Larceny

8

"What? No, your fucking with me. How can I be replaced? There's only one of me!" He half yells, his voice cracking as the sentence ends.

 "Keep your voice down," I scold, "We can't risk them hearing us."

 "Then you need to explain to me what the fuck is going on here." His voice down to a raspy whisper.

"After you were kidnapped, you were sedated. You were sent to Duplication and then put through Extraction."

"I was cloned?"

"Yes, they created a carbon copy of you but the as all the Twos they've ever created are, it's incomplete. All they have are your looks but nothing else."

"So there's another me running around." He says, with an inflection on "me" as he begins to appear annoyed.

"Yes and no. When you were sent to Extraction, the removed your ability to play instruments. Just to ensure you won't be able to play for some time the attempted to break your fingers but like I told you before you fought back."

"I get what they did to my voice but my ankles too?"

"When you perform, you dance right?"

"Yeah, of course."

"That's why. They have a tendency to cover all their bases."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight. They stole my talent and somehow injected it a clone of me?" He says quickly as though he wants to get the words out of his mouth as soon as possible.

"Yes. To say it simply The Snatchers are grand larcenists. They steal your personal property to put it to their own use. Because they created your clone they have control over it and with it pawned off as you they have access to your talents, your assets, everything and anything that has to do with you."

The room goes silent, guilt settling in my chest like cement blocks settling at the bottom of an ocean. For whole minutes the room is in silence, I can't even hear either of us breathe. I shouldn't have told him so much at once. Even when Amy told me she broke it down. Anxiously I begin to pull at the sleeves of my hoodie, trying to muster up the courage to say something. When a deep breath exits his body.

"Show me."

I stand and head towards the door. "Come." he leaves his bed, following me. I touch the door with one finger and the red holographic keypad materializes in front of us. "Watch," I touch the door with one finger and the red holographic keypad materializes in front of us. "the code is the date you were brought here and the today's date but the numbers alternate." Once I enter the correct code the door opens, sliding off to the left, disappearing in to the wall it was beside minutes ago. I pull my hoodie over my head and hide my hands, Bruno does the same.

When I'm sure the hallway is clear we walk along the walls staying as quiet as possible. When we reach my door I put in my code. He enters behind me. Once I make sure the hallway is clear I lock the door. I pull out my desk chair and offer it to him. Taking it he sits. I watch him out of the corner of my eye as search for my TV remote in one of my desk drawers.

"Once you've been here for a while. They'll make bi-monthly visits to give you insight on your Two's or clone's life." I say take the DVD I received from Victor a couple of days ago. With the TV on, I put in the DVD and take a seat on my window ledge. As the music starts, my eye muscles twitch, clenching, threatening to cry as I stare out into the darkness outside the phantom glow of city lights off in the distance.

How is it that no one has noticed the oddity of this building? How is it that all of us celebrity or just talented normal person, are still stuck here withe no means of help or access to outside?

Wiping tears from my eyes I glance over at Bruno, the moonlight just barely outlining his figure. He watches intently, keeping a trained eye on the TV, completely silent. "The man who goes to visit most of the rooms, his name is Victor Wheylen. He's in charge of everyone who lives in this block of the building. He's the one who makes the bi-monthly visits. What you're watching was my shipment. A show that I was supposed to perform at."

"You're good." He says slowly his eyes still on the screen. More tears fall and I wipe them away with my sleeve.  

"Was," I correct, "I was good." I feel his eyes on me as I peer put into the darkness. I step off the ledge and make my way over to the TV removing the DVD. I turn on the cable, flipping through the channels then the camera feeds. I take a seat on the floor. Sure enough, Bruno's Two is on Ellen as the musical guest performing his hit single 'Treasure'. He looks, moves, acts and sings just like Bruno, as expected. I knew from the time that he got here, his clone would be perfect.

"That's it." His words more of a statement rather than a question.  

"This is your channel. It is on your clone at all times. As long as he is in the public's eye you'll be able to watch him. What he does and or doesn't do with your life is up to The Snatchers now."