Doppelganger Read Free

enough, but I’d miss our television the most. I took one last look at it before I left. I’d spent most of the last seven years watching it. It didn’t matter what time of day it was or what was on—soap operas, cartoons, news—I took it all in. And my mother was perfectly happy to let me—it made her life easier, that’s for sure.
    I didn’t really know where to go as I left the cabin, so I followed my momentum downhill, walking the half mile or so of our driveway to the main road, then crossing into the woods where I kept on walking. Night had fallen, but it wasn’t bad going—with our bulbous eyes, doppelgangers can see almost as well in the dark as we can in the light. The rain had stopped, and it was actually quite peaceful in the woods. The night birds were calling to each other, and I could see a pair of deer drifting between the trees a ways off.
    Maybe I could just stay here , I thought. But I knew it was foolish. Necessity would drive me to civilization. Already I could feel it pulling me, like gravity, toward the lowest spot.
    As I headed out into the world, I had no idea what lay ahead of me. I didn’t know anything about Chris Parker, his sister, Echo, or his parents. I didn’t know about the kidsat school, the teachers, the coaches, or any of that. Most of all, I didn’t know about Amber or have a clue that in a few short weeks I would be in love with her. Why would I? Doppelgangers aren’t supposed to fall in love. But then, like my mother said, I always was different. The question was—could I be different enough?

C HAPTER T WO
    It took me about three days to get out of the mountains. It wasn’t hard at first, because in the woods I could still walk during the day. But as the trees began to thin out and I started coming across fields and the occasional house, I had to be more careful. By the time I hit the first town, I was pretty much forced to walk at night and find some place to lay low before the sun came up. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d been able to sleep, but I was always on edge. I was still in my natural form. If I got caught, who knows what they’d do to me. After all, I’d seen E.T .
    Of course, there was a way out of this predicament. And when I came across a man stumbling drunk down a backstreet at two in the morning, or spied a boy on his lonely way home from school, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel the urge. It’s a strange feeling, like hunger, only deeper, a sort of inner clenching that comes in waves and leaves longing in its wake. But I wasn’t ready yet to assume a form. That’s what I told myself, at least.
    I couldn’t figure out what my problem was. I mean,after all, I was a doppelganger. I was supposed to follow through on the urges. And it wasn’t as if I hadn’t been trained. My mother had taught me all the tricks, all the signs to look for, the right way to go about making a proper kill. So what was I waiting for? Maybe my mother was right. Maybe watching too much TV had spoiled me. It was the news, I think, that did it. All those sad stories of human failings or plain old bad luck. I couldn’t help it, I just felt sorry for them.
    I remember once—I’d say I was around ten or eleven—seeing two parents being interviewed on the local news. They were both crying, taking turns breaking down. Their daughter had disappeared. They showed her picture on the screen—a pretty girl, about my age, with dark pigtails and green eyes.
    â€œThey should just be glad they don’t have to feed her anymore,” I heard a little voice say. I whirled around to see the girl standing there in real life, right behind me. Her clothes and hair were different from the picture, but it was her. I jumped back, almost knocking the TV over, but the girl just giggled and shook her head.
    â€œThere’s a whole pile of schoolbooks in here,” she said,