A Fatality in the Family

By DavidGibbs6

Get a clone today and halve your workload!!!

Sven read the words fast but carefully. He had already scrolled to the bottom of the Web page looking for a customer service number. When it hadn't been at the bottom, desperate for any phone number to call, he was forced to search through the site's testimonials,

Excellent customer service!!!

FIVE STARS!!!!

Double your PAY!!!

That last one had been the cincher for Sven. He glanced over at his own dead eyes, staring blankly as pooled blood, clotted on the floor.

In the background a politician yelled over their opponents to claim, without him, everything would go to hell.

Sven had been so frantic in trying to reach the company, that a firm rapping at the door played on his already frayed nerves. For a fleeting second there was a dread and it was replaced only with a creeping sensation. As Sven looked through the peep-hole, the irrational thought that he would find himself looking down a gun barrel was instantly quelled by the sight of two police officers.

Without a second thought Sven let them in. After all, he had called for an emergency response and it wasn't until the large man with scabbed knuckles entered the room, that he realized he hadn't heard any sirens. The giant of a man was accompanied by a smaller woman officer.

"You're Sven and called about an accident?" The large cop asked in an aggressive tone while eyeing the body.

"Y...yes." Was all Sven could stammer.

"Can you turn the TV off for me." He seemed irritated

"I'm officer Addison and this is officer Kyrios." The woman spoke an introduction with a softer tone, but Kyrios's angry glare thwarted any de-escalation she was attempting.

"This is your clone?" Kyrios questioned.

"Yes" Sven felt relief in having an answer. "I have all the paperwork here, I'm the origina..."

"That's fine." Kyrios said with indifference, leaving Sven standing there awkwardly while the officer took a small camera from his pocket and started taking pictures of the body.

"You can send a copy to the Clerk's office for the file." Addison said, filling the awkward space. "We will need to get some swabs to confirm your DNA. Do you have any objections?"

"It was an accident." Sven said not caring that it sounded like desperate pleading. "We were watching the political debate and got into an argument. He....he just attacked me and..."

"It's okay." Addison said.

"He fell and hit his head on the edge of the coffee table." Kyrios finished the story for him, gruffly pointing to the obvious composition before checking for a pulse.

"All we need is a statement and some DNA swabs to confirm that it is your clone." Addison said. "We will take some photos of the scene but if it comes back as identical DNA then the report just gets filed as that. It's up to you to inform the clone registrar."

The nonchalant way officer Addison was relaying all this made Sven feel like he was in a dream.

"This happens more often than you would think." Addison said, sensing his disorientation.

"If it turns out that this isn't a clone, if it's someone unrelated or even another family member. "Kyrios said glaringly. "We prosecute you. You understand?"

"I am the original... I have the papers..." Sven trailed off quickly realizing that papers really didn't prove that he was the original. He racked his brain for a way to prove who he was, but came up empty. Clones were, by design, undistinguishable. He wanted to say something else but the fury on Kyrios's face stopped him.

"Why would that matter!" Kyrios spoke, his voice low and controlled but the look of rage in his face was unmasking. "You have the exact same legal rights. You are the same person. How is it better that he died, and not you?"

"He.. attacked me..." Sven said in a pleading tone.

"We need to take swabs now." Addison broke in, clearly an effort to bring the tension down. Taking Sven aside she pulled a swab kit from a pouch on her utility belt.

"I'll also need a hair sample if you're okay pulling a strand yourself please."

Sven obliged, watching as officer Kyrios took the samples from the body on the floor.

"Will someone come for the body?"

"That's your problem now." Kyrios said standing.

"You will have to call a funeral home and make the arrangements yourself." Addison added. "Some life insurance covers clones but you will have to check your policy."

Kyrios scribbled an incident report number onto a police interaction card and thrust it at Sven. When Sven took it the large man quickly exited, leaving Sven somewhat shaken, compounding confusion with his trauma.

"Sorry about my partner." Addison apologized. "He takes these kinds of cases personally sometimes. It's not you."

For a second Sven thought he could see her professional demeanor drop and behind it he could see concern, sadness and something else too. A fear in her dark, but slightly too wide open eyes. Then she was gone following her partner back into the night.

Sven felt numb, shaken and distraught. How could this be? What had just happened. How had he gotten here and what had gone so wrong?

He sat at the computer and typed clone death into the search bar. It wasn't something he had thought about before. Clones were supposed to live a normal lifespan. He didn't have an insurance plan covering death, he was only a few months old. It just wasn't something he had considered.

Seventy Eight Percent of Clone Related Deaths are the Master Copy!

The headline read.

MURDERER CLONES SELF IN LEGAL SERIAL KILLING CASE.

Lab grown humans are responsible for more than ninety percent of all murders.

Are Clones Evil?

Death statistics show they might be.

Clones suffer from narcissistic tendencies and maladjusted personality defects, a new report into clone/master fatalities finds.

The results were horrifying. How was the world so indifferent to this. Sven couldn't take it. There was a body in his lounge room and it would have to stay there until the morning. He covered it with a sheet, unable to catch a glance of his own dead features any longer.

Unable to sleep and still physically shaking, Sven switched the television back on.

A tech trillionaire was openly espousing the benefits of certain types of ethnic cleansing on a late night talk show.