Sweat encompasses me as I jerk abruptly out of bed. Wiping my forehead furiously, I get up and make the usual stumble to the kitchen. I walk down those long hallways slowly. Trying to absorb all the family pictures on the walls as I pass, memories everlasting. Even if never again. As I near the end of the dismally narrow lengthway, something catches my eye. I had been on autopilot but…these were not pictures of my family. I didn’t recognize anyone in that last frame! I grab it off the wall and press it close to my face. Nope. These are not my people. I’ve never even met them! Swiftly, I run down to check all the other ones. None of them are right.

Who are these fucking people!?!

Easy explanation though right? someone pranked you? Just playing a goof on you.

But.

I live alone.

I look at each frame, over and over, desperately trying to find something underneath. Maybe my pictures have just been covered. But by who!

Panic starts to set in, thick at my core. Is someone in the house?? Timidly, I grab the solid steel cutlass my grandfather left me. He was the most amazing man in my life. I had no father figure. He was dead now, but forever alive in me. I’ll always be his little pirate. Even if I don’t know much about how his lifestyle really was.

I glide through my abode, carefully nosing into each room. It’s not very big and I quickly clear the entire place. Nothing. I lowered my sword. A familiar high pitched chime started to sound in my ear. The telltale sign that I’m about to have a panic attack. No, not now, I am okay. I gulp air angrily and shove down the feelings.

Worried now I carefully look through everything. What’s different? Has anything been moved? With my home seemingly unchanged, I slumped on the couch in defeat.

As I melt into the warmth my gaze shifts to the behemoth collage of family’s past. I made it last year when everything happened. When I lost everyone. Directly in the middle of the wall it sat. Beautiful side mirrors accenting the special portraits. A strange sensation ripped through me as my eyes lock on the mirrors. Confusion and utter fear electrify down my spine. Who is that?!

Right where my own reflection should be crumpled lazily, someone else took my place. This person had dark hair, where I have bright red. It jolted up,as did I. I froze. It froze. I closed my eyes. Fire was boiling through my cheeks. I take a heavy breath.

*YEE* I squealed, gearing up.

When I open them again I stand up determinedly. It stands up. What the hell? I move closer and of course,it follows suit. As I examine the face and it follows my every move robotically, I realize this is me. Not what I should look like, but this is who I am for some reason.

I start spinning aggressively to cope and self regulate. What. Is. Going. On. The turns get faster and faster. Brutal becomes tame as my head contorts sickly with almost no control. Finally It all stops, with a loud and puffy thud.

My head launches onto the comfort of the wall foam I use for therapy. I gather my thoughts and inhale deeply.

Okay I am me, but my appearance was not. My pictures are all wrong people, but the frames are normal. Everything in my house is the way it should be, the way it was left last night. Right down to the oreo crusted spoon and mug that’s been sitting on the counter for two days now. Accumulating fruit flies, who swarmed proudly per usual. My therapy section of the living room is there. Which once again, quelled me from overwhelm. My daily normal.

Except it all feels like a delusion. Am I going insane? Seeing things? Or even more unsettling, losing my memory? Forgetting mine and my families looks but nothing else. Is that possible…

I was about to be put to the test. The door bell rang annoyingly. As if someone was pressing the button too fast. Who could that be? My family is dead, I have no one and it’s in the middle of the night.

I shakily walk to the door, trusty cutlass in hand.

To be continued.