String Theory

Chapter 1

     He woke up sweating and sore. He glanced at the time, 3:01am. Nathan pushed the clock away and noticed that his hands were paler than usual. Did the body respond that much from dreams? Also, much to his surprise... there was someone else in the bed with him. He scrambled out of the bed avoiding waking up the mystery person. "What the hell?" He whispered. He tiptoed from the bedroom and found the bathroom. Did he... Did he crash at someone else's house? He flipped on the restroom lights and almost yelled from the reflection in the mirror. Nate muffled his surprise and took a closer look. The image facing back at him was MatPat. He looked down at himself and saw it to be true. Somehow, he was Matthew, or at least in his body. Trying to avoid having an anxiety attack, he looked at himself. Great, he thought, now I'm literally checking Matt out. He has nice pajamas, he noted, I should get some of these.

     The session was broken up when he heard a cellphone buzz in his pajama. He sleeps with his phone? Nate checked the name, 'Nathan Sharp'. He answered it with a cautious, "Hello?" The static held the line for a couple of seconds.

     "You've got to be kidding me!" He heard his voice reply, "Nate, it's me Matthew!!"

     "Matt! What the shit is happening?"

     "I," his voice wavered, "I don't know... but until we figure it out you can't call yourself Nate, go by my name, we can't let anyone else know."

     "You've got the easy end!" Nate shot back, "you,I mean I, don't have anyone else to worry about, what do I do with Steph?!"

     "Sleep on the couch, don't avoid her, but don't make any moves, understand?"

     "We need to meet tomorrow, I'll come up with some excuse; how about at lunch time?"

     He heard his voice contort, "I..um, yeah lunch sounds good. Just try to ignore everything okay?"

     Nate replied, "What does that mean?"

     "Nothing! Nothing at all, I'm going back to sleep okay bye!" He heard the line go dead and put the phone away. All that remained was a calming silence. Silent... why was it so silent? Where was that irritating noise?...oh shit, he thought, where was Natemare? Where was that evil prick? Nate didn't miss him at all, but that meant he was probably still in his body...with MatPat. He had to warn Mat! He reached for the phone, but his hand jerked back, completely out of his control. He tried again and the hand gave a more violent reaction.

     'Oh my God,',he heard in his head, a voice filled with annoyance, 'I knew you were incompetent, but this is awful.' It was Mat's voice, but with a more sinister feel to it.

     "Who, who are you?" He questioned aloud. A small apparition appeared before him, similar to when he talked to Natemare directly. It was an exact replica of MatPat, except it was in a green suit, gloves, and glitched every once and awhile.

     'You know, I almost feel sorry for you, having such a small mind must be so boring,' It said disdainfully, 'Why don't you... theorize,'an unnatural smile appeared on his lips, 'who I might be?'

     "You're some messed up version of Mat," Nate deduced, "like a computer virus that needs to be eradicated." He added extra snarkiness to the end.

     'The name's AntiMatter.' Anti answered, ignoring Nate's rudeness.

     Nate scoffed,"That's a lame name," Anti turned a darker shade of green and took off a glove to reveal a glowing, misshapen hand, but Nate continued, "And I thought -"Before he could finish, he stuck the hand straight through his head. It fired off every pain nerve in his body and he doubled over in pain. He moaned from the torment, writhing like a snake.

     He stared at Nathan with disappointment, never having any visible pity on his face. 'Humans.' Anti sighed, ' you never know when to shut up do you?' He released Nate from his grasp and stepped back. Nate shook uncontrollably from the shock. 'Maybe next time you'll have better behavior when you meet someone Nathan. You know," he paused to chuckle, it was empty and hollow, "when I first talked to Natemare, he was much more gracious to me than you were. Isn't that ironic? He's supposed to be the monster and you the "hero".'

     "Natemare?" Nate struggled out.

     "Oh don't be so naive Nathan, I know all about you and your counterpart! But alas, I'm afraid our time together is being cut short so we shall continue this later." Anti vanished into a digitized cloud.

     Nate ran his finger through his noticeably less floofy hair. What the actual shit?