The Bagman's Destiny

Chapter 15

"So that's what a Dupe is" I sighed, pulling away from the best kiss of my life.

Harry parted his wet lips to elaborate on my discovery but someone else had started to speak. Someone else we weren't aware was in the room with us.

"Dupes are robotic shapeshifters primarily made from wax. They're the greatest scientific invention of this century, used mostly as a deceitful, dirty war tactic against the Moths and the public. You look into their eyes and if they want to they can soak up majority of your memories and your basic DNA coding and change into a version of you in a blink of the eye. It's remarkable"

Szilvia stepped out from the darkness and I had to stop holding onto Harry's neck and staring into his proper green eyes to stare at her.

"I didn't mean to scare you"

She had to smile while she was shaking her head and clutching the usual electronic pad. However shocked I was, seeing her made me feel a little bit better about the loyalty of Moth members and how the hell we were meant to be escaping.

I stepped away from Harry completely and wrapped her up in a big hug. I whispered blessings in her ears as she hugged back so tight that I didn't even realise anything was wrong until Harry spoke up.

"Louis... Louis, get away from her" He begged.

Without even considering that Harry's caution could be wrong, I jumped back immediately. Suddenly I was feeling very scared again. Could I trust no one?

"Please tell me you're the real Szilvia" I begged her this time around, "Prove to me... Tell me something only the real Szilvia would know... Yikes, that was so cliché"

Nobody found my overbearing humour funny though and we all stopped awkwardly in the tension-filled air. When Szilvia did nothing but look around the room as if she could draw inspiration from the blue light or shadowed corners, Harry stepped forward. He wrapped an arm around my chest and with his spare one he raised his gun at her. It reminded me of our first presidential escape and how safe I felt. I was too sad to feel safe now.

"Answer him!" He spat.

"Just trust me!" She cried, clutching the pad to her chest.

Harry cocked back the hammer on his pistol and I gulped down hard as the sudden realisation Harry was right to be cautious spread through me. 

"No! Please don't kill me! I'm being honest, I'm the same Szilvia you know!" She squealed as Harry's finger started tightening against the trigger.

"Harry, don't" I whispered.

I raised a hand to his arm against my chest and squeezed it. I believed her but I didn't think he did. Yet after hearing my voice something inside him seem to settle and his arm dropped to his side.

"Thankyou" Szilvia sobbed.

Although she wasn't really crying - she couldn't cry; not if she was a Dupe and she was. I deducted she had been ever since I met her.

"You try anything and your head is coming clean off" Harry muttered and I rolled my eyes at his unnecessary violence.

I gathered that the only way to kill a Dupe was to chop it's head off after the two times it had happened before me but this Dupe had done us no harm and I had faith in rehabilitation; even for robots.

"Szilvia, why didn't you tell us?" I asked, breaking away from Harry's protection.

"You didn't even know what a Dupe was, how could I have told you?" She muttered, "Henry doesn't even know... Please don't tell him! Please!"