Of Life, Death, and Madness

3. Leadership

        The room was still dark. The mirror, which had been whole when I last saw it, was now cracked. I looked into my eyes through the mirror. One eye, on the left of the crack, was clearly mine, half open and looking tired. The eye on the right, however, was not. The color was the same, and the pattern of the iris looked similar. That was where the similarities with the other eye ended. The eye was wide open, and somehow brighter. There was cruelty in that eye.

         "You were oddly quiet yesterday." I said. The mouth in the mirror was completely on the left side, as I spoke I saw the mouth move.

         "I figured it was good to let you get comfortable." As the voice spoke I could see his face twitch as though he had a mouth of his own, hidden behind the crack.

         "Who am I?" I asked. The voice laughed in response. "I do not see how that is humorous." My indignation was evident. Still the voice was silent. "Alright, then, what do you want?"

         "These people are weak. You can dominate them, control them. If they won't follow, then kill them." The conviction in his voice was horrifying. The very idea of controlling others was appalling to me. Perhaps that was good news. The idea that this was a darker side of me was not. That meant, however immaterial the voice was, he was a part of me.

         "I will not." The other part of me shrugged. In so much as it was possible for less than half a face to shrug.

         "Do what you will, but remember I will be back. You will become that quiet voice in my head again." My blood ran cold as the voice finished his threat... only, the surety with which he said it made it a promise, not a threat.

         "I need to get to my family, my daughter." The voice laughed again.

         "Face it, they are dead." That didn't carry as much surety in the voice.

         "You do not know that." I replied.

         "You've seen the world out there. You almost died and you are a strong young man. Do you really believe a weak woman and a child could survive longer? The only reason you have survived is because you've got me." The voice was sinister, but he showed his hand in what he couldn't say. I laughed this time.

         "You think they couldn't, but you don't know them any better than I do. I choose to believe you are wrong. They are alive." I said. The eye narrowed at me.

        "You do know she doesn't love you, right?" The voice said. I looked confused. "Your 'wife'... you two split four years ago." I wanted to accuse the voice of lying again. But it was very Matter of fact. It could still be a lie, but I doubted it was this time.

        "I did not. If you know that, then you must know more about me. Tell me who I am." As the voice started to laugh again, the world faded to black.

         I awoke. It was perhaps the first natural sleep I had had in a few days. Despite that, I still woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck. Well, technically I had been hit by something much bigger: a Navy warship and a pier. I woke up hoping that my memory had returned, but was disappointed. At least I had a goal in mind this time. I had to get to my daughter. The more the time passed, the more dread I felt in my heart. Where ever she was, she was alone and judging from the picture on my phone, she was very young.