Page 14 of The Other World

I let out a sigh of relief. I hadn’t missed it. But she’d definitely be back soon. Even if she was the type to hang out for a bit after classes, she wouldn’t be more than another hour or so.

It didn’t seem like all that much longer when I heard someone approaching. The door swung open and she came in.

It was surreal. She looked so much like me, exactly like me, and yet, so not.

It was just the little things. Her hair was shorter and stylishly cut, in a way that framed her face to the best advantage. She didn’t wear glasses, and it didn’t look as if she wore any make-up, though maybe she was just super skillful at applying it, in that way pretty girls seemed to be.

Because shewaspretty. I wasn’t. I was average, on a good day. But this girl, with the same genetic makeup as me, she was a hottie. She even wore the school uniform well.

It was weirdly hypnotic watching her, trying to find the differences, but I had to snap out of it.

I didn’t have magic powder like Hannah, I didn’t need it. What I did need was to tap into that power inside me and I couldn’t do that if I was ogling my doppelganger like some creeper. I didn’t know how long I’d have, so I needed to work quickly.

I closed my eyes and felt for the power.

It seemed empty in there, without Tennyson, which made it both easier and harder to tap into my own power. It was easier to find, but harder to reach, somehow. I could feel it, but it took all of my concentration to draw on it.

Which is why I didn’t notice Other-me approaching the closet.

She opened the door and the light flooded in. For a moment, we just stared at each other.

“What the he–” she said, but in my panic, my power surged and cut her off as it blasted out of me, throwing her back toward the bed.

Luckily, she landed softly, and apart from being knocked out, seemed otherwise unharmed. I’d meant to keep her unconscious overnight, so that she woke up the next morning thinking she’d just been really tired and fallen asleep after class, but who knew how long she’d be out after the blast I’d hit her with.

And worse than that, she’d seen me. I didn’t know how to mess with people’s memories. I’d told Hannah I didn’t want to know that type of magic because I had a problem with the ethics of it. Which she’d said was hypocritical, seeing as how I was learning magic to use as a weapon, but that kind of thing just seemed super sketchy and I didn’t want any part of it. Now, though, I could kind of see how it might be useful.

Maybe I’d hit her so hard, her brain would be fuzzy when she woke up, or she’d think she’d just caught her reflection at an odd angle. At any rate, that was a tomorrow problem. What I had to do now was hide her, then go find Nikolai.

Until you’ve tried to move an unconscious person, you can’t understand how tough it is. They’re floppy and heavy, and super annoying. I tried to lift Other-me up off the bed in a bridal carry but I couldn’t even raise her off the mattress. I tried sitting her up so I could get her under the armpits, but she kept flopping back down. She was like a puddle of fish. In the end, I grabbed her by the foot and dragged her toward the closet. Sure, she thudded a bit coming off the bed, but she was tough, she could handle it.

Getting her up into the closet was another matter entirely, and I’m not ashamed to say I gave up pretty fast and just draped a blanket over her. She looked kind of awkward, so I put a pillow under her head.

With Other-me sorted, I had to try to look more like her. Nikolai had noticed something weird the last time, so this time I needed to make an effort. Luckily, Other-me had already laid out part of her outfit on the bed. Unluckily, it was just a black t-shirt, so I had to make up the rest myself. What would I wear to go hunt people if I was stylish? That wasn’t a question I ever thought I’d need to answer. I settled on some black tights, boots and a black cap. She was a size or two smaller than me, so the clothes were a little tight, which made me sad for her. She obviously had to hold back her love of food, which just proved we were two very different people.

I grabbed her phone but couldn’t see anything else she might take with her, so I took a deep breath and headed out the door.

Hanging out in Other-me’s room for so long, I’d forgotten the goth vibe that the house had in this world. At least I didn’t have to worry about how to navigate it – Nikolai was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.

“What took you so long?” he said, then looked me up and down. “You’re wearingthat?”

I rolled my eyes. “You’resaying that tome?”

He was dressed head to toe in camo. Purple camo. He did a little twirl, that ended in a flourish. “What? This is my color.” Then he leaned in close to me and said in an exaggerated whisper, “did you get the… you know?”

I froze. The “you know”what? Something to take down my evil not-dad? Something to do with their plan? I had no clue. The only things on the bed had been her clothes and her phone. Maybe there’d been some secret weapon in the closet where I’d been hiding and that was what she’d been about to get when I zapped her. To think that I might have been holed up with the one thing I needed to take down my dad and hadn’t realized was too much, but I kept my face straight.

“Of course,” I said, striding past him. “Let’s get out of here.”

I thought we’d be heading to the helipad, or at least the train tunnel, but instead, I followed him to the path behind the house that led to the lighthouse. We didn’t chat on the way there, which meant I was left with my thoughts, and just then, that wasn’t fun. I should have been pumping him for information, about the plan, about this world, about Sam, anything. Instead, I couldn’t think of a thing to say. I was panicking. I felt like the moment I’d stepped into this world; I’d been thrown off kilter and it had been impossible to find my footing. I was terrified every time I opened my mouth that I’d put my foot in it.

When we reached the steps of the lighthouse, Nikolai reached out and took my hand.

“I hate this part,” he said.

I had no clue what he meant, until he opened the lighthouse door and pulled me through.

The entire world dropped away. For a moment, I thought we’d fallen into a pit, like some cheesy villain had in their lair, and we’d land in some kind of dungeon full of alligators, but it wasn’t a pit. It was justnothing.

---