I stayed in the hospital room for another two hours before Frey returned to the room. He carried with him a clipboard this time a began writing. He checked the monitors on display and asked how my pain levels were. The medication had worked great, and I was feeling fine. Once Frey was done following his procedures he disconnected the monitors on me, so I no longer had a bundle of wires going from my head and chest. I was left alone for another hour before a different worker came to bring me out of the hospital.
While I waited for the time to come for me to leave I spent it in my mind and thoughts about the future. I had done that a lot lately. A lot more than I usually would spend thinking about my future. I might have spent time looking at future career opportunities and I had spent a considerable amount of time going through which option would be the best for my major, but nothing came close to this.
I had my one real secret with Caleb, Rachel, and Nate once he learned from Rachel. This could affect how my business goes moving forward and what it really means to be entangled in superhero society despite being a slightly above-average human in some areas. Heroes fight against villains daily and make enemies. I might only be tangentially related to their work, but I was still in their ecosystem. I had already been targeted by a superhuman and there is no reason for it not to happen again. I thought back to the reasons I wanted to continue going down this path. I was working a job I enjoyed and that challenged me. I also got to experience things I would never have thought possible before despite my life wavering near the edge of death. That was the challenge and despite Rachel’s promises, I knew I might have to face death again in the future.
So, I made a plan. I knew that Caleb and Rachel were doing their best and I would do what I can to solve this problem. Even if that meant being in danger. I might not have the memories or experience of my past self, but I know myself well enough to the point where I should be able to find things that they may miss. I had been looking into it but had been sidetracked when the stalker came to the forefront of the problems. Sometime between Monday, my old self left, and when I appeared the stalker must have done something, or maybe my old self did something to cause my appearance. Those missing days are crucial. I am sure of it.
The hospital worker brought me a change of clothes to switch to before leaving. I left my hospital gown on the bed and walked out with them. My old clothes had been bloodied and ruined so they were thrown away but the rest of the items I had on at the time were returned to me. As we walked to the entrance of the building I called my car to me. It was still by the warehouse and had stayed there.
Walking through the hospital interior was very different than the last one I had been brought to. It was smaller with fewer patients and was privately owned. None of the other doors had names on them indicating the names of patients. The only ones labeled referenced supply rooms, maintenance, and work areas or offices. After talking with the worker, I learned more. This building and a few others around the world were run by the Godfrey family with the current holder of the Frey or Freya title overseeing all of their operations. Through these private hospitals, they helped heroes get private care away from the media and get physical therapy or other needs if required. There was no need for superheroes to flood hospital beds on an almost daily basis when they could seek treatment here and get a more ‘superhuman healing’ that had facilities specifically for treating the strange afflictions that could come up. These treatment facilities were also set up to assist the prison and its members when problems came up. While the prison had its own medical staff for minor injuries they redirected to one of Frey’s facilities when needed.
When I stepped outside the hospital we stepped out onto a business road that was a few blocks from the main street downtown. I looked to the outside of the building it was non-descript with no indication that it was a hospital until you stepped past its security and second set of doors. It didn’t have any sort of lobby or waiting room. As a patient you were either sent directly to the operating room, resting, or were sent out the door in my case. It was a well-oiled machine that did its job well. The walls and security precautions were built like a bunker. If a villain tried to break in and kill someone injured here it was likely that they would not make it past the first step in the doors.
I waited a minute longer and my car came to the side of the street. The door opened as I approached, and I stepped inside. After taking more pain medication and a little more of Frey’s healing magic I was feeling great. My leg was still feeling sore however, I would need to change up my diet a bit because of regrowing my intestines and problems with the bacteria within, and I couldn’t exercise for the next week, but things were great.
When I got to the gates of the community area I was stopped once again when I punched in the code to get in. Rob stepped up to meet me and I went through the motions. I knew something was up the moment I saw him at the gates. He was normally scheduled to work overnight. He was never one to work during the day from what I knew of him.
“What’s the problem?” I asked jumping to the point of the conversation.
“Some police came at noon today. I was contacted and told them you hadn’t been here since yesterday morning. They brought out a warrant and pulled the driving logs of entry and exit for the past month. They are at your house now and would like to meet with you now. They seemed happy to wait but I wouldn’t keep them for much longer.”
“Well, that is unexpected. Did they say what they were here for?”
“I didn’t push for information. They just said that you should know?”
Were the police following up on the reports from Caleb and Rachel I wondered. Did they have some leads? I wondered what they found.
“Thanks for letting me know,” I said.
I left Rob at the gate, and he seemed happy to return to his post and nap until his shift started in a few hours. I drove through the streets and went straight for my house. I saw the police car parked in front of my house and I parked in the garage.
When I stepped inside I was met by two police officers. One stood by the garage door and watched me as I entered. The other was already seated at my dining room table. The two women did not react to me entering and waited casually for me to take off my shoes and come to them. I looked them over. They were both wearing the police uniform I had seen Caleb wear yesterday. They had their badges pinned to the outside of their uniform unlike him. When I had taken off my second shoe the woman standing spoke first.
“Mr. Watterson we have a few questions for you. Would you join me and my colleague at the dining room table? I assume that the local security guard informed you that we have the papers necessary.” I nodded. “Good. Cassandra here will be asking the questions during this session and will be determining the validity of your answers. If you will let her take your hands we can begin,” said Victoria.
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I followed along and sat across from Cassandra. She took my hands and rested them in the center of the table. I didn’t feel anything as she began to activate her powers until the words first came out of my mouth.
“What is your name?” she asked first.
“Jason Watterson,” I responded without pause.
“Where were you just before our meeting?”
“The hospital.”
“Which hospital?” she asked.
“One of Frey’s hospitals.”
“Why were you there?” she asked with some confusion.
“I was being treated after suffering a gunshot wound and stab wound,” I said. This time I could feel the pull of her powers as the answer to her question left my mouth faster than I could think even though I had ended up saying more than the question needed.
“How did this happen?” she asked.
Now I was confused as I had thought that they would be informed about what happened the day before. Before I had much more time to think about it I was answering the question almost subconsciously.
“Someone attacked me when I went to interview a woman named Diana with a friend named Caleb. He protected me until Thor came to our rescue and I was brought to the hospital.”
“What that was him,” said the first woman to Cassandra.
“This complicates things and the reason we came here in the first place,” said Cassandra.
“What are you talking about?” I said finally after my mind was able to step back from her powers for a moment. “Why are you here?”
“We can answer that after you answer one more question from us that we need to confirm.”
“To your knowledge have you or anyone who knows you tried to clone you and if so why did it occur?” asked Cassandra
“I have never tried to clone myself or asked others to clone myself. To my knowledge, there have been no attempts by others to clone myself that I am aware of.”
“Shit. We have nothing on it,” said Victoria.
“Maybe we are just asking the wrong questions.”
I pulled my hands away. “You need to tell me what are you talking about. I have no idea what you are implying I might have done or been involved in. If this isn’t about the attempt on my life then what is this about?”
“This is your fault if you reveal the wrong stuff and he is then able to use that to skirt around the questions,” said Victoria to Cassandra.
“I will make sure that doesn’t happen. Jason, will you take my hands again so I can answer your questions? I can’t do this if you are uncooperative.”
“No lies from you,” I said as I grabbed her hands again, “What is this about?” I asked. This time its effects while a little weaker returned to her.
“What do you know of the Hoffman Apartments?”
“I saw them on the news two weeks ago that they collapsed. Why? Are they related to me?”
“It is because… Did you know that someone matching your look, DNA, and every other unique identification was found dead under the rubble of the building?”
“No, I did not know this happened. When was this and why?”
“It occurred yesterday. Now, do you know why someone matching your identity would be in the apartments?”
“I don’t know why you found a version of me at the apartments,” I said.
As I said it I realized my rewording of the question and was surprised at what it might mean and how it could connect to the missing time Caleb was searching for. Did this mean that my old self was dead and that they just found the body? Why was I at the apartments? What does this mean for me his doppelganger of sorts?
“What do you mean version of me?” asked Victoria.
“What do you mean by a version of me?” repeated Cassandra shortly after.
“I am the same version of this Jason because I have no memories of this world before Thursday two weeks ago,” I said. This time I realized that because of the bounds of her powers. I could not spout my theories from my head and could only state the facts I knew about the question. I knew for sure that I was not this other Jason.
“What happened to your memories?”
“They are intact,” I responded. I realized that that wasn’t a great answer for them and felt the powers around the question fade. I continued. “I informed Rachel, Caleb, and Frey of my lack of memories and Frey saw that I had no signs of brain damage or mental tampering. My lack of knowledge is not intentional.”
All of what I had said was true and did not alert Cassandra.
“What to do? What to do?” said Victoria to herself, “This puts me in an awkward position Jason because I am not sure how to proceed. Do you know what happened to yourself the day of the apartment collapse?”
Cassandra repeated the question.
“I do not know why I was at the apartment or what I did that day,” I said interpreting the question as referring to my other self, “All I know is that I was gone from my house Monday morning at my workshop, and I did not return. Caleb already knows this because I sent him the video footage I got from my workshop in hopes to find out what occurred.”
“I think we should move on to other topics for now,” said Victoria, “From the questions, we asked the possibility of him performing illegal cloning himself is fairly low despite it occurring. It is clear that someone caused two versions of him to appear even if this one is inferior.”
“Hey, that is me you are talking about.”
“It is the truth. You are no longer the old you and if superpower can’t detect what went wrong then that means that you truly never had the memories to begin with, Clone.”
“I am not a clone,” I said clearly to her.
“He believes it to be true and Jason surviving such injuries recently would suggest that if he is a clone then he is not a normal clone. He should have degraded from such injuries,” said Cassandra.
“That would seem to be the case.”
“You don’t have to have this secondary conversation without me,” I interrupted, “I am not a clone, and I am not degrading and will not degrade because I AM NOT A CLONE,” I said emphasizing every syllable of the last few words.
“I am sorry that we don’t have a clone tester with us because I thought that it would not be needed,” said Victoria, “I should have come better prepared. We won’t push this matter with you, but the investigation will still be ongoing. Perhaps the culprit of its falling can tell us why a ‘version of you’ was there.”
“Wait you didn’t tell me the building was destroyed on purpose,” I said.
“Oh, I thought you read the news about it.”
“I only saw the headline and didn’t read the article.”
“I see. I guess that wasn’t clear in our questions,” said Victoria.
“Does that change how you would answer the question of why you would be there?” asked Cassandra.
“It would not,” I answered despite my new theories running through my head, but they were only that. Because they were theories and not a fact I could confirm to them why my other self was there even though I was fairly certain the same person who killed me and crushed a building on top of me was still trying to kill Me now.
“I see,” said Victoria. “Coming close to death again recently does not seem to be a coincidence does it?”
“I would tend to agree.”
“Though I think I know the answer would you happen to know who tried to kill you in either of the possible times and why?”
“I don’t know who or why,” I paused after the effects of Cassandra’s powers faded, “I only can assume that it has been the same person but that doesn’t tell you what you need.”
“It will be enough. Well, thank you for sharing with us your time and answering our questions. If we have any more then we will contact you in the future as needed.” She motioned to stand up and Cassandra stood up with her.
“Thanks for stopping by,” I said standing up as well, “I am sorry you had to wait a while for me to arrive.”
“It was no bother,” said Victoria, “We came unannounced after all. Stay safe Jason. Someone has seemingly already killed you once without your knowledge and someone, likely the same person, has tried to do it again.”
I walked them over to the door and showed them out. My mind was a jumbled mess of new revelations and trying to structure them into a coherent narrative. This at least confirmed what had happened to my old self. I didn’t fully replace him or zap him from existence, but it didn’t explain the why and how it was connected to the stranger. Was the Hoffman apartments an important location for my old self or was it just his place of death? Why was it the Hoffman Apartments that collapsed? The killer could have killed me in any other way. Why did he choose crushed under a building?
I wasn’t going to get anywhere by myself and needed help. I ran downstairs to my office and booted up the computer. If I was going to figure this out then I would need Caleb to be as up to date on the case as I was. The green call button changed as his face appeared on my screen for the video call.