Totally, completely, deliciously, and no doubt illegally naked, Tanya knew her clothes had to be in her car, but she had no idea where she’d left the damned thing.

She ran over to the bushes by the side of the dirt road, hiding from the gaze of the condemning street light, trying to judge how far she’d have to run to get back home.

The lights of Kempsley, the town that had been her home for the past four years, was visible in the distance, some vague silhouettes of buildings just barely cutting through the moonlight. It was a couple of miles at least.

As she snapped off a bunch of leaves to hide her nakedness and started jogging back through the light drizzle, damp mud sloshing through her toes with every step, she wondered what she was thinking when she chose the University of Kempsley to study her law degree.

It seemed like only yesterday that she was graduating from high school, back when everything was so simple, she knew exactly where her life was going; go to university, go traveling, get a job, and get married. Nothing about life was intimidating.

Now, four years later, as she found herself alone in the dark, with nothing to accompany her but the sound of her feet slapping against the moist ground and the gentle kiss of cold rain on her face, she knew it could never have been that simple.

She was also beginning to feel hungry. It was three twenty-five by now, at least according to the large, dying LED clock hung in the window of the Beer and Beans Café, seven hours since she had decided to chase that dog.

With the benefit of hindsight, it didn’t even look like Thomas’ dog much anyway, and the collar was brown rather than red. But at the time her mind was on edge, and anything that reminded her of Thomas or Sam immediately sprung into her mind. She should have come back later, after telling someone where she was going, and maybe packing some food. But there was no way her troubled soul was going to let a potential clue get away.

Stupid troubled soul. If she wasn’t so tense about the whole thing, she was sure she’d be able to make more sense of things, but she was exhausted, so her head was bound to be full of better ideas like that.

As she walked over a hill, her drifting thoughts were herded back to the present by a figure standing under a bus shelter. He was wearing a long coat that came down to his knees, with a distinct lack of hat on his head. His face was glowing a hazy blue, lit up by the phone he was idly thumbing.

Somewhere at the back of her mind, she briefly wondered what he was doing standing there, as there were no busses due for at least two hours, but these thoughts were quickly replaced with things of much more importance.

The problem with running to catch something, is that speed and time, appear to be more important factors during the chase, than they usually turn out to be in some other normal situation. Also common sense seemed distorted and false in a way, because she failed to realize that her house was the opposite way. Also she was still naked.

The man seemed deeply engrossed in his mobile phone. Some water was dripping at the edge of the bus shelter falling just by the man's head, carefully avoiding him. She on the other hand, wasn't much into avoiding the rain. She was getting cold.

The man suddenly stopped twitching with his phone, and he left his coat on the bench. This was her chance; well, not really. The man would probably notice right away. However she couldn't think anything else but the coat. The coat was rather old and quite out of fashion, but nobody really cared about that. The man reached for his left pocket. He took his keys out and something else, but she didn't have the time to get a good look at it.

She was too busy staring at the long coat on the bench. The rain was soaking into her skin. Pneumonia was just around the corner. Of course, if the man caught her the situation could be a difficult one to explain. On the other hand, there was no going home tonight and freezing to death wouldn't help anyone. She hated making decisions like this.

What had Thomas said? “You think too rigidly, Tanya,” that was it. “Have you ever tried a bit of spontaneity? It would be good for you.” In fact, that was the last thing he'd ever said to her.

She darted under the shelter and snatched up the coat, wrapped it around her body. The man turned around.

“Evening,” he said, raising his eyebrows a little.

“Evening,” said Tanya a bit breathlessly. That was when she noticed that the second object he'd pulled out of his pocket was a gun.

“That's my coat, you know,” he said.

“Rather,” she said. “Um. I don't think you know me? My name is Tanya.”

“Oh, so you're Tanya,” said the man, a delighted smile spreading across his face. “What a wonderful coincidence! We've been looking for you for hours. You knew Thomas, didn't you?”

“Hello, Sam,” she said. “Yes I did.”

“Of course she did.”

The figure at whom Tanya called “Sam” was slowly emerging from the darkness behind the man with the gun.

Sam, or rather Samantha Kowalski, was the biggest surprise that life in Kempsley has brought for Tanya. A month after she got to know the woman, she found out that Sam was in fact her identical twin sister she never knew existed! While that explained some things, it also did complicate her life considerably…

And now, all of a sudden, Sam was standing before her in the rain, wearing a similar coat and apparently also being completely naked under it.

While Tanya was getting a little bit worried about pneumonia and losing the track of that dog, this new realization brought fear upon her. “If Sam is doing exactly what I’m doing, then my worst suspicions have just been confirmed!”

Panic swiftly took over Tanya’s body. Suddenly, she reached into the coat’s right pocket, took out some unknown object and stuck it in her mouth. Then she began to chew.

While she chewed, she watched the man’s expression gradually turn to, first, surprise, then, utter disgust. But she didn’t care - she was fantasizing she caught the dog’s paw in her teeth, making sure he won’t run away.

The man took a deep breath as if he was troubled by what he was about to say.

"Did you catch the dog?” Tanya was surprised by the question.

"No, but how did you know I was chasing a dog? In fact, who are you?" Tanya was both troubled and confused at the situation that was taking place. It was as if she were dreaming, only everything was oddly vivid.

The man raised his gun, "If you haven't noticed, I'm the man with the gun here Sam. And I don't appreciate personal questions."

Tanya got even more confused. "I'm not Sam, she is." she said and pointed towards Sam. The man looked towards the direction she pointed and then looked back at Tanya. "Is this some kind of trick? Because you're not going to fool me Sam. Now, can you see the car parked up the road?" Tanya looked up the road and saw a van. She nodded towards the man, more confused then ever.

"I want you to walk to that van and get in. And no tricks alright?"

“I'm not getting in the car!” Tanya shouted. “I'm not! You can't make me!”

“You can't run away forever,” the man said in a hard voice. “We found you. Now get in the van.”

She stared at him with her mouth hanging open. Then she shook her head. “No,” she said. “No, I don't believe you . . . why do you have a gun? I'm not Sam, I'm Tanya . . .”

“I'm not Sam, I'm Tanya,” the figure behind her echoed.

He smiled crookedly and shook his head. “No,” he said, “I know for a fact who you are. Maybe you remember me, Sam? I was Thomas's best friend. I was going to be his best man . . . but he and Tanya never did get married, did they, Sam? And now I've finally found you . . . pure luck, after all this time.”

Tanya rubbed her hand against her forehead. Her mind was spinning. Something he said almost made sense, there was something she had forgotten . . . “I don't know you,” she said. “Who – what happened? What are you talking about?”

He sighed and looked at the ground. The rain was soaking into his hair, streaming down his face. “All right,” he said. “Maybe it's true and you really don't remember . . . well, then, I'll tell you. You should know what you did . . . your sister Tanya was so happy when she found you again. How could she know what you were really like . . . that you were murderous, insane? You hid it from her so well, like you hid your obsession with Thomas. I suppose when you found out they were going to get married you just couldn't take it any more. You followed them one day when they were out walking their dog . . . we found them the next day, stuffed into a shed, both their throats torn out. You should have known you wouldn't get away, Sam. That there were people who would never let the trail go.”

Tanya stared at the object in her hand, the bloodied dog paw she'd been frantically chewing. What had she been trying to accomplish? What exactly did she dread? Of course . . . the truth . . . being found out. When she thought of Thomas all her anger bubbled to the surface.

She glanced up into her doppelganger's eyes and smiled. The other smiled back.

“We're both Tanya,” she murmured to herself. “Or are we both Sam? All right . . . I'll go to the car . . . take me to the car.”

“Come on,” said the gunman coldly. “And remember that I'm watching you.”

“That day you died,” she said to the increasingly transparent shape of her sister. “I . . . I was so jealous of you. But I got you both . . . hah . . . and they never found out it was me . . . hah . . . and they will never know . . . because dogs can't speak . . . hah . . . the dog was too quick but dogs never speak . . .”

She pulled the coat tighter around herself and followed the man out into the rain.

“Are you still there, Sam?” she mumbled. “I was so happy when I found you . . . Sam . . . or am I Sam? I can't remember.”

The door to the van opened, but she couldn't see inside. All she could see was the rain.

“We could have been one person, Sam,” she mumbled. “Tanya . . . we could have been one . . . where are you, Sam?”

The ghost was still there, wrapped up in the coat, watching her drive away.

“You're Sam,” she said distantly before vanishing into the darkness.