Playing the Long Game: A Twin's Revenge

“My twin brother, Ethan, was always the golden child, adored by our parents, effortlessly charming. I was the "difficult" one, often overlooked, watching from the porch as two smiling women lured Ethan with a rare comic book. Then, a sudden, blinding change. One moment I was an observer, the next I was in the back of their van, the world a dizzying blur, Ethan smirking from where I had stood. They sold me. For ten years, I was a ghost in a life not my own, trapped with a clan of survivalists in the Appalachian mountains, enduring abuse and forced labor. When I was finally found, broken and scarred, Ethan pulled his final trick. He swapped us back, instantly spinning a tale of how I, out of jealousy, had orchestrated his abduction. My own parents, without a shred of hesitation, believed him, seeing only a damaged stranger. They decided to commit me to a psychiatric hospital. How could my family, my own twin, betray me so utterly? Why was I always the one discarded, the one forgotten? But then I woke up, the smell of bacon filling the air, back in my childhood bed. It was the same day. This time, I wouldn't just watch.”