Another bout of flash fiction is on its way. Last time I introduced a young girl named Suzie who wasn't really all she appeared. Today, I'm looking into the life of a young man named Nathan. Grab some coffee, of course you don't have to, but it'll go great with this latest tale.
The Stand-in Guy
"It's like I'm looking in a mirror. Every hair on your arm is identical to mine. Your voice is exactly the same." Nathan dangled his arms, while Charlie held up his in comparison. "So, you think you can act like me enough?"
Charlie nodded his blonde, spiky hair. "Hey, I've just been following you in the shadows, studying everything you do and every little action that makes you unique. I guarantee satisfaction."
This was the closest Nathan ever had to having a twin brother. All the troubles he had in seventh grade, Charlie was a true life-saver. He just couldn't believe that summoning a doppelganger would have actually worked. When he walked into the mall bookstore after he skipped his last hour class, the cover jumped out at him. He thumbed through this book of dark arts filled with incantations of one kind or another, hoping to find the help he needed for his life at Wilson Middle School.
School just sucked for Nathan. All C's and D's on his last report card. The teachers thought he was nothing but a total goof-off and didn't have high expectations of him. Even in phys. ed. He was the kind of kid who never ran, but always walked the required mile and a half. Other students acted like animals in the locker room before and after phys. ed. The more developed boys just made life a living hell for those whose puberty had yet to begin. Middle school just sucked. He understood why some students snapped and went on shooting sprees. For Nathan, though, he wasn't the type to go on a rampage, and he didn't have access to any weapon, anyway. He wished for a supernatural solution to his problems.
If only he had a smart twin brother that could go to school for him, while he stayed home and played video games all day. The book on incantations had a ritual for summoning a doppelganger, so he followed all the instructions. He was tempted to shoplift it, but he knew he wasn't slick enough to by-pass the store's security. Nathan managed to write down the steps in his math notebook before the assistant manager got suspicious of him and thought he was a kid up to no good. Security escorted him out by the elbow, threatening to call the police the next time he loitered in the bookstore.
At first Charlie just hung out as a shadow on the wall, merely two dimensional. However, a week later, last evening to be exact, Charlie peeled off Nathan's bedroom wall and entered the 3-D world to form a physical body that would shape itself into a replica of Nathan's. Every feature, down to the fingerprints, was identical. Nathan wasn't sure about their DNA being the same. Nathan dressed the naked doppelganger in a T-shirt with a college football logo and blue jeans and ordered him to remain in his closet for the night. This particular kind of doppelganger would do everything his "host" asked him to do.
Here they were standing face to face. Nathan's parents were already gone to work, so he had to get himself up in the morning. "So, are you ready to take over my life at school, Charlie?"
"Definitely. I am now Nathan. Good-bye, Nathan. You're now Charlie." Nathan screamed as his body slapped itself against the wall becoming merely a shadow of himself. And, then he went into the black void where all the doppelgangers waited, hoping to be the next one called into service. It's gonna be a hell of a long wait.
Be good to yourselves!
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