The bar was just down the street from the gas station, probably the same place the trucker had drunk at. The smell of smoke and damp greeted Danny as he descended the stairs. He eyed the patrons nervously from across the dimly lit room. Men who came here every night, who had nowhere else to be. They turned hostile eyes to the two of them as Leo led the way from the door to the bar. Danny glanced down at his sleeve and tried to turn it up to hide the blood splatter. He caught up with Leo at the bar and saw it was pointless. Leo still had blood congealing in his hair. It had dried across his cheek where he had missed wiping it away, and left a pale red streak. His collar and the shoulder of his shirt were soaked.

The bartender looked hard at Leo, glanced at Danny, then looked back at Leo. "You boys better not be planning on starting anything," he said, warning plain in his voice.

Leo ignored that and ordered a beer while Danny looked around them. Most of the cramped space was filled with tables. On one side, a long bar ran along the wall, meeting a raised stage with tatty red curtains at the far end. Next to him Leo turned and leaned back against the bar. His eyes settled on an empty table in the back and then trailed around the room, examining the customers and daring anyone to take their table.

Danny turned back to the bar. What the fuck was he doing here? If anyone had told him this was how his day would end, getting a drink with his undead ex evil half, he would have told them... well he didn't know what he would have told them. He hadn't really talked to anyone in a long time. Not since he arrived-

"And you?"

Danny was startled by the bartender's question. "Huh?"

"Are you going to order?"

Leo smirked. "You want me to do it for you?"

"Same as him, please" Danny said quickly. The bartender's question bothered him. It was not until the drinks were set down in front of them that he realised why. The bartender could see both of them. That meant for certain that Leo wasn't a hallucination, and wasn't just in his head. He was real and he was here.

Leo led the way quickly across to the table. Danny had to speed up to keep up with him. Leo had always had this way of seeming like he had something better to do. Like time was short, so Danny had better hurry up.

Danny sat down at the opposite end of the table to Leo. Leo raised his glass and took a long gulp of his beer. Danny didn't. "What's going on?"

Leo looked a little pissed off at Danny's interruption of his drinking, as though he expected some small talk before getting down to business. Then he smiled. Danny remembered Leo's smile not really fitting. His face suited anger better than happiness. It had always seemed a little forced, just cover for a snarl. "Danny, you remember your life before the experiment? Was it anything like this?" Leo gestured around at the bar.

Danny looked around at the patrons of the bar. There was not a person in here that looked like they didn't enjoy a murder or two at the weekend.

Leo leaned across the table. "Man-dog hunters, a government agency whose experiments involve iron maidens and electric chairs, a world where everyone is willing to kill at the drop of a beer can. Don't you think all this is a bit extreme? This isn't reality Danny. It's fucking insane."

"How would you know?"

Leo sat back, and took a long drink. Danny watched him. Had he gone out drinking with Leo before the asylum? Had they been friends? Was this how Leo had got him to trust him, convinced him to expose the project? Danny didn't remember much about that time. He had trusted him though, he didn't know why. He had believed every word he said, he had killed, and put his family in danger for him.

Leo put down his glass. "I know because I won Danny, don't you remember that? No, of course you don't remember. Just forget, that's your solution to everything. Well you can't forget me."

Danny wanted to punch Leo into the ground, over and over. He wanted that shovel back, he would do the job right this time. He stared at Leo, hating him for drawing it out. For every fucking thing he had done. Hating himself for listening to him. This was the man who had killed his wife. He shouldn't be just sitting here. But he needed to know. To be sure there wasn't any truth to this. He couldn't take chances with his family's lives again. So he asked calmly. "What are you saying happened?"

Leo settled back in his chair. "After I killed you, I woke up in Dixmor. The real Dixmor, nothing like here. Nice place, they keep it much cleaner than in your head. Apparently I- we- were in a coma for three weeks. The bridge malfunctioned right after they stuck it in your head. No-one knows why, or if they do they're not saying, but that's probably why I'm here, so it's not so bad. Whyte told me that they had removed the bridge and that should have been you out of my head. Or me out of your head, well that's what they thought… But I knew you were still in there somewhere. I could feel you." Leo paused and drank another mouthful. "This is fucking rat piss. Haven't you ever had a decent beer?" Danny ignored him and Leo sighed and went on. "Well, that's it. Since then I've been enjoying myself, living my life…"

The most important thing. "What about Abigail and the kids?"

"They're fine." Leo looked slightly uncomfortable for the first time as he said it. Danny didn't know if that was a good thing or not, or if that meant it was true or not.

"Really?"

"As far as I know."

Danny was silent for a minute. "I've been in a coma for three weeks? I was in Dixmor for six years."

"You need me to spell it out for you?"

"Yes."

"Everything since the operation. All of this, it's just in your head. There's a whole other world out there."

Danny was quiet, thinking. He was wary. He hadn't expected to actually want to believe that Leo was telling the truth. He looked around the bar. He had to admit, he didn't want this to be his life. If his family could be out there somewhere, unharmed... It was too good to be true. All his instincts told him not to trust Leo. He had trusted him before, where had that got him? He sat and tried to figure it out. What reason did Leo have to lie? Then again, what reason did he have to tell the truth? "Why are you telling me this?"

A pounding music track started up, silencing the drunks and distracting both of them. All the lights in the bar went off and two spotlights on stage came on, one after the other. The audience gave a muted round of applause as the curtains jerked to the side. They revealed a woman with long ice blonde hair in the middle of the stage, wearing a lot of lingerie. She stripped slowly as she danced. The crowd started to cheer. Danny glanced at Leo, who was watching the show with mild interest. Leo went to take a drink, noticed him looking and grinned back. The crowd roared, and Danny looked up to see a man walk on stage, naked. He looked like an average guy, except for his massive cock. Quickly he pulled the woman towards him and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and slid down onto his cock, jerking her head back and smiling at the audience. They thrust up and down for a bit, and then a second man walked onstage, jerking his cock. The crowd cheered wildly. He looked like some random tramp they dragged in off the street, but his cock was even bigger then the first guys. He walked up behind the woman, and spat on his prick. The crowd cheered again.

Danny finally downed some of his beer and then focused on his glass. When he looked up, a few minutes later, Leo was staring, not at the stage, but at him. Danny glanced at the performers. The group had moved to the back of the stage, pushing up against the wall. He looked away and Leo caught his eye. "Why so shy? This is what you wanted isn't it?" Leo said, loudly over the music and noise of the crowd.

"What are you talking about?"

Leo leaned in. "I've lived your life. The project is just well, a project, you work for the government testing weapons. Maybe a little dodgy ethically but they don't torture people, they don't have a secret militia. All this, was just dreamed up by your sick little subconscious, you created it. I have to admit, it is fucking impressive."

Leo stopped to look back at the stage, where a section of the audience had taken to heckling the performers.

"This is shit!"

"Fuck her where we can see! Don't be a pussy."

One table was particularly full of hecklers, apparently oblivious to the aggressive looks they were getting from the table next door.

"Your head." Danny said.

"What?" Leo asked.

Danny leaned forward, over half the table. "This is all your influence on my mind."

Leo smiled at him. "Yeah?

"It all started when the Pickman Bridge was put in, I've been in a coma since then… If that's true, this is all you."

Leo's smile grew even bigger. "No, I don't think so."

Danny paused. "Why?"

"I'm not a real person. Remember, the control personality. I was a chip put in your brain, I had no name, face, personality, anything in here." He waved a hand in an arc to indicate the bar. "Comes from you. You created me. You made me who I am."

There was a scream from the stage as a bottle flew across the room. The front few tables were now all stood up and shouting at each other. The bartender and the doorman hurried past towards the stage.

"You're not human, well I can believe that." Danny felt like his mouth and his brain were on different tracks, one didn't believe a word and one was still trying to process what Leo was saying.

"And I'm still the one on the outside," Leo said happily. "All this is just your sick fantasy. All the killing, all you. That's why you shouldn't blame me for your wife's death, after all, it really was all your fault."

Danny lunged across the table at Leo. Leo pulled back out of his way, jumping up. Danny followed him, vaulting over the table. They stood staring at each other for a second, Danny waiting for Leo to attack. He glanced back at the table out of the corner of his eye. He could grab a glass as a weapon. He had to take Leo down, he knew Leo was the more skilled fighter. On the floor all bets were off.

Leo leapt at him, knocking him to the floor. Danny hit the ground hard. He felt Leo's weight on top of him and something cold at his throat. He closed his eyes. If he was going to die he was ready for it, he had been for a long time. Then warm breath at his ear. "I'm going to let that one go. But if you ever pull anything like that again I will kill you, understand? Danny opened his eyes as the weight moved off of him. Leo stood and looked towards the stage, where the fight was kicking off. As Danny got up a shot rang out. He ducked. Leo pushed past him, heading towards the door. "Let's get out of here."

...

They burst out onto the street. The same slice of moon still hung in the sky. It surprised Danny to emerge out into the same night. It felt like several days should have passed. His life had turned upside down again in such a short time.

He jogged forward a few steps, then glanced back at the bar. No-one was following. Up ahead, Leo settled into a stroll. He looked back at Danny, grinning. "Your subconscious, it never gets old." He swung the bottle in his hand slightly as he walked.

Danny followed Leo through the streets, staying carefully out of reach. Why hadn't Leo killed him? Why was he here telling him this at all? Just to gloat? Leo had saved his life twice in the last hour. Danny knew he had something planned for him, and it couldn't be good. But he couldn't leave, not until he found out the truth.

Leo was silent, seemingly happy to take his time walking through the city.

"Why are you here?" Danny asked eventually.

Leo looked around appreciatively at the nightlife. "I'm bored. Turns out being a respectable family man isn't all that exciting. Who would have thought it? I miss this place sometimes." He looked around him, searching for something. "Here, watch this."

Leo reached for the hand of a scantily dressed young woman as he walked past her, she turned and went along with him a few paces. As she opened her mouth to speak he pushed her off the road into a nearby side street. Hand on her throat he held her against the wall and simultaneously broke the bottle on the wall with his other hand. Danny watched as Leo moved the hand on her neck to cover her mouth. Her hands jerked up to meet his and he stabbed her in the neck with the bottle, just once, twisting it in deep. Dark arterial blood spurted onto his shirt and face. Her eyes rolled back and she shook and he let her go, throwing the bottle to the floor, they hit the ground at the same time. Danny stood and watched, frozen. Leo wiped the blood off his face. Danny looked behind him at the road but no-one seemed to have noticed. Leo pushed past him, back onto the street.

"Can't do that as you." Leo was walking faster now, with more purpose. Danny hurried after him.

"Don't. Just don't do that. Don't kill anyone else," Danny said as he caught up.

"That's why you keep failing here Danny, You're not willing to take that final step, not without me anyway." Leo smiled and gave him a pat on the back. He had been smiling a lot recently, and it seemed genuine, less forced than the last time Danny had seen him. He was actually happy, Danny realised.

Danny flinched away. "If my family are alive. Don't hurt them. I'll do anything."

"I bet you will. You'd do anything for them wouldn't you?"

"How do I know you haven't already killed them?" It was the worst thought in Danny's head. That Leo could kill his wife again. That he could kill his children.

Leo slowed down and looked over at Danny. "Think of it like this, we were in a coma for three weeks, most of that would have been the six years we spent in the funny farm, thanks for that, those were great times by the way. When I killed your wife that would mean I must have been minutes, maybe hours old. Would you call a newborn who killed a murderer?"

"Yes, I mean, that's not the same thing at all."

"Of course it is. Remember you chose to put me inside you, sorry if I didn't come with a fully formed set of morals. My point is, I've grown since then. I realise now, killing your wife was wrong. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was wrong, ethically I mean. Honestly I quite like your wife, she's a tiger in the sack."

Danny was silent for a moment. "I just saw you kill a woman for no reason at all."

"Well, maybe I haven't grown that much." Leo stopped at the side of the street, in front of the door of a large three story building. He turned to Danny. "Wait here, I have to go up, and sort out some stuff." He handed Danny the gun. "Hold this for a moment."

Danny watched Leo disappear into the narrow doorway. He felt the gun's weight in his hands. He could run in there after Leo, shoot him in the back of the head. But that hadn't worked before, or even the time before that. Leo was completely aware how much leverage he held over him. Danny couldn't afford to second guess whether he was telling the truth or not. Not if there was any chance Leo really did have access too his family. He would just have to play along for now, find out as much as he could. Danny looked down at the gun, and then up and down the street.