Before It Gets You

 Gravel crunched beneath his tires as he pulled to a stop in the empty lot. It took a few tries to build the momentum to exit the car. He stood, taking a few deep breaths. Jason tried to gather himself, but how could he? It hadn’t even been a week since they buried Nathan, and just thinking of what happened to him tied Jason’s stomach in knots. Wiping his forehead with the sleeve of his jacket, he blinked away tears and took a determined step toward the graveyard. He tried to distract his mind by thinking back to the reason he’d come here, his promise to Nathan, and how odd it felt now that Nathan would ask Jason to go to Nathan’s own grave only two days before he’d been killed. Had Nathan known something then? Jason lost himself in thought enough that he nearly walked past the headstone bearing his friend’s name.

“Nathan Bernard, 1998 – 2023, taken before his time.” Jason didn’t think the engraving properly conveyed the shock Nathan’s murder had brought to his family and friends. His thoughts rolled over a few suggestions he thought might be more appropriate before he realized he was stalling, putting off actually approaching the grave and acknowledging this reality. With as much effort as he could summon, Jason cleared his throat.

“Hey Nathan. Well… I’m here,” Jason paused for a long moment, forming sentences in his head to find something to talk about. He wound up with, “Things have been weird without you around for the last week. The day after the service, I woke up and almost called you to see if I had dreamed it.” He trailed off into a forced laugh, but his smile faded quickly. After a few moments of silence, Jason burst out, “Why the hell did you ask me to come here? My best friend makes me promise that I’ll visit his grave less than a week after he’s dead, gets shot only a couple of days later, and then what, gets to laugh at me while I stand here and fight off a panic attack?” He started pacing, getting louder as he built momentum. Somehow moving and getting angry seemed to calm his roiling stomach.

“What am I supposed to do, Nathan? None of this makes any sense, and the one person I’d be able to go to for answers, the guy that’s supposed to be my best friend, is six feet under,” Jason stopped, glaring accusingly at the headstone. He took a few deep breaths and blinked away tears again. Taking one more long breath, he shrugged and continued, “Well? Why am I here, Nathan?” He felt pressure squeeze around his arm, then pull, spinning him around to face…

“Nathan?!”

Nathan stood before him, his face serious. He held up a hand to signal Jason’s silence and said, “You’re here because I was sure you’d come alone.”

Jason reeled back and gasped, stumbling over the loose earth. His head met the gravestone violently on the way down. Nathan reached out hesitantly, then took a quick glance around. “Jason, please, I need you to pull yourself together. You’re the only one I can trust in this.”

“Trust in what? Agh… What the hell are you doing here? How are you alive?” Jason shook his head to clear the stars in his vision. He reached back, touching the spot that was quickly swelling.

“Look, we really don’t have the time for all this.” Nathan started to pace, just as Jason had. “I needed to meet you here to tell you that it wasn’t me you buried. That thing tried to replace me, just like they’re replacing other people in town. I’d been seeing inconsistencies around town for weeks, enough that I worked out a pattern. I managed to work out when they would be coming for me, so I prepared. Now that I’m out of their notice, I might be able to do something to stop them, but I’m going to need help. That’s where you- Jason, are you listening?” He looked down to Jason, who was currently struggling to stand up. Jason wobbled a bit, but got to his feet and stared at his friend, amazed and confused. He didn’t bother stopping the tears this time.

“Nathan, stop, please… What do you mean that wasn’t you? I saw you myself! Hell, your mother was there in tears! She would know her own son better than anyone… Have you spoken to her? I can’t even imagine what she-”

“That isn’t my mother. One of them got to her weeks ago and was pretending to be her. Like I said, one of them came for me, too, but I got smart and got it before it got me,” Nathan looked down toward the bare earth of the grave. Jason noticed his eyes lose focus, seeming more distant than he’d ever been. A look of disgust flashed across Nathan’s face before he continued, “I’m still working on a long-term plan to get rid of them, and I could really use your help. Here, take this,” Nathan reached into the pocket of his jacket and presented a revolver. Jason’s mouth fell open and he stammered, unable to find the words in his shock. Had Nathan ever mentioned owning a gun before? If he was telling the truth, then was Nathan handing over the weapon that-

“Keep that with you,” Nathan said, pressing the firearm into Jason’s free hand. Before Jason could process everything that was happening, Nathan had wrapped him in a tight hug, “I know you can do this, Jason. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. Once you manage to get out of their sight too, I know you and I can beat these things. Good luck.”

With that, Nathan turned to leave, walking away swiftly. Jason called out, “Wait, how will we-” but he abruptly halted when the world began to spin. When Jason began to move the pain throbbing in the lump on the back of his head spiked and filled the rest of his skull. Covering his eyes with his hands and dropping to one knee, Jason heard Nathan call back to him, “Don’t worry, once you’re ready to meet again, I’ll find you.” It took a few moments for Jason’s head to settle down, and by the time he looked up and his eyes readjusted to the sunlight, Nathan was gone.

That had really been him, hadn’t it? It looked and sounded exactly like he would have expected of his friend, but was it really possible? Slowly walking back to his car, he tried to sort through everything he’d learned. If he could organize everything floating through his mind, he might be able to make sense of it all.

Most importantly, his friend was alive. He really ought to call someone, like Nathan’s mother, and let her know he was alright. Surely she’d want to know so she could get in touch. Unless, of course, Nathan had been right. That was the next most important piece of information, that Nathan believed people in town were being switched with creatures of some sort. Jason cursed himself for not being more coherent during the exchange; he should have been more insistent that Nathan explain exactly what these “things” were. What had he meant about people acting strangely? What was the pattern he wanted Jason to pick up on? Was there even a chance that any of this was real? Arriving back at his car, Jason realized he was still holding the revolver in his hand. He scrambled to shove it into his pocket, looking all around to be sure the gravel lot was still empty. Ducking quickly into his car, he threw open the glove box to grab the bottle of Tylenol he kept there and threw back a couple of pills to ease his pounding head. Gripping the wheel tightly, he took a shaky breath and pulled out of the lot.

Jason pulled into his driveway and shut off his car. He sat silently, listening to the pops and hisses of the engine cooling down, feeling no better after the drive home. Every attempt to clear his head and make some sense of the events of the past week left him with more questions than he’d started with. Learning Nathan was actually alive would have been enough on its own, but add on the wild theories he’d heard straight from his friends mouth and it was all far more than he felt capable of managing. He slumped and rubbed his eyes but that only brought more throbs of pain from his growing headache. If Nathan was to be believed, he wanted Jason to notice some differences in all their friends and neighbors and work out the pattern of who began acting strangely and when. How was he even supposed to begin seriously considering such wild theories? After ruminating on just that thought for a few minutes, Jason made the first clear decision he had since that morning. He had never found any reason to distrust his friend before. His best friend. It couldn’t hurt to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Resolved to give his friend the benefit of the doubt, he now had a path to start filing his thoughts into order. He began another attempt from the beginning when he jumped, startled by a knock on his car window. Just outside, his elderly neighbor stood, concern on his wrinkled face. Muffled through the glass, Jason heard him ask, “You alright in there, Jason? I don’t mean to be nosy, but you’ve been sitting for almost fifteen minutes.”

Opening the door, Jason replied, “Yeah, yeah, sorry Mr. Neukam, I was… distracted.” Jason stepped out of the car. The older man may be a retired cop, but he still carried himself like one. He had both thumbs hooked behind his belt, and Jason was sure he could feel the practiced, scrutinizing gaze taking in every last detail about him. This suddenly felt more like an interrogation than small talk.

“I heard about your friend… Nathan, right? That’s a real shame. Said on the news he’d been shot. Did they… Well, did they figure out who did it?”

“Um… N-no, they haven’t,” Jason stuttered. He hadn’t expected the conversation to turn to the murder. Was it a murder? Wouldn’t it be self defense, like Nathan said?

“Well don’t you worry, I’m sure they will. If those boys remember half of what I taught ‘em while I was on the force, they’ll have your man before you know it.”

“T-thanks, I appreciate that,” he stammered, spinning to head inside. He could still hear the codger behind him muttering proudly about some criminal he remembered tracking down.

He hurried his steps to the door and shoved a hand into his pocket for his keys, only to jam his fingers against the chilly steel of the revolver. The key ring had slipped over the barrel of the gun, making it impossible to get them out without also removing the weapon. He pulled his hand away and stiffly pretended to check other pockets, sneaking a glance toward Mr. Neukam in the process. The old man had already turned to cross the yard back to his own house. Had he seen what Jason was carrying? Come to think of it, why had he come over in the first place? Neither Mr. Neukam or his wife had ever expressed much interest in anything Jason was doing before… Had they?

He carefully pulled the gun from his pocket, blocking it from sight as much as he could, and slipped the keys off of the end. As fast as he could manage, he unlocked the door and dashed inside, shutting it behind him as soon as he was clear of the threshold. He twisted the handle of the deadbolt back into place and crept to the window, peeking through his blinds just in time to see Mr. Neukam going inside his home. Jason watched the windows of his neighbor’s home for a bit longer, making sure no one was spying on him from within. A few minutes later he let go of his blinds, satisfied he had his privacy. He walked to his kitchen, opened an old drawer he wasn’t using and tossed the revolver inside. Jason rolled his shoulders as he slid it shut, trying to relieve the tension sitting there. The burdens of the many secrets Nathan had saddled him with, the tasks he had ahead, and having possession of a possible murder weapon were weighing heavily upon him. No, he reminded himself, not a murder weapon, a weapon used in self-defense. The Tylenol was starting to wear off.

He grabbed a glass from a cabinet and began to fill it at the sink when his phone began to ring. Glancing at the screen, MOTHER was displayed across the top. He pressed the screen to answer and raised the phone to his ear, “Hey, mom.”

“Oh… Are you feeling alright?” She replied. He must have sounded as bad as he felt.

“I’m fine, mom. Just… tired. I’ve had a tough day, that’s all.” Jason could hear the lie in his own voice.

“I just wanted to check in. I know things have been… difficult for you lately, so I want to make sure you know we’re only a call away if you need us.”

“I know, I know. Don’t worry, if I need anything I’ll reach out. I know I haven’t-” He halted, what Nathan had said about his own mother barging to the forefront of his mind. Would Jason be able to tell over the phone if anything was out of place? “I… know I haven’t, uh, visited in a while. Maybe I’ll… come over soon. I could bring dinner.”

“Goodness, now I’m certain you aren’t feeling well!” She chuckled. It did sound like his mother’s laugh… Didn’t it? “Your father and I would love to have you, but we’re busy tonight and tomorrow. If you feel up to having company, I could call your brother and have him come-”

“No, don’t do that, it’s fine. We’ll just have to reschedule. I’ve got a few things I need to take care of, anyway.” Jason strode toward his desk and grabbed a notebook and pen. Quickly he scribbled down Mother and Father and wrote ‘busy?’ next to their names.

“It’s no trouble, I’m sure. He could be there in-”

“No, really,” He cut his mother off again. “I’ll be alright, just give me a call when you’re free so we can reschedule that dinner.” Jason sat in the desk chair, waking up the computer. Putting the notebook down in front of him, he opened his web browser and pulled up social media. He realized his mom was still speaking to him, but he only caught the end.

“-be good for you.”

“Sorry mom, but I’ve got to get going. I’ve got some stuff to take care of here at home. Thanks for the call, I’ll talk to you again soon.” taking the phone away from his ear, he barely heard his mother’s hasty goodbye before he tapped the screen to hang up. Had it been a coincidence his mom called so soon after he’d gotten home? Had the concern in her questions sounded a little forced? He tossed his phone on the desk beside him and hunched toward the monitor, ready to get to work. Immediately he began typing the names of all the friends and family he could think of into social media, scrutinizing the posts going back weeks to try to spot some subtle change. He soon lost track of time, absorbed in his research.

Jason clicked the x on the message box for the third time, annoyed. He barely registered the messages from friends reaching out after seeing him online. A notification lit his phone’s screen. Glancing over, he briefly noted the late hour before returning to the posts beneath photographs and status updates when he was spooked by the sound of knocking on his door.

He looked over, his whole body locked tight, unwilling to move for fear of making the slightest sound. He stared at his door, the blood in his ears pounding, causing his head to rhythmically pulse with pain. He focused all of his attention on his hearing, the whirring of computer fans seeming to drown out every other sound around him. Only a moment later the knocking sounded again, louder. Jason jolted to his feet, then froze. Nathan’s words from a few hours ago repeated in his head, “One of them came for me, too, but I got smart and got it before it got me…” They couldn’t have caught on to him already, could they?

His mind began to race, his breath speeding up. He only got a start on trying to calm down when he noticed something move past his window in the night. Jason scrambled toward the wall and slapped the light switch, attempting to hide from anything looking in. He didn’t dare approach the window and give away where he was inside, his heart felt like it was pushing it’s way out of his chest. A handful of tense moments later the figure passed by the window again. He caught a quick glance. Brown hair, the same shade as his. He was willing to bet they’d be mistaken for twins.

Nathan had been wrong about one thing; their timeline. There wasn’t time anymore to find a pattern, but it hardly mattered. Jason bound into the kitchen, wrenching open the old drawer to find the revolver. He opened the cylinder to see that it was loaded, then snapped it shut as the knocking pounded on his door and through his skull. He crept quietly to the front door, his gun leading the way. “Don’t worry, Nathan,” He whispered to himself, “I’m ready.” With a deep breath and turned the deadbolt.