Scientia Online

Doubles
By Doppleganger
Edited by Gero Lumain

Chapter 1: The Dream
I was running. Even though it was dark and I couldn’t even see very far in front of me, I was still running. I didn’t know what I was running from but I knew that I had to get away. I ducked and weaved through the barren and leafless trees that came into his path and kept going in one general direction: away from whatever it was that was chasing me.

I began to gasp and wheeze. It seemed like I’d been running for hours on end and yet it was still pitch black all around him. Soon enough, I felt the feeling of being chased begin to disappear and once it was completely gone I found himself in a small clearing, although it was still dark and from what I could see, the trees all around the clearing were the same as the rest of them that I’d passed already: dead and barren. I put my hands on my legs and panted to try to catch my breath.

“You finally got here, huh?” The voice came from the other side of the clearing. Its tone was sarcastic and somewhat insulting and yet I felt that something about it was familiar.

“Who’s there?” I asked, my voice quivering a little in fear.

“Who else could it be?” I saw two glowing points of red light in the darkness. They moved closer and closer to me as the voice said this.

“Show yourself!” I shouted. I was trying to force the fear out of my system and put on a brave face.

“As you wish.” The two points of light got closer and something finally came into my field of vision.

It was a young man, probably in his late teens. He had tussled dark-brown hair. He wore a tight fitting white shirt that hugged and showed off his obviously well-built physique. He had on a pair of jeans and a pair of blue running shoes. The two red lights were actually his eyes and they were glaring quite intently at me.

“Who are you?” I decided to ask.

The red eyed man sighed, closed his eyes, and shook his head. “Look at yourself for a while. You’ll get it.”

I looked down at myself. I was wearing the exact same thing as the red eyed man: the white shirt on a well-built body, the pair of jeans, and the blue running shoes.

“Wh-What’s going on here?” I stammered.

“Tch. Still don’t get it?” The red eyed man looked annoyed and snapped his fingers.

Something was moving in the sky so I looked up and saw that the clouds that were covering the sky had begun to move away. The moon started to shine through the breaks and I could see that it was full albeit unnaturally close to the earth.

When I looked down I saw something metallic start growing between me and the red eyed man. It kept growing and growing until it was as tall as either of us. It took me a while to realize that it was a mirror since the red eyed man seemed to stay in my vision as the object grew out of the ground in front of me.

When I did realize it, my jaw dropped.

I looked exactly like the red eyed man did or maybe he looked exactly like me. Except for the eyes, mine were a dark-brown while his were completely crimson.

“WHAT THE HELL???” I screamed as it hit me that I was looking at a copy of me.

“Finally understand?” The red eyed man walked around the mirror and closer to me. “I’m you and you’re me.” He grinned wickedly.

“Were you the one I was running from?” I started to back away slowly but I couldn’t move very far. Fear was starting to freeze up my entire body. It was like this other me was what I had been trying so hard to get away from.

“Maybe. Maybe not.” The red eyed me started taking bigger steps to get closer to me.

“What do you want from me then?” I couldn’t move so all I did was to keep asking questions.

“Nothing really.” The other me grinned wider and got even closer. “Just your…” He was only a few steps away. “LIFE!”

His hand shot up and grabbed my throat. I couldn’t do anything to stop it. He started to squeeze down on my windpipe and the pain was immense. Then he started to lift me up with just the hand on my throat. The pain of my neck stretching was added to the pain of my neck getting crushed.

I coughed and wheezed as I tried to say something but couldn’t get it out. I tried to resist but my whole body was frozen by both the fear and the pain. My lungs screamed in pain and signaled me that I was running out of air.

Everything began to blur and distort as I felt the oxygen supply to my brain slowly deplete itself. It was then that I heard the other me start to laugh. It was a wicked and twisted kind of laugh and had a touch of maniacal in it just for good measure.

My head was swimming and yet I heard him clear when he said: “I’ll be taking your place now. So die knowing I’ll be a much better you than you ever were.” I could barely make anything out anymore but I knew he was grinning again.

I gasped one last time before everything went black, the red eyed me let go of my throat, and I fell to the floor.