• Trinity sat in her modern, clean apartment. She looked out the window overlooking the city. She had to admit that the city was a lot more of a dump than it was those three crucial years ago. She looked at the picture of her twin children. They would have been ten this year, this day. She blinked the tears away and looked at her watch. She got up and left the room, the picture of the dead children on the table staring at something she couldn’t see.
    Trinity rummaged through the medicine cabinet, looking for her medication that controlled her schizophrenia. It worked wonders on her. Or did it? Trinity thought back to the beginning of the week, when she thought she heard singing coming from the twins’ room. That was impossible, she thought, shaking her head. She had bolted the window and locked the door after she had been allowed to leave the clinic. She never meant to kill her children. She just didn’t have any medications then, and thought she heard eerie voices and shapes around her children. Trinity remembered that she once saw four children, two boys and two girls. The strange thing was, she thought as she swallowed her pills, was that the two other children she saw looked exactly like they did they day she killed them. Which was also impossible. Her children had been three when she saw that strange site.
    “Twinkle, twinkle little star,
    How I wonder where you are...
    Where are you, Mother?”

    Trinity spun around. She could have sworn she heard voices coming from the twins’ room. She shuddered, remembering that “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” once had been Kate and Lane’s favorite song. Or was it still? She started, wondering where THAT thought had come from. She hurried to the kitchen and took out a can of soda. She went to the cabinet were the knives were to get ready for dinner. She opened it and screamed. The picture of the twins was leaning on the knife she kept aside; the one she killed them with. She hesitantly touched the picture. The picture seemed to waver. She shrieked and backed away. She ran into her room and tried to breathe slowly.
    “Knock, knock, Mother. Are we playing hide and seek now?”
    Trinity’s head snapped up and she gasped. Her children were standing in front of the doorway, holding hands.
    “You can run, but you can’t hide, Mother. We want to play a game.”
    Kate laughed lightly.
    “Don’t you remember, Mother? That game we played three years ago? You won then, but this is round two.”
    They both laughed this time, but in a more sinister way.
    “You’re it, Mother. You, Starre, are it.”
    “Oh, we’re sorry, Mother, it’s TRINITY now. I wonder why you aren’t a shining star, Mother?”
    The children looked at Trinity. Yes, she changed her name once she left the clinic. She wasn’t a star after that.
    “Come on, Mother.’
    Kate’s voice had an edge to it.
    “We said ‘you’re it,’ Mother. I suggest you run.”
    Lane’s voice was sharp. The two of them wavered and disappeared. By some impulse, Trinity ran into the kitchen and picked up the phone. She dialed 911.
    “I’m sorry, but this number is no longer in service. That’s cheating, Mother.”
    Trinity ran out of the room and into the hall. She ran to the door and tried to open it. The doorknob shivered and turned into wet, warm blood, dripping down her hands.
    “Help me! Someone help me!!”
    Trinity’s voice rose to a barely legible shriek.
    She ran to the kitchen, but she slammed into an invisible wall. The same thing happened when she tried to run into her bedroom, the living room, and the bathroom. Should she? Could she? She ran to the twins’ room. She opened the door. The room looked exactly as it had looked 3 years ago. There wasn’t even any dust.
    “Wrong move, Mother.”
    “We win, you lose,”
    The children said in unison.
    “Time to die, Mother. You killed me first, so I guess I get the first stab. Oh, it won’t hurt. Hehehe. We all know that’s a lie, but we can lie about THAT because you did.’
    Trinity whimpered. She backed into Lane, who appeared out of thin air and held her. He had a killer grip, Trinity thought. Emphasis on killer. Kate thrust a sharp knife, the knife Trinity killed them with, into Trinity. Trinity gasped. Lane let her go, and she crumpled to the floor. Lane took pride in this. He ordered Kate to hold his mother’s arms out. He then cut two crimson stars into his mother’s wrists. That was the last thing Trinity remembered.
    Epilogue:

    “I don’t understand, sir. You say your wife had schizophrenia, but she took pills that controlled it? This makes no sense. If it was controlled...”
    The police officer’s voice trailed off. He stared at a piece of paper next to the body.
    He bent down, read it, and straightened up. “Sir...”
    “Yes, officer?”
    “Do you believe in ghosts?”