Will had had a tough day at work; his boss had yelled at him for what seemed like an eternity for his incompetence in the work place. Will wasn't exactly the most motivated worker and he knew that, but incompetent? The whole bus drive back to his apartment building he had thought about what his boss had said and strangely found himself motivated to prove him wrong. He wanted to prove to that asshole exactly which one of them was the real incompetent one, which one of them was the true good for nothing. He would work on the project that his company had been having quite the problems with; and even though he wasn't officially on the project he would force those in charge to listen to his ideas and they would marvel at this intelligence, his ambition, at his conviction. Will had it in his mind that he would take as much time as was necessary to finish his work, even if he needed to stay up all night and then some; he was determined. He would finish his project and present it to his boss and surely he would be impressed; surely he would get a raise, a promotion.
He was so determined, so why then was he so conveniently located directly on his back lazily stretching his seemingly lifeless carcass across his hard fuzzy couch cushions. Why then was he eagerly awaiting for the pizza he had ordered not too long ago so he could stuff his face until his stomach felt so bloated it would pop, only to wash away the gruesome mess with the pepsi soda that would come along with his purchase. Why he wondered; he had a strong conviction as he approached his apparent building. He had the conviction to do the work as he walked up the stairs towards his apartment door; so why then, did his conviction vanish as soon as he walked through his front door. His train of thought and self pitying was interrupted by a knock at the door. Will Groaned and used his arms to work against gravity and complete the incredibly agile movement of getting off the couch. He was eager to get back to the self loathing and thought back to where he was previously. Oh yes, that's right; why-?
The man that stood before Will was a man of average stature. He had light brown eyes and, dark, almost black, hair. His hair was long on a man and fell just above his eyes. His clothing he wore was one size too big and hung loosely from his body and covered what little muscle he had. He was young and his skin wrapped tightly around his face and revealed two small dimples in his cheeks as he smiled ever so politely at Will. It was uncanny: this man looked identical to Will in every way possible. Why, he wondered, was he staring directly into the eyes of himself.
The two of them stood still and quiet for quite some time; the silence was enough to make anyone uncomfortable. It was in Will's mind that he was just groggy and tired from a long day and shut the door in his illusion's face and returned to the ever so appealing couch with it's taunting nature. Shortly after Will slouched back into his comfortable position his hallucination got worse. His twin in image burst through the door with a strong kick letting in a flood of light from the hallway into his previously dark room, then introduced himself, "Hiya, I'm your other half. Call me Rex."
Will looked around him then rubbed his eyes, a reaction that was more comical than necessary. Will hesitated for a moment trying to think if this was really a hallucination, maybe a joke? Unsure of what he should do Will simply followed suit and introduced himself with a spasm of bewilderment, "I'm Will. I don't have another half."
"But of course you do, I'm you and you're me. We're one of the same and for good reason. You're the responsible half, the one always trying to do what you think is best; in other words you're the boring one. I, on the other hand, am the instinctive one; I'm in charge of having fun and telling you when to eat and stuff. I'm more important than you so you have to listen to me," Rex said, quickly taking charge of the situation. Rex added, "Any questions?"
Will had a few but one stood out in his mind more than the others: "Why'd you break my door?"
Rex answered immediately after Will almost cutting him off, "It was in my way, next!"
"How about how-" Will was interrupted by the very loud bellow, "Boring," Rex added in a mischievous voice, "How about we go have some fun? There are loads of things just waiting to be explored, if you know what I mean."
"Enough," Will shouted exasperated and visibly annoyed with Rex, "I've had enough of you; if the door still works shut it on your way out."
Rex laughed a mocking laugh, "Yeah right, like the door is going to work after getting a full power kick from karate master Rex."
Will told Rex to leave more forcefully and Rex obliged with a look of sadness. He left without saying sorry but only said that Will would miss him and that he'd be back. As he left the room he firmly grabbed the handle of the door and closed it until there was the sound of a click.
Will let out a loud sigh and was thankful that the nuisance had left. Will rolled back onto the couch and stretched out his legs to feel the relief of tension in his knees. He cupped his face with both of his palms and gently rubbed his temples then roughly let his hands drop to his sides. For a moment he just laid there looking at the ceiling then he reached for the remote and turned on the television. The television bathed the room with a luminous flashing light that would flicker and temporarily become dark then engulf the room with it's light once more. Will turned to his side and tucked his hands between his cheek and the arm of the couch.
"Oh I love this part, watch, watch," Rex said focused on the television screen. Will was startled and rolled off the couch, tumbled to the floor then tried to regain balance and stumbled backwards a few steps before completely recovering. Will stood directly in between Rex and the television his mouth agape. Rex stood still and stared back at Will with a smile on his face. The flickering lights struck Will's back and cast a shadow that attached itself onto Rex.
"What are you doing? You're going to miss it," pointed Rex a sound of general concern in his voice though he was still smiling.
"What in the world. How did you get in here? I saw- the door- but now- how?" Will was confused and didn't gather his words how he wanted to resulting in only a fraction of what he wanted to say to be said. His confusion was quickly replaced with anger and he shouted, "I thought I told you to leave, why are you still here? Get out of here."
Rex snorted and responded, "Sorry bud, can't do that I came here for a reason." Rex slowly walked around to the side of the couch and picked the remote that rested on it's arm. He shut the television off and suddenly the room was dark.
"It's kind of dark in here; turn on the light why don't you. Never mind I got it."
In a split second Rex had crossed the entire room to the light was a flicker of the lights and then the room was illuminated. Will turned to look at Rex and their eyes met just in time for Rex to say, "You ready to listen to me?" It has been a very long day for Will and this person wasn't making it any easier but something supernatural was definitely happening and Will has curious, if only for a little while Will would listen to what he had to say. He walked a few steps back towards his couch then slumped carelessly unto it. "Well then, make it quick," Will said sharply making a gesture with his right hand to speak.
Rex paced around the room eyeing an assortment of things, deliberately taking his time then he stopped. "Listen," he started, "you've been having a difficult time, am I right? You always want to do really boring stuff like work on meaningless projects for a job you don't even like, for what? To prove a point?"
Will opened his mouth as if to say something but was interrupted, "ah tah tah tah tah, rhetorical question, I already know the answer. Stuff like this shit, I don't want to be a part of that stuff. What'd you say we find our passion? Stuff that we can both enjoy, like, I don't know, painting, or some shit like that. Honestly man, quit this stupid job and let's find what we really like; let's follow our dreams!" Rex was excited and thought himself convincing. He patted Will on the back and motioned for him to follow him, "C'mon, let's go have fun, forget about work."
Will smirked at Rex's, his own, excitement, "Our passion, huh? What would that be?"
"Who knows, that's the beauty of it , we'll go find it together," said Rex continuing his hand motions to follow him out the door. Will got up out of the chair and followed him. Rex smiled a furious smile and practically skipped out the door with Will not too far behind.
Will spent the night out at a club downtown trying to court the ladies at the club. We would stare at his target. High heels so tall you wonder how they walked with them and worried that their feet might be disfigured. Short skirt, short top, her belongings with which ever poor sucker she strung along down there, who probably thought that they would spend time together. They disgusted Will, perfect. He marched up to the fifth one that he'd attempted to trick into sleeping with him with a string of terrible lines in hopes that she couldn't even hear due to the deafening sound of the music. But alas, he wasn't a word smith; he couldn't convince her. So instead he bought her another drink, he'd try again when she, herself, couldn't speak coherent sentences.
Rex would laugh at Wills advances; he would even go so far as to give him advice. What help that was, you could share with Will magic words that made any girl rip off her clothes as if on command and he would still managed to mess that up. In the end Rex would leave with Will following close behind, head hung in with disappointment. Neither of them and a drop of alcohol as they had a big night ahead and didn't want to be impaired for what was to come.
"That was fun," Will said, the sarcasm rolling off his tongue. "But what about our expedition to find our passion? I thought this night was going to be filled with trying new things."
"Of course, I just wanted to have a little fun before we got started," Rex replied, "and besides, we don't need to find it tonight do we? We have plenty of time." Rex turned and grabbed Will's shoulders, "We should go to your workplace and trash the place, sounds like fun?" He tilted his head questioningly, almost as if he were asking for permission but Will knew well enough that Rex wasn't interested in his permission. What Rex wanted to know was if Will was going to come along willingly or if he was going to have to drag him.
"Why not," Will said shrugging his hands off my shoulders. Rex clapped his hands twice then called a taxi.
It was dark at the office and quite, no one in sight. Rex jumped ahead and turned around, "So where would you like to start?"
Will looked around the office. It made him uneasy to be there without permission and it felt as if, just because he was in the office space, he was under his boss' watchful eye. He wanted to leave but he knew that Rex wouldn't have let him. they had already committed a crime breaking into here; how would another small crime like making a mess compare to breaking into a public building. Will had never truthfully committed a crime as big as this; he stole from stores once upon a time but nothing so big. It was Rex that started off. He pushed a stack of papers onto the floor then gestured to Will as if to say that it was his turn. Although nervous, he followed suit and pushed over some papers as well. Rex smiled and knocked over a computer that rested on one of the many desks that littered the office. A competition arose quickly to see who could make the bigger mess and who could do it the fastest. Objects flew across the room and shattered glass; computers shattered as the crashed to the floor. Suddenly the lights were turned on and they froze.
Standing in the doorway of the office was Will's boss with the most furious look on his face that he had were seen. this face was red with anger and he shouted viciously at Will and between his words of uncontrollable rage that launched saliva in Will's general direction Will could hear Rex, loud and clear. Rex said to him in a whisper, "uh oh, what are you going to do now."
Will made his way to the bed and dropped into it letting it's warm embrace engulf me. The activities of the night had really wore him out and he wanted to get up bright and early tomorrow so that he could find a new job. He had formally handed in his letter of resignation and was now jobless. Rex was absolutely right, Will despised that job and from now own he would only chase my dreams, his passion; he thought he knew what that was now, all thanks to Rex. With the memories of that night firmly in his head Will drifted off to sleep.
He woke up at six the next morning and got out of bed heading towards the kitchen. He scratched his head, did some morning stretches, and opened up the cabinet to get some pop-tarts. There were clean glasses, some cereal, granola bars, unopened bottles of medication, some vitamins, but no pop-tarts. He settled for cereal. With his bowl in hand he made his way to the couch and plopped gently down and turned on the television; the morning news was on. Will munched away at cereal trying to listen to what the news caster was saying over the sound of the crunching.
"Acton Gold was murderer in his office last night. He was found by one of his employees that started a early shift today. The victim was brutally murdered by having his head smashed against the wall repeatedly and then was forced to endure being stabbed in the eyes with two pens. The victim appears to have put on quite struggle as the office is in ruins. The murderer then used his victim's blood to spell out the words "I quit" on the wall. Police are looking at the list of employees for suspects and-"
Will stopped listening, Rex was behind him with his usual smile plastered on his face. Rex asked what Will was going to do next to which he replied that he was just going to enjoy life. He was going to live is life doing what he did best, what he was made to do. Rex agreed and invited Will to another fun night out together and Will only happily agreed.
"Do you hear that?" asked Rex, he motioned to the closet door, "You hear that? it's coming from in there."
Will made his way over to his closet and put his ear to the door, "Oh you're right, someone's knocking. Who could it be so early?" Will opened the door and leaning against the wall was the pizza man's head hung heavily to his side and he only just kept himself from falling to the floor by firmly planting his back against the wall. A pizza box at his feet and a bottle of soda on it's side, resting calmly on the floor.
"You're, like, almost twelve hours late bro. I'm not paying for that," will said and took the pizza and the soda; the man made no movements nor a sound of objection, or any sound at all. Will shut the door and made his way back to his warm seat and opened the box. He pulled out a slice of pizza and took a bite, "Ugh, it's cold, gross."
"Pizza is pizza," said Rex and held out his fist for a fist bump.
Will nodded agreeingly and punch the air.
Comments must contain at least 3 words
Chapter: 1
December 21, 2013 | Fred Files