• “But the air was becoming heavier and more suffocating. I felt as if I would panic if I stayed in this house too much longer.”

    “So this is the shell?” I asked eyeing my clone suspiciously. It was a very good copy with the hair parted the same way his is naturally, the nose and mouth shaped the same but there was no real light in the eyes.

    “Yes, it is. The plan is that this will enter your home tonight and unexpectedly ‘die’, making it seem that you have passed away.” The man said almost in admiration.

    I nodded. “Then I can undergo the training?”

    The man nodded and chuckled replying, “You almost sound eager. Many fear the training years. We aren’t bound by more ‘common’ laws.”

    “Why would I fear it, it’s not like my life was anything to miss.”

    “We’ll see…” The man said as he walked away. Before he left the room he whispered something to the guard at the door. The guard nodded and the man left.


    So the plan was in motion.

    The following morning the clone passed away and caused my parents to do exactly what was expected of them. They rushed over trying to figure out what happened on their own then called for medical assistance, but that wouldn’t help.

    There was a fake ‘doctor’ in position that would give them the news about what had happened and that there was nothing they could do to save me.
    I smiled and giggled a bit from across the street hidden by my old neighbor’s bushes, then I cursed myself for acting so childish, but I could not help it. I enjoyed the thought of this being a practical joke as any child would do. I would pop out of nowhere and yell ‘surprise!’ and we would have a good laugh.

    I knew all too well that this was not a game or a trick.

    The ambulance left soon after and I knew my parents were gone as well; probably one was with my ‘body’ and the other racing for my siblings.

    I sprinted across the street and climbed the few stones steps up to the door and entered my old home, one that once welcomed me in with open arms.
    Now I felt like a stranger intruding in someone else’s home.

    I crept up the stairs, past the framed eyes and painted smiles, ones that watched me as I ascended up those steps I had so many memories of.
    Once at the top I took a peek into the rooms, taking my last good looks at them.

    My parents room, my brother’s, my sister’s they were all the same.
    But the air was becoming heavier and more suffocating. I felt as if I would panic if I stayed in this house too much longer.

    I now turned to my door, the one at the end of the endless hallway.
    The carpet slid under my shoes as if unwilling to let me progress to my old room, until I gripped the biting knob of my door and entered the dark room, smaller that I remember.

    I had a reason to be there, and I was not going to let my growing panic keep me from achieving it.

    Sitting on my bed was a briefcase and inside that briefcase I knew housed the reason I came. My journals from the moment I could write were inside of it, and I could not leave that behind.

    End of Chapter One