Sometimes things are all right for a while and then, suddenly, they turn to shit in no time. That’s what just happened to me.
It all started a few years back. This was before COVID and all that social distancing thing. So, I was going to see this new play at the theater when, a few spots ahead of me I saw a really familiar face. I was thinking: Whoa! That guy looks a lot like… By that moment I was already walking towards him and the very young girl with him.
“Alex? Is that you man? Oh God! It’s me, Jack!”
He looked at me like we hadn’t been friends since second grade. Actually, he looked at me as if that were the very first time we ever saw each other.
“Sorry matey, I’m not the man you’re looking for.”
His voice sounded different, and his accent, it was weird… Certainly not American. It was neither British nor Irish, but most certainly sounded like a mix of both.
“I mean, you from all people should know but, are you sure you’re not Alex? You could be his twin brother…”
“Well —he said— I’ve no siblings and I’m no Alex pal. The name’s Robert. My friends call me Bob. My really close friends call me Shady Bob.” He smiled at me.
“Well Robert, may I have a selfie with you please? Rich and Artie will not believe when I show them…”
I was already preparing my phone to take the pic and smiling like a dumb when I saw him through the camera standing up in the most menacing way. He sky-rocketed up from his seat with his fists clenched and his eyes on me. It was like he was preparing a punch. I backed out a step and even his girlfriend looked startled. He noticed it and I was preparing to say I’m sorry, didn’t mean to bother and go back to my seat when he surprised me again:
“Sure thing matey! Gimme your phone and I’ll shoot the pic.”
He took my phone with his left hand and threw his right arm around my neck, holding me down with impressive strength. I mean, I’m 6’1” and I’ve always been strong, while Alex was 5’6” and he had a really slender frame. It really surprised me how firmly he was holding me. After he took the picture, I wished him and his girlfriend a good night and went back to my seat.
That night I posted the pic on Facebook and tagged Richie and Art. The four of us had been the best of friends since we were seven. After high school, Alex and I moved out of town to go to college, while Artie and Richie stayed back. Richie had become a sort of local hero since. He was a firefighter and had a rock band. Meanwhile Art inherited his dad’s garage.
Alex was always different. He came from money, unlike the rest of us, and it always seemed to me like he felt out of place amongst us. By high school he barely —if ever— spent any time with us three. He found new friends. But I will always have lots of fond memories with my buddy.
So, I posted the pic with a message saying Guess whose doppelganger I just found. Art replied almost instantly:
Art: “Doppelganger my butt! That’s freaking Alex man!”
Jack: “He sure isn’t! Looks like him, but this guy’s name is Bob.”
Art: “Dude, this is scary. Are you sure he’s not Alex?”
Jack: “Absolutely.”
Art: “I’m just glad I’m wearing brown pants.”
I went to sleep. By the next morning I was awaken by the notifications ringing in my phone. Apparently, my post of last night had generated a lot of traction. There were comments from Richie’s cousin Alice, who also had been at our school. Britney, Cynthia, Mike, Sam, and a couple more guys I didn’t even knew also commented:
Alice: “Really classy Jack! You POS!!!”
Mike: “Yeah Jack, you got too far bro.”
Alice: “Come on Mike! Is this all you’re going to say to this asshole? I’m blocking him right now!”
Cynthia: “It’s too soon.”
Britney: “You’re an asshole Jack! How could you? And you Art? You’re not better.
Sam: “Come on girls, I don’t think he meant it like that.”
Unknown guy: “I don’t know what this guy were thinking.”
Britney: “Shut up Sam! This is wrong and you know it.”
Mike: “I’s all kinds of wrong.”
Richie: “EVERYBODY CALM DOWN PLEASE! He doesn’t live in town anymore and I never told him about Alex. He knew nothing.”
Then I saw a Direct Message from Richie with his phone number asking me to call him ASAP.
“Whoa! Hi bro! It’s been years!”
“Yeah… too many years Jack… I… Look man. I don’t know how to tell you this.”
Richie was scaring me.
“Tell me what Richie?”
“It’s about Alex man. He came back to town a few years back. He had a wife and two kids. He was living in Rose Springs, a new and super exclusive neighborhood. I encountered him at the groceries once. He had been in town for a few months already, but he hadn’t seen any of the guys yet. He was really changed. I tried to talk him into drinking a beer with me, but he clearly didn’t want to see me. It was awkward and after that, whenever we saw each other, we just waved hands from a distance. He was no longer our friend.
Anyway, last year I was called to a fire at Rose Springs. When I arrived and saw the mailbox, I knew it was his place. The house was burning like a campfire by the time we arrived. Turns out Alex… dude… he went full Amityville Horror with his whole family and then he burned himself with them inside the house. It was hell man. I had to go to therapy over that.”
“Wait, what? Why didn’t you or Art tell me?”
“Well, I can’t speak for Art. I just wanted to spare you the pain bro. It still hurts me really bad, and you live so far away now, I just thought you didn’t need to know. “
I obviously took down the photo after that.
I did ask Artie why he hadn’t told me.
“Dude, I’m so stupid! I just assumed Richie would have told you.”
So, things were a bit awkward between Richie and I for some time. I resented him and, like he said, I lived far away now, so awkward was fine by me. For a while we just texted each other on birthdays and Christmas and stuff like that.
The news about Alex really hurt me, but a few days later I was already doing my stuff again. You know, work, gym, girlfriend, beers with friends. Things would have kept the same, but the pandemic thing changed everything for everyone right?
I had to spend a LOT of time online because of my job. My girl decided to move to her parents’ place to take care of them and we eventually broke up. So, fearing the apocalypse and since Facebook was the closest thing to a social life I had, I made amends with Richie really quick. I wish I hadn’t. Maybe that way he hadn’t call me on Thursday night. But he did call me.
It was almost midnight.
“Hello?”
“Are you awake?”
“I am now Rich. What’s up?”
“I saw him”
“Who?”
“Alex! I just saw him! Well, he said it wasn’t him, but you know. It WAS him.”
“Alex? Wait, what are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry Jack, I’m really sorry. I just didn’t know what else to do.”
“Come on Richie! It’s too late to play riddles. Tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s Alex… I mean Bob… —I heard someone else talk to Richie on the other side— I mean, It’s Shady Bob. He… he wants to talk to you- I’m so, so…”
“Greetings Matey! It’s been long!”
It took me a couple of seconds to get it. It was that person who looked a lot like Alex and why on Earth was he talking to me from Richie’s phone?
“You see —he continued— I got the morbs for the old place and the old mates. And over all I thought of how ill-mannered I had been with you that time at the theater. So, I decided to pay you all a visit! I started with my chap Arthur who simply was dyin’ to see me again! Now I’m here and, thanks to my old pal Richie Banana, I know where you are and I’m comin’ to get you.”
Then he hung up.
I really didn’t like the sound of that. I called Richie back, but he didn’t answer. Then I called Art. Same thing. It really got in my nerves. I knew that Bob man is bad news. I had a taste of his physical strength, and I don’t think even Richie and his firefighter muscles would be a match for him. I didn’t know how to help so I called 911. Since it was from a different state, it took me the best part of 20 minutes to explain the operator that my friend and I was talking when someone broke into his house. When the Police finally arrived, they found Richie sitting on the floor, hugging his knees, and saying all kinds of nonsense. He looked like he hadn’t sleep in a long time even though many other guys saw him sleep at the fire station last night.
It was way worse with Artie. When they found him, he was already dead. I haven’t been able to get the details, but in the newspaper said it was a cardiac malfunction. It also said that foul play wasn’t discarded yet because he had just been to his annual check up three weeks before and he was healthy as a bull.
The whole thing was scary enough, but the part about him coming for me was the one that worried me the most. It hadn’t been 24 hours yet since the call, but I decided I wasn’t going to wait for him to come at me. I took all my money, some clothes, my phone, my laptop and my car and I came to this motel, where I’ll be staying here for the foreseeable future.
It was all calm and steady until last night. I was at my laptop doing some work when an alarm was activated. The security camera at my apartment had detected some movement. I already knew what it was, but I was scared anyway. I opened the app and watched as this Bob creature walked past my living room with my front door dangling from his left hand. He had ripped it from its hinges with no apparent effort. He spent a couple of minutes opening doors and flipping furniture over, looking for something… No, looking for me. It was then when a neighbor entered my place holding a cell phone. He was yelling at Bob, and I can only assume he had called 911.
Bob walked towards him. He walked quickly, with a drive. That poor bastard didn’t even move. Bob put his hands on the guy’s head and the other guy just looked panicked. I couldn’t see if Bob did anything at all to him. The camera angle wasn’t the best, but what I did see was this guy at the end, sitting on the floor, his eyes lost in the nowhere and then Bob turning his head around until he found the camera. He smiled and walked towards it. He ripped it form the wall and crushed it with his hand. All while looking at it and smiling like a madman. And his eyes… There was this wicked expression to them, like the homicide intent you would expect to see on a serial killer, or a kid, roasting ants using magnifying lens.
Anyway. I call upon you mind-hive. Have you ever heard of anything like this? I promise to keep you updated. Thanks for reading.