CHAPTER 11 - DID HE JUST SAY THAT?

Good news: I was awake and not dead.

Bad news: I was undressed and couldn’t move.

At least, not as much as I’d want to. I could feel my limbs wriggling around, restricted by some rope.

“You’re finally awake?” my reflection said. “Calm down, stop struggling!”

Did this guy think I was just going to listen to him? Especially, after he tied each of my limbs to the legs of the bed? Very poorly as well.

I’d never follow the commands of a maniac. The ropes were loosening up little by little. There was no reason to quit.

“Don’t make me say it again.” He unholstered his gun and cocked the hammer.

As if I’d be so easily scared. If he would’ve killed me, he would’ve done it sooner. This was an obvious bluff–

He fired a round next to my head, ringing my ears.

Okay, it might not be a bluff.

I stayed still, and he started tightening one of the ropes for my legs.

This was a problem. I needed to him stop and leave the ropes alone.

“So, are you going to explain why you decided to tie me down naked to my own bed?” I asked. “Or is this just a fun game in your world?”

“I’m not an idiot. I knew the moment I asked you to trade places that you weren’t so keen on the idea.”

“And what? You’re going to kill me?”

He stopped tightening the ropes and scoffed. “What? Of course not… well, actually… kind of.”

Okay, back to squirming and trying to get out the bed.

“Quit it!” he shouted, sprinkling spit on my face.

He cocked his revolver again and fired.

The first time it was scary, but the second time he missed again killed the fear.

It was definitely a bluff.

“Stop!” He hit me with the butt of his gun.

It hurt, but not enough to make me quit my struggle for survival.

He leaned in to slam the gun harder, but I moved my head out of the way. With his forearm so close, I opened my teeth and chomped down on it.

My doppelganger cried out loud and his hand dropped the gun, dropping it onto the sheets.

I didn’t get to keep the damage going when he started pounding the side of my head with his burnt hand. With his arm free of my teeth, he clutched it and cursed. “You stupid little–”

His mouth paused when my right hand got loose. “Try to learn how to tie better knots, idiot.”

Grabbing the gun on the sheets, I cocked the hammer with my right hand! It wasn’t burned, which meant I wasn’t in my own world anymore.

It was his.

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“For all that talk about trading place, why are we back at yours?”

He went to move, but I shot him in the shoulder. “You piece of–”

“Shut up and start talking. What’s going on?”

I should’ve just shot him, but I guess curiosity got the better of me. Why didn’t he just kill me? Why did he tie me down?

Without any quickness at all, my reflection relaxed his body and closed his eyes, like he needed time to think up an answer, meaning the truth was either complicated and hard to explain or it was just nothing good.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, his eyes opened up and he shrugged his shoulders. “There’s no real good answer. I got greedy. Just blow my head off.”

“Fine by me.”

I blew his head off.

Okay, no I didn’t.

I would’ve but when I pulled the trigger, all I got was a clicking noise.

My reflection sighed. “I forgot to reload it… nice going, me.”

“So, we’re at a standstill then, huh?” I asked.

“If you call me standing and free and you down and tied save for one arm a ‘standstill’, then sure. We’re at a ‘standstill’.”

“Well, this is quite the predicament.”

“Yes, it is. I should’ve learned how to tie ropes better.”

“If it makes you feel better, I’m really glad you suck at it.”

“It would’ve made it way easier to prep you.”

“Excuse me?” What did he mean by that?

“I got too greedy. I wanted to make a good meal out of ya, but I always wondered how it’d go if I skinned people alive. Never had the gall to do it but with you? I just had to try. Who else but a spitting image of me.”

Did he just say he wanted to make a meal out of me? Scratch that. Did he just say he wanted to skin me alive? “Okay, take a step back, chef. Did you just say you were going to skin me and make a meal? What is actually wrong with you?”

“Yeah, I always wondered what I’d taste like. Just a passing thought, really,” he said, waving his burnt left hand in my face. “Got drunk one night and started burning myself, but the pain was too much for me. I didn’t even get a good sear, and I burnt the wrong hand! Shame, really.”

Okay, my twin from another world just had to be a cannibal. “And you decided to eat me? Then, did you even care that I didn’t want to trade worlds with you?”

“Look, I really tried. I was going to let you live, but you were being such a pain. I mean if you weren’t going to willingly trade place, I might as well just kill you and eat you.”

“Why is that your conclusion? There’s a lot of other solutions you could’ve tried reaching for, instead of cannibalism, ya psycho!”

“You’re just so annoying. I could feel you want to hurt and kill me from a mile away. The moment we started talking about the differences in our worlds, you wouldn’t stop giving me the stink eye with each one of my answers.”

Damn, was I that obvious?

“And Jane,” he continued.

“What about Jane?” I demanded.

“She tasted so damn good. Then, I found out from you that she exists in your world too.”

Goddamn it. “I’ll kill you if you try that.”

“Oh, come on. You were already planning on doing that, so nothing really changes for me,” he said, stepping near the mirror. “Don’t worry, though. I won’t kill you here. It’d be too annoying. You already got an arm loose, and you weren’t exactly very subtle trying to wiggle your way out the other ropes. By the time, I come back with another weapon you’d be ready for me with your good hand.”

“And?”

“Well, seeing as I’m next to the mirror and you need at most a minute to get out those ropes… I got the head start.”

He jumped through the mirror and I could hear him kick the mirror down.

I struggled out my ropes, loosening them with each passing second.

My struggle only became more intense when I could hear him moving things in my world. Was he planning on covering the mirror?

He wouldn’t make the same mistake as me. He would probably put more than just a drawer.

After a few more seconds, I was free. Lunging off the bed to the mirror, I bounced back from the sudden blockade on the other side of the portal.

I could hear my reflection’s muffled voice from the other side. “You should’ve really put a bed over the mirror… and like everything else you could find. Like a drawer only? What were you thinking? You’re a real idiot.”

“Don’t you dare touch a hair on Jane, you–”

“I’ll be scalping that right off, don’t you worry,” he said.

With a shutting of a door, I could only stand there and listen to his footsteps grow fainter and fainter.

I needed to hurry.