You turned the knob of you bedroom door and pulled it towards you. The hallway was slightly darker than your bedroom as the light was not turned on. The hall was only illuminated by the sunlight that spilled in from a few windows on either end of the hallway and the light from your bedroom. The carpet was soft and dark brown in color. Your bedroom was on the East-side of the house. There was another bedroom, your sister's, a little further down on the left; the hallway ended at the doorway of your sister's room. Your younger brother's bedroom opened up further down from the right-side of your bedroom and on the opposite wall.
At least, you realized, this was the layout from before. You used to be the eldest child in your family, and now you seemed to share that title with Landon. Your parents had managed to space their children out with two years in between. Your younger brother, Tyson, was thirteen years old, and your sister, Allison, was 15 years old. Your brother's bedroom was next to the stairs, which lead down into the front room. Past the stairs on the second floor, and on the other wing of the hallway, was your parents' room.
You looked down the West-end of the hallway, towards your parents' room, and noticed that their room was closed. "Ty's and Ally's bedrooms look the same from here. That is good." You heard Landon announce to you, his tone echoing how you felt. You were glad that your siblings, despite how annoying they could be, were not removed from this reality.
You then take a step towards the stairs. Almost immediately after your foot touched the carpet, you felt a sudden tug toward your left. The movement almost threw you and Landon off balance. You figured that he must have grabbed hold of the doorway or something to keep the two of you from falling over, because your weight suddenly felt supported. "Ready?" You asked aloud. You chalked up almost falling because you had moved forward without alerting him first.
"Yeah." Landon replied. With his acknowledgement, you then tried taking a step towards your parents' bedroom. But again, you and Landon nearly lost balance as you felt a sudden tug towards the left as your body was pulled in the opposite direction. You turned to face your twin, who had a matching look of confusion. "Aren't we going to stop in Ally's and Ty's rooms?"
You realized that you and your twin were attempting to walk in opposite directions. In your mind, that confirmed your belief that he and you were differing from each other, but that also brought to light another issue. Landon and you really needed to discuss everything because obviously neither of you could intuitively know what the other was intending. "Why would we?" You cocked your head slightly. "Clearly they are fine. And, you know how Ally gets when people go in her room without her permission."
Landon chuckled, seemingly remembering their sister yelling when people entered her room unannounced. “Agreed. But not Ty’s?”
“I think he is probably the same in any reality.” You quickly stated, but ended up conceding to your twin. “But fine, let’s check out his room, and I guess Mom’s and Dad’s.”
Predictably, there was nothing out of the ordinary in your younger brother’s or parents’ rooms. They seemed untouched from any changes the wand may have made. In your parent’s bedroom, Landon and you agreed to sit down in your father’s desk chair and took a few moments to look at the family photos. Your younger siblings looked just as you remembered, but some of the images were changed. It was not shocking to see that the images that only had you previously, now had you and Landon both. One image in particular was taken during a camping trip your family had gone on years ago. The original image was of a younger version of you reeling in a gigantic trout; the fishing pole was bent, as if almost about to break. The updated imaged had you and Landon struggling to reel in, what you supposed was the same large catch.
“Wow, it’s a little… surreal to see a picture of young us.” Landon commented.
He must have been just as awestruck by it as you felt. “Yeah… tell me about it.” You wondered if you and he would have a lot of those moments as you explored. “We probably should have used the wand to give us memories of this reality, or at the very least, have memories progressively come to us as the situation demanded.”
“Probably would have been a good idea.” Landon agreed. “I guess we can go do that before moving on downstairs…” He trailed off.
“Or…” You looked towards you twin, waiting for him to finish even though you knew what he was about to say. It was an odd sort of feeling. While Landon and you were starting to differentiate more and more, there were times like this where you knew what he was thinking. You wondered if twins normally felt like that.
“Or… we can continue exploring without the memories. It might be… exciting…” He looked upward for a moment as if deciding on a better word. “I guess that is the best word.” He shrugged, and you felt the muscles between your necks shift slightly. “It might be exciting to see things for ourselves first and then get the memories later.”
You were nodding your head before he finished. “Yeah, exploration first… memories second. So, downstairs.”
“Downstairs.” Your twin repeated.
You and he then pushed yourselves back to your two feet and left your parents’ bedroom. Taking your time down the stairs, you both gazed at some of the family photos that lined the walls. Just as you and Landon stepped away from the stairs, your sister’s voice called from the kitchen, “Bra, Lan… is that you?”