Chapter #82A Nightmarish Future, part 2 by: imaj   The sigils in Vidya’s hands waver one last time and resolve themselves into something solid: Viritrilbia and Kenadandra. She holds them therefore a few seconds before letting them dissipate. Then Vidya opens her eyes and mops her brow with the back of her hand.
“And you are who you say you are,” says Joe with a fragile looking smile. “This is what Prescott’s done to us: Reduced to not even trusting people are who they appear to be.” He shakes his head unhappily.
“What do we do now,” asks Vidya uncertainly.
Joe looks at the ceiling nervously. “We get help,” he replies unhappily. “This is too big for me. It might be too big for all of us, but who else is there…” he trails off and stares straight ahead, his eyes unfocussed. “We can’t go to John,” he says to himself. “If Prescott’s following us that just leads him where he wants to go. We have to go to Rick, no one knows Prescott better, and Rick always could spot him.”
“I don’t want this to happen,” you whine, but Joe cannot hear you.
“Who’s Rick,” interrupts Vidya, back to pacing again.
“You haven’t met him yet,” states Joe. “Another Stellae, an investigator. He trained Prescott and frankly, that makes him the best hope we have. I’ll phone him.” He pauses. “I’ll phone everyone that’s left,” Joe adds bitterly. “They need to be warned.”
Vidya stops pacing, her face pale. “Oh gods,” she mutters. “What if he’s already phoned everyone.” Joe looks confusedly at her for a moment. “He could be Rosalie and tell the other Stellae anything.”
Joe thinks it over for a second. “No,” he replies, trying to sound confident. “The logical thing for Prescott to do would be to try and keep what’s happened quiet. He got Rosalie and Ed so easily because their guard was down. They weren’t expecting him. If he draws attention to what’s happened the rest of us will be ready for him. Even with… with Nibiru that makes it much harder for him. He’d also run the risk of Rick working out the truth.”
“If you’re sure,” says Vidya, making it clear that she isn’t.
“I am,” replies Joe, picking up the phone by the bed. He starts dialling a number. “I’ll make the call now.”
Vidya sighs. “I’m going to take a shower, ok? I need to relax.”
Joe nods and Vidya makes for the en suite bathroom. Even though you’d like to listen to what Joe has to say to Rick, you feel compelled to follow Vidya. It’s almost as if you know that you’ll learn more that way. She doesn’t notice that you push the door open ahead of her, but simply closes and locks it once she has entered.
The bathroom isn’t big, in fact with you and Vidya in it, there isn’t much room to move. There’s a cubicle shower, a toilet, a sink and a rack of dirty looking towels. A frosted glass window has been opened wide to let the air in, causing little drops of rain to splash off the inner windowsill. Vidya holds one of the towels in her hand as she examines it before sighing with disgust and closing the window.
She peels off the plastic like tee she’s wearing, revealing that she isn’t wearing a bra. Not that she needs to. Her figure is lean, bony even and you can clearly make out her ribcage. Vidya produces a hair tie from one of her pockets and pulls her mass of inky curls up, tying it in place. The she kicks off her shiny white sneakers and pulls down her tight jeans. You look away as she pulls down her panties.
That’s when you see him.
It’s you, the mirror flipped version. He looks older certainly, but not as much older as Joe does, perhaps a consequence of spending so much time in other faces. He’s lurking in one of the corner of the bathroom – no wonder it felt so small, three people hardly leaves any room at all in the bathroom.
“Can’t you see him,” you ask Vidya. She ignores you.
You realise why she can’t see him. The other you must have wrapped her in his cloak. You open your senses and feel for it. It’s wrapped tightly round her, trailing back to the other you. As you look in his direction the other you looks directly back and winks.
Shivers run down your spine. You want to run, or wake up, or whatever will let you escape from this place but you are rooted to the spot. You can do nothing but watch as Vidya examines herself in the mirror. She turns from side to side, then looks down at herself and sighs unhappily. Then she turns to reach inside the cubicle and turn the shower on.
The other you simply watches as Vidya steps inside the shower. He sighs wistfully, then very slowly and very quietly he starts speaking. “I remember, a long time ago, that I dreamed this moment,” he begins. “And I remember dreaming that I heard myself say these words, even as I’m speaking them just now. I remember that I had a lot of questions, but that there only one that got answered. The answer is ‘because I can, and because I want to show Joe that I can outsmart him’. So if you really are standing here, dreaming all this, there you go. The rest of the answers you will have to find out for yourself, because we are out of time.”
Vidya opens the shower door and steps back out, water running down her body. She reaches out for a towel but never makes it. The other you steps smartly forward and thrusts a glowing hand onto the centre of her chest. To your surprise she doesn’t collapse to the floor, but rather stands frozen in place. Then she starts shrinking, slowly at first, but then more and more rapidly. Her feet dangle in the air as they pull upwards. Within mere seconds, the other you is holding onto a doll, no more than nine inches tall, where Vidya once stood.
The other you stuffs the doll behind the towel rack and starts stripping of quickly. His clothes join the doll behind the towel rack as well and in less than a minute he stands naked. Seeing your own, albeit older, body naked is unsettling, but that discomfort does not last long. The other you shivers and his form shifts to that of Vidya. She smirks unpleasantly, then that conceited expression vanishes, replace by the haggard and dispirited look that Vidya has had since your first saw her.
The fake Vidya carefully selects the least dirty looking towel from the rack. She examines it, duplicating perfectly the disgusted look the original showed not a few minutes early, and then starts towelling herself down. Then she gets dressed in a workmanlike fashion. No time wasted, examining herself or taking pleasure in her stolen body, the fake Vidya simply redresses without thinking. Exactly the way you imagine a young woman on the run would. She glances in your direction as she walks out of the bathroom, but apart from that there is no little slip in character that would suggest she was anyone other than who she appears to be.
As you follow her back into the motel room you feel conflicted. This other you, the fake Vidya is skilled with their prodigies. Unlike you, they’ve learned to use them without little giveaways and tells. In some way, this is what the Stellae, your teachers, want you to become – a perfect imposter.
But the other you is also a monster, a murderer with a twisted morality. Is that a consequence of your prodigies?
Time seems to trickle to a halt as Joe puts the phone back down. He is turning, slowly turning to face the fake Vidya, a weak smile starting to grow in his face in inch by agonising inch.
The fake Vidya is walking towards Joe, moving at a glacial pace. She has a brittle smile too, but it’s fake. It hides a real smile, gloating in your other self’s moment of triumph.
The dream grinds to a halt. Neither Joe nor the fake Vidya move any further. Is there something you can do? Something you should do? Joe will not be able to hear any warning you give him, but what else can you do?
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