FICTION | MASHUP | FANTASY
A Hell of a Doppelganger
Part 7 of a Hell of a Bedtime Story — Rhea and Tommy get into trouble when they uncover their teacher’s dark secret
“I have a bad feeling about this ….”
Rhea sighed and pulled at Tommy’s sleeve, urging him to follow her. Ms Fuller’s pink bungalow was very close now. Fortunately, it looked dark and abandoned. They just had to sneak through her pretty garden in the cover of darkness.
“Don’t be such a baby, Tommy. We will just have a peek. This is hardly a danger. And as you see, nobody is home.”
“We’ll have a peek at doom,” Tommy wailed.
“Tommy,” Rhea scolded her best friend, “what do you think will happen? This is not dad’s old computer game that we secretly played once. No monsters are waiting around the corner.”
Rhea watched her best friend’s shoulders sag as his resistance crumbled. Tommy sighed and opened his mouth a few times. Just as Rhea feared he’d throw up again, he composed himself and quoted the scoundrel from that space movie again, “I got a bad feeling about this.”
Like two nosy little rabbits, they dashed from the house’s fence to a bush, to a large bench in the garden and finally arrived at the backdoor. Slowly, Rhea reached for the door’s handle.
“Locked,” she whispered.
“Too bad. Let’s come back another time,” Tommy said almost inaudibly. He tried to turn on his heels but hesitated when Rhea glared at him. “My dad saw a blue jay in the park nearby! Maybe we get to see it.”
Rhea was about to snap when she recognised his hands trembled like Dandelions during a tornado. Gently, she took his hands in her left and covered them with her right as if to protect a tiny, scared animal. They crouched in silence beside the backdoor for what seemed like an eternity to Rhea. Eventually, Tommy stopped trembling and took a deep breath.
“It is a movie cliché,” he said as if he hadn’t been close to a panic attack moments earlier, “but maybe she has a spare key hidden somewhere nearby.”
“Are you telling me to check under all those flower pots?”
“No, not all of them. Try that one.”
Rhea turned toward a small pot with a dead plant. The sorrowful thing looked so dry even the Sahara would shy away from it.
“Why that one? It looks … just dead.”
“Exactly,” responded her best friend, “Unlike all the vibrant green plants with colourful blossoms around us, this one looks absolutely dead. Why did she keep it?”
“Damn,” said Rhea when she lifted the pot and looked at a hidden key.
“Swear word!” Tommy hissed, immediately regretting speaking that loud.
Rolling her eyes, Rhea took the key and returned the pot to its previous position. Still surprised about their luck, Rhea unlocked the backdoor and opened it carefully and with barely a sound. Darkness awaited them inside.
“That was easy. Would have been handy to bring flashlights, though.”
Before Tommy could suggest abandoning their mission and getting flashlights, Rhea was already inside. He gulped audibly but followed her nonetheless.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Miss Fuller?!” Tommy and Rhea said in unison when they discovered their teacher in a walk-in closet.
“Hmmm! Hmmm! Hmm-hmm-mhh!” the gagged woman replied.
“You have to take off her gag,” suggested Tommy.
Rhea looked at him in confusion and placed her hands on her hips.
“Why me?!”
“You are the brave detective who wanted to come here. If she turns out to be a crazy, psychotic killer, she’ll bite off your hands, not mine.”
“Crazy, psychotic killer ….”
Rhea giggled and rolled her eyes before carefully freeing Ms Fuller from an improvised gag made from an old kitchen towel and fishnet stockings. Although she pretended bravery, she minimised the risk of having her hands bitten off.
“Rhea. Tommy.” Ms Fuller whispered, trying to look over Rhea’s shoulder, “I’m so glad to see you. Please be quick and untie me. We have to get out of here.”
“First things first,” Rhea said with as commanding presence as a girl her age could master, but certainly enough to make Tommy flinch. “Why are you trapped in your own closet? This morning, you were still out and about in the sun … and acting very suspiciously!”
Rhea gave her best imitation of The Rock’s smouldering expression and dragged the last bit as much as possible without sounding ridiculous. To her despair, Tommy had to giggle.
“… aaaactiiing veeeryyyy suuuspiiiciiouuuuslyyyyy,” Tommy imitated her and giggled again.
Before Rhea could say something, Ms Fuller hushed them.
“Be quiet, or they hear us.”
Tommy’s giggling ended abruptly, and he returned to his frightened screeching voice.
“Who’s they?!”
“Her shadows ….”
Rhea looked at Ms Fuller and rolled her eyes.
“Great foreboding drama, Miss Fuller,” Rhea snapped, “but who is she again?”
“She looks like me …,” the kids’ teacher said hesitantly, “Although it shouldn’t be possible, she even is me. At the same time, she isn’t.”
“That’s not confusing at all,” said Rhea.
“… or scary!” Tommy shrieked.
“Do you remember that impossible snowstorm?”
Both kids nodded in agreement.
“That day, I fled from the blizzard, groceries under my arm, and barely made it home before it really started. When I entered the kitchen, I saw a woman sitting in my armchair with a cup of hot cocoa on the side table. I demanded to know who she was, and when the woman slowly turned around, I realised ….”
Ms Fuller fell silent for a moment and gulped.
“… she was me!”
Sceptically, Rhea raised an eyebrow while Tommy gaged next to her, prompting Rhea to silently beg whatever guardian angel was listening to prevent him from throwing up.
“Before I knew what had happened, black snake-like tentacles wrapped around me. The woman … the thing … walked toward me and …,” tears started welling in Ms Fuller’s eyes, and she needed a moment to finish her sentence, “… and she grabbed me by the throat and said one of us would have to die else our story wouldn’t end!”
Rhea wrinkled her forehead and slowly shook her head, “That sounds … really … stupid.”
“Believe me! She … she’s my evil twin!”
“Oh my god!” Tommy shouted, “Twinsies!”
“Seriously, Tommy? Twinsies?!”
“Uh … evil twinsies?”
Tommy blushed, but before he could say anything else, Ms Fuller hushed them again. Her eyes were as wide as saucers.
“I hear them. Untie me!” she begged, “Quick, untie me, please!”
Then, Rhea heard the vicious hissing that would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life. Tommy froze next to her and bit his lower lip.
“Tommy,” Rhea barked, “Let’s untie her and run!”
Tommy answered with a panicked screech as something dark wound around his ankle and forcefully pulled him away into the darkness. Rhea’s resolve crumbled like a sand castle next to a blast furnace. She did the only logical thing left, screaming for help as loud and panicked as possible.
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This is a response to Jonathon Sawyer’s Monday Mash-Up №15.
Prompt №1: identical twin sitting at home -> 2 points
Constraint: a blue jay -> 1 point
Constraint: the sun -> 1 point
Constraint: fishnet stockings -> 1 point
Constraint "OMG - Twinsies!" -> 1 point
Hardcore Constraint: the story cannot end until there is only one left -> 2 point
Literary Device (litotes): "This is hardly a danger." 5 points
Tally 1 point
Sum: 14 pointsOh my gosh! The suspense is killing me!
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