• Upon arrival, Aurelia was greeted by an upturned eyebrow from Hec, and Isola, by a hearty shake of the hand and an offer of a table facing the road.
    “Welcome back Rea, if you’re going to make a habit out of it, I’ma going to deduct the amount out of your pay check for you.” Hec joked as he handed the sisters their menus, evoking laughter from both.
    “Your boss seems nice.” Isola commented when Hec left, her eyes still sparkling with amusement and Aurelia nodded in agreement.
    “Wait till you taste the food. It’s totally out of this world.” Aurelia laughed as both sisters picked up the menus. Since the dinner was to celebrate Aurelia’s victory and Isola’s homecoming, they ordered a Romina speciality, the Romina spaghetti, for comparison purposes, Isola had teased.
    It turned out to be better than expected and the sisters had a nice time teasing each other in the process of devouring their meal. The light hearted atmosphere infected the rest of the customers and staff members, even Hec seemed especially hearty. That night, the Hearty Romina was a huge success.
    When the two sisters returned home, their laughter was still bouncing off the walls and it livened up the place considerably. Having comfortably settled themselves in chairs, their laughter changed to conversation which stretched long in the wee hours of the night.
    In spite of the late night she had yesterday, Aurelia was up when dawn started to creep into the skies. Yawning widely, one look at her calendar was enough to send her rushing for the bathroom for it cheekily announced the arrival of the first day of a torture chamber named school. She rushed around the house like a mad woman, alternating stashing school related items into her bag with trying to wake Isola and getting everything ready for school.
    Breakfast was set with haste and a still sleepy eyed Isola sat down at the table while her sister scuttled around like a panicky ant, locating missing school items and generally, being unusually unlike her normal self.
    “Sis, you should really grab something to eat.” Isola yawned, rubbing a heavy eye with her hand as she poked at her toast with the other. However, Aurelia didn’t seem to, or didn’t bother to listen; she continued whirling around the apartment, apparently still in a frenzy over some missing stationary or something.
    “Aurelia?” The puzzlement in her voice became evident as Isola felt it creeping into her soul, the result of not receiving an answer. Aurelia usually tried to reply, even if it was a silly question. She slipped down from her seat and padded to where her sister was still rummaging through some junk and tapped the latter on the shoulder.
    Shock flashed into her eyes when she stared into the face of her sister, which reflected heavy eyes set in a face too pale to be human and black hair that hung down in straggly strands.
    “What is it, Isola?” The girl felt a scream bubbling in her throat as her sister stared at her with quizzical heavy eyes that seemed zombie like.
    “WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY SISTER?” Unable to contain the flowing mass of questions, Isola screamed the first thing that came to her head and left Aurelia feeling puzzled.
    “What? Isola, I am your sister, why are you treating me like an outsider?”
    “NO YOU’RE NOT!” Tears stung Isola’s eyes but the girl continued in a fierce tone, “MY SISTER LOOKS NOTHING LIKE YOU!”
    At first, a blank look graced Aurelia’s face but it soon turned to laughter that had her sinking to her knees, convulsed with it.
    Wondering about the area of amusement in the situation, Isola poked the shaking figure with puzzlement written into her every feature and much to her relief, the convulsions stopped and Aurelia stood up, wiping leftover tears away from her eyes. However, horror once again flooded Isola’s features at the state of Aurelia’s face.
    A part of her skin seemed to be literally tearing off, eyes and all, the droopy, zombie like face was falling off and Isola felt fear bubbling in her again, what was going on, she opened her mouth to scream but stopped short when she saw the entire thing peeled off to reveal Aurelia’s original face, the face Isola had known and loved her entire life.