The Last Hope

04 - Doppelganger

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Brandishing her phone screen at Felix, Mercy watched his face as his brows pulled down over his eyes, mouth twisting to the side.

"See?" Mercy said, conspiratorially.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why am I looking at a shirtless man?"

Mercy flipped her wrist to glance at her phone, "stupid pop-up ads," she griped. Closing the ad with the tiny cross in the corner and twisting the screen back round to Felix.

His eyes widened, he glanced up at her face and then back at the phone. Another time. "Weird." He said, leaning in. He brought a hand up to his glasses, lifting them onto his forehead, angling his head, staring between the screen and Mercy's face for longer.

"She doesn't have your bone structure," Felix remarked, dropping his glasses back down onto the bridge of his nose. "But she does look like you."

Mercy placed her phone back on the desk as the two continued to stare. "Not like a sister, but like a close cousin. Maybe she's your doppelgänger!" Felix said excitedly, sitting forward in his seat.

"What's a dopple-what-er?" She asked, giving him a curious look.

"A doppelgänger," Felix said again, slowly, "is someone who looks just like you, but isn't related. They're meant to be harbingers of bad luck though, so be careful." He winked with this last part, and Mercy rolled her eyes.

"So, who is she?" He asked.

"No one, just some woman on the news. My dad sent me the article yesterday."

"And why is she famous?" Felix took a swig of his water.

"Well, um, she's dead."

Choking sounded beside her as Felix fought to keep his gulp of water inside his body, and not spraying onto the heads of the people sitting below them in the lecture theatre. "So, let me get this straight, dear old Craig sent you a picture of a dead girl and asked, 'this you?' " Glee shone in Felix's green eyes.

"It's not funny Fee, a woman has died" Mercy chided, but the look on Felix's face had Mercy fighting off the smile that was tugging at the corners of her mouth. She sighed, "we're the actual worst people on the planet."

"No, no," Felix sighed, "that would be Stacey," he said plainly.

Cackling, the two received some funny looks from the students surrounding them. It was two-fifty-seven on a Wednesday afternoon and they were waiting for their replacement professor to arrive. With Yaakov still recovering, though gladly at home not at the hospital, they were having a guest professor today.

Likely someone very old and very boring.

"Are you coming to Archie's tonight?" Felix asked from his seat beside her, flipping casually through his notes. Mercy glanced to her own notes, only slightly shocked to see how lacking they were compared to Felix's. English Lit had seemed like such a good idea at the time of applying, but four months in and Mercy had realised the only thing she had a true passion for was partying. And arguing. She liked arguing – maybe she could be a lawyer!

She looked back up to Felix. Really, she shouldn't go out. She should go home and try to get some rest. Sleep off the crazy dreams that had been ruining her life for the last week. She should be sensible and make a responsible decision. She could almost feel Devin, in tiny angel form sat on her shoulder, urging her to do the right thing. But Devin had won enough arguments with her this week.