Thursday Evening, The Abbey, St. Ives, Cornwall, England:
“I don’t believe it.” Amelia, Ralph, and Edith couldn’t believe the woman walking in behind the gentleman.

She was identical to Amelia in every way, just a little shorter. Edith was even more surprised because she thought Aylin was dead. She had seen the picture of Aylin lying in the coffin.

Aylin stops next to her husband and looks at the two women and the gentleman standing near them. She figures from the way he kept looking at the women, that one of them must be his wife and the other must be his mother. She looks at the woman who looks like her. She noticed the woman was only half a foot taller than her.

She was also identical to her in every way, except she kept her hair shorter than she did. Aylin noticed the way she was standing and the surprised look in the other woman’s eyes.

“Honey, I think we found your double.” Mark had leaned close to Aylin to speak to her.

Ralph looked at his wife and then over towards her twin. The two of them reminded him of how their daughters were. There was a big difference between the two women.

Archie steps up to Aylin and Mark “Well, sis. I think the two of you have a lot of catching up to do.”

Mark looks at Archie and then over towards Aylin’s sister and the woman standing next to her.

“Aylin, is that you?” Edith couldn’t believe that she had lived.

Aylin looks at the woman “Do I know you?”

“No, but I know you. I was there the night your mother gave birth to you and your sister.” Edith walks over to Aylin.

There were tears in her eyes as she looked at Aylin. She reaches her hand up and caresses Aylin’s cheek. She could see some of the minor scars on Aylin’s pale face.

Aylin stood still when the older woman touched her face. She didn’t like people touching her, except her husband and children. She looked into the older woman’s eyes and saw how much she missed her.

“Why don’t we sit down and I’ll fix you ladies some drinks.” Ralph knew where his wife kept her liquor in the restaurant.

“I think that’s a good idea.” Archie watches as Amelia watches her adopted mother.

Amelia walks up to her sister. She still couldn’t get over the fact that she had a sister.

“Do you mind if I give you a hug?” Amelia noticed her twin was shorter than her.

“No, I don’t mind.” As Aylin hugs her twin sister.

“I’ll help you.” Mark figures the sisters need to get to know one another.

Ralph leads Mark into the back with Archie following them. Archie figures his sisters need to get to know one another.

“Why don’t we sit over here, girls.” Edith looked at both girls and loved that Aylin was alive. The last time she saw the two girls together was the day they were born.

Aylin and Amelia walked over to the table Edith motioned to them to sit down. Amelia looks at her sister “What happened to you?”

“What do you mean?” Aylin was puzzled.

“Why did our father put you in a mental hospital?” Amelia was curious about that.

“Because I saw him, kill our mother. He pushed her down the stairs during a thunderstorm.”

“You saw this?” Edith looks at Aylin to see if she is telling the truth.

“Yes, I witness it. I was heading to our parent’s bedroom because I was scared during the thunderstorm.” Aylin still had nightmares of that night.

“How did you end up being admitted to a mental hospital?” Edith was curious about that.

“He drugged my juice with some sort of drug. When police came to investigate how our mother died. Whatever drug he used on me, caused me to act crazy. Which, he put me in a mental hospital for.”

“Are the stories true, that you killed people?” Amelia wanted to know if what she heard about the Hatter was true.

Aylin takes a breath lets it out and looks at Edith and Amelia “You have to understand that I spent eight years in the mental hospital, being experimented on. Our father gave the head doctor in charge of the place permission to perform whatever experiments he wanted on me. I was electrified, drugged, beaten, and had sections of my skin removed from my body. He even allowed others to perform experiments on me to see why people feared certain things and how to help them overcome those fears”

“How did you survive that?” Amelia looked at her twin and wondered how she survived.

“Mentally I didn’t. I lost who I was and became someone else. It was because of that other personality that I survived.” Aylin couldn’t think of
another way to describe how she became the Hatter.

“How did you escape and what happened afterward?” Edith heard about a doctor being killed.

“Most of what happened that day is still fuzzy to me. However, I killed the two orderlies that took pleasure in raping and beating me. As for the doctor who tortured me. I came back after I escaped and rigged his car to explode.”

“How did you survive, after you escaped?” Amelia was curious how her twin survived.

“I was found by a couple who spotted me digging through some trash looking for something to eat. They saw how wild I looked and the strange clothes I was wearing. Instead of being afraid of me, they took me in and helped me overcome the madness that was swirling around inside of my head. They restored some of my humanity.”

“How about the other murders you have committed?” Amelia wanted to know why her sister did what she did and if the rumors were true.

“Everyone I killed deserved what they got. I never took an innocent life.” Hatter never killed anyone who didn’t deserve it.

“Why did you kill our father?” Amelia wanted to know the truth about that.

“Think about it, sis. He put me in a mental hospital to cover up the crime he committed against our mother. He left me in the hands of a mad doctor to do as he pleased. And, all he cared about was having a son. It has taken me a long time and a lot of prodding from my husband to even talk to Archie. I still feel cheated that all our father wanted was a boy, instead of us.” Aylin knew how their father felt because he took it out on their mother and her as well.

Edith looked at Aylin and knew she was right about Mr. Green. All he cared about was having a son to carry on the family name. He had been disappointed when he found out that the second baby had died. Which all of them, except him knew was false. Mrs. Green gave birth to twin girls.

Amelia looked at her sister and couldn’t believe how hard her life had been. She had a nice life with her mother and adopted brothers. She had a successful restaurant, a loving husband, and two wonderful daughters.

“I’m sorry you had to go through what you did, Aylin. Your mother never wanted you to experience anything like that.” Edith knew how Lady Hollace felt about her girls.

“That brings up a question I have been thinking about. Why did our mother let one of us go and how did she choose who to keep?” Aylin was curious about that.

“Believe me when I say, your mother didn’t want to let either one of you go. She loved both of you. She chose you because Amelia was born a few minutes after you.” Edith knew Aylin was born first.

“And because our father thought our mother gave birth to a son. He didn’t question it.” Aylin could see why Edith and her mother hid Amelia’s birth.

“I killed our father too fast.” Aylin wishes she hadn’t killed him so fast now.

“Aylin, your father was an evil man and tricked your mother into marriage. The thing was, she did love your father and everything was fine at first between them. However, everything changed after your girls were born. He wanted a boy so much.”

“I remember how our father was when we weren’t in the public eyes.” Aylin’s memories from that time were spotty, but she knew how her father was.

“If we are twins. Why are you so much shorter than me?” Amelia was curious about that.

“Probably, because of the drugs used on me. The doctor of the mental hospital used to like to use me as his test subject for all sorts of drug trials and just to torture me when he was in a bad mood.”

“Aylin, do you have a birthmark on your lower back?” Edith knew how to tell if Aylin was who they thought was.

“Yes, but only half of it.” Aylin stood up and lifted her blouse so Edith could see her lower back.

Both Edith and Amelia gasped when they saw the patch of skin that had been removed from Aylin’s back. They saw the birthmark, but also the onion skin where the skin had been removed.

“Why did the doctor do that to you?” Amelia couldn’t believe she could see the veins and muscles beneath the onionskin.

Aylin fixes her blouse and sits back down. She looks at her sister “I don’t know. He has removed large sections of my skin.”

“Oh, sis. I’m so sorry.” Amelia gets up and walks around to her twin sister.

Tears leak from Aylin’s eyes as Amelia held her. Something inside of her knew she could trust this woman and it was so familiar being near her. She also felt something inside her mind awakened as well.