TALES OF TERROR

The Doppelgänger

My eyelids parted slowly, and I was in my parents' house, lying on my back over the comforter on my bed and staring at the grey acoustic-textured ceiling. Immediately there was a sharp throbbing in my temples, and I felt like something was very off, like I wasn't really in my house.

Upon closer inspection of my room, I realized that I was indeed in my parents' house, but that it was slightly different in some ways.

The bedroom wall was just a shade lighter than the dark purple I remembered, and none of my belongings were anywhere in sight. Just the basic furniture and the painted walls. I couldn't find my cameras or my jewelry box or any of my gaming consoles.

Suddenly, I was overcome with the realization that it was almost unbearably cold in the room. I shut my eyes as tight as I could manage and shrieked as a colossal wave of freezing water rushed over me, but when I opened them, I could find no such water. But I had just felt... Was my mind playing tricks on me? My clothing felt familiarly heavy, but it wasn't the slightest bit wet.

I could very clearly see my breath and could hardly keep myself from violently shivering. When I wasn't exhaling, I had to keep my mouth closed so that my teeth wouldn't clatter together. Strangely enough, I could not find a single article of clothing in the room to keep me warm, other than the sheer, white babydoll-style nightgown I was already wearing. Eventually I just resolved to be cold because it couldn't be helped, and I left my room to explore the rest of the my-but-not-my house.

I was startled to find that each room, closet, and hallway that I poked my head into was just a blank slate. No color, no furniture, no possessions, no people, no nothing. It was then that I started to feel legitimately frightened.

I darted around, flinging open each door and calling out for someone, anyone that could possibly be in the house. But after scoping out the entire place and finding not one soul, I had to admit to myself that I was completely and utterly alone. And what a terrible feeling it was.

Unfortunately, (although I tried to give myself hope) the outside world held no promise for me either. As far I could see in every direction, there was only white. Well, except for the piece of land that my parents owned out behind their home. Of course, in the enclosure there were plenty of trees and grass, but everything was frozen over and it came to my attention that I was wandering barefoot in the snow.

The trudging became more and more difficult, like I was struggling on a treadmill with the slope raised to the maximum setting, as I headed toward the only landmark that I knew of – the creek that split the woodland side of the field from the side that eventually ran into train tracks. Sometimes I would start to feel as if I were sinking into the snow, like the earth had opened up and was trying to pull me in, but then I would be on normal ground again.

As I approached the creek, the outline of a person began to form just on the opposite bank, and I fought through the snow to reach my new beacon of hope. I was so warm with relief that the snow probably should have melted beneath my feet. Well, at least until I was standing before the shape. At first, I squeezed my eyes shut and kept repeating to myself that I wasn't seeing what was in front of me. But then they were wide open and I could not close them, and something was forcing me to look upon the figure across from me.

I saw myself, but I wasn't me. I was the White Swan, and on the other side of the creek was my insidious counterpart, the Black Swan. Her matching clothing was sheer black, and her malevolent eyes stood out from the smoky black make up around them. Her grin was so...hideous, but only in the sense that it seemed far too large for her face. She was eying me, taunting me, and in that moment I realized that she knew something I didn't.

"Down there." The voice that escaped her lips wasn't what I was expecting to hear. It sounded more like soulless and monotone than something intimidatingly evil. Sent chills down my spine nonetheless. Her finger pointed below at the creek that separated us, her limbs finally moving independently of mine. My twin's movements were quick and stop-motion-like, and watching her felt like watching a clockwork doll.

I quickly became aware of an increasing fear inside of me, and I immediately knew what it was that I was afraid of. I would not, could not, let myself look down into that creek, because every fiber, every cell in my body was screaming.

There was something abhorrent at my feet, and I would surely go insane if I even so much as glanced at it. But once again, I was not in control of myself. The Black Swan was forcing me to look upon my end. I did all I could to withstand her, but it wasn't enough.

And then I saw them. Beneath the solidified surface of the creek were thousands of petrified, mangled bodies, the sea of corpses expanding in both directions as far as I could see. I recognized so many of them, the one just at my feet being my boyfriend, my family and friends surrounding him. I was so terror-stricken that I couldn't look away, but the question that kept repeating itself in my mind finally came out.

"Who...who did this?"

There was a long silence, and it felt as though forever had passed before my reflection answered at last. Suddenly, my heart stopped and I was gasping for air because there was none.

"Why, you did."

Then I came to, and I was leaning against the window seal, gazing out of the big glass panes of my living room and into the dark front yard. Everything was as it should have been, the house as normal as always, the neighbors' houses visible across the street, the moon hanging ominously in the sky. Why I was standing in the living room in the middle of the night, I couldn't be sure, but I was more than relieved to be back in the real world.

Shrugging off everything I had previously seen and felt as a bad dream, I sauntered back to my bedroom and made myself comfortable between the sheets. It didn't take long at all for me to drift back to sleep.

I woke up to the feeling of my body trembling uncontrollably, and all I could see before me was darkness until my eyes finally adjusted. The familiar field stretched before me, but nothing was snowy or icy or white. It was just dark and the bitter wind was whipping my hair around and cutting right through my tank top and panties.

It took a moment or two for me to become fully aware of my surroundings, but when I had absorbed it all, I had to stop myself from having a panic attack. I was standing half-dressed and barefoot in the grass and dead leaves, about a hundred yards away from the creek on my parents' property.

I did submit this story a week or two ago. But when I came back to my laptop after leaving it sitting on the couch in the lounge (next to the laundry room in my dorm's basement, and I only left it there for about twenty minutes), the post had been deleted and I was logged out of Reddit. Someone apparently didn't want me talking about my nightmares.