The reprisal women (ONC 2022)

Chapter Five

Jason saw the woman with two heads. Her body slowly split as her soft cry of pain turned into two. His eyes could not bring themselves away as he saw the clothes and the body splitting apart. Finally, the 'conjoined twin split as the two identical women split away from each other.

He scanned every detail of the two; they had the same emerald eyes, brown hair, and the pale, delicate face of hers. That face... look too similar to Tatiana no less. Exactly like it even.

Jason noticed the loud footsteps, as he turned to Tatiana, she too having the exact same face. Her eyes slowly became brighter as her mouth widened. At that moment, Jason knew... that his mind has torn into two.

"What... the hell..." 

"Jason," Tatiana said, her breath slowly fading away like Jason. Jason knew those eyes from Tatiana, the same kind of expression that she would make if she was caught red-handed. Jason then turned to the two 'Tatianas', as they both stood far away from him, holding each other. 

"Marie... who is he?" one of them cried out.

'Marie!?' Jason thought. He turned to her again, her eyes turned into a sorrowful glance. Jason then noticed the weirdly large room that he was in, as one thought suddenly hit him. 

"You aren't keeping more, aren't you..."

Just then, he heard the cupboard's doors flying open, as three bodies suddenly emerged from them. They too had the same pale, oval face and emerald eyes. Jason took a couple of steps into the right corner. His vision was perfect, but his mind said otherwise.

"Jason... talk to..."

"This is not real, this is not real," Jason kept uttering it to himself. His hands shoved into his pockets, slithering to find some pills to swallow. Did he leave it back at home?

The Tatiana at the door moved closer to him. Jason still had his fingers slipping to find his pills. 'Why is my vision so perfectly clear, damn it.' Jason thought to himself, his voice echoing to him, as if in a dream. He sure as hell wasn't imagining it.

"Jason... we should talk..."

Jason finally got out the one thing that was in his pocket... his gun no less. He heard screaming as all of the identical girls got down hugging themselves. "Wait!" 'Marie' yelled as she had her hands up. But Jason was far from being convinced it was real. 

'This is a dream... this is a..'

As he thought of that, a bottle tripped him as his body slumped onto the chair, as its weak legs gave way to his weight. All Jason knew was how he fell down so fast. As his head felt the pain bumping to the wall, he would think that he will wake up.

"Jason?"

Jason's eyes barely opened themselves. He truly was in a daze of his own, his gun far away from him. He could hear small chatters from the girls themselves. 

"You sure this is the guy that can escort us?"

"Shush Sally," 'Marie' replied back. Sally... another name, Jason thought. That's great. He slowly saw their oval faces all surrounding him, with a bright light nearly blinding him. 

"He can't even keep himself straight," Sally said.

"I said shush," Marie replied sharply. She offered her slender arm to him. Within a moment, Jason saw her face, as he could hear her thin, sappy voice. 

'You're quite the drinker, aren't you?'

The snapping of their fingers awakened him all of a sudden. He was suddenly reminded that he wasn't looking at Tatiana at all. As he moved his body upwards, he immediately crawled back to his corner. The similar green eyes only confused him more. 

Jason slumped into another chair, at least this time it won't break so easily. He immediately slurped the water down his throat, as he blinked repeatedly again; those identical girls were still there. 

'Well... they're real enough alright...'

"There's nothing much to hide, I guess," Marie came forth as Jason tensed his muscles. He raised his arms, pointing at her to stay away. But his continued heavy breathing did not help him at all. 

"Who are you?" Jason whispered under his breath. Marie did not say anything, she herself did not know how to reply to him. 

"We're clones, that's who we are! Are you satisfied now?" one of the identical girls blurted out, a slightly higher shrill voice compared to Marie. "Let's just leave him, Marie," 

"Wait!" Jason said. His mind now truly starting to get a grip on itself. Although he would be lying if he said that he was perfectly alright.

"Just... let me get this straight..." Jason said, breathing heavily as if he just got home from a rigorous jog. His body took its time to sit on a chair, wiping away his immaculate sweat as he could barely get a grip on himself.

"You're all clones?"

"Yup," Marie said, her eyes showing that there's nothing to hide now. "Not really clones per se... duplicates? We split out of each other," Marie continued. 

"Well... who's the original?" Jason asked bluntly.

"Damned if we know," Sally hugged herself, as she stood quite far away from him. Not that it mattered, as Jason himself was too shaken to even lift a finger. "I... am out of my mind..." Jason said as he continued to shake his head. 

Marie, in a state of annoyance, grabbed his chin and slapped him. A sudden jolt of pain got his mind spinning back to its place. That slap... was too real to be a dream.

"You're not out of your mind, idiot," Marie said, gritting her teeth as she saw the paranoid man coming to his senses. That was definitely not what Tatiana would do, unfortunately.

"Alright," Jason sighed heavily. His voice assuring himself for sure, that he wasn't looking at ghosts. While of course, giving himself a proper slap in the face.

"So... how many of you are there?" 

Marie looked behind to see her sisters... two of them who looked at her like a normal human, while the three other girls looked blankly. 

"About that... they're two who are fine, and the other four," Marie said, as the idea of dragging the three other girls would be a tough thing to do. Jason sighed; he really got himself into another mess, one that Natalie is definitely going to kill him for.

"Before you ask... my car can only seat five people," Jason brought it up sincerely. Although in hindsight, it was a terrible time to bring it up. With all of those Tatiana lookalikes looking at him in the eye. He really needed to get out of this place, otherwise, Natalie would think he was missing. With them or without them.