Angel Of Clinia

7. Acting Strange

He got home, and while it did diffuse the tension of my parents, Leo still wasn't acting right. He was so blank compared to how he usually is. The timing is really bad, but even that seems strange for how smart the government is.

I walked to the large kitchen, setting down my light up wireless headphones. Suddenly I hear a knock at the door. While my parents talk to Leo, I decide to answer the door. I unlock it and pull it open to reveal Ella. "What do you want?" I ask bitterly, getting ready to shut the door. "Whatever do you mean? Why are you shutting the door? That is not proper behavior." Ella tilts her head. "Uh, are you okay?" I ask, looking left and right behind me to make sure mom didn't see her at our door. "Of course." She replies.

I just shut the door. She didn't tell me what she wanted, so I figured there wasn't a point. I walked back to the kitchen and sat down, before hearing another knock at the door. I get back up and assume it's Ella again. "What?" I say rudely. It isn't Ella, it's Emara, the one who didn't seem to be quite as evil as the rest. "Oh, sorry," I say, "I thought you were someone else."

"You have to help me!" She begs with tears streaming down her face. "Slow down, what is it?"

"Nobody believes me, but for some reason I think that you will! Ella, Jackie, Declan...they, they were all abducted! It was so quick and silent, but now they've been replaced with these mindless fakes!" She cries, tripping over her words.

"This better not be some sick joke. If I'm going to be honest though, ever since my brother got back from work, he hasn't been acting right either." I look down, endless possibilities flooding through my head.

"I know that we weren't nice to you, but they are all I have! Please help me, and save me!" She blubbers. "Alright, alright. Come on in." I say, motioning her inside.

"Excuse me," mom walks in. "What is going on?"

"It's okay, Emara is fine." I tell her, continuing to bring her upstairs.

Emara nods at my mom and says "Mrs. Lance, I am so sorry for what took place, I really didn't know that Ella was going to do that."

We make it upstairs, and I pull out my board. "Here, I've been collecting information for years." I show it to her, and she's impressed, and unlike Jenny and Leo, understands it immediately.

I tell it to her, my mind rambling on about everything.

"That makes so much sense! You have to be right. We've got to get out of here somehow. Only issue is, why would they only start taking people now?" She asks. "Because they didn't have the clones ready. They also needed to make sure everyone would be brainwashed enough, and taking away my brother, so that nobody knew something was off- thinking the clone was really him and his personality- would be a great set up. They just had to wait until my brother was accepted as CEO." I explain, feeling more miserable with each word that comes out of my mouth. I hear footsteps on the stairs. I shove the board back into the closet. The door opens, which isn't right because my family always knocks on the door. "Mar," Leo says, walking up to me almost robotically. "Yeah?" I ask apprehensively, knowing the being in front of me was a total stranger. "Give me the board." "What?" "The board!" The clone yells. "What board?" I ask, leaning back as far as I could, Emara doing the same.

"Fine, if you don't comply, I will search for it myself." The clone behinds thrashing everything in my room. "Hey!" I yell, grabbing at the clone. I was trying to stop him as quickly as I could, he couldn't find my board. "Leo!" I hear downstairs. The clone stops. I have tears in my eyes now. The Leo clone walks downstairs. I stand there a moment sniffling. I grab my board and reach for Emara's hand. "We have to go."