Seeing Double

Chapter Two

Ashton just played with my hair, giggling happily. She was innocent. She was as carefree as a four year old.

"Julie." Macon said, causing both of our heads to pop up. He shook his head, "The real Julie. What the hell is this?"

I shrugged, "I'm just as confused as you, but you know about clones. I woke up to her banging on the door and screaming. I opened the door, and she runs in and hugs my neck. She needed my help." I looked at him helplessly.

"She's telling the truth, I needed my Julie's help." She pulled up the sleeve of her long sleeve tee shirt. Bruises and scars were scattered all over her milky white arms. I yanked up the other sleeve to see the exact same thing. "I can't go back there." Her happy facade fell into pieces.

"No, you won't." I said, Macon nodded. She fell into my arms that were open, waiting for her. Within three minutes, she was asleep.

"Jules, what if they come? What can we do?" Macon questioned, "I agree that you... she has to be protected, but you're the real Julie."

I glared at him, "I would feel so bad if I let me die, or worse get tortured until the day I die. I'll figure it out."

"She's not even meant to be alive! You have to stop with that bleeding hearts routine. I think that as long as she's here you're not safe. I ain't having that." He suddenly stood up, placing his hands in his hair. "This is something we should not be messing with."

I smoothed her hair down, "Shut up. I am obligated to help her!"

"I want to help her, but we need to get her out of here. She cannot be here." He sighed, looking down at the both of us. "Go to bed. Sleep. We will deal with-," He motioned to my sleeping clone, "this in the morning."

I nodded, yawning. He shut the door and padded to his room just across the hall. I gently moved Ashton, covering her with a blanket. I laid on my side, facing away from the girl that had interrupted my sleep. I desperately wanted to fall asleep but my mind was racing with so many unwelcome thoughts. I felt responsible for this girl that had wandered from the unknown and looked more like me than I did. I don't know how I could ever handle this. I couldn't handle stressful situations like this. I'm surprised I made it this far without a complete meltdown. Even if I had flipped out completely, how would my parents react? What would we tell everyone? How do we cover up a girl that happens to look and sound just like I do? We couldn't just keep her hidden like she had been her entire life, but we live in a small town. Everyone knows us and vice versa, we can't pull off the twin thing. I sighed heavily.

I was able to be lulled to sleep by the deep breathing of Ashton. It took a while for the thoughts to calm down enough to even get anywhere toward the idea of sleep, but when it did I never had been so exhausted and fell asleep instantly.

***

I smiled as I wrapped myself tighter in my blanket. Today felt like the perfect day to sleep in late. I yawned and closed my eyes, sleep almost reclaiming me instantly.

"Good morning, Julie." Whispered Ashton, who I had written off as just a bad dream. I jumped straight up, my chest heaving with my sudden panic.

"You scared me." I breathed, I'm not even quite sure she could even hear it, but she quirked up like she did. She placed her hand on my arm, giving me an apologetic smile.

"Macon made breakfast, I already ate, he told me not to wake you up. You need to sleep." She nodded to confirm her statement. "Did you sleep well?"

I looked at the clock just behind Ashton. It read 10:36. I rubbed my eyes before replying, "Yeah, I slept okay."

"Oh good." She smiled and laid down beside me. "Are you still tired? You can sleep some more, I promise to be quiet. I could go down and get to know Macon better." This girl was just too nice to me. She was the sister I always wanted but never had. She was perfect... well, she was me, after all.

"No, I'm fine. You can stay here. I might lay here for a while, but some company would be nice. If you want we can watch Netflix, you could pick whatever movie you'd like."

Within minutes we were settled in my bed, having a Disney movie marathon.