Sadie whimpered as if in agreement. It wasn’tthat Vic thought Matt wouldn’t believe him, but he had beengetting it on with someone other than his lover. Did it count ifthe person giving him a blowjob had been himself? That was nothingmore than masturbation, right? Vic had never heard of any superherohaving the power of self-fellatio but, to be honest, it didhave its perks. And it was better than a lot of the crappyabilities he had drawn in the past.
In the bathroom, he shut the door so the dogwouldn’t pester him like she usually did, but she showed no signsof moving from her spot down the hall any time soon. Clicking onthe overhead light, Vic squinted at the brightness as he relievedhimself, then ran cold water into the sink to splash onto his face.He still couldn’t shake the odd dream of seeing double. Or was it amemory? Whose spit slicked his dick?
The water felt invigorating on his tiredskin. He shut off the spigot as he stood, head back to savor thedroplets cooling on his face. The towel was behind him on the rack,and the moment he thought about reaching for it, a strangesensation washed through him. He felt something in him turn towardthe rack, even though his body remained firmly rooted in front ofthe sink. Still, it was as if his very aura moved, leaving hisphysical being behind. An unsettling feeling, to say the least.
Vic made an effort to turn his upper body, ifonly to prove to himself he could. But when he lifted a hand tostretch behind him for the towel, he found the terrycloth pressedinto his palm as if handed to him by a manservant. Vic opened hiseyes and, though he expected it this time, the sight of himselfstanding before him still startled him enough to stumble backagainst the tub.
“What the fuck?” he asked, wiping his facefuriously. He couldn’t tear his gaze from the other Vic, who lookedexactly as he did himself…down to the beads of water dripping offhis face. “Who are you?”
His clone had no answer. He just stared backat Vic, silent, expressionless. Vic moved around him warily, almostexpecting the man to turn so they were continually facing eachother, but instead he simply stood in place like a robot waiting tobe activated. Vic thought back to the incident in bed—he’d wantedoral stimulation and had been gratified by this…this thing.A little while later, he wanted a towel and was handed one by amirror image of himself. Could he possibly command this in someway?
Reaching out with his mind, Vic thought,::Hand me the toothbrush.::
The other him obliged, plucking Vic’stoothbrush off the sink. ::No, Matty’s,:: Vic corrected. Thesilent man obeyed, dropping Vic’s toothbrush in favor of Matt’s. Heturned, hand extended, offering the toothbrush to Vic.
Gently Vic’s fingers closed around thetoothbrush’s handle, covering the other’s fingers. They felt realenough. But when he tried to pinch the skin, there was a minutepop! and the image vanished.
Vic was once again alone in the bathroom.
Moving back into position in front of thesink, Vic stared at his reflection in the mirror and tried toremember what he had thought or done to create the clone in thefirst place. In bed he’d wanted a sexual partner. Here he hadwanted a towel. Gripping the counter with both hands, Vic thoughtclearly, I want to open the door.
At first he didn’t know where to look. Thenhe saw it—a swirling mist on his left side, as if some astral partof him was being drawn off to form something new. He felt the sameunnerving sensation again of turning within his skin without movinga muscle. As he watched, the mist coalesced and took form, grewsolid, until an exact replica of himself stood beside him in themirror.
The other him turned toward the door tocomplete its command. Vic’s gaze caught the movement in the mirrorbehind him, the one against which he’d held Matty while they madelove the previous evening. In that mirror he saw his back and thereflection in the mirror above the skin. The room seemed magnifiedfor eternity, caught between those two mirrors. He rememberedthinking something similar the night before.
And now he could what, duplicate himself?Create a mirror image that listened to commands and disintegratedwhen met with any force? A clone?
Vic kicked out his leg, his foot connectingwith the other him’s calf, and the image was gone in an instant. Hewas really going to have to be careful with this power. Thelast thing he needed was another big-ass, scary motherfuckerfreaking out the passengers on his bus. How would he explainthat?
* * * *
It took Vic longer than usual to get ready toleave the house. For one thing, he couldn’t get a handle on his newpower—the moment he thought of something he had to do, his bodydouble appeared to do it for him. When he was getting dressed, heremembered the empty trashcan he’d have to bring in before he left,and the next thing he knew, he caught a glimpse of his retreatingback as his clone went to retrieve the can. At least it seemed toreplicate his image exactly—in bed he’d been nude, so thedouble was nude, as well, but now that he had dressed, it wore thesame outfit he did himself. Thank God…he’d have a hell of a timeexplaining to his landlady why he’d fetched the trashcan in thebuff.
Unfortunately, Sadie wanted nothing to dowith Vic’s double. She stayed in her corner, keeping a wary eye onVic as he got himself together, but the moment she saw hisdoppelganger, a low growl started to build in the back of herthroat. If the double got too close to her, she let off a string ofraucous barks that would’ve raised the dead. More than once Vic hadto hurry to her side to calm her, casually punching his double inthe arm or back to make it vanish. Even with extra treats hidden inhis pocket to entice her out, he had
