Splitting Image

Chapter 3: Payback

One Week Later

"What are you doing!? No, stop, pleeeaasee..." The tortured scream choked off into a gurgle as a spray of crimson blood arched into the air and fell like a horrid, sticky rain, right on top of Gabriel's head, flowing down his face as though his own head had been split open. He spun around, seeking a reprieve from the awful agony surging through his head. He was in a Hall of Mirrors, an attraction much like that which could be found in a Carnival. Gabriel's body felt heavy and cumbersome. He was afraid- so, so afraid, his terror making his limbs feel like they were buried in ice. 

He twisted his head around and around, finding himself completely surrounded by the shining sheets of glass. He gazed into the mirrors, transfixed by the images inside. In the one closest to his right, the image was of the smoking, scattered remains of a car- his mother's silver Honda Civic. A trail of blood leaked from inside the car, under the  cracked, smoldering door. In the mirror to his left, in the middle of a calm lake, floated the discolored body of a dead girl, facedown in the water. Her long red hair drifted around her form like blood stained lilypads. A buoy string was knotted around her swollen ankle.

Matt appeared in the mirror that was directly in front of Gabriel, soaked in blood and smiling in a self satisfied way, like a child that had just gotten everything he ever wanted for Christmas. "What is this? What happened in there?" Gabriel asked, pointing at the terrible images in the mirrors. Matt simply turned away from him and began walking. "Wait...Wait! Come back and explain this!" Gabriel rushed toward the mirror, intending to pull Matt back- and meeting nothing but cold glass. The dream twisted with a jolt as Gabriel realized that it was not he that had been looking at Matt in the mirror...but trapped in, and looking out. "NO! NOOO!" He screamed, beating on the glass in an attempt to break it, getting more and more desperate as he watched Matt's back receed further and further away.

"Gabe? Dude, get up! That alarm is giving BOTH of us a headache." Gabriel blinked open his sleep sticky eyes and reached up to turn his alarm clock off, which had been blaring like a bullhorn on steroids. He sat up and stretched, hearing the joints in his arms and legs pop. He'd just had the best night of sleep he'd ever had in his life, without the inhibitors. Except for that freaky dream...he shook himself. Probably just a side effect of being off his meds. His body was still adjusting, or whatever.

 In his head, he heard Matt yawn. "Finally. Jeez, took you long enough."  "Shut up." Gabriel grumbled. It had been a week since Matt had revealed himself to him, and although he was almost used to his random, typically smart-ass comments, having a seperate voice in his head talking to him still freaked him out occasionally. Almost as much as the time when he'd been going to the bathroom and had aimlessly looked into the mirror, and gotten the shock of his life when he's seen Matt watching him, smiling peversley. "Hey, Gabe." He'd said. "How's it hanging?" 

Gabriel stood up and slouched to the bathroom, not suprised to find it closed and locked. He knocked on the door, and Garret said, "Get lost, weakling! Whichever one you are!" Gabriel kicked the door and walked back to his room angrily. "Man," he said as he flopped back on his bed, "that jerk's gonna use up all the hot water." Matt snorted. "Not unless there's no hot water to use up in the first place." 

Gabriel lifted his head off of his pillow with a confused expression on his face. "What do you mean?" He said aloud. "He just got in there, and Graham just payed the water bill." He felt Matt mentally roll his eyes, and resisted the impulse to do the same. He had realized that Matt's motions and feelings influenced his own. Whenever Matt had the urge to do something, Gabriel's body would automatically try to obey him.

Sometimes it would catch him off guard, like in Algebra class, when he'd looked down because of a sharp pain in his leg and saw that his pencil was jabbing him in the thigh as he scratched it, except he didn't remember moving his arm. Moments like that scared him, and cast a little bit of doubt on his ability to control Matt. He was terrified of losing control of his body. If Matt decided one day to flip out and do something crazy...

"No! I mean, freeze him out!  Turn his ass into a walking popsicle." Gabriel nodded. "Good plan, but there's only one thing wrong with it- he locked the door." Matt mentally face palmed them both. "Where does the water get it's temperature, Gabe?" he asked slowly, as if talking to a small child. "Dammit, it's too early for all of this! Just tell me!" Gabriel snapped. "Fine." Matt huffed. "The hot water tank, in the basement. Take the pressure down. He'll jump outta that shower so fast, he'll be supersonic." They both shared a chuckle at that image, then Gabriel got up and plodded down the stairs.

The house was still silent- no one else was up. He eased open the basement door, and descended into the cold dankness. They shivered as his feet hit the cold, wet stone floor. "Jeez, Gabe, would it kill you to wear socks?" Matt quipped. Gabriel ignored him. "Where's the hot water tank?" he asked aloud. "Over in the corner, next to the sink. The big silver tube-looking thing." Gabriel spotted it and moved toward it.

He caught sight of Matt's eflection in the shiny silver surface. He was smiling excitedly, silently drumming his fingers on the heater. "So, now what?" Gabriel asked, rubbing at the goosebumps on his arms and shivering. "Let me do it." Matt asked, moving his hand closer to the tank. Gabriel made a concious effort to move his hand back, straining against Matt's wishes. "I don't know...why can't you just tell me how to do it?"

"Be-cauuuuse," Matt said, "By the time I explain it to you, Garret will be out of the shower, and we'll have missed our chance to dish out some chilly, chilly revenge." Gabriel conceded. Garret did deserve it, after all. "Alright. But make it quick. And only my arms, ok?"

"Sure, sure." Matt said, eagerly taking control of their arms. Gabriel shuddered at the site of his arms moving inside the tank independently and averted his eyes. Whenever Matt took control of any part of him, that specific part always went numb, like it had been injected with morphine. Matt switched around a few dials and disconnected a pipe or two, then pulled their arms out of the moldy tank. "There, it's done. See? I told you it'd be quick. Now let's go upstairs and watch Garret freeze his balls off!"

Gabriel smiled and raced up the stairs. He plastered himself to the wall outside the bathroom and waited expectantly. "Wait for it...wait for it..." Matt whispered. Gabriel's face broke into a wide grin as he heard scrambling in the bathroom, then Garret let out a high pitched squeal. "There it is!" Matt guffawed.

The door was flung open, and a very pink, very naked Garret burst out of the bathroom, shuddering and shaking and covered in soap suds. Both Gabriel and Matt howled with laughter at his expense for a good fifteen minutes. "Alright," said Gabriel, still chortling "that was hilarious. Lets go change the temp back to normal."  

"But why?" Matt asked. "Why not let Graham get a little, too? He's not as tough as Garret is. He'd probably faint from shock! Or how 'bout we turn it to boiling hot! Like, scalding? I bet it'd be great to see!" For a moment, Gabriel actually considered leaving the temperature at ice cold, letting it freeze everyone in the house, including his mother.

Or even making it burning hot. But then he snapped out of it, realizing that those were Matt's thoughts. "No! No way. What's wrong with you? Garret is one thing, but Graham's never done anything to me. And mom...No." Matt recoiled from his mind. "Alright, alright, sorry. Just thought it'd be funny. Lighten up." Gabriel went back down the stairs to the basement, unaware of the slight tingle of Matt's anger and resentment in the back of his mind. 

Graham stopped him at the bottom of the stairs, rubbing his eyes and staring at Gabriel with a puzzled expression. "What the hell are you staring at?" Gabriel snapped at him. Graham blinked, peering closer at his brother. There was something wrong with his eyes...he looked almost...sinister.

"What was that upstairs? Did something happen to Garret?"

"How should I know? He's your twin." Gabriel snorted as he pushed past him.

He stepped into the kitchen and leaned his hand on the wall, breathing hard. His head was aching. When Graham had stopped him a few seconds ago, he'd seen his lips move, but hadn't heard his voice. "That was weird." he mumbled. "What just happened?"