—which is most of the time thanksto not wanting to be anywhere near my abusive dickhead of a father—I’m either at college or practicing with my band in my friend’s garage. So I really don’t have time to deal with whatever drama Kat’s got going on.
I bang on her door now, but there’s no answer. Maybe she’s finally quit with the one-woman pity party and gone out.
Something doesn’t sit right though. There’s a cold prickling sensation at the back of my neck, and a tightness in my chest that’s working its way down to my stomach.
“Kat?” I call out quieter this time as I open the door. Her curtains are finally open from where she’s been living her days in bed in the dark, but it’s empty. The sheets freshly made. “Katherine?”
Everything in here is neat and tidy, way more organized than usual for her.
There’s an envelope on her desk. Bile rises to my throat when I see her handwriting on the front. It’s addressed to me and has today’s date.October sixth.
A videotape is next to it. Taking a closer look, I find it has the same date. Is it from today, or from last year when she came home looking like a ghost? Why do I have a bad feeling that it’s the latter?
I imagine every worst-case scenario for what could be on it. Putting it aside, I pick up the envelope. But I can’t bring myself to open it, so I try her cell first. It rings behind me on the nightstand.
Fuck. That’s not good.
My gut tells me the answer to where Kat’s gone is inside the envelope, but my heart tells me the truth is gonna hurt. With trembling hands, I tear it open and read it.
Zack,
Firstly, I’m sorry that I’m doing this to you. The last thing I want to do is leave you alone with Dad, but I can’t do this anymore.
I needed you, someone, anyone to help me, but I didn’t want to be a burden. Maybe if I wasn’t so stubborn it wouldn’t have to end this way.
The videotape you’ll find with this letter will show you everything that happened to me. I thought about destroying it and writing down what happened instead, but my hand wouldn’t stop shaking every time I picked the pen up to try.
You shouldn’t have to see it firsthand, I couldn’t even tell you the truth myself, but I’d rather you have the answers you need when I’m gone than spend the rest of your life questioning why I left you. So it’s your choice whether to watch it or not. You can take it straight to the police and let them deal with it, or you can destroy it. Whatever helps you move on.