Sisters

A Story by Abishai100

Two sisters, Dominique and Danielle, are as separate as night and day despite being twins, and the goodly Dominique finds herself choked by the murderous rage of Danielle on the campus of Notre Dame.

Actually, I'm opting to sign off with a scary story (pure fiction!) inspired by Brian De Palma's Sisters (a crime-noir classic!). Thanks again,

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The Coronavirus quarantine was over and the campus of Notre Dame was reopened for the 2021 academic year. This year, the History department was excited to announce the arrival of a celebrated Irish-American professor who was going to teach a course at Notre Dame about the history of Irish rebellion against British governance. All the students were excited, especially Dominique, an Australian-American Notre Dame student with Irish roots and a deep interest in Irish politics and history education at Notre Dame.

The new history teacher was none other than the celebrated Professor Thomas Lambert who was going to tell the class all the intricacies and nuances of centuries of Irish defiance of British rule in Ireland and Northern Ireland. He was excited to present old and new ideas about canonical events in Irish political history such as the Easter Rising of 1916 and the terrible events of the latter half of the 20th Century including Bloody Sunday. Dominique signed up for Professor Lambert's course and was among the most active of the students discussing matters in the classroom at Notre Dame during the course.

Professor Lambert had a magnificent grasp on the depth and weight of Irish troubles and how Irish dissatisfaction with British rule and British Protestant population growth and development in Northern Ireland reflected a very serious modern era problem regarding Protestant-Catholic rifts in Europe. Lambert talked about the work of generations of Irish leaders and soldiers and figures over time who worked with the IRA (Irish Republican Army), P-IRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) and N-IRA (New Irish Republican Army). Lambert also presented ideas on the contours between the IRA and Sinn Fein, the legal and political arm of the IRA and how these contours affected historians' imaginations regarding the social attitudes towards the evolving British Parliament and how these attitudes shaped various folkloric depictions of troubling events such as the iconic Easter Rising of 1916. Dominique was fascinated. She was Lambert's biggest fan.

Dominique wanted to earn her degree in Irish History at Notre Dame, which was to become her major by the time she was a senior-year student. Lambert considered Dominique inquisitive, bright, and engaged and gave her high-marks on his essay exams about Irish history and politics. He even told Dominique about new age social intrigue regarding Sinn Fein sympathizers in North America and in Washington who wanted to contribute to this dynamic if troubling discussion about the relationship between Protestants and Catholics in the United Kingdom. Dominique realized she was receiving a very high-class education abou the complexity of Irish history and folklore at Notre Dame. She was truly happy.

However, Dominique harbored a very dark secret. She never revealed this dark secret to Professor Lambert who eventually became Dominique's faculty mentor to advise her on her senior thesis on the shape and influence of Sinn Fein in globalization democracy. The dark secret Dominique harbored was that her twin sister, Danielle, was a deranged schizophrenic, who, although being as attractive as Dominique, was a dark-haired emotional wreck and was supected of various murders while growing up alongside Dominique after their mother passed away. Dominique and Danielle's father had left their mother while she was pregnant, leaving her to raise her twin daughters on her own. Dominique felt she'd failed her mother in helping her criminally-insane sister Danielle come to terms with her truly murderous instincts. Dominique also suspected Danielle was guilty of various murders in America while growing up.

As the winter term at Notre Dame began, Dominique began work on her senior thesis with the guidance of Professor Lambert. It was then that she turned on the campus news on local TV and heard the horrible story of two campus security guards found brutally murdered, their bodies left blood-soaked. Dominique was horrified and had the instant shudder that her deranged sister Danielle had followed her onto the Notre Dame campus that year after the Coronavirus quarantine had ended. Suddenly, the sun was shining less warmly on the Notre Dame campus for the otherwise academically-engaged Dominique.

Dominique came across a bunch of ornate gold-crusted flowers at the History Department building at Notre Dame in January and couldn't help but admire their beauty. She took photos of these gold flowers and then uploaded them onto her Facebook profile page which was open to the public. Two weeks later, she received an email from her sister Danielle in which her deranged sister explained that the image of the gold flowers had inspired her to cook up some dastardly ideas for crime and murder on the Notre Dame campus. Dominique was now horrified.

One week later, another campus news story surfaced about another campus security man found brutally murdered and his body left blood-soaked. Dominique saw the story on the campus news network on local TV and was now sure Danielle was responsible for this odd and sudden inexplicable spree of death and evil. She didn't know what to do. Dominique had grown up as the lovely twin of her crooked and deranged dark-haired sister and couldn't find ways to reach out to her psychologically, much to the dismay of their mother. Now, Dominique wondered if these murders on the Notre Dame, no doubt the actions of her sister Danielle, were signs of doom.

Dominique decided to contact a private investigator, Detective Jane who decided to take up the case for Dominique. Jane learned Dominique was obviously shaken and seriously worried that her suspicion that Danielle was the loose killer was the truth. Jane assured Dominique that she and her detective office superior, Hercule, would work diligently on the case to track down Danielle and discover if she was indeed the dark culprit of these tragic murders. Dominique explained to Detective Jane that her sister was malformed spiritually, and Jane went to work to try to catch Danielle.

Unfortunately, one month later, there was yet another news story on the Notre Dame campus of a security man brutally murdered, his body left blood-soaked. Detective Jane deduced the culprit was indeed Dominique's twin-sister Danielle, because there were gold-crusted flowers left at the scene of this latest murder. Dominique had explained to Detective Jane that Danielle had sent her a deranged email about being inspired towards crime by the photos of gold flowers Dominique had posted on her Facebook page. Detective Jane deduced she was now tracking the 'dark-half sister' of the certainly frightened Dominique.

DOMINIQUE: Why have you contacted me?
DANIELLE: You sent a detective after me!
DOMINIQUE: Are you responsible for these campus murders?
DANIELLE: Why the hell should I tell you?
DOMINIQUE: I came to Notre Dame to study and find peace.
DANIELLE: You're going to leave me behind!
DOMINIQUE: We have separate lives, Danielle.
DANIELLE: No, we're joined by the tragedy of unfortunate growth.
DOMINIQUE: You could've been a Notre Dame student like me, Danielle.
DANIELLE: I'd rather be a secretary at Kent State.
DOMINIQUE: I hope that's what you'll decide to do.
DANIELLE: Maybe.

When Detective Jane told her partner and office superior Hercule about the developments regarding the case of the mysterious and horrible murders at Notre Dame, the shrewd detective Hercule suggested that Danielle might be suffering from some form of environmental angst causing her to lash out against anything that typified academic diaries.