The Doppelganger

The Doppelgangers

Megan awakes to the sound of her door being closed. When she looks out, the hall is empty.

Something’s wrong. Even the attendants shouldn’t be here. No one should be roaming the halls at this time of night. Who’s closing doors this late?

She hurries into her clothes, slips silently out of her room, and, with her shoes in her hand, tip-toes down the stairs. A full moon floods the hallway and the dark, shiny, wide-planked floors with a cold, blue-white light. In her socks, Megan glides smoothly across the floor, up to the entrance of the old mansion. 

I can’t believe it. Where is everybody? Is nobody else awake? Fortune shines on me. I’m getting out of here right now.

There is a flashlight on the night table in the hall. She snatches it up and puts it in her pocket, as she now races for the exit. Without making a sound, she unlocks the door, and steps out onto the wide, stone patio. The patio and its surroundings are blanketed in an eerie light. Her surroundings look like a black and white movie. 

The moonlight provides her the darkness necessary for an unnoticed escape, and the light to see where she is going. She crouches low and keeps to the side of the large, manicured lawn and flees for the trees. In less than a minute, Megan is swallowed up by the dense woods surrounding the estate. If anyone of the guards or attendants looks out on the grounds, they will see nothing.

Megan runs down the trail next to the stream, and sprints for the front gate. Slowing down to catch her breath, she settles on a fast walk for the remainder of the distance. It’s at this slower pace that she notices something unexpected, lying in the middle of the path. In this light, it’s no more than a black blob. Is that a body?

Megan cautiously approaches the inert lump and gently pokes it with her foot. Nothing. She pokes it again. Still nothing. Her curiosity overcomes her fear, and she kneels down by the inactive figure.

I’ve got to get out of here, but I can’t ignore this person on the ground. I just have to see if it’s alive.

Megan holds her breath as she turns the limp body over.

What the hell!

She gasps out loud, and drops the body to the ground.

This is crazy! It can’t be.

Megan lifts the immobile body a second time, and turns it over again. This time, she shines her flashlight on the figure’s head. She studies the face in her hands. It’s like looking in a mirror.

This is my face. How can that be? I don’t have a sister.

And that’s how Megan found her twin sister—lying in the middle of a path, in the woods, on the night of her escape. Identical in looks, right down to the birthmark on her neck, her twin is an exact double of her.

No time to reason this out. Now is the time to get away.

Being on the lam, she isn’t about to contact the authorities about this lost soul. Megan-I shakes Megan-II, awake. Surprisingly, II gives no signs of surprise on seeing Megan-I. With the help of II, Megan-I climbs over the estate wall and, after pulling II up, they both run for Megan’s secret hideout on the other side of town.

Megan-I is winded, and has to slow down to rest several times. Megan-II, however, seems ready for a marathon. She isn’t even breathing hard when they arrive at the cabin. Strange, how my “twin” only required a nanosecond to be fully awake, and ready to run. No matter. I’ll look into that later.

Exhausted, and without a word, they both fall asleep. Megan-I wakes up first, and spends a good half hour watching Megan II. It’s just mind-boggling how similar they are to each other. In fact, they’re not just similar…they are identical. However, there is one difference. Megan-I thinks she heard something unnatural coming from II, earlier. It was a mechanical sound…a kind of whirring emanating from II, as she slept.

Perhaps I’m imagining it. Perhaps it’s just II’s form of snoring.

First there was one Megan. Now there are two. Megan-II is supposed to eliminate Megan-I. Soon there will be only one Megan again…a new and better Megan—one connected to the mother-ship. At least, that’s the plan. The invasion is going well. Resident after Pine-Valley -resident, is being replaced, with no one the wiser.

The fact that the replacements look identical to their ‘former’ selves, coupled with the fact that every winter, some people in the area did seem to act a little strange from the long, New England winters, raises no suspicions. As far as the locals are concerned, all is normal.

The invading force from across the galaxy is very particular in choosing which Earthlings they replace. Not just any Earthling will do. They know exactly who they want—they want only the best.

On Jinn, the invader’s planet, a special adoration, bordering on worship, is reserved for those labeled asylum. To be an asylum on Jinn is the highest rank attainable. Of course, they have no way of knowing that asylum; their word for genius, has a totally different meaning here on Earth.

Megan-I, a lifetime resident of Pine Valley Asylum, is a serial-killing sociopath. Her escape from the hospital was totally unplanned and unexpected. After resting up, Megan-I would get on with what she did best—hacking up persons she chooses at random. Who better to be her first victim after her escape than Megan-II.

This is my territory… me and Axe. There’s no room for another Megan.

Years of incarceration have not dulled Megan-I’s reflexes.

Now, where is Axe? I hid her here years ago? Ah! I remember…she’s in the cabinet under the sink. Hello, my beauty. It’s time you and I got on with our purpose in life.

With a swiftness unheard of on Jinn, Megan-I dispatches Megan-II. She lays out the now lifeless body of her double on the floor of the cabin, chops her up, and stuffs her into the shed out back, with the remains of her former victims.  

That was wonderful. I haven’t felt so alive in years. I’m hungry. She coos to Axe. I see you’re hungry, too. Shall we go find food for both of us?

It was most unusual that Megan met her doppelganger. Earthlings and their respective counterparts were not supposed to meet. The ‘re-placings’ were to go quickly and smoothly. Those being replaced were to be dispatched of and never found.

By the time the invaders realized that they were duplicating lunatics, it was too late. By replicating all the residents of all the asylums in the world, all of their doppelgangers had been used up, and could not be re-programmed. Shocked at their massive mistake, the invaders exited Earth, determined never to return to this insane planet.

And that, dear friends, is how the lunatics of this world saved all of us from an extra-terrestrial invasion from across the galaxy.