DOPPELGANGER

Chapter 1 - Aslyum

I don't even know where to start. I'm sitting on the cold cement in alleyway in a city I am not too familiar with. How did I get here? I take a puff on an almost-finished cigarette, closing my eyes and just waiting. Waiting this out. Waiting for all of this to be over. I'm gullible. I know it's not going to end. None of this is going to end. The world is dead. Everything is in a chaotic, destructive state. All of the local news outlets are gone. City parks have become safe havens for renegadge gang members. Cars are now homemade bombs set to trap innocent citizens from stealing them. Local businesses have become black markets for illegal weapons and imported drugs. The world, to put it simply, is fucked and it's all his fault.

In a span of three years, I would've never imagined the world to be like this. Here I am 21 years old, sitting in an alleyway hoping to god my life won't be taken by some trash with a knife or a gun. I wouldn't blame them. After all, according to them, I caused this. They will never understand that it wasn't me. It was him. I put my cigarette out, stand up and wait for my next plan of action. Which is... to find him. I begin to walk out of the dark alleyway and into the bright streets of the unfamiliar city. Where could he be? Where is he hiding? I need to know. If he's stopped, maybe everything will go back to normal. I'm hoping. 

Let me give you some insight on how this all began because believe me, the world was a much nicer place. 

It all happened three years ago - when I was 18 years old. My parents decided to send me to a mental institution. They didn't have the heart to send me to a detention center. I don't blame them. After all, I am their only child. They decided to send me to an insitution, or a mental rehabilitation center - whatever you want to call it, after a couple of then-recent events that took place. For example, they noticed I would come home in the middle of the night with no explaination. They noticed I was stealing from my past employers and shopping centers. During my last year of high school, I brutally disfigured a bully - which resulted in the parents taking legal action. Finally, they saw me on a local news channel, stripped of clothes with guns in my hands robbing a credit union. Except it was not me. Again, it was him. 

Confused, with no other options, they admitted me after talking with my lawyers. They didn't want the police involved anymore than they were. They didn't want to damage their baby. The police and the judge agreed to send me to a hospital seeing that my record prior to the events was clean. I've never been involved in any problems until then. So, they sent me to three years in the asylum. I was fine with it. After all, I was kicked out of school and lost my job. What else was I going to do with my life at this point? 

I made my stay my permanent residence. I became close to the staff and other patients. The cooks knew what foods I liked. The recreational worker knew what sports and games I liked to play. They all knew what type I woke up and when I called it a night. I was, in a way, free of everything that happened to me. No one knew of my innocence though and that was what bothered me. 

I remember looking out the windows seeing the world going on. City towers lights turning off and on. The stop lights flickering from green, light to red. People commuting to work with their coffees and mobile devices. As free as I was, I missed the outside. I needed a way out. That was when I met him for the first time.

I was sleeping one night. Everyone and everything was quiet. I heard quiet things from outside the windows. Cars driving by, people talking, average things. Then I heard him. "Josiah." My eyelids practically ripped open. My eyes were as big as marbles. I began to sweat as my heart pounded harder than it ever had. I slowly look down the bed. I see him. "H-h-ell-" I can't even finish the word. He finishes it for me. "Hello." I sit up, slowly. I am not sure who or what I am talking to. "Who are you- what are you?" The figure slowly floats closer to the end of my bed. "I'm you." That is when I see him - me. This figure shrouded with darkness has the face of... me.

"What- what the fuck?!" I think to myself, "How is this possible? What in the world is going on?" The figure - me - starts to laugh. "You really don't understand, do you?" The cloudy darkness begins to crawl around  the bed as if it's feasting. "Tell me, Josiah. Why are you here?" I start to ponder that very question. "To be honest, I really don't know." The figure begins to laugh again. "It wouldn't be because of the crimes you commited, would it?" I look up at him, my throat beginning to melt. "I didn't commit any of those crimes. I swear! It wasn't me!" The figure has finally engulfed the whole bed in black. The face slowly edges towards mine. "My boy, it was you. You commited all those crimes. I mean, who else wouldt've been? It couldn't possibly've been me, right?" That is when everything came together. That bastard. He did it. It was all him! 

"You did this! You did all of this! And now i'm paying for it by being in here, you asshole!" I finally let lose. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I was always a good, innocent boy. I couldn't be anymore. Not in here. Not after being accused of all those crimes. The figure has finally become as close to me as possible. His noise grazing mine. "Josiah, it was me. I did everything to put you in here. I fucked with the mines of everyone. I made theim put you in here instead of jail. I wouldn't want to lose you for years upon years. This was the easiest route to go." I gulped. What is he talking about? Out of the darkness, his hands began to appear. The touched my chest and I laid back down completely on the bed. It was such a tinging sensation. That is when I realized I couldn't move. My body was, what I was hoping, temporary paralyzed. I tried to open my mouth, to speak but it was too much. I noticed he was in control. He had the say in everything.

"Josiah, I am saving your life. Three years from now, the world will be in anarchy. There will be a disabled democracy. No political power. All human gain. The world, as you know it, will be gone. I am doing this for you. You can finally step out of your shell and become who you want to be. You no longer have to be that pussy failure. I will do this all unto you. As long as I can continue to destroy your present life. I will see you soon." The figure immediately disappears. I can move my body. I sit up, drenched in sweat. My heart  is still pounding. I look around the room - there's absolutely no sign of him. Where did he go?

I'm stuck here, pretty much waiting to die. I have so many questions for him. I began to think of what he said, "As long as I can continue to destroy your present life." He doesn't literally mean this does he? Is he going to continue commiting crimes under my name? But i'm in here. What would happen to me - physical, literal me? I guess, only time will tell. 

I lay back down and, for the first time in a long time, I begin to cry.