Jasper started the day as usual with a mug of steaming hot coffee to wake himself up. While his was waiting for the coffee to kick in he busied himself with opening a tin of cat food for Micah. As he turned round to put the food in his bowl he stopped, noticing that Micah hadn’t touched his dinner from the night before. Something was very wrong! Usually Micah would be all over Jasper when he heard his food being opened. Where was that cat? Come to think of it, Jasper hadn’t seen Micah all morning. He grabbed a bag of cat treats from the shelf and began shouting Micah's name in an attempt to lure him out of hiding. Jasper looked out the kitchen window half expecting to see a ginger streak in the garden as his tabby cat came bounding in to the get a treat. Where was he?
A blonde guy who Jasper had never seen before came stumbling into the room, yawning. "Mornin'" he mumbled. The men stared at each other, confused for a few moments before finally regaining their senses. Jasper was the first to move. He instinctively dropped his hand to the counter top, looking for something to defend himself with. His hand closed around thehandle of something, a knife? When he pulled his hand up, he realised that he had picked up a spatula, not a knife. Hardly a very intimidating weapon but it would have to do. Jasper swung the spatula in what he hoped was an Intimidating fashion yelling: "Get the hell out my house!" The Intruder stared at Jasper wide eyed. The ginger cat ears on top of the guy's head which Jasper had thought was just some weird accessory, pricked up. "Jasper, wait! It’s me! It’s Micah!”
"This condition is fairly rare and as such we cannot say with 100% certainty what the symptoms will be or even how much time you haven’t left." The doctor's words made my head spin. He was basically saying that at any point I could just drop dead. I had been ill for the last several years and, sure, I was glad to finally have a name for my condition (even though I couldn’t actually pronounce it)but I was not exactly thrilled with hearing that I was going to die.
The car ride home was uncomfortably quiet. Which was fine with me, I didn’t really want to talk anyway. I just kept going over and over what the doctor had saaid. I didn’t want to leave my family. What would they do without me, would the boys miss me? As we pulled into our street my husband said, "Hey it looks like the kids are home." He was trying to keep everything calm and act like everything was fine, but it wasn’t.
Over the next few months my condition deteriorated at the end I couldn’t even breathe unaided. I was constantly attached to an oxygen tank that sat in the corner of the room. I know everyone says that they want to go at home, surrounded by family but as I watched my husband try and comfort my two silently crying sons I thought, "If I had a choice, this wouldn’t be how I'd choose to go;.
"So, what you’re saying is that a wizard told you to rob the bank." "No, of course not. That would be ridiculous. No a wizard told me he could make me invisible." "Yes, of course, how stupid of me." The man interviewing me smirked as he walked out the room. I pressed my face into my hands. Why had I just said that. If I wasn’t going to a psychiatric unit before I was now.
I was moved into a cell where I was left waiting for ages. I could tell from the growing darkness outside the window that it was getting late. I tried to sleep for a few hours. Try being the operative word. I tossed and turned for hours thinking over the day.
In the morning an officer took me back into the interview room where the same arrogant police officer sat. "Mr Taylor, sit down." I sat down cautiously waiting to see what the catch was. "Robin Taylor, you’re under arrest for armed robbery. You do not need to say anything, but anything you do say could be used in evidence against you in court.”
It looked exactly like Nathan apart from the mole just under his left eye. He had always said that he wanted to get it surgically removed, I thought that was a bit extreme, it was a tiny thing. It was something you wouldn’t have noticed but I did because I saw it every day since we had started school together. “Who are you and where’s Nathan?" I asked, my voice trembling. Whoever, whatever this imposter was, they clearly didn’t think I deserved an answer. I tried again "Are you even listening to me! I asked you where Nathan is!" At that moment a van pulled up in the road behind me. I’m not sure what colour the van was, it came up so fast that I couldn’t see it before a man pressed a handkerchief to my face. As I breathed in the chloroform my eyes began to dim and I was vaguely aware of being lifted into the back of the truck. I woke up in a pitch black room. The only light was coming from a small gap under the door. I could hear voices talking in an odd language on the other side of the door. I head rustling in the corner. I obviously wasn’t alone in the room. “Who’s there!” I shouted into the darkness. “Connor?” responded a quiet voice. “Nath! Nathan is that you?” “Yeah” said Connor. “Nath do you have any idea where we are?!” I asked my friend. “No but I did hear them talking earlier. They were saying that because you didn’t believe the replica was me they took you. I don’t really understand what they meant though.” “That’s okay, I think I do.” I muttered. “So do you think they’re just gonna do the same thing as they’ve done with us with everyone that doesn’t believe the replica?”. “Yeah. That means all our friends, our parents, everyone will end up off the streets and replaced.”
I had always loved you. I will always remember you as you were. As an angel. In my memories you will stand in the playground, aged 9, laughing. The lovely tinkling sound filling the air. It reminded me of the wind chime outside our house. You were standing in front of the sun looking like a goddess ringed in sunlight with your golden hair and amber eyes.
I loved you but never told you. And now your not here. "Goodnight my dear "
Penniless after coming out of prison, Christi had nowhere to go. Her family didn’t want to know her and the same could be said for all her old friends. London seemed as good a place as any for a new start as any. She boarded the train bound for London from Waverley. She found a seat in the crowded carriage , sitting down and watching the outskirts of Edinburgh speed past the window .
She dozed for about an hour before an overły friendly man with a strong cockney accent sat beside her at Manchester, she reckoned she knew everything about him, his ex wife, his kids and his job. The man was obviously beginning to get annoyed at his the lack of reciprocation in the conversation. He proposed they play a game of "need or needless “. The rules were quite easy he assured Christi, he would mention something to her and she would have to respond with need or needless depending on the importance of that thing to her. After the brief explanation he just jumped straight into playing the game, giving her no time to make her excuses. "Work " “Need “ "Money" "Need” "Family” "Needless "
