Sunshine and shadows

Evil souls abound

I stuffed earbuds into my ears and dumped my bag on the seat. My eyes were puffy and barely able to function. After yet another round of cursing my party animal friends, I was about to nod off when the weirdest scene caught my eye.

A startlingly similar version of me was seated across the aisle, with her back turned to me. She had the same contour, same clothes, same hair and everything. I don't know how I look to others, but if I had to guess, that person would be a perfect replica of myself.

Call it the thrill of doing something adventurous on October, or good old stupidity, but I got up and walked across the bus with my hands clutching the seats. As I got nearer, my heart rate picked up with my footsteps. I was positive that my heartbeat would give away my element of surprise.

"Excuse me..." I said, placing my hand on her shoulder. To my utter horror, it passed right through her body and I stumbled forward, falling on the rubber floor with a painful thump. I got a glimpse of her face then, and the most awful shock made its way through my system.

The girl sitting on that seat was me. She looked exactly like me, down to the mole on the inside of her elbow. What was worse, she was staring out of the window with no hint that she'd noticed me lying on the floor. I got to my feet with shaky legs and waved my hand in front of her. No response. The pent-up fear in me soon reached a crescendo and I screamed into her ear, but she sat completely oblivious to my existence. 

Then the bus screeched to a stop and the conductor began ushering us out. To my surprise he didn't even acknowledge the girl's existence as she got up soullessly and began shuffling out of her seat. Unwilling to let her go, I followed her down the bus stairs as she walked down a secluded alley.

My delicate heart began to feel constricted from the stress I was going through, but I gathered up the last ounces of courage I had and made my way behind the imposter. Through the dark corners we walked, me and her, with her shoes making so much sound it hurt to hear. I, on the other hand, had to stalk her, so I made minimal noise.

She soon stopped at a clearing, and I covered my mouth with my hands to avoid screaming. This was a scene I'd seen in a few horror movies, but never thought I'd have the misfortune to go through it in real life.

It was a small meadow prepped for summoning the devil. There was a huge table with various bowls of mysterious contents and candles that lit up the dull night. it was surrounded by a ring of white powder that was probably meant to contain all the negative energy.

A bunch of people were waiting for her, and she greeted them with a smile as they gathered around the table. I was sure by now that they were all evil spirits gathered to wreak havoc. What should I do? Whom should I inform? The police?

"It's almost time. Let's begin the ritual," the imposter said, and all of them raised knives to their palms and cut themselves, dripping the blood onto the table. What followed was a gruesome display of a summoning ritual that had me grow cold all over. Were they calling a demon?

"Appear!" the imposter announced, and suddenly I was standing on the table in a most peculiar position, with my arms crossed in front of me and my head cowled.

"I'm here, mistress," I said, the dreadful words escaping my tongue against my will. "Your every whim is now my command."

The imposter smiled then and tapped her nose the same way I do.

"Very good. Let's begin then, shall we?"