SNAP! and the Alter Ego Dimension Read Free

directly behind it had shifted with her. Only what she had seen reflected in the monitor had shifted here. Wherever here might be. Her desk, computer and bed were not there. Everything gone—except what had been in the reflection. Her cupboards, the bookshelf, clothing and the shoes on the floor. All gone.
    What happened? she wondered anxiously. Who was playing such far-fetched tricks on her? Who even could play such tricks?
    “Mum!” she shouted again. And again.
    She closed the window so that the birds wouldn’t fly off into the grayness around her and stepped back and turned.
    And bumped into something. No, not something. Into somebody.
    An ice cold chill cut through her.
    The somebody shouted, making Tammy jump at the sudden noise.
    “
Snap
!”
    She knew the sound, the voice. It was so totally familiar. Because it was her own voice, but it hadn’t come from her lips.
    Very frightened, she tried to step away, but she was backed against the window. She couldn’t escape.
    She stared, slowly raising her hands to hide her face. Everything was happening too slowly. She stared at herself as if looking into a full length mirror, willing her hands to move faster.
    Tammy was standing in front of her, and staring right back.
    She was standing in front of herself.
    In exactly the same bikini . . .
    Exactly the same, but different.
    Still holding her breath, she looked more closely. She looked herself up and down, her eyes searching the face of the strange Tammy. She was staring at . . . herself.
    Never before had Tammy seen herself so beautiful, so perfect in every way. Her blond hair was almost white, like it had been bleached by the sun and so very shiny. It was the same length, down to her shoulders, but much thicker, more healthy looking. Her skin was smooth and youthful with no sign of the ugly pimple next to her nose.
    But her likeness looked . . . wrong. It looked evil! Wicked even.
    Speechless, she stared at the other girl. The girl had cried “
Snap
!” as if they were playing a game.
The game!
    Damn it, had she been sucked into her computer like a character in some fantastic science fiction story?
    Impossible. Unbelievable.
    But what else could it be? It must be so, because her identical playmate was standing in front of her—bikini and all.
    And then the Tammy she was facing spoke again.
    “Hallo, Tammy,” she said. “I’m your alter ego. Your other you, or other me, or other I?” She smiled, but not in a friendly way, pausing before continuing: “Your perfect I, like you always wanted to be. Perfect like Rosette,” said the smugly perfect face. “Only even more so.”
    “What? Where am I? Who are you? Am I dreaming? Am I inside my computer?” Tammy asked every question that crossed her mind, unable to wait for the answers.
    It seemed as if the girl was gliding closer and closer without moving her legs.
    “Oh no, you’re not dreaming. And you’re not inside your computer. You’re inside a different world, the Alter Ego Dimension. A place where all living people’s other selves are stored.”
    Tammy frowned, and the perfect Tammy continued to explain: “Whenever somebody is dissatisfied with his or her own self, like you were this morning when you saw that ugly zit next to your nose, their alter ego awakens here and then waits. The more you hate yourself, the more awake we become. The more dissatisfied you are with your life, the stronger we get. That’s all the real you have to do so that the other you, that is me, can go to earth,” she said. “The other you then takes over for a while. Your best friends and family hardly notice the difference. They usually think: ‘She’s changed. She’s a new person’.”
    For a few moments Tammy tried to digest her alter ego’s words.
    “What? Do you mean . . . like when my father has been drinking?” Tammy wanted to know if she understood correctly.
    “
Our
father,” sneered the perfect Tammy. “Oh no, wait, I am you and you are me, thus my