My Profile Picture Story

Ilan the Doppelgänger

On the 13 of July 1989 I found out I had a twin. I was eight years old then when Ilan my twin emerged from the burnt down forest my parents thought she died in five years ago. They didn’t tell me the truth because they knew I would be hurt and I slowly forgot about my sister until I was walking down the familiar road to my school three years later. I heard a dog barking and turned my head to the familiar forest. Me being the curious person that I was I strode to the edge of the forest and peered in. Suddenly I was knocked over by something that came from the forest. I was terrified as I saw a huge snout come towards my head… and lick me. I pushed the animal off of me and sat up. It looked similar to a dog but it had strangely pointed horns and a sharp arrowed tail. The dog started whining and ran so I followed him. A dozen meters away I found her. A girl who looked exactly like me lay still and peaceful on the ground. The dog walked over to her and licked her face. Her eyes fluttered open and she sat up slowly facing away from me. As she stood up her dress seemed turn into fire elegantly flowing around her her body. I shrieked as a burning ash landed on my flip flopped shoe. She turned around and I saw a flash of red slitted eyes, horns, and a tail before she ran into the forest her dog close behind her leaving a trail of fire. I kept walking to school but I walked along the forest in case I saw her again. And I did, well, It’s more like she saw me again. I was hearing noises in the forest so I was becoming paranoid when suddenly I was tugged into the forest by the shoulder of my shirt. I struggled to get free but I was unsuccessful as arms wrapped around me. I tried to scream as heat surrounded my body burning like fire but a hand had already covered my mouth. I turned my head to see the girl beside me. “I’ll let you go if you promise not to scream. Blink if you understand.” I blinked slowly and she let me go. I dropped to the ground putting a hand on my burning mouth. “I need your help.” She said. “What’s your name?” I opened my mouth to speak wincing at the pain. “Lani.” She looked confused,”I’m Ilan.”

“Follow me.” she whispered. I got up from the forest floor and felt the heat from my mouth and my stomach where Ilan touch me disappear. I followed her through the forest for what seemed like an hour. And when she stopped I was hit with remembrance, I was supposed to call my mom when I got to school. I pulled my phone out and began to dial her number. I jumped and hung up when Ilan touched the back of my phone and screamed in agony. “What’s wrong?” I asked startled. “T-that thing! It tried to kill me!” she pointed at the phone and the dog started growling. She brushed off her finger and spoke,”Well we’re here.” I looked at her confused. She twirled around her finger and I heard a splitting noise suddenly the ground ripped open revealing a red stairway downwards “Go in.” she said “What?!” I shouted back. “Go… In… now.” she ran at me and tried to push me down the stairs. “Why are you doing this?!” I shouted as I leaned dangerously close to the stairs. “Why? Because I want you to convince people that hell is not that bad! I spent years making it with my own two hands! So just go!”

As I felt myself lose my foothold I whipped my phone out and hit Ilan with it. To my surprise she disappeared into my phone screaming and the dog jumped into the hole before it disappeared. I unlocked the screen to my phone and opened each of my apps one by one. When I got close to google drive I heard a noise so I clicked on it. And on my profile picture I saw a cartoon version of Ilan. From then on she stayed in my profile picture occasionally changing positions. The end.