Chapter 2 - WHICH ONE OF US IS YOU
BANG.
BANG.
BANG.
“Ethan! Honey, open the door! It’s Mom!”
Ethan froze in the living room.
“Mom…?”
The word escaped before he remembered Rule Two.
Do not speak back.
His mother had been dead three years.
Cancer.
Hospice.
Funeral.
Ashes in a blue ceramic urn at his father’s house.
No uncertainty.
No missing body.
Dead.
The pounding became harder.
“ETHAN! OPEN THE DOOR!”
Ethan backed away.
“My mother died three years ago…”
Silence.
The knocking stopped instantly.
Ethan stared at the door.
Then the voice returned.
Soft.
Warm.
Exactly as he remembered it.
“Why are you scared of me, sweetheart?”
His eyes filled.
That sentence.
His mother used to say it during thunderstorms when he was little.
Why are you scared of me, sweetheart?
Not:
Why are you scared?
Of me.
He suddenly wondered whether memory had changed the sentence.
His hand moved toward the peephole.
Rule One.
See the face directly.
He leaned forward.
Looked.
His mother was gone.
Standing outside was Ethan.
Same gray shirt.
Same jeans.
Same face.
The other Ethan smiled slowly.
“Rule nine.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
The doppelgänger leaned toward the door.
“Never trust the man inside.”
Ethan jerked backward.
Then something touched his shoulder.
From behind.
A hand.
Warm.
An identical voice whispered beside his ear.
“Then which one of us is you?”
Ethan’s eyes widened.
He started turning.
The lights went out.
Complete darkness.
He screamed.
Then hallway light leaked beneath the door.
White.
Ethan spun around.
Nobody behind him.
Nothing.
He turned to the peephole.
Nobody outside.
His phone rang.
MR. HARRIS.
Ethan answered.
“What the hell is happening?”
Harris whispered:
“You spoke back.”
Ethan froze.
“How do you know?”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
Harris inhaled sharply.
“Then do not fall asleep.”
“What?”
“Do not sleep until sunrise.”
“Why?”
“Because it heard your voice.”
Ethan looked around the apartment.
“What heard me?”
Harris went silent.
Then:
“Check your left hand.”
Ethan looked.
A thin red line circled his wrist.
Like a pressure mark.
Exactly where Harris had grabbed him earlier.
Except Harris had grabbed his right wrist.
Ethan whispered:
“What is this?”
Harris answered:
May you like
“It has started comparing you.”
Then the call disconnected.
