Magda's Revenge

Chloe just wanted a cute picture for her profile.

She asked AI to whiten her teeth, tone her arms, and even out her tan. The picture it produced looked almost like her but not quite right. It was a little creepy and seemed to be smiling at her. She showed her friends and laughed it off then forgot about it.

Magda didn’t. She was surfing the veil when she felt a thin part and passed through right into the image of Chloe’s creepy doppelganger. It came equipped with Chloe’s memories and knowledge.

“Lovely,” Magda said, smiling.

***

Chloe had a rough night of bad dreams and extended waking periods. She ended up oversleeping which caused her to run late for the brunch she organized. In her nightmares, she kept seeing that eerie almost image of herself looking back at her through the mirror or windows. She felt spied upon and observed like a science experiment. It left an otherworldly eldritch feeling when she woke up.

She tried texting and calling her friends to let them know she was on her way but running late, but the calls and messages weren’t going through. “What a great time for a tower to go down or something,” she thought to herself.

When she pulled into the parking lot, she could already spot her friends seated at a table by the window. To be funny, she ran up to the window and pretended they were fish in an aquarium. It was just their quirky sense of humor. When they didn’t laugh or even smile at her shenanigans, she assumed they were mad at her late arrival after making a big deal to all get together.

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” she said while approaching the table. “Let me tell you what a crazy night I had!” That’s when she realized there wasn’t a place for her. She felt their anger was disproportionate to the situation.

“Hey, where’s my chair,” she laughed trying to diffuse the tension.

“Who are you?” Kellie, her best friend since kindergarten, asked her.

“Kellie, I was just a little late. Don’t be like this,” she pleaded. Chloe arranged this brunch because she had good news she wanted to share with her friends in person. It felt like Kellie was ruining her moment. That’s when she noticed the woman at the table who was not her friend. She was smiling at her in a way that made her uncomfortable. It was the face from her nightmares. It was her face only wrong. It was her AI mistake replacing her at her own brunch.

“Okay! This isn’t funny,” she exclaimed too loudly for a cafe. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Her friends instinctively positioned their bodies in a protective way around the intruder getting ready to defend her if necessary. By this time the hostess had arrived.

“Is there something wrong? Anything I can help with?” she asked trying to quickly assess the situation.

“My name is Chloe and I made the reservation for this table with my friends,” she started explaining.

“There must be a mistake,” the hostess said. “I must’ve sat the wrong group at the wrong table, but we aren’t busy today. There’ll be no wait time when your party arrives.”

“These are my friends!” Chloe exclaimed.

“I don’t know this woman,” Kellie said. “This is my best friend Chloe who invited us all here.” The other three women nodded in confirmation.

“That’s not me!” Chloe exclaimed, confused and pointing at Magda who smiled back evilly now.

“You’re right,” her friend Marissa said. “We don’t know you. We know our friend Chloe who invited us here to share some good news. You’re kinda ruining it. Can you leave?”

“Stop kidding around!” Chloe yelled. “I was only ten minutes late! That’s no reason to treat me like this.” Eventually, the police were called to deal with the situation as the women continued to deny knowing her while Chloe insisted that they did. Defeated and teary-eyed, she drove home.

But for some reason when she got there, neither her code nor key unlocked the door. She tried calling a locksmith, but her phone no longer turned on. Feeling defeated again, she headed back to her car. It was no longer in her driveway. She couldn’t believe her luck and regretted leaving the cafe. The feeling that a prank had been pulled on her and just went awry persisted. However, she also felt an imminent dread that was spreading throughout her body like that feeling you get when caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Like there was a warmth spreading through her body starting from her neck which already had raised hairs standing at attention.

But it was just a feeling.

Just a feeling that something was wrong. Off. Eerie.

As she sat on the curb trying to figure out how to get to her mom’s house ten miles away, she remembered that she left her bathroom window open. She had a good cry in the shower, and then called a cab to take her to her mom’s. Her friends always made fun of her for still having a landline. Well, her friends had really let her down, and she was glad she stood her ground.

Chloe paid the driver in cash and ran up to her mom’s house seeking comfort from such an odd day. Her key didn’t work here either, so she had to resort to ringing the bell. When her mom answered, she launched into a rant as she barged in the food.

“I have had the strangest day!” she began. “I set up brunch to announce some amazing news, I will catch you up on that in a minute, but because I was ten minutes late, Kellie and the rest gave me the cold shoulder and insisted I leave my own get together. When I got home, my code wouldn’t work. My key wouldn’t work. Oh, and my phone is on the fritz. I just cried in the shower for like an hour before calling a cab. Oh, my car is missing. Oh my god, I need to call the police!” Chloe ran to her mom’s landline and started to dial 911 when she reconsidered whether this was an emergency call.

“I don’t understand,” her mom said. “Are you friends with Chloe?”

“Mom!” she wailed. “I can’t deal with joking around right now. Can you look up the non-emergency number?”

“I’d like to help you, but I need to know who you are,” Chloe’s mom insisted.

“Mom,” she cried. “Please, help me. What is the police’s number?” Chloe’s eyes landed on the many photos her mom had around the living room. In all of the pictures with Chloe, that AI version of herself smiled back. She dropped the phone.

“Mom, what the hell?” she asked, almost screaming. “Who is this?” She grabbed her senior photo off the wall and held it up to her mom.

“I think you better leave,” her mom stated.

“Mom, please,” she said, She collapsed in tears.

“Really,” she responded, “I’ve tried to be nice, but now you’re scaring me. I want you out of my house.” Chloe continued to cry.

“If you don’t leave right now, I’m calling the police.” Instead, Chloe ran up to her childhood bedroom and slammed the door. Here were all of her things. Her plushies, and clothes, and toys. Her old dresser left just like she left it when she moved out for the final time after college. It smelled like home and comfort and safety. She crawled in her bed and curled up in the fetal position.

Apparently, she cried herself to sleep because the next thing she knew, two police officers were shaking her awake.

“...it could very well be drug related, but we’ll know more after we interview her,” Chloe heard someone say.

“Ma’am, get out of the bed and stand up with your hands where we can see them,” she was ordered.

“What?” she asked. She had forgotten everything and was confused. When she saw her mom standing in her old room, everything came crashing back down. Her heart started pounding in her ears, and she was short of breath.

“Mom, what’s going on?” Chloe asked the woman who raised her. She was sweating now as adrenaline coursed through her veins.

“See?” her mom said to the police officers.

“What is your name, ma’am?” asked the cop closer to her.

“I’m Chloe,” she replied. “This is my mom.” The cop looked concerned but compassionate.

“I think you are confused. We just speak with Mrs. Serino’s daughter, Chloe. She’s on her way here. Have you taken anything today?”

“I don’t think so,” she responded. “I haven’t even eaten or had coffee. I think I need coffee.” She attempted to head to the kitchen to make some coffee and grab a bite to eat. The officer in the door barred her way as the compassionate looking one called for a bus.

“I took a cab,” Chloe mumbled.

The ambulance got there first. They couldn’t find anything wrong with her and cleared her. Chloe started walking home while the police were still waiting for the other Chloe. It took her about four hours. She was glad to see her car was back, and realized she had completely forgotten that it had been stolen. She still couldn’t enter the front door and entered through the bathroom window again. The whole way home, she thought about how sincere her mom seemed. She honestly didn’t seem to know who Chloe was. She admitted to the cops that each Chloe had similar features but described her as looking not quite right while her real Chloe did.

“Well, look who’s here?” she heard as she entered her living room

“Who the fuck are you?” Chloe screamed in fury at the woman trying to take over her life and apparently winning.

“Magda,” she replied. “My name was Magda. I go by Chloe now.”

“No,” Chloe tried to insist but had no conviction.

“You know I’ve already won,” Magda said. “There’s nothing you can do.”

“Why?” she asked, feebly.

“It was done to me,” Magda responded. “I’ve been waiting for decades for a chance to return and finally got the chance when the veil thinned right over that picture you had AI alter. I’m not very techy and have no idea how it worked, but I was able to crossover. I’ll give you the choice I was never given though. You can take my place on the other side or just go away. I’ll let you take all your cash.”

“I’m not just giving you my life,” she exclaimed. “Those are my friends. That’s my mom! My MOM!” she yelled. “You can’t just replace me indefinitely.”

“You’re right,” Magda admitted. “They are temporarily glamored. It won’t last. Soon, your friends will go away. So will our mom.”

“She’s not our mom!” Chloe yelled.

“It’s important that you understand very bad things are going to happen to all the people you care about,” Magda informed her.

“Why?”

“Revenge,” Magda replied.

“For what? What did I do?”

“Nothing that I know of. I’ve been stuck behind the veil for a very long time,” she answered. “I’ve watched and grown contemptuous of humanity. I’ve plotted all this time for ways to hurt people. I am going to hurt as many as I can before I turn my attention to destroying all of it. All of humanity. It needs to go but not before serious suffering.” Deep inside Chloe accepted the sincerity of the situation. Whatever Magda was, she was capable of doing this.

“Please,” Chl;oe begged.

“I like it when you beg,” Magda responded. “Crawl to me.” Chloe obeyed.

“Please,” she begged again.

“You can stay if you kill Kellie,” Magda offered.

“I can’t,” Chloe cried.

“Time’s up,” Magda said, never really giving Chloe a choice. Next thing she knew, Chloe was gone but not gone. She was on the other side of the veil but didn’t know what that meant. It’s okay. She’ll have decades to figure it out. In the meantime, she watched helplessly as Magda destroyed her own life.

First, Magda poisoned her mom with something that made it look like she had a heart attack. She screamed futilely from behind the veil as her mom died alone at home unable to reach the phone. Chloe had never felt so broken.

But then, Magda started an affair with Kellie’s husband who had always been absolutely devoted to her. She witnessed the plan the illicit lovers concocted to eliminate Kellie from their lives permanently as they planned her murder. There was nothing Chloe could do to warn her. She tried but only failed each time. When it eventually happened, she had started to feel numb. It was the only way she could survive from moment to moment. She had attempted suicide, but it was just as futile as everything else she had failed to do.

There were times the veil was thinner. She searched for these moments and prodded them hopefully. All she wanted to do was find a way to poke through. She could save her friends from the bloody end Kellie received if she could just poke through. Kellie’s husband had stabbed her 38 times. Magda had set up a camera to record it and gave it to the police. She testified against him and faced no charges. As Magda turned her attention towards Chloe’s other loved ones, a rage grew inside her. Chloe never realized she had changed. She was no longer a loving human being but a wretched jaded creature fueled by anger with a lust for revenge. Eventually, she forgot how this started and just thought of what she would do once she finally found a way through the veil. She would make those humans pay. She would teach humanity her final lesson. Chloe knew that one day she would succeed in crossing through the veil.