Vanish (ONC Finalist)

12. Double

Aled lay on the cold ground, staring up at Marius, completely bewildered. His jaw ached and he thought he might have bitten his tongue.

"Wh-what?"

"How dare you! How fucking dare you play these games with me!" repeated Marius, this time through gritted teeth. "I could kill you right now."

"I don't understand," ventured Aled. "What did I do?"

"For Thera's sake!" spat Marius, his voice full of contempt. "Stop pretending. You were the one responsible for these stitches in the first place. I might have been half-unconscious at the time but I can remember that!"

"No, I wasn't! It wasn't me!" protested Aled, shocked. "You're mistaking me for somebody else. I've never seen you before in my life, until today."

"Murseshit!" snarled Marius.

Aled had no idea what a murse was but the meaning was clear enough.

"Look at me! Really look at me," he insisted. "I might resemble the man who did that to you, but I'm not him. Do I have his eyes? His nose? Hair? All exactly the same?"

Marius flicked his eyes over him impatiently. "Of course you do. You're him."

"Do I sound like him though? Didn't you say I used some unfamiliar expressions?"

Marius paused for a second then shook his head. "You're putting it on, toying with me for some sick reason."

Aled swallowed. Unless Marius was lying, playing some cruel game of his own, he had a double, here on this unknown world. He wondered briefly if everyone on Earth had a double here. Could that be possible? Would he run across a Mason look-alike, or the other men from his team? One thing seemed clear enough, though he might share his appearance with that double, their personalities were entirely different.

"I've got a double," Aled murmured. "That's the only thing that makes sense." He didn't realise he'd spoken aloud until he saw Marius frowning.

"A 'double'?"

"Someone who looks like me. I told you, I'm from somewhere else, a long way away from here. Tell me, does your man wear clothes like these? Does he carry equipment like this?" Aled made an attempt to show Marius his solar powered torch but Marius was quick to put his foot down, hard on Aled's wrist. Aled could have broken free but he lay passive, wanting Marius to decide for himself that he was speaking the truth.

Marius was staring at Aled more intently now. Warily, as if expecting Aled to spring up and attack him, he bent down to take a pinch of his jacket material between finger and thumb, rubbing it to gauge the texture. Marius frowned again.

"What have you done to your hair?" he asked, unexpectedly.

"I'm a soldier. This is how I always wear it," answered Aled. "It's short and practical. Why, how does your man wear his?"

"Longer," replied Marius without thinking. "Down to his shoulders."

"But apart from that, he looks just like me, does he?"

Marius nodded, still unconvinced that Aled was not Dax pretending.

"Does he have any birth marks? Any moles or identifying features?" pressed Aled, but the other man shook his head.

"If you let me get up, I can show you some tools from my worl-er hold, that I think will be new to you. They'll prove to you that I'm not from around here."

He could see Marius hesitating for a moment, but then he took a step back and allowed Aled to rise. Aled brought out his solar powered torch and gave it to Marius, who took it gingerly, turning it over in his hands. "You're right. I haven't seen anything like this before."

He gave it back to Aled. "But that doesn't prove that you are from somewhere else, only that this is! You might have found it, or traded for it."

"True enough, I suppose!" Aled gave a wry smile and for the first time, he thought he saw a look of doubt enter Marius' face.

"What?"

"Dax wouldn't have said that. He would have argued with me."

"Dax? That's this other man's name, my double?"

"Yes. Lord Dale'l'Xandro to give him his full title."

"That's the man who did that to you, ordered your eyes sewn shut? Why? What on earth did you do to him to warrant that?"

"I made a mistake. I actually thought I was helping him." Marius spoke in clipped sentences. "Keeping him from making a disastrous error of judgement, but he didn't see it that way. From his point of view, I was trying to sabotage his plans and betray him. Prevent him from becoming High Lord."

"Betray him? How?"

"To his betrothed. I offered to tell her things on his behalf, things that would make her draw back from the marriage so he'd be free. But Dax has ambitions to be High Lord, anything else is irrelevant to him, including Liviana's happiness."

Aled found himself smiling in relief. "Betrothed? Well there's a difference between us right there. I would never be able to marry a woman. I like women as friends, don't get me wrong, but I don't desire them, I'd never fall in love with one." He was just going to add, I prefer men when he realised it might be a foolish confession. What if homosexuality was forbidden here, like it was in so many cultures back on Earth?

The look of sudden suspicion on Marius' face made him fear that he'd been right. Until Marius spoke.

"Not different at all. Dax prefers men, too."

"He does? And he's getting married? Does the poor woman know? Is it an arranged marriage of some sort, a political contract?"

Marius relaxed slightly, reassured by Aled's dismay. "Those were my thoughts, exactly." He shrugged. "Dax doesn't seem to think there will be a problem."

Aled bit his tongue. People were different, he knew. He had a friend who had slept happily enough with both men and women before he'd decided he was gay rather than bi, but Aled wasn't like that. He'd known he was strictly gay from the very beginning. Having sex with a woman just wasn't an option for him. He thought it would be an insult to both of them if he even tried.

"So, was Dax your friend then, before all this happened and he turned on you?"

"More than that..." Marius swallowed.

Aled could see his distress and jumped to unfortunate conclusions. "Dax was your lover?" he asked gently, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

He wasn't prepared for the look of revulsion on Marius' face. The other man jumped backwards, pushing Aled violently away, as if he was infected.

"No! Never that! Damn you, he's my brother!"