Twin Envy: Alternate Ending
Chapter Eight: The Best-Laid Plans...
Bzzztt. Bzzztt. Bzzztt.
Ellen scrunched her eyes tight and pulled the covers up over her head.
Bzzztt. Bzzztt. Bzzztt.
She groaned, and stuck one hand out from under the covers to fumble for the snooze button.
Bzzztt. Bzzztt. Bzzztt-click!
She hit the button and curled back under the covers, and the alarm clock, flashing Ten O'clock in the morning, fell silent. For about ten seconds.
Bzzztt. Bzzztt. Bzzztt.
Her eyes shot open with a snarl.
Bzzztt. Bzzztt. Bzzz-HHHHTT-zzzzz……
The alarm clock sparked and died as Ellen's fist drew back from slamming down on top of it, and the girl groaned in annoyance as she shook the pain out of her hand.
"Stupid cheap technology…damn snooze doesn't even work right…" she muttered, dragging herself up to a sitting position and rubbing at her eyes. If there was one thing she didn't inherit from Elliot, it was definitely her dislike for mornings. Mornings involved waking up, and waking up involved getting out of bed, and getting out of bed involved not sleeping anymore, which was an extremely undesirable chain of events. The alarm clock just added insult to injury.
She blinked the last of the sleep out of her eyes and squinted against the morning sunlight as she hauled herself out of bed, and happened to glance over at Elliot's bed across the room, which was neatly made and obviously empty. She was briefly curious about it, but wrote it off almost as quickly as she noticed it. Elliot had a habit of taking morning jogs; he'd probably left before she woke up.
She started heading downstairs, aiming to wake herself up with something high in sugar and/or caffeine, and was about halfway to the kitchen when the doorbell rang, followed almost immediately by a frenzied knocking.
Ellen grumbled for a moment, half-thought about ignoring it, but eventually turned around and walked back to the front door. She pulled it open without really looking at who it was, and was rewarded by being bowled over by Tedd as he barged inside.
"SorrynotimetosayhigottaseeElliot!" he babbled, scrambling straight past her and vaulting up the stairs toward her and Elliot's room.
"He's not here," she called lazily after him, fairly sure he wouldn't hear her. And sure enough, he came vaulting back down the stairs not five seconds later and ran toward the kitchen instead.
"Elliot!! Elliot, where the crap are you?!" he shouted, darting back and forth, until finally Ellen caught him by the arm and held him in place.
"Calm. Down," she said. "Elliot isn't here."
Tedd's eyes bulged. "What?!"
"Elliot isn't here. For the third time."
"Well where is he?!"
"How should I know? I just woke up, and he was already gone."
"Well…when did he come back from the concert last night?!"
"Oh, maybe around…" Ellen suddenly paused. "…hunh. Come to think of it, I don't know. Guess I fell asleep before he came home."
"Or maybe he never did…" Tedd muttered.
"What's THAT supposed to mean?" Ellen said with a suspicious glare.
"His date last night, I think--"
"Uh-uh, stop right there," Ellen cut him off. "No WAY would Elliot do anything like that with Sarah."
"No, Ellen, I--"
"Elliot is way too much of a stick in the mud to let anything happen with Sarah yet and you know it. He probably just went on an early jog or--"
"ELLEN!"
"…what?"
"I don't care about any of that!"
"Well what do you want Elliot for, then?"
"I think he might be in danger!"
"…I'm sorry, what?" Ellen demanded, her expression clearly disbelieving.
"I'm serious! I need to talk to him, now! It's important!"
"Alright, alright, jeeze…" she grumbled, reaching for the phone. "I'll call Sarah and ask if she's seen--"
"NO!" he shouted, slapping her hand away.
"Dah! What the hell?!" she demanded.
"You can't call Sarah!"
"Why the hell not?!"
"Because Sarah might be the problem!"
Ellen glared at him long and hard. "…Okay, Tedd, you're going to have to start making some sense. My alarm clock has already put me in a bad mood, and you are really not helping. Now what the hell are you talking about?"
"We don't have time for--"
"MAKE time," Ellen insisted, and sat down at the kitchen table, folding her arms defiantly.
"Nnghh…fine…" Tedd grumbled. He sat down and whipped a laptop out of his backpack, laid it on the table, and typed furiously for a moment.
"…Well?" Ellen pressed.
"Okay…you heard about the little…accident at my house last week?"
"You mean when you tried to mess with the Dewitchery Diamond and the TF Gun at the same time?"
"It was an experiment!"
"Whatever. What about it?"
"Well…when things went sour…I think…something bad happened to Sarah."
Ellen visibly tensed. "What kind of bad?"
"Here, I'll show you…"
Tedd spun the laptop screen around to face Ellen, who watched as a video feed of Tedd's lab began playing.
"My webcams recorded everything that happened that day. I was knocked out halfway through, though, so later I wanted to watch the recordings and see what exactly went wrong…but when Grace went to get the cameras, they were all smashed. Most of the memory cards were damaged beyond repair…except for this one."
Ellen watched curiously as the recording played, and as the TF Gun and the Dewitchery Diamond reacted with each other and each of her friends were knocked out, she finally saw what Tedd must have been talking about: Sarah appearing in the camera's vision, smashing one of Tedd's cameras to bits.
"…What is she doing…?"
"Exactly. For a minute I was pissed off when I saw this, but…Grace pointed something out, and she's exactly right. The Sarah we know wouldn't do something like this."
"What do you mean, 'the Sarah we know?' What happened to her?!"
"……I think, when the TF Gun and the diamond's powers mixed, their transformative properties combined into one energy…and I think Sarah got hit with it."
Ellen's eyes widened rapidly. "You mean…?"
"Yeah. I think we have TWO Sarahs."
"…No, no, that…no way…"
"Is it really that hard to believe? Sarah and Elliot have been acting different all week, we've all noticed it. This would explain it, wouldn't it?"
"No, Tedd, it doesn't! If that's a Clone Sarah running around, she'd be acting exactly the same! She'd be an exact clone! And besides, if it was a clone, then where's the REAL Sarah? Why haven't we seen her at all?"
Tedd's expression turned grim. "…That's why I think Elliot might be in danger."
"Huh?"
"Think about it, Ellen…" he said, looking at her carefully, cautiously. "When you…y'know…when you were first…born. What did you do?"
Ellen tensed somewhat as she tried to recall the unsettling memory. "…I…guess I still thought I was Elliot…"
"After that."
"…I thought I was gonna die?"
"After that!"
"…I…said I was--" she stopped and went wide-eyed suddenly, catching on.
"You said you were his evil twin," Tedd confirmed, and tapped his screen. "I think, when this happened…Sarah got one of her own…and it's done something to her. Something to keep her from showing up at the same time…"
Ellen was rapidly growing pale. "But…why would her clone do that…?"
"I'd bet my TF Guns it's the same reason that first drove you. She knew she was a clone. She thought no one would accept a copy like her. But there's more to it this time…"
"More…?"
"Unlike you, THIS clone isn't physically transformed. She still looks exactly like our Sarah. Which means she can do something you couldn't."
And then Ellen got it. "She can get rid of the original…and take Sarah's place…"
"And if we've figured it out, there's a good chance Elliot will too. Maybe already has. And there's no telling what Clone Sarah'll do if that happens."
"Wait, Tedd, just…wait for one second! This is all just guesswork! We don't know what really happened! It could all be nothing! You can't just…assume all this!"
"We have to. Hope for the best and expect the worst," he said, and stood back up, putting the computer away. "Now come on, help me find Elliot. I'll check the dojo, you look around the mall…"
"But what if he IS at Sarah's house?"
"We're not going there unless absolutely necessary, it's too risky," Tedd insisted, tapping on his watch. "Now hurry up and get dressed while I call Grace."
Ellen squinted at the device on his wrist. "Aren't those…"
"The watch communicators, yes," Tedd muttered distractedly. "Grace? Grace, can you hear me?"
Skkkkknnnntttt.
No answer.
Tedd frowned and tapped the watch. "Grace? Are you there?"
Skkkkknnnntttt.
Still nothing.
"Why do you need to call her?" Ellen asked.
"I told her to try and think of places Elliot might be besides my house and look for him in case he wasn't here. Looks like it was a good idea…if she'd pick up…"
Ellen, however, paled again. "Tedd, what exactly did you tell her?"
"I just told you, look for Elliot in places he'd most likely be."
"Nothing else? You said exactly that and nothing more?"
"Yeah, why?" he muttered, still tapping the watch. "Stupid thing…maybe she can't hear me…Dah! Leggo!"
He glared at Ellen, who had grabbed him tightly by the arm, but she stared back at him completely white-faced. "Tedd, if you told her to look for him in places he would probably be if he's not at home, or at your house, WHERE DO YOU THINK SHE'S GOING TO LOOK FIRST?!"
Tedd was silent for about three seconds before the answer struck him, and as he looked back at the unresponsive communicator, he too went pale as a ghost. "Oh no…"
Elliot woke up feeling like a million bucks.
His eyes blinked slowly open in the late-morning sunlight and he stretched out lazily, yawning a bit. He felt so very warm and cozy lying there, he was fairly sure he didn't want to get up. Especially not when Sarah was lying there with him…
Or at least he thought she was.
When his eyes adjusted, however, he realized she was no longer lying there beside him. She was probably already up and about, he decided with another yawn, and sat up to grab his shirt and pants and put them back on.
What a night… he thought to himself. If that wasn't the best date ever, I don't know what is…
Everything really had been perfect. The concert was amazing, of course, but just being there with her made all the difference. He loved standing there with her cheering, talking with her as they walked home, kissing her goodnight before he would head home…or at least, that had been his plan. Sarah's, clearly, had been something entirely different.
He had to admit, he'd been surprised once again by Sarah's recent forwardness. He never expected the night to continue, much less the way it had gone when it did. She'd never shown even the slightest desire to get more physical before perhaps a week ago. Not that he had really minded the absence of the physical stuff, but…well…that night was about as physical as it was possible to get, and surprised though he might have been, it would be a lie if he said he hadn't enjoyed every second of it, that was for sure. He'd thought Sarah was attractive before, but dear God, seeing her standing there in all her glory, giving herself to him, moaning his name at every stroke of his hands--
Okay, get a grip, Elliot… his rational mind thought, the 'guy' part of his brain slowly quieting down and reality starting to set back in. Good job controlling your libido, by the way. I bet mom and dad would be proud.
The thought jolted through him with an extremely unpleasant pang of guilt. His parents…they'd been right about his age when they became pregnant with him. Was this how it had happened? Had a really good date turned into a wild, passionate night that ended up forcing his mom to drop out of school and changing their lives forever? It had seemed so perfect at the time, he wasn't even thinking about the consequences, and protection didn't necessarily solve everything…after all his parents had been through for him, had he just resigned himself and Sarah to the same fate? Had he just made the same mistake?
Suddenly he didn't feel like a million bucks anymore.
"Elliot, you idiot…" he muttered to himself.
A rustling noise drew his attention outward a moment later. He turned his head and saw Sarah speed-walking across his vision, her expression tense and frustrated as her lips moved rapidly, as though thinking out loud. Maybe she was thinking along the same lines he was, he wondered.
"Sarah…?" he ventured.
She jerked, caught off guard, and looked wildly at Elliot before calming down. "Oh…you're up."
"Yeah…heh…hope you don't mind that I crashed here…"
"No, it's fine," she said distractedly, turning away and starting to hurry off again.
"H-hey, wait, hold on," he said, standing up and walking toward her. "Are you alright?"
She stopped again and turned halfway toward him to give him an obviously-strained smile. "I'm fine, stop worrying."
"You don't sound fine."
"It's nothing, really," she insisted.
"Sarah, come on, talk to me."
Sarah, however, looked like she just wanted to be somewhere else entirely, which only made Elliot think his suspicions might be correct. So he ventured a guess.
"Is this about…y'know…last night?"
"H-huh?" she blurted out, surprised. She probably hadn't expected him to pick up on it, he thought.
"Because maybe we…let things get a little out of hand?"
"…OH!" she exclaimed. "Oh…well…y-yeah, I guess maybe you're right…"
"I thought so…and I'm sorry about that, I know we had protection and all but I should've controlled myself better--"
"Really, Elliot, it's okay," she rapidly assured him. "I had an amazing time. It was a perfect night and I wouldn't trade a minute of it, okay?"
"…So you're not mad about…?"
"Not even a little. Besides, it wasn't all your fault…I was all caught up in the moment too, right?"
"Right…yeah…" he said with a nervous cough. "So we're…okay?"
"Better than okay," she assured him, swiftly kissing his lips. "Listen, we'll talk more a little later, but I really need to go take care of something. You stay right there, okay?"
"Ah…I dunno, my parents might be worried…maybe I should head home--"
At that point, however, she slid her arms around his neck and squeezed in close to him, and he somehow forgot what he was going to say next.
"I'll just be gone for a minute, okay…?" she cooed quietly. "Stay just a little longer, please? For me?"
"…Well…" he said slowly, "…I guess if I'm gonna get grounded for being out all night, another half hour won't make much difference, right?"
"Right. And then we can…talk more," she said. She patted the top of his butt. "And I can make fun of your cute little birthmark some more."
"I don't know why it fascinates you so much, but…sure, okay."
Sarah grinned and kissed him again. "Great. I'll be right back. And don't move!"
Elliot chuckled. "I'll be as stiff as a board."
Sarah squeezed his hand in thanks, then hurried out the front door.
"Well…that went well," he said to himself, relieved. He was half-afraid they would get into another fight, but thankfully Sarah wasn't mad at him at all. She still wanted to talk to him, though…probably about the date, he guessed, and where she wanted to draw the line as far as physical stuff for the future…after losing control and letting themselves run the bases, taking a step back was probably a good idea. Nice though it was, he wasn't keen on risking it again so soon.
Th-thump.
Elliot's ears perked. He thought he'd heard something…footsteps, maybe. Except no one else was supposed to be in the house…
Th-thump.
There it was again. Faint, but noticeable. And coming from Sarah's room.
Elliot tensed. Was someone in there? A burglar, perhaps? What kind of burglar was stupid enough to rob a house in broad daylight?
Cautiously he walked toward her room and peeked through the door, which stood ajar. He didn't see anyone…
Th-thump.
…but he could still hear the sound, whatever it was. It didn't sound like footsteps anymore…but it was definitely coming from her room.
He stepped inside, looking around curiously. Nothing seemed out of place or unusual…her bed was made, her dresser was neat, her wardrobe—
Th-thump.
Elliot stiffened. The wardrobe door was rattling. That was the noise. Was the wind making it…no, her window was closed, he realized. Did something fall over inside? No, because then why would it be constantly rattling?
Th-thump.
…Was something alive in there?
"Hello…?" Elliot said.
Th-thump thump!
The doors rattled again, harder this time. Something was in there, and it heard him. Elliot's gaze hardened, and his muscles tensed, ready for trouble. He slowly reached for the handle, turned the lock, and jerked back as the doors flew open and a pair of figures spilled out.
Elliot's eyes shot open in shock and disbelief. "What the…?!"
One figure, haphazardly tied up and gagged with duct tape, was Grace, in her human form, silent and motionless. She didn't look like she was breathing.
The other…Elliot was almost positive he was hallucinating. There was no way what he was seeing was real. It couldn't be…
"…Sarah…?"
Indeed, despite his head's denials, Sarah was lying there beside Grace, bound and gagged as well, except she was definitely active, struggling weakly to sit up. Elliot instinctively moved to help her, holding her head in his hands and raising her up to face him. He tore the tape slowly from her mouth, and she gasped for a free breath as soon as she could.
"Sarah, what…what's going--"
"She tricked you…" Sarah rasped. "She's a fake…she…no!"
Her eyes widened as she gazed past Elliot, and he spun around to face the barrel of a TF Gun aimed at his face, and a second Sarah behind the trigger.
"I told you not to move."
FLASH!
Everything went green for one brilliant moment…and then, it was all black.
Comments and critiques welcomed and appreciated, as always.
