We all turned our heads to the direction of the voice. Turns out, it was us. Well, replicas of us, to be exact. Same body structure, facial appearance, and so forth. None of us knew how this was possible, and we will likely never be able to explain this logically, physically, spiritually, or even scientifically. Even Phillip was part of the group.
"Wh-who are you guys?" I asked, expecting a witty response.
"We're you." my counterpart responded back. When he said this, I noticed that he was writing in a journal that looked exactly like mine.
"No, we're us. Who are y'all?"
"I just told you, we are you.
"Just me, or the rest of us, too?"
"I am you, Stella is Stella, Bill is Bill, and so on."
"Can I put apostrophes by y'all's names?"
"You can if you want, even though we are you guys."
"No, y'all are not!" John screamed out of defense, yet it was obvious he was just as scared as the rest of us were.
"Okay, can someone explain to me what is going on here?" Stella asked.
"We are the last illusions you have to face." Phillip's counterpart answered.
Silence fell upon the room. Everyone's eyes faced each other, at the clones, then back at each other again. Nobody knew how to react, or what to say next.
"What do you mean, 'last illusions'? And what are you implying by the word, 'illusions'?" Marleigh interrogated.
"You mean...?" I started to ask.
"None of this is real?" Brandon asked, feeling stupid.
"It is, and it isn't." Marleigh's counterpart answered. "To explain further, we were behind all of the illusions you have been through, such as the teens and the wolves. But we also sabotaged the cameras and put a virus in them, which actually was real and killed your friend, Phillip. Any pain you guys may have felt wasn't real, either. But one thing was real: your fear."
"That was you?!" John asked in shock.
"You mean anomalies?" I asked as politely as possible.
"Yes," Marleigh's counterpart answered, "and y'all are gonna love this: we used Mason to bring y'all to this cabin because we knew about the incoming snowstorm."
"I knew something was up!" I screamed in a last attempt to sound smart.
"Yup. Maybe pay more attention to the television next time so that way y'all would have known about this sort of thing beforehand instead of that journal of yours!"
I sat there, not knowing how to respond.
"Wait... if you're us, and we're us, then who are y'all to us?" Stella asked, gesturing.
"We are you, we just live inside of you." Marleigh's counterpart explained further.
"We are y'all's subconsciouses." Brandon's counterpart seconded.
"How is this possible...?" Leo wondered.
"We've been controlling everything you see around the house based on your own fears." John's counterpart explained even further.
"What fears?"
"Well, for example, the scaffolding falling over represents Andrew's fear of his weaknesses."
Andrew's face turned red in embarrassment. "And the others...?"
"Well," John's counterpart continued, "Phillip's fear was judgement, which were the lasers. Bill's fear is the futures of his own children, particularly Mason. John's fear is his own identity being stolen. The list really could go on."
"It has." Stella snarkily remarked.
"And we saved the best illusion for last just for you, Stella."
"What...?"
"You have multiple fears, but one stands out more than the others: the people you have hurt in the past." Stella's counterpart explained.
The real Stella sat there with a dazed look on her face. She knew exactly how her counterpart knew her fears, yet Stella herself knew she couldn't do anything about it.
"Well... what are you going to do about it? Like you said, none of this is real, so there's no reason why I should even be scared of you guys... right?"
"Correct. It won't be real. But your fear will most certainly be real. We will also be real."
"What part do you have in this? You can't hurt me! You're my subconscious!"
Suddenly, my counterpart, who was closest to Stella, punched her in the face. And it was real.
"Can we not hurt you now?" Stella's counterpart rhetorically asked in the most childish way possible.
"Why are you doing this to us?" Marleigh asked.
"As y'all's subconsciouses," John's counterpart started to explain, walking towards Marleigh, "fear weakens us. The only way to make us stronger is for you to have no fears. That's why we bring your biggest fears to life, so that way we don't have to suffer anymore."
"Well, good for y'all," I started, "and how did that work out for Phillip?" I made sure to look directly at Phillip's counterpart.
"Not too well, I suppose," Phillip's counterpart said back, "and I'm sure glad I got out of that coward!"
"Y'all are actually sick." Stella said angrily to all of them.
"Says the fearful person." her counterpart said back. "We need strong, fearless people to reside in. Until you die, I can't leave you. Although I am physically separate from you right now, I am spiritually tied to you. The only way I can strive is if you overcome your fears. That's why we put you all through these tests."
"But why would you go so far so as to try to kill us?"
"Because it's effective for overcoming your fears. When your fears are overcomed, our strength is restored and we can happily live inside of you guys. The others already overcame their fears—one way or another—through our tests. You are the only one who has not overcome your fears."
"Whatever! I can overcome my fears!"
"Well, you can have fun trying to do that. Now that you know that the illusions aren't real, we decided to throw something in the mix: we'll be actively hunting you down. Your illusion is in your bedroom, and it's not friendly in there..."
"You do realize we can just not go in there and skip the entire sequence, right?" John argued, also trying to sound smart.
"Get 'em." my counterpart said. Before any of us could react, our respective counterparts held us over their shoulders, put us in the sleeping room, shut the door behind us, and barricaded it so that we couldn't get out. If it was bad enough being trapped in a cabin, it's worse being trapped in a single room.
YOU ARE READING
Illusional
ParanormalIt's Winter. It's Snowing. It's Time. Mason, a 15-year old boy, decided to reunite with his family and friends by taking a cozy winter cabin vacation, but was unaware what might happen while they were there. As Mason and his friends and family explo...
