Butterfly and Flame - Alina and Evan

Michael and leahciM

It had been an eventful morning. After leaving the studio he drove less than a half an hour out of town where he checked into his motel. It really was a dump but he had no intention of staying there for long. It was only temporary until Alina and he were back together and he was sure it would be happening really soon.

He showered and changed into a pair of jeans and a button down shirt. He looked at himself in the mirror and he furrowed his brow a little. He was younger than Michael by just a few minutes. Michael was about an inch taller than him but it depended on the shoes they wore, if they were standing next to each other; wether or not people could tell the difference. Their hair was styled differently and they preferred different food. They were both intelligent but Michael was better at books and tests and he was better at observing people and learning their triggers and weaknesses. They both enjoyed sports like kickboxing, rugby and rock climbing. When they were younger they used to do all of those things together. As they got older Michael made friends that he didn't like. It took him a long time to make Michael see that those friends were not worth it. When Michael finally got the point they would reunite and be back together again. Thats how he liked it. His brother was his idol for as long as he could remember until he started college. Things changed then. Michael was either at school, at work or with his girlfriend and he didn't have any of those things in his life. His parents had encouraged him to attend community college but he felt discouraged and humiliated that his scores didn't get him into the colleges that his brother had gotten accepted into. If it had been the other way around he would have given up the fancy college to have gone to school with Michael so that they could be together. He remembered feeling jealousy for the first time.

He sat in his car and turned the engine on when he noticed a car parked a few 100 yards to the left. The glow of the cell phone shown in the dark. He didn't remember it being there when he arrived. He wondered if he had been discovered. He started to panic and then he became angry. "Not now. Not this time. Everything is perfect. I won't let you take her away from me". Kyle looked at himself in the mirror and saw Michael. In fact he was Michael. He had been referring to himself as Michael while he had been in the institution. He barely remembered who he had been before but he knew one thing and that was that his brother was sure to be tracking him down by now. He didn't have much time to convince Alina to leave with him. He took a few deep breaths and recalled the first time he had impersonated Michael with people other than friends and family.

He had wanted to see what it felt like to attend such a prestigious school as USC. He spent weeks invading Michaels life or spying on him while on campus or at work; observing Michael from a distance, learning all he needed to know about his classes and labs and friends he would meet up with. He envied his brothers ability to make friends with everyone and he grew angrier with him for leaving him behind and not sharing those friendships with him. He made friends was well but keeping them was another issue. Both his parents and Michael tried to make up for his awkward behavior regarding interpersonal relationships but as he grew older it was not as easy to blame it on the tween years, or the hormonal teen years. He was a grown man and now he had to do things on his own without Michael to lean on. He would never have let Michael go it alone. He realized that was when he first felt anger towards Michael that then led to deep resentment which allowed him to do things like impersonate him and take things from his home and finally try and take things from his life. He had been successful at passing for Michael at school, and even with some of his classmates. He ramped it up when Michael would go out with his friends. He would see Michael with a few girls and then follow them, learn their patterns and then show up at their hang outs. He would pretend to be Michael and then suddenly he had more dates then he could handle. He copied all of Michaels mannerisms until it was impossible to tell them apart. He had one more hurdle to jump before he would know if he had truly accomplished his goal. Michaels girlfriend.

Michael had been dating this pretty blonde for over six months. He needed to be able to convince her. If he did that, then he was ready to be independent of his family. So to speak.

He knew where she worked and waited for her when she got off. She immediately hugged him and asked him why he hadn't left for his conference. He said he had time and wanted to see her before he left because he would miss her the whole week he was gone. He told her he wanted them to spend the evening together before he left. He would take a red eye flight and be on time for his conference. She happily agreed to go with him. Since he had copied Michael's key and knew his alarm password it was no problem. He asked her to order dinner from wherever she wanted and order her favorites. This way he wouldn't have to guess and make a mistake. When it arrived he selected a bottle of red to go with it from Michaels wine rack. He made sure her wine glass was never empty. He could tell that they had been intimate before as she was making it clear she wanted to have sex with him. He didn't have a lot of experience with women but he went for it. He took off his watch and placed it on the dresser next to his phone. At the last moment he turned the camera video on. The room was dark as he turned toward the bed where she was already laying down in just her thong. He was aggressive with his touch and his kisses. She seemed to like what he was doing because she didn't try and stop him very much. He noticed later while they relaxed in bed that she looked at him with some wariness. She told him that he seemed different this time and much more assertive. They made small talk and then she left. He felt elated. He had done the hard work but it was all worth it. He now knew that he could repeat this anytime he wanted too. In fact he felt he was a better Michael ...than Michael.
That night Kyle drove to Vegas from L.A. He had never been their before but he was on a high and he knew that his luck wasn't going to last. Michael would find out sooner or later and then their would be hell to pay but he had to find him first. As Their parents were away, Michael would be the one to get the calls if there were any problems financially. Kyle had a small window of time before Michael found out that checks had been forged and cashed with his signature. Until then he was going to live it up. He would find someway of getting back into Michaels good graces even if it meant going down the black hole that he feared the most.
It had been a very long time since he had been on his own. Now that he was, he only cared for one thing and that was to get Alina to accept him again. He didn't know pounded the steering wheel angrily as he stared at the car and quickly went through his options. He could try and outrun him or he could go back into the motel room and go out the back window. Or he could see what the guy wanted. Just then the guy turned on his lights and the car drove off. He relaxed realizing that he was wrong and was behaving paranoid. He took several breaths and tried to clear his mind of everything but Alina. He was going there now. He would make her see that she belonged with him and that the past was now a memory and they could look forward to their future.

As he turned the corner to her street he saw three cars parked in front of her home. None of them matched the neighbors or her siblings or friends cars. Since he had been watching the neighborhood for a while he had seen and marked each of the cars in the immediate vicinity and he knew none of these matched.  A black Cadillac stood out like a lantern in the dark. It had to be his brothers. How had he gotten here so fast?. He observed the other two cars and imagined that they could only be police or private investigators. He drove past the home and headed out of town. He needed somewhere to stay. He needed time to think.