The evening air stood still and silent amid the vast darkness of the forest. There was no sign of life even in the farthest stretches of the vicinity, for even the foliage appeared lifeless. Amongst the carcasses of blackened pines, echoed loud crackling noises. The silence was immediately outshined by two pairs of feet that trampled through the dry, browned leaves that caked the forest floor. They appeared to be frantic and desperate as they rustled through the leaves which appeared to be endless. Every step they took seemed to be leading them astray from their goal.
Just as they felt home to be a lost cause, one of the heads faced a thin figure approaching before them. She turned to her companion and forcibly clasped his left arm and did not dare utter a word. The look of adversity and fear she held on her face immediately suggested her brother that something was there in the forest where they expected nothing more than dead trees. He understood but did not dare to face the thing. Without a second to spare and leaving one last crackle as he turned to his sister, they blasted away. Huge eruption of dried leaves went flying as they sprinted in the opposite direction. But then, just like a loud blaring alarm, the cloaked figure spoke. The voice commanded them to stop in their tracks and as though they had been put under an uncanny spell– they listened and dragged their feet to a halt.
The siblings could hear each other’s heartbeats pounding. With no where to run and completely stupefied by the invisible strings pulling them to obey the figure, they gave in and turned to face them.
On closer inspection, the figure was cloaked from head to toe in a black robe. It seemed like it had no feet and had just emerged from the floor. The void of darkness that was centered where– what appeared to be the only visible part of its face spoke in a chilling voice.
The girl spoke, “Please, sir, we do not mean to trespass! It was an accident as to how we ended up here!”, she knew the dangers of encountering someone in a place they shouldn’t expect dwellers and had no choice but to use the sly tongue of her’s.
The boy joined but in a fidgety manner, “It’s the truth, I swear! Now excuse us and we will be on our way now!”
As they both tried to slip away from the scene, the cloaked figure stopped them yet again but this time dragging the hood that covered it’s face out of the way.
“If that is the case… then, please, let me help you.”
The view wasn’t clear since dusk was already upon them, but the girl immediately knew who it was.
The brother who was oblivious, addressed, “Hm? A handsome stranger in the middle of this haunted forest… not a good combo.”
The strikingly obvious well kept short blond hair and emerald blue pupils that shined even in the gloomy environment they were in. But something about those eyes were unsettling and unfamiliar, it was not the kind and cheerful eyes they were used to. She tugged her brother back.
“Isn’t that…Will..?” she murmured with suspicion. Although the general features that resembled their ‘Will’ were there, but the complexion wasn’t the same, this one lacked…life. The fear that they felt moments ago eased, they weren’t as tensed up anymore but it was not a moment to relax.
“There’s no way that’s Will-” he abruptly stopped and caught a full glance of the man in the cloak and realised he had misjudged. “Oh my god! It is him!”
“I bet all my money that is definitely not Will.” He was confident about his deduction.
“I might actually agree…” she responded with matching energies.
The supposed ‘Will’ continued to assist them regardless of their whispers. “So? My offer is still on the table...”
“Could you excuse us for just a second?” They turned around and huddled in a corner.
“So, should we book it?” she still found the situation to be unsettling and wanted out as quickly as possible.
“But we are very lost. We might actually never make it home and DIE out here!”
“This Will clearly doesn’t know who we are…”
“Yeah, I think it’s a ghost.”
“Honestly, it’s about time ghosts don’t sound all that far-fetched…” she sighed defeated.
“I guess that leaves us no other choice..?”
They came to an arguable agreement and surrendered to the temptation of staying alive.
Will, with a satisfactory smile– like that of a hunter that has caught its prey– answered swiftly, “Very well, please follow me.”
He led the twins and walked in front of them whilst the twins scuttled from behind like ducklings following its mother. All the while ‘Will’ tried to maintain small talk.
“So, what brings you to this desolate place?”
Both the siblings said nothing but glare endless boring holes into the man’s head and their internalised thoughts were the same. “Kind of hard to answer since YOU were the one who sent us here in the first place!”
“Well..?” he was persistent to get an answer.
The girl spoke without hesitation, “We were on a field trip but then got lost because ‘someone’ wanted to find a bathroom in the middle of the woods...”
The boy watched the show a little dumbfounded about when such a thing even happened, but that excuse would've been extremely dangerous to utter. These forest grounds are banned of any visitors and a field trip out here would be the last thing happening in a place like this.
“I’m guessing that someone is your friend right here?” he found it amusing and even let out a little chuckle. At this point their suspicions cleared, this person is not normal.
The boy noticed and thought to himself, “Well, at-least it’s convincing. Clone Will seems to be buying it.” It seems that the unknown entity finally gained a title of sorts.
“But he then proceeded to freak out after mistaking a stick for a snake...” she kept going in order to distract clone Will, who was also as invested in the predicament as the girl who created it.
The boy found himself in the criminal clutches of his sister who was exceptionally skilled at white lies. After finally reaching the limit—which really wasn’t that high—he blocked his sister’s mouth in an attempt to save his dignity.
“My, my…we’ve arrived.”
The look of horror soon fell upon both their faces as they witnessed something beyond their grasp.
A huge cathedral stood tall among the branches. The walls were overgrown with climbers and yellow weeds. Rocks and debris littered the ground in a formulated manner as though left there intentionally. The place indicated no form of hospitality and seemed abandoned for millennia. The tinted glass windows shattered all around the building leaving nasty shards that was easy to wince at. Lastly, an eerie howl whistled through the windows and faintly shook the damaged lanterns threatening to crash at any moment.
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The twins ran with every ounce of energy they could muster up. Their breathes staggered as they sprinted furiously far away from the cathedral. But the adrenaline rush soon ended miserably as they were caught by an invisible force field blocking their path. They crashed on to the field and fell to the ground, ultimately losing consciousness.
The man—who was behind them, approaching the two before they completely collapsed—was rather calm and grinned at the sight of the fallen bodies.
“Sorry about that little ones, but let your master know I’ll be borrowing this body for a while…” without another word to spare, he snapped his fingers. A surge of energy pulsated through the atmosphere and the twins disappeared from the scene without a trace.
“Ugh…” the boy rose from a patch of green grass. His hair a mess and his clothes dirtied. He quickly pulled himself up and found himself in a completely different place and called out to his only companion.
“Demi!!” He screamed for his sister as he frantically looked around in front of him.
“I’m right here...” She let out in a restrained voice as she slowly rose behind him.
“Are you okay, Dylan? My head hurts like hell…”
“Yeah, I’m fine I guess… but what the hell was that. Was it even real? How is it that we are back here again?” They found themselves outside the forest premise and exactly where they had started this journey.
“I’m just as clueless as you are…” she rested her head on her shoulders and noticed something strange as she looked up at the sky. “Wait..? What time is it?”
“Huh? Oh, it’s…only 4:37pm. We’ve only been there for 45 minutes! How is that possible?!” He was lost for words.
“It felt like hours in there, also considering how dark it was inside and yet it still bright out here…” she could not make sense of the situation.
They looked at each other completely distraught and not being able to make any coherent judgment, they had no choice but to go back home.
“Should we head to Will’s then? He already called five times…” Dylan muttered as he gathered himself from the ground and brushing away the dirt.
“Yup… my legs are noodles… carry me..!”
“Ew, why do you still have the energy to joke?”
They scrambled away to their destination both in analysis and scrimmage along the way.
About 20 minutes later, they found themselves in a well polished apartment building right next to their own house. They dragged themselves to the third floor and rang the doorbell.
“About time they showed up… I hope they are alright…” A familiar head of shiny golden hair jumped up from the sofa and rushed to the door. He answered the door immediately after it was rung.
An ominous aura swept through the living room which was emanated by the twins who were famished and couldn’t even walk straight. Dylan looked disheveled topped with a piece of leaf stuck to his head and Demi faced the floor as her short, brown locks covered her face.
“Woah! You guys alright?!” The house’s owner was in a complete state of panic upon seeing the two.
“Move.” They commanded in unison and then proceeded to invite themselves over to the sofa and collapsed on top of it.
“So? I’m guessing the mission didn’t go too well?” He said with mild frustration. “I’m sorry I made you guys go, but you agreed to the deal so…”
They were no more than mere excuses to the twins and wished to not hear another word.
As holding conversation became quite a task he proposed something better, “How about something to eat?” He knew for a fact it was not up for rejection.
“Hot chocolate.” She sounded in a brisk voice which was followed by Dylan, “Cookies for me!”
“Now you guys are willing to talk!?”
“Now that your bellies are full, care to explain what happened?” Will sat down with a drink for himself on the kitchen counter opposite to the twins.
“Ahem! So, we went to the forest to find the blank human you have been trying to find since you last saw it—around a week ago, I suppose. Just like you said we went into the forest relying solely on the shabby picture in the newspaper.”
She continued, “While we were there we totally lost track of time and space and soon found ourselves to have completely lost our way.”
Dylan intervened and took over the explanation, “And just as we were on the brink of losing hope, we found YOU!” He slammed his hands on the counter furiously.
“For some weird reason your doppelgänger insisted on helping us go home and so we had no choice but to follow him like ducklings!”
“Your knockoff was surely persistent at having us stay since he led us straight to an abandoned cathedral, sprawling with weed.” Demi added.
“Finally, one thing led to the other and somehow we found ourselves outside of the forest right where we started with mild concussions...”
Will did not have much to comment about in the heap of chaos they had experienced.
“Anything else unusual..?”
“Something more unusual than this? Are you joking?” Dylan was annoyed.
“Actually… there was something that he whispered right before I fell unconscious. Something like , ‘Tell your master I’ll be borrowing this body for a while’…” Demi said cautiously.
“Hmm… master, eh? I like the sound of that!” Will responded weakly to their troubles.
“Hey! Take this seriously would you? We could have died out there!” Dylan immediately revolted.
“We have failed to accomplish anything at this point. What do we do from now?” Demi said not too affected by Will’s words— atleast not as much as Dylan.
“It would seem we dug up more problems but what if the blank human in this picture right here might actually be me?”
He pointed to the newspaper dated two days ago. The news did not make headlines of course, since it was merely brushed aside as a lunatic on the loose. But they had undeniable characteristics of a hollow underdeveloped shell of a human which they aptly referred to as Blank human. The existence of such creatures were known only to the three in this room. As for the underlying mystery of when and how these came to existence no one as of now had the answers.
“By that theory we can now understand that these things are able to mimic humans or even mirror them. While I was doing my usual all-nighter I happened to glance upon a pale whitish figure scurry through the streets and chanced upon it yet again near the forest. But I don’t know if I told you guys this already but I think I made eye contact with it the second time. It took off immediately after though…”
“So what you’re saying is that the doppelgänger we encountered in the forest might be your blank human…?” Dylan was shocked.
“How could it be? How do we confirm it copies your body after you make eye contact?” Demi argued with a reasonable doubt.
“Well I did some work of my own and got my hands on the security camera footage near the forest fencing…” he took out his phone and showed a blurry picture of the security monitors and in one of the screens and pale entity was seen and clearly with he same characteristics of Will.
“Hmm… are you sure that’s not you sleep walking naked…” Demi joked.
“I can guarantee it’s not me sleepwalking at night..!” Will laughed along.
“Ugh! How do you guys have the time to joke around? Take this seriously would you!?” Dylan was the only one freaked out by all this, while the others did not seem to show it.
“Anyway the reason I’m telling you all this which I’m sure you already know is that the person you met in the forest might just be the same blank human that I found that day and has fully developed and gained... consciousness, perhaps?”
“That could easily be the case, that is, if we actually had real evidence of their growing patterns…” Demi slouched back on the chair.
“Since catching it now is clearly out of the question since it has gained sentience, should we perhaps just stalk it a little longer just to see what it is capable of?” Dylan suggested.
The other two agreed, it was the only option left. They all came to the conclusion that they couldn’t possibly get official help. From the complete lack of evidence as well as no evident threat from the entity in question it couldn’t be viewed as something more than an uncanny illusion. The only reason driving them to believe this entity possess destructive power is the fact that it has the ability to take over a human’s identity and once sentient could very well commit atrocities.
But when it comes to their current credibility, the fact that these blanks can even copy humans is far fetched. It seems imagination is the driving force for most theories.
“If things get out of hand we have no choice but to-” Will claimed in a foreboding voice.
“Kill.” Demi said with no hesitation.
“It’s easier said than done. Do you actually think we have it in us to commit murder?” Dylan found himself slightly perturbed.
“…well, I hope we don’t have to go that far. Anyway! I think that’s enough discussion on this topic for today. You guys are both mentally and physically exhausted from this venture, so get home and remember: All of this stays under wraps, got it? Not a word of this to anyone but the three of us!” He slammed his palm on the table shaking the cutlery.
Just as he sounded one last warning, another voice emerged from the background behind them from the front door.
“Not a word of what..?” A low but sharp voice spoke as they entered creaking the door in the process.
“AHH!!” The trio screamed in unison spilling their food all over the table.