Chapter 8

The dark trees rushed past the truck's window as Phineas pushed his head against it. He was cuddled up against the metal door in as tight a ball as he could make himself. Taking his eyes off the window, he glanced back over at Ferb behind the wheel. He was paying no attention to his passenger and just kept a determined watch on the road ahead.

"…Ferb…" Phineas whispered. When there was no answer, he spoke again. "…Ferb… I'm scared. I'm really scared. …W-what are we going to do when we get there?"

At first, Phineas thought that Ferb would continue to remain silent. However, after a few seconds he remarked, "You'll find out."

Phineas scrunched up closer to the wall and whispered again, "…Ferb… I think you're kidnapping me."

"I'm not kidnapping you," he spat back.

But Phineas was growing adamant. "Ferb!" he resisted. "The definition is 'to abduct by force.' You're kidnapping me!"

After a second of silence, Phineas felt panic settle on him. He whimpered, "…Why are you kidnapping me?"

"It DOESN'T COUNT if it's your brother!" he yelled as his hands tightened on the wheel so strongly, Phineas thought it might break in two. Ferb clenched his teeth as he fought the urge to take his hands off the steering.

"Are you?" Phineas said, almost in a mumble, as he turned back to the truck's window. "You're not my brother anymore, Ferb."

Instead of answering, Ferb turned the wheel and pulled into the dirty gravel parking space by the edge of the lake. He unbuckled his seat belt and came around to the passenger's side.

"Don't think about leaving," he threatened through the slightly cracked window, before jumping up into the bed of the truck.

Now Ferb had found a few more barrels that he had managed to roll over. Though it was extremely unstable, the tower now appeared to reach semi-near to the top. Ferb hopped up the first makeshift step and prepared to climb the next one, when the wooden doors swung open.

Peering upwards, Ferb eagerly attempted to see who it was.

"Mom!"

"Ferb! What are you doing down there in the pantry?" came her reply as she leaned in slightly. "I thought you went to the lake with Phineas?"

"They went to the lake!" Ferb exclaimed, frantically gesturing to the air behind his mother, while simultaneously attempting to disassemble the pile. "Quick! I think the ladder is up there somewhere!"

She ran over to where the ladder was laying in the grass, grabbed it, and began to lower it back down into the basement doors. As soon as he could reach it, Ferb flew up it and stumbled out of the hole. His mom jumped back in surprise.

"You said they went to the lake?" Ferb asked the instant he was on his feet.

"Phineas did, but I don't know who else-" she replied, but Ferb had already ran into the house. He grabbed the keys off the key holder and headed for the front yard.

"I'm taking the car," he called as he left the door.

Phineas kept his eyes closed in the quiet seat of the truck as he waited nervously for Ferb to return. He had left a few minutes prior to take the strange machine somewhere into the lakeside forest, leaving Phineas stranded alone in the locked truck.

Suddenly the door was pulled open and Phineas felt his shirt grabbed. He opened his eyes to see that Ferb was now dragging him by the wrist through the forest path.

"Ferb, I don't want to go anywhere with you. Please let me go," Phineas begged as he tried to pull away. Ferb, however, acted as though Phineas was just an object he was pulling and made no effort to cater to his comfort. He just drug him strongly as he led the way off the trail and into the trees.

A short distance from the edge of the lake was a small patch of dirt. Here, Phineas recognized the odd contraption that he had helped build, which was now set up in the white moonlight. Ferb flung Phineas so that he almost tripped to stand next to the machine. He then pointed a tense finger at the lever in the center. "Pull it."

Phineas shot back with a terrified expression. He gaped at him, "You didn't fix it? When I made it that way I thought it was such an obvious design flaw that you were planning on fixing it later!"

Ferb was insistently glowering at him. "It has to be that way. That's the only way it works."

"But Ferb! I don't want to get my fingers chopped off!" Phineas pleaded as he tried to turn away.

"Don't think about running!" Ferb scolded, intercepting him and taking out a piece of rope. Then he began to wrap it around both of Phineas' wrists and a metal support of the machine.

"Snap out of it, Ferb!" Phineas tried to stop himself from whimpering again. "You don't have to do this," he said through a sad frown.

With a last tug on the rope's taut ends, Ferb backed up towards the forest. He tossed his rage-filled, unfaltering gaze at Phineas, before slipping into the darkness, saying, "Don't you leave this spot. I will be back."

Standing alone in the night of the clearing, Phineas looked around at the unknown and intimidating machine, and at the still lake water. He felt a sudden combination of fear and great loss dump over him.

What was perhaps a minute or two later, there was a rustle of leaves and Ferb came running into the clearing once again. Now, though, he was breathing so hard it was as if he had just run a marathon.

He stumbled over to Phineas and began fiddling with the brown ropes, asking frenetically, "Phineas, are you okay? What did he do to you? Are you hurt?"

Phineas tried to pull away from him. "I don't... I don't know what you're talking about..."

"Phineas, please," Ferb craved, showing his own slight panic. "Please stop struggling, I'm trying to un-tie you."

Phineas immediately held perfectly still and looked into Ferb's eyes, which were focused intently on the bindings. "...Ferb! You're you again!"

After a second of letting his heart slow down, Phineas once again shrunk into a fearful state. He whispered at Ferb, "Please don't ever turn into that monster ever again."

Ferb reached over and wrapped his arms protectively around Phineas. He pulled back to look into his brother's eyes. "Don't worry, I'm me for good. I've always been me."

Phineas started to argue, but Ferb would not let him, interrupting with, "He's not me. He's definitely not me. Phineas... there's literally two of me."

Ferb then uneasily glanced over his shoulder, returning his attention to the task of freeing Phineas' hands. Phineas continued to stare into his eyes.

"You're really you?" Phineas asked with a cracking voice. He looked off into the direction of the gravel parking lot. "And that... whatever... He's really not you?"

"Don't let him fool you," Ferb concluded, with another pull at the ropes. "Ah, I can't get them, but they're looser. Do you think you can slip out by yourself?"

Phineas lightly yanked at them. "I... I think so," he said, but he still would not take his focus off of Ferb.

"YOU again!" came the roar of Ferb's voice. Phineas' eyes darted between both of them as the second Ferb came up behind the first. Phineas tried to hide his eyes in his sleeve as though he could pretend not to be there.

Ferb came up and sheltered Phineas behind his arm, saying defensively, "Don't you dare come near my brother."

"Stop with your interfering," was his return as he crouched low, arms readied.

Ferb let out a threatening yell, leaping onto the imposter. He pinned him down into the mud and held his hands firmly behind his back.

"Run, Phineas!" he called out, sitting with his knees used as extra restraints. Phineas rattled his hands in his bindings, before they finally came loose. He did not, however, turn and run.

"I want you to come with me, Ferb! Please!"

"I will!" Ferb said as he pressed further down. "You just run!"

Phineas shuffled his feet in the dirt, first backing up slowly, then quickening his retreat into the forest trees. Soon he was sprinting as fast as he could towards where he thought the gravel parking lot might be. He turned back several times to see Ferb struggling to maintain his grasp over the other.