I was walking in a blizzard when I suddenly realized that my shadow wasn’t mine. It was weird enough to realized about it when the chill went through my spine to my soul. But I was damn sure that this dark figure beneath my feet wasn’t the one that had been with me all my life. This thing didn’t belong to me. Was it because the thick snow that I began to see things differently? It was clear enough that everything was different in the winter. Everything had lost their colors.

I had been sick these past few days and the agony I had to bear was beyond compare. So I decided to go to the clinic 15 minutes walk from my place, only to found that it was closed due to the blizzard. Perfect! Now I had to walk the extra mile just to get back home where I couldn’t be sure that I would make it until the sun’s up. And if you were asking about the hospital, forget it. It is thrice the distance from my apartment to the clinic. I would freeze to death instantly if I walk there. Even this 15 minutes walk felt like a century walk. The hospital might be a millennium away from me.

I’d been living alone since I accepted the job offer in The City. I never too fond of the city life and that included those glamorous light-show that never been my thing. But the money they threw into my pocket was a bait I couldn’t possibly ignore. So there I was, thousands miles away from my family, alone, trying to survive the night, literally. Everything was so easy in the city until they all forgotten that for once humanity was depending on woods and rocks to survive. The city people tend to simplify everything and that was disease I need to avoid. Did I make a wrong turn here? Well it was too late now to turn around and I was 5 minutes walk from home. I needed a hot shower. Not to forget to confront the problem beneath my feet.

As I walked home, I looked down to my shadow and I could swear that it just smiled at me. Oh this blizzard corrupted my mind. Would a hot shower suffice to shake the random imagination? I could only wait until I got home.

*** 

“Who are you?” I could hear me saying the words without moving my lips. I was looking at my reflection in the mirror. It was me alright, but something wasn’t right.

My reflection stared back at me expressionlessly.

It was a dark room decorated with a majestic mirror in the middle of it.

“Where am i? How did I get here?” I asked to myself in the mirror. Again, without moving my lips. Our communication was telepathy. It was so simple. All I needed to do was thinking of a sentence, and the voice would form inside my head transferred to him, the reflection. It was so convenient. Oh, there went the City People disease affecting me.

“How can I get out of here?” Another futile try from me.

My other self was moving this time. He smiled to me. An eerie smile if I may add, and shook his head.

“You can’t. You’re inside you after all.” He replied telepathically, keeping his smile fixed on me.

That was all I got before I woke up from the nightmare. I was sweating a river. Thank god I didn’t drown myself in it. My soul would go to hell right away from committing suicide, even it was an accident. No time for excuses for satan I believe.

So I changed my clothes and drank a lot of water with a single breath. Oh another suicide attempt with drinking water now. So I forced myself to stop and sat on the couch stared at nothing in particular. I was trying to recall what had just happened but all I could ever retrieved was his eerie smile. My eerie smile.

***

I got home at last. It was the hardest walk I’ve ever done. Not to mention the fever I was having made me think that I was never going to make it but there I was inside my room. Walking a few feet felt like I was dragging a castle on my back. Heavy and mighty. I threw down an empire along with myself as soon as I reached my bed. Now a hot shower seemed unnecessary when I’m about to die. I was burning with a fever. There was nothing worse than being left alone in hell. I closed my eyes and the nightmare began. I slept immediately when my eyes closed.