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IT'S EVERYWHERE. THE RINGING in my ears. And it's just so loud. My hands haul up, trying to cover my ears, putting pressure to drown it all out. Footsteps resound through the room, close and yet so far. I rock myself back and forth as my body vibrates, my eyes still zoned in on the residual smoke swirling in the air.

This can't be happening. It isn't possible.

"Oh, would you snap out of it?!" A harsh but familiar voice pierces through my hysteria.

My entire existence freezes.

I snap my head up, my eyes opening up wider than before, in the voice's direction.

How can...

It isn't just the coldness of the voice that snags my attention. No, it's the familiarity of it that makes the air in my lungs cease to exist.

My stomach quivers as I shake my head, scoffing at myself even as my eyes seek the owner of the voice.

I am even beginning to hear myself talk. Like a totally different version of myself? How is that even...?

The rest of the words turn sour in my head as my eyes settle on the person standing on the other side of the bed. I squint at the figure. Is that me?

Oh Gracious God, I'm finally going crazy.

But there's no denying the diamond-shaped face the figure has. So similar and yet unlike me, she has her midnight black hair straightened out to its full length. Those glacial blue eyes of hers, just like mine, glare right at me like glass shards ready to pierce through my body until there's nothing left of me.

"Done ogling this beauty?" she snaps at me, her lips lifted into a sneering smile if that is even possible. And for further effect, she uses her hands to point to her body where she's adorning a pink pantsuit, contrasting my hospital gown.

On a normal day, I probably will have shuddered at the pinkness of the attire, but that is for a situation where one isn't staring directly at their self.

I blink repeatedly, my forehead creasing as the sensation of a throbbing headache form in my head. "What's... what's going on here? Who are you?"

Her brows arch up, one after the other. "Are you joking right now? That's what you're worried about?" she scoffs and then briefly turns to the window, then back at me. "Someone just declared war on you and you're concerned about who I am?"

My throat tightens at the reminder of what is currently in my life outside of this inner madness. I try not to dwell on that, but instead, I try to find a way to make sense of the current situation. Maybe this is just another prank from Uncle Aiden. Couldn't he have gotten something more original, though?

Finding someone that looks like me to make me think I'm going crazy, now that's an interesting move. Not original but interesting.

I search the surrounding room. Weren't there people here before? I mean, amidst all that ringing after the flowers blew up; I think people rushed into the room. Didn't they? So why was the room suddenly empty?

"Just what is going on here? Where's everybody? Is this a move from Uncle Aiden? Go tell him, he needs to get original. Making me think I'm going crazy won't solve anything. It's totally irrational and ..."

A resounding crack echoes through the room as my head whips to the side, a stinging ache throbbing on my cheek.

I slowly reach up to it, my hands shaking.

What just...?

"Did... did you just slap me?"

"And I'll do it again if you don't focus," she snaps. "Who cares who I am, you nitwit?! Who cares what makes sense? Nothing in this world makes any flipping sense, but you still chose to live it for the past 29 years, no? What should matter to you is continuing to live in this wretched world and you cannot do that when someone is after our life. We need to put a stop to that first."

Our life?

My cheeks are still stinging so badly and there's that far-away ringing that's going on in my ear. I can't even tell if the ringing is a result of the slap or the ridiculous situation I'm currently in.

This is too much. I can't...

She raises her hands once again and I stiffen, glaring at her. "If you let those hands touch me again, you'll regret ever showing your face in front of me," I snarl, my voice hard.

"Finally!" she throws her hand into the air and takes a step back.

"Don't finally me!"

I turn away from her, my chest rising and falling. This is crazy, but when has my life ever been anything but crazy interesting, huh? I mean, didn't I almost get killed in an elevator by my boss, who was instigated by an uncle who should very much be in prison? Yeah, this is typical. Very typical. I can definitely make sense of it.

Figure out where you are and what you know about the place.

Those words resound in my head and I shudder, remembering the last time I was in a situation where I had to do that.

A scoff pulls me from my thoughts. I turn back around to see her slump onto the bed with a burst of mocking laughter. "You're not trying to think of a rational explanation for what's going on right now, are you? You're not doing that whole figure-out-where-you-are thingy, are you?"

I gulp hard, squinting my eyes at her.

She throws her head back, laughing. "Oh goodness, you are really worse than I thought. What part of nothing here makes sense did you not get? And remember the part where I said none of that matters?!"

Whatever knot was holding me together before, snaps in that instant.

"Yes! That's what you have been going on and on about. But don't you see, I'm suddenly seeing a different version of myself? I'm going crazy and you're saying it doesn't matter. Of course, it does! Especially when you realize that all it took was almost getting blown up. That matters. Because it means I'm just..."

"What? Pathetic? Useless?" she laughs as I flinch at each word she throws my way. "You didn't know that about yourself? Pfft, what a shocker." She wipes away at the lone tear in her eyes, still laughing. "Oh my dear, Lee. Yes, of course, you're pathetic. But that's why you've got me here."

My fingers curl around each other into a fist, tightening until I can feel my muscles there straining. "'Cos you're what? My personal superhero?"

Her eyes sparkle as she instantly sits up against the bedrest, the edges of her lips curled into a smirk. "Well, because of your lack of the right vocabulary, you can call me that. Definitely."

"And somehow you've only just come out now? Really? After all these years?"

She stiffens, her face tightening as her smirk turns to a hard smile. It's only for a moment as she relaxes back onto the bed like that moment never existed. Waving her hands dismissively, she says, "Well, my life wasn't really ever at stake before. I had to come out to make sure your pathetic self doesn't get me killed. You see, I like living, even if it's behind the scenes."

"What are you...?" I pause, closing my eyes. This is just beyond crazy. It's mental. She didn't think her life was at stake when I was almost getting killed by my robots the day before. But I also notice how she's looking anywhere but at me as she says those words. Like there's so much more to the whole situation than she's letting on.

But if she's me and I am her, why does she know something that I don't.

"We really don't have time for you to process this, Lee." She finally turns to me, her eyes hard as they were when I first laid my eyes on her. "I get that you're a sloth. It always beats me how you even got to the top level of your job," she murmurs the last part and then coughs, sitting up fully on the bed and straightening her jacket. "But you see time's ticking, love. Aiden has had 22 years to plan his revenge. Every single second from here on out counts, so I'm taking the reins now. Thought I'd give you a heads up."

"What...?"

But before I can fully form the question in my head, shouts and screams swarm my ears. Blurry movements of people suddenly fill the once relatively quiet room. My mom's sobs ring continuously by my side with Reagan and Kalasiah on either side of her, calling out to me.

The bed creaks beneath me as I feel my body sit up.

Err, what... what's going on?

My hands shrug off the comfort Reagan's hands produce on mine.

"Lee?" Kalasiah calls out and I suddenly feel a shudder run through me.

With a barely audible growl, I say "Kali."

No, that... that's not me. That's...

Kali?

Is that...? Was that what she...?

I clear my throat, or rather she clears my throat, my lips curling up as everyone stares at me with cautioned gazes. I guess that wasn't as silent as she thought.

"Oh well," she says, rolling my eyes.

I gulp hard. The crispiness of her voice encircles my body. How is it possible for me to sound the same and yet so different?

She swings my legs off the bed, standing up from the bed.

"Woah! What do you think you're doing?" Kalasiah stretches her hand to stop me instantly. Regan moves to the other side too, but Kali maneuvers around her and goes directly to my dad who's been staring at us with his brows raised, stiff by the door. His golden brown eyes, like Kalasiah's own, hold a thousand questions that his mouth has shut off in them.

Kali plucks the card from the flowers out of his hands, wiggling my brows at him. "I believe this is mine."

"Le... Kali, this is..."

But the rest of his words drown out as we stare down at the card in my hands.

"Oh Aiden, you should know that I would never miss out on fun activities," she murmurs. "It's just your mistake to think I'll sit idly by, waiting for it to happen." The edges of my lips curl up.

An exciting shudder alongside a dreadful feeling runs through me.

As much as I have no clue what exactly is going on, one thing I'm sure of is that she, Kali, is right. What matters is surviving and Uncle Aiden definitely doesn't want that to happen.

But it was never what Uncle Aiden wants. Uncle Aiden gets. Was it?

And then I let the thrilling excitement from Kali swirl through me, undisturbed.

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