II

Two of a Kind

The walls were all white, the hallway seemed endless. The glare off the walls tore at my eyes. I closed them tightly and allowed the rough hands to guide me through the sea of brightness. I had to wonder if maybe, just maybe, I was already dead. Was I headed for judgement? Or had my judgement already been passed and now I was being led to hell.

We stopped. I squinted into the whiteness, trying to make out something. I felt as if I was staring into the sun. So bright, but cold. For the first time I realized I was shivering. It was so cold, it made no sense at all to me.

"Where do you want to put her?" A harsh voice rumbled from behind me. .

It sounded as if someone was shuffling through papers. "This Kennedy, Rose R?" a female voice questioned.

Then slience.

"Have you done the Physc evaluation yet?" the same female voice spoke once more.

"I don't think we need to evaluate her," the male stated. "I mean if I," he lowered his voice to the point I had to strain to hear, "looked like that I'd be nuts too."

Looked like what? I thought. I felt perfectly normal. I wasn't crazy anyway. They were just stupid. I mean how could I be crazy, I didn't even remember my own name. that's not crazy.

"Put her in that cell with Carroll." the female stated flatly.

"That's the other... 'weird' one, isn't it? The one in the same accident?" the male questioned.

"Yeah, first name Liz. I guess they know each other." the female replied.

We started walking again. I closed my eyes tightly once more, contemplating what the man urging me forward had said. Come to think of it no one had let me within 10 feet of a mirror ever since I awoke. It didn't matter. I wouldn't recognize myself anyway, or would that help me remember more about myself?

Once again being led down the endless halls. Would it ever end? Suddenly we stopped. It was so abrupt that I almost fell, but didn't. Something caught me without touching me. What a weird feeling. Almost like being suspended in mid air. What's going on? As I felt myself falling i had tried to catch myself, but my arms... they weren't movable. At this point I started to struggle. What the hell were they doing to me. I was tied up, or is restrained a better word for this.

The man grabbed my shoulders. I opened my eyes. Panic, I panicked. "What the hell are you doing to me?" I screamed frantically. "Let go of me! Don't you fucking touch me"

He just laughed as he shoved me face first into a doorway. This time there was no comforting suspension to save me. I crashed face first into the floor.

A piercing laughter filled the room. So loud, my panic grew. I struggled, realizing my hands were now free. I forced myself over and looked around. The first thing I saw was a woman, or at least I thought it was a woman, bending over me. She was laughing hysterically. It hurt my ears, my head, hell it hurt my entire being to hear that woman's laughter. She just stared at me blankly. As if she was seeing the floor behind me, or maybe seeing through my clothing and thinking it hilarious.

"We meet again Twofer," she giggled, "About time they gave me some company, these walls are driving me mad." Once again the high piercing laughter. Did this woman find everything funny? And what was this "Twofer" she was referring to?

"Who the hell are you?" I said trying to turn over, realizing she had one leg on either side of me and I was stuck.

"Wouldn't a better question be where are you?" She purred as she felt me struggle against her legs. She moved quickly, almost as if she were dancing, to the opposite side of the room. Giggling the entire time. As I sat up the room came into focus for the first time. All white, padded. The only color in the room was the hair and lips of the woman. With her messy green hair plastered to her head and her cherry red lips posed in a permanent smile she did look oddly familiar.

"Would you be so kind to tell me then," I stated flatly.

"Maybe..." She grinned so wide it seemed unnatural, once again giving me the itch of knowing something but not being able to remember.

"Thanks..." I mumbled under my breath.

"We're in an insane asylum," she said staring off into the void. She stood there for a long time completely still, then suddenly she was close, too close. She leaned into my ear and spoke softly, "and anytime Twofer." Then back across the room quickly as she had come, the half suppressed giggle leaping from her throat as she got back to the other side of the room.

"What's with this 'Twofer' thing you keep calling me?" I said irritably. I walked closer to her.

"You don't like your nickname?" She pouted falsely with the same grin across her face.

"I don't know what it means." She looked slightly confused for a minute and walked to the door. She looked beyond the tiny window and dropped to the ground ripping her pant leg up and pulling something from her sock. Grinning she held out her hands to me. I looked down at the things she held and got a bit of a surprise. I grabbed a mirror piece from her so violently that I didn't even notice it's sharp edge slice my palm open.

There was something odd about my face. One side completely normal, the other... I can't ever describe the hideousness of my other side. Dark, twisted. I gawked at myself like a child at a freak show.

"Don't you want your Lucky coin?" the woman asked. Only her melodic giggle brought me away from the mirror. In her hands was a coin. I took it and held it gently in my right palm. The red blood smearing it's shiny surface. Something was so familiar about this coin. Sliding it up onto my thumb I flipped it. The coin shot up past my face and came back down into my palm with a sickening splat. Without looking I passed it into the left hand. Only then did I look down. This side of the coin was scratched, defaced, like me. Two sides of the coin, two sides of me. Everything came to us in an instant.

"You're the Joker," we said as we looked up at the woman grinning before us.