CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT - PARALLEL FACES
Brian could only stare in horror. It was him. Another Brian. Identical, except that he was older. The face was more haggard with faint aged lines beginning to creep across the skin as time wore away at the features. The hair was lighter than his, dyed a blond that looked almost white.
It couldn’t be possible… His mind was recoiling at the strange phantom, knowing that there was only one of him. It was unnatural for there to be two…
“Where is B?” his twin asked.
Brian could not reply, shock having numbed his body and stolen his voice away. He felt as if he were falling through an icy cold cavern where his twisted reflection stared at him from the smooth surface. Only this time it was no reflection, no illusion. It was horrifyingly real.
What thoughts should run through his mind? How was he here? How Why? This had to be some sort of distorted nightmare or a dark kaleidoscope of reality, but there was no pleasure in this image, only shock and terror at the thing that wasn’t meant to be here.
The headache that had been constantly plaguing him for a while now seemed to reach a climax as hot pain split across his face and erupted like boiling volcano across his head as the cold blue eyes of his twin stared into his own. He gasped and found himself falling to his feet, strength finally giving way to weakness.
The second Brian approached him and extended a hand to help him up, but Brian stared at it as if it had razor sharp teeth that would tear his skin apart the second he touched it. There was something sickening at the thought of another him, another him who shared his feelings, his thoughts, his emotions, someone who was identical.
The twin withdrew his hand and for a moment they scrutinised each other’s appearance suspiciously, each looking for something other than age that would give them their own unique identity. There was none.
Brian still found his words lost in a vast desert of a dry mouth dominated by a fat, bloated tongue that did nothing more than flop uselessly inside of him.
A heavy roll of hatred began to press down upon him. It was deep, almost instinctual. A natural reaction to fear or hate what one does not comprehend, but there was something even deeper than that here. A selfish wave of jealousy was enveloping him as he thought of everything that was his: his family, his friends, his mind. None of that belonged to this stranger and yet it all did.
There couldn’t be two Brians. He was Brian! He. Himself.
Each human is unique, even twins are unique in their mind, so how do two people react when they are the same person?
“Where’s B?” his mirror image said coldly and in that moment Brian knew that his hatred was reflected back at him.
There was going to be a vicious tug of war between the two of them, one that involved B and Sammy and all that was them being the rope.
Brian gulped and remained silent, his mind still trying to comprehend what was happening and who it was that stood before him. Questions whirled about him but he could not concentrate enough to form answers of even find the courage to ask them.
His counterpart began to lose patience. “Don’t you understand? The Gerai is coming back for B! He’s been driving around the block for the last twenty minutes thinking up a plan! He has to come home! Where is he?” he snapped.
The voice was identical to the one he heard on television when he saw an interview of himself. The same accent, the same contractions, the same tone that went with the corresponding emotions…
The twin gave a snort of annoyance and then swiftly crossed the threshold into Brian’s home, slamming the temporary door behind him. Brian gasped again and then something deep finally began to slowly rip at his heart as it began to split apart as he realised that this thing had come for his B.
“No, don’t take him!” Brian begged, his voice little more than a weak croak. He stretched out a hand in vain to stop this man from stealing away one of his most precious possessions.
Deep down, Brian tried to find hope within him. Somehow he had survived in the future… he had cheated death and denied the cunning predator of its prey. He would be able to be with B and Sammy… but there was nothing there. As far as Brian was concerned, he was Brian and that man was an impostor.
He saw his twin begin to climb the stairs and he gulped as tears of confusion, fear and pain mingled into one heart wrenching emotion that sent water sprawling down his face in droplets. “B! Leave him alone!”
The twin ignored his wretched cries and his black cloak billowed about him, making him seem like an angel of death that had come to reap Brian’s household. “B? B!” he called, stopping half way up the stairs. He spun around to glare at Brian and then dashed back to his side. “Is he here?” he snapped. “Answer me!”
Brian found himself nodding, despite his intention to say nothing to this despicable apparition before him.
“B!” the twin called frantically as he turned back to the stairs.
Suddenly B appeared at the top of the stairs and Brian caught the mixture of emotions playing out on his face before he forcefully turned them all into hot anger. “What the hell are you doing here?” he said, his eyes narrowing in his pale face as they bored into Brian’s twin.
“B, I - ” the twin fumbled for words.
“I told you to stay away!” B snapped.
“B, please come home!”
“No! I’m staying here!”
“B, I’ve been worried, everyone’s been worried sick! Stop behaving like this and come here now!” the twin yelled back, responding with angry retorts of his own as B yelled hatefully at him.
“No! You don’t appreciate me and I’m happier here!”
“This has gone on long enough! You are coming home!”
“I said no!”
Brian still could not move as he stared at the exchange before him, his stomach recoiling at each word that uttered from his twin’s mouth. He knew why he was yelling at B. He had been scared and worried… it was what Brian did when he was worried, but B did not know what Brian did.
The twin had balled his fists in annoyance at the stubbornness of his s… wait, no…. Brian’s son… B was his.
“It’s dangerous for you here, B! The Gerai is outside now! He’s come for you! You really think he can protect you?” He pointed a finger accusingly at the weakened Brian behind him.
B ignored the comment but dashed down the stairs, ignoring his second father he knelt down beside Brian and clasped his hands in his own.
“B?” Brian murmured. He gazed again at the distorted, older version of himself. ‘What the hell happened to me?’ “How…?”
B gently squeezed Brian’s hands. “It’s okay,” he soothed. He turned to the twin. “Look what you’ve done now by coming here! He’s in shock! He had no idea!” The voice was again full of anger, but Brian was close enough to see B’s bottom lip trembling and the veils of emotion that kept drifting into his eyes.
The twin folded his arms in exasperation. “What was I supposed to do? You obviously were not going to come home of your own accord!”
B turned back to Brian. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you,” he whispered. “I didn’t know how to…”
It was like gazing into the hazy future through a clouded crystal ball, everything so different and disorientating like pieces of a broken jigsaw puzzle. He saw himself arguing with B, hatred in both voices… how could it come like this? How could he become like this? He could see the emotions in his twin’s eyes. Why wouldn’t he reveal them to B? Why was he being so stubborn? Brian wasn’t like that at all… was he?
“B the Gerai has been driving around the block for like twenty minutes and I think he is formulating a plan! He won’t leave this time unless he has you, and neither will I!” He held out his arm to show them the delicate time bracelet that hung about his wrist. “We have to go.”
B was trembling and Brian saw the faintest twinkle of tears there before the boy roughly shoved them away. “No.”
“Stop being do darn stubborn!” the second Brian said as he clamped a hand down upon B’s shoulder. “You’ve got to leave this place!”
B glared at the hand and Brian’s twin seemed to suddenly realise the violence of his actions. He pulled his hand away and then staggered back a few steps. He looked at B helplessly. “Please come home. Please.”
B kept his back turned upon him and instead just clasped Brian’s hands, holding them tightly for support.
Brian felt useless as he witnessed the desperate dispute between the two of them, still horrified at how things had become this way between himself and his younger son.
“B… I love you and I want you to be safe.” The twin’s voice was cracking now as he finally began to cave in under the intense emotions.
B pulled his hands out of Brian’s and used them to cover his ears instead, refusing to listen but Brian knew he was because he could see the tears in the green eyes. Why wouldn’t they give in? Why were they fighting? He glanced over towards his twin, his head still aching and feeling light and airy as if the confusion were slowly filling his mind with hot air making him slowly and stupid. He could see the desperation in his twin’s eyes and for a moment there were two conflicting emotions fighting within his heart, one of smug pride as B was with him rather than the twin, but there was another of sympathy. What if this twin loved B as much as Brian did?
The twin looked as if he were about to crumble and break down and he trembled as he stared at B locked with Brian. “What’s the difference between me and him?” he snapped finally. There was hatred in his voice, hatred caused by his jealousy of B and Brian.
B heard the hatred to; only he thought it was directed at him. Brian saw the second where B’s face crumpled in pain and then his younger son turned and screamed at the twin. “I hate you!”
Brian knew the words were not directed at him, but one day they would be. He felt cold, his skin icy as he realised what he was seeing. In twenty years, this was how B and Brian would be, no longer close but clearly miles apart. How could B hate one of them when they were both the same person?
“B…”
He saw the pain that flickered across his counterpart’s face and he stretched his arms out, begging for the boy to come to him. Brian knew how much B wanted that embrace as well. He knew that B loved this second Brian… It all made sense now… B had had an argument with Brian in his time and had come here where he knew Brian would never shout at him.
B glared at the twin but remained loyally by Brian’s side. Brian clasped B’s hand in his own as tears rolled down his face. He could feel a pain in his chest that tugged at every part of him so deeply that he wanted to scream, but it wasn’t his pain but that of the twin. He had been aware of his presence in 2023 he realised and he had known who he was the second he saw him. Now he could even feel his pain as he was rejected by his son.
He was shivering from cold fingers of time as they pressed down upon him, cruelly laughing at Brian. This was his future. A future in which he and B would no longer be close. He stared up at B, begging him to reassure him and to tell him that what he was seeing before him was nothing more than an illusionary mirage. “B?” he murmured.
“Let me stay here,” B begged. “Don’t make me go!”
Now Brian was torn. He was devoted to B, but at the same time there was the pain inside that crushed his heart and broke it apart as he felt the agony his twin was in. What did he do? He was bound to the man before him, but B was his adored son who he loved so much… He also knew from previous conversations with B that he cared about this second Brian deeply. He was just afraid to admit it, but Brian had no idea why.
“B - ” he began, wondering how he could explain to his son and make him see this was what he wanted. B was being stubborn for his sake because he knew that Brian loved him. He did not want Brian to think that he was abandoning him… “B, I think - ”
“Leave him out of this!” the twin snapped.
B whirled around on the attack again. “He’s my father! He has a right to say whatever he wants!”
“What does that make me then? B, you’re mine! You haven’t even been conceived in this time yet!”
No! B was Brian’s!
“I don’t care!” B replied simply as he stood up and glared at his ‘father’.
“Why are you being like this?”
“Like what?”
“You’re being like a child! Why are you so difficult sometimes? I try to understand you, I really do but you keep pushing me away! I try so hard for you but nothing is good enough!”
“You’re different! You’re not the same as him!”
“I still love you!”
“But I love him more than you because he’s a better father!” B screamed.
Silence.
Heavy…
Oppressive…
Silence.
It lasted forever as Brian watched B and his twin glaring at each other, each trying to come to terms with what had been said. The boulder had finally been dropped into the calm lake sending out the ripples of emotions that would accompany it.
The twin said nothing and only Brian was aware of the torment inside of him. The twin did not let anything show on his face but there was a brief flash of emotion in his eyes for a moment before it disappeared. He hung his head slowly and then shrugged as if he were impervious to B’s words. “Okay, fine, I know you despise me. But B, just come home for Sammy. He’s missed you so much. As soon as I have him back… he’ll be overjoyed to see you. Come for Sammy.”
B had leant down beside Brian and was crying, the tears dribbling onto Brian’s shirt. He had turned his back on the twin again and was concealing his tears. Why was he being like this? He loved Brian’s twin…. He was his father.
“B,” Brian whispered so that only B could hear him. “Go to him.”
This was killing B and as deep as the hatred ran between Brian and his twin, he wanted nothing more than for B to be happy and he knew from B’s tears that he wanted to make up with the twin. In their time they could B a family with Sammy, something Brian could not give him in this time.
B shot him a glare and then without a word he stood up, but instead of crossing to the twin, he dashed to the stairs instead and ran up them sobbing desperately, everything having fallen down upon his fragile form.
“B!” the twin yelled. “B, come back here!”
But B did not acknowledge him and only slammed the door to emphasise his closure of the conversation.
The twin gave a moan of annoyance and frustration and covered his face with his hands. He ran a hand through his pale hair and looked as if he might start to cry any moment.
‘Will that ever be me?’ Brian thought dismally. Would it ever be him having that argument with B?
Brian stared at the stairs where B had just disappeared and hung his own head. He wasn’t sure whether he preferred being alive to dead if this was how everything would turn out. He had always envisioned that they would be a perfect family if they could ever be together, but this was far from that desired image.
Brian slowly stood up and leaned against the wall, not trusting his wobbly legs to support him for long. “I think you should leave,” he whispered to the twin.
His counterpart seemed to have forgotten that he existed and he spun around to stare at him before he realised what had just been said. “What do you mean?” he asked stiffly. “I can’t leave! Don’t you understand that B is in danger? In my time I can protect him! You have to let me take him home!” he cried.
“He wants to stay,” Brian whispered.
“By keeping him away from me you’re keeping him away from yourself!”
‘I know!’ Brian thought in anguish. It was al too confusing. He wanted B to stay, but he wanted B to be happy and he knew that was in his own time. B loved this Brian… He could see it in his eyes. B had been exactly the same when he had met him for the first time, disguising all the confusion inside with hatred and anger.
He gulped as he stared at his twin, still unnerved at seeing another him there. He thought back to B’s words…
‘He’s like a father to me.’
Well the little rogue could have given him a better warning than that!
“We’re the same,” the twin said simply.
“No we’re not,” Brian contradicted. “I would never have shouted at him like you just were! He’s scared and he’s been through a bad experience and he needs support! The last thing he wants is someone yelling at him!”
“He’s being so stubborn! You have no idea what he put me and Sammy through!”
“He needs time! He needs time to figure everything out. You know what he’s like when’s confused. I don’t know what the hell happened between you in your time but it has really screwed him up!”
The eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “It’s not my fault he can be so ungrateful! I tried to be the father he wanted me to, God knows I tried but that isn’t good enough for him so he goes skipping off through time to find a replacement!”
Brian could see the envy in the twin’s eyes. He wanted B to come to him, he wanted B to be his son but B had other ideas it seemed.
“I’m sorry,” Brian said. “But what was I supposed to do?”
“Tell him to come home with me!” the twin said. “I miss him and I want him home.” He hesitated for a moment. “I love him. I love him as much as you do and I hate the fact that we don’t get on. I just want him to be safe and I know that something bad will happen if he stays with you. Let me take him.”
Brian finally believed that he had the strength to move away from the doorframe, but he still felt slightly weak and unsteady, especially every time he looked at his older twin with the haggard face.
“Leave him for now and I will talk to him. I know he wants to come home with you. He wants to be with you and Sammy. He needs time. I suggest you go and come back tomorrow.” He could sit with B and dry the boy’s tears as well as make him talk about he situation with his… ‘father’… (why did that thought make him so cold inside?)
“How can I trust you? How do I know you won’t convince B to stay? I know you care about him and want him for yourself!”
Brian’s eyes narrowed at the reply. “I want him to be safe and I want him to be happy! I will talk to him and help him to decide what he wants.”
“He doesn’t belong here! He doesn’t belong with you, he belongs with me!” the twin snapped.
The words stung Brian. It felt so right to have B with him and every night since B’s arrival he had hardly believed his luck. B was his son, no matter what this man said and B would always have a home here…
… In his heart though he knew that this Brian was right. No matter how far apart they seemed, B belonged with this person. They were from the same time. All the same, the thought still drove cracks splintering across his heart. He wanted B to stay with him…
The twin placed his head in his hands briefly. “I’m going to go and talk to him,” he said as he rushed towards the stairs.
“No, you’re not! He’s upset and the last thing he needs is another argument! He’s had a terrible evening and he just needs to sleep everything off. Come back tomorrow and you can talk to him.”
The twin folded his arms. “But I need to take him home tonight! Didn’t you hear me? The Gerai is driving around here! I’m not leaving!”
“Fine!” Brian snapped, his twin finally managing to agitate him. How the hell had he become this thing? “Stay here, but stay away from B until he’s ready to talk to you. He’s sick and he doesn’t need this! He needs peace and quiet and rest!”
“Ill? Has he still got that cold?” the twin sighed. “I told him to take the damn medicine!”
“He’s not got a cold!” Brian replied. “It’s something much worse! He’s been coughing up blood!”
“What?” the twin turned back to him, his face pale as if it had just been touched by the hand of death. “Why didn’t you tell me!” he screamed as he seized Brian roughly by the shoulders. “Do you know what this means?” He ran a hand through his sweaty hair and then turned to the stairs. “He’s coming home now!”
“Why what’s wrong?” Brian said, picking up on the panic within his voice. He suddenly felt cold inside as if death had now touched him inside. The twin ignored him and turned to the stairs, but Brian grabbed his arm. “What’s wrong with him!”
The twin prised Brian’s fingers away and then shoved him back, sending him stumbling against the wall. “You want to know?” he approached Brian threateningly. “You really wanna know? There’s a blue print for a virus in that computer chip of his, now the resistance know that the Gerai some how got a copy of it and are experimenting but they need B to complete their work! One of the symptoms of the virus is coughing up blood followed by memory loss!”
Brian’s thoughts took him back to the incident in the kitchen when B had momentarily lost his memories. He stared at his twin in horror as he thought about his precious B having contracted a deadly virus. “How could he catch it?”
“I don’t know! I never even knew he had it until you told me! You should have said something sooner! He could die!”
Suddenly there was the ominous sound of shattering glass and then there was an unmistakable scream…
“DAD!”
Both of them were suddenly running for the stairs. Brian stumbled ahead, trembling from sickness and from the fear that had suddenly sought to swallow his entire stomach the moment he had heard B’s scream.
It took too long to clamber up the stairs and stumble along the landing with the twin behind him. They needed to hurry, hurry! He was gasping as he reached B’s door and wrenched it open, but he had already known that it would be too late.
Glass shards from the broken window covered the cream carpet and twinkled in the light of the lamp on the floor. His eyes filled with tears as he dashed to stare out of the window. It had been easy for the Gerai. All he’d had to do was to clamber up onto the roof of the garage and then it was easy to get up to this window.
The twin was suddenly beside him, his own eyes filling with pain as he saw that the room was empty and devoid of B.
“B!” Brian screamed as he leaned out of the window, ignoring the remaining pieces of glass that cut into him. He could see the Gerai’s car parked outside of the house. Why hadn’t he listened to his twin’s warning? He swiftly began to dash for the door.
“Where are you going?” the twin asked dismally.
“Outside to catch them! Their car’s still here! If we hurry we can - ”
The twin grabbed him by the shoulders. “They’re gone!” he screamed. “They’ve skipped times! You think the Gerai is going to hang about waiting for us to catch him? They’ve skipped times and returned to the future!” He held a hand to his head as he desperately tried to fight the sobs. “I told you the Gerai was thinking of a plan! Why wouldn’t you let me take him?”
“I – I – I…” He trailed off as tears rolled down his cheeks. He’d tried so hard to protect him and now this… He stared down at B’s bed where the blue teddy Brian had won him still lie. He sat down on the bed and cuddled the fluffy thing close, wishing it could have been B instead.
The twin sniffed and then frantically began to press panels upon the bracelet about his wrist. He stopped for a moment to wipe his eyes and then carried on.
“What do we do?” Brian asked. “We’ve got to do something!” He couldn’t just stand by and watch while the Gerai destroyed B for their violent weapons.
“We?” the twin spat. “You’ve already done enough! B is nothing to do with you!”
“Yes he is! He’s my son and I am not abandoning him now!”
“Everything that has happened has been your fault!”
His fault? Brian gulped slightly and shook his head. He had tried his hardest to take care of B. “You were the one shouting at him and making him even more confused then he already is!”
The twin shot him a glare that pierced into Brian’s soul and he felt the anger burning the back of his mind. They were linked now in an uncanny kind of way. The temporal remembrance would keep them bonded while they hared the same time.
“So what do we do?” Brian said.
“We? ‘We’ don’t do anything. I am going to rescue him and you can stay here in your own time! B should never have come here in the first place!”
Brian’s mouth dropped open. “Don’t you dare cut me out of this now! He’s my son as well! He was attacked before he came here and he was on the run!” From what Brian gathered, this Brian had been in the medical centre and unable to help so B had come to the next best thing.
The twin glared at him but said nothing, but Brian could see that this Brian firmly believed that B was not Brian’s son. He clenched his fists in anger, his mind bubbling with fury at the attitude of this older man.
“I’m coming with you,” Brian said stubbornly.
“No you’re not.”
“Yes I am!”
Brian leapt forward and grabbed his twin’s arm. The twin gave a startled cry and tried to shake him away, but it was too light. Yellow light enveloped both of them in a pale wash to push them forward in time.
And then the room was empty.
**END OF PART ONE**