Chapter 1

I was driving on the interstate, struggling to keep my eyes open. It was late. I had just gotten off work after a long 12 hour shift, I just wanted to be home. After a full day of being pushed around by my boss and coworkers, I felt mentally and physically exhausted.

I've been working at a dreary office job for a few years about an hour away from my home, it was a long drive everyday and had put tens of thousands of miles on my car so it was almost no surprise to me whenever I began to hear loud violent thuds coming from somewhere in my engine. I cursed to myself and pulled over. I was hoping this would be an easy fix so I could be back on the road soon. I turned off the car and glanced at the time, nearly midnight. I let out a long defeated sigh, popped my hood and hopped out.

I’ve never been a car guy, and I barely even knew how cars worked so I was nervous I wouldn’t be able to tell what the issue was. Unfortunately I was right, I took a good 15 minutes looking at every part I could see but everything seemed like it was in working order. No fluids ran out, nothing was out of place and overall my engine looked exactly how it did when I first bought the car. I was confused, frustrated and annoyed.

After studying the engine for likely longer than necessary I closed my hood and got back in my car, hoping it would turn on. When I turned my key into the ignition, I heard a loud pop and then nothing. I was so exhausted I couldn’t even let out my anger, so I just sat there staring out my windshield in silence feeling numb. I checked my phone to see if I could call someone for help, but as expected I had no bars.

Of course

I thought to myself.

Because that would be too convenient.

I decided my best course of action was to flag someone down and have them help me, but oddly enough nobody was on the road. Sure it was late but there were always people out driving at any time of the night. My job sometimes required me to be there past midnight and it was always a common sight to see at least a few cars on the road at all times. I was so tired I hadn’t even noticed it until now. I thought it was odd but it angered me more than confused me.

Why is there nobody on the road now of all times?

My only choice was to hope somebody would see me and come help.

I got out of my car and stood at the edge of the road, waiting. I waited there for what felt like hours, but nobody came. I don’t know how long I stayed out there waiting for someone to pull over, but it must have been a while because eventually I dozed off without realizing. I was so tired I couldn’t help myself, I had somehow fell asleep while standing on the edge of the freeway.

I was jolted awake whenever I heard the sound of a truck honking in front of me, somebody had finally come to help.

A truck pulled over in front of me, turned on its hazards and I saw an older man walk out. He must have been in his late 50’s or early 60’s judging by his looks. I was relieved. Somebody had finally come to help.

“Havin’ some bad luck?” The man said walking towards me. He had a strong friendly southern accent. He had a comforting demeanor and seemed like the type of person you would easily trust.

I forced out a chuckle.

“Yeah, damn thing broke down on me. I have no idea what’s wrong with it.”

“Sorry to hear that bud, you mind poppin’ your hood for me?” The man said.

I did as he said, and he looked into my engine. He stood there silently, looking at every part for a couple minutes. Eventually, he patted my shoulder and smiled.

“Looks like you’re good to go now bud. Happy to help.”

Before I could respond, the man walked off back to his truck and drove off. I yelled at him to come back and that I desperately needed help, but he ignored me. I was left dumbstruck and irritated. He hadn’t done a single thing but was acting as if he just solved my problem. Annoyed, I got back in my car and tried to start it.

Nothing.

I screamed in anger and slammed my fist onto my glovebox. This man just didn’t want to help me so he drove off. What was his problem? Why did he pull over in the first place? I tried my cell phone again, but still no bars. I was trapped here.

While I was in the middle of trying to calm myself, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard it again. I heard the exact same honking from the same truck. I watched in shock as the truck stopped at the same spot in front of me, and the same man hopped out.

I flung my door open and had to contain myself from yelling at the man, I was going to ask him why he came back but before I could say anything he spoke first.

“Havin’ some bad luck?”

He said the same thing, in the same voice tone, down to the exact octave. He was even walking toward me the same way. It was as if I was reliving what had just happened not even 5 minutes earlier. I paused and stopped in my tracks confused, unmoving and unable to speak.

“You mind poppin’ your hood for me?” He said again.

I asked him with as much patience in my voice that I could muster what he was doing and how he came back so fast, but his face remained blank as if I wasn’t talking to him at all. He stared at me unmoving like he was waiting for me to do what he asked. It was such a strange sight. Not a single muscle of his body was moving, he wasn’t blinking and I couldn’t even be sure if he was breathing. It was as if time had stopped completely on him.

I snapped my fingers in front of his face, and still nothing. Reluctantly, without moving my eyes from the man I walked over to my car and popped the hood like he asked me to. Immediately the man lifted the hood and looked inside, as if on queue. Just like last time, the man looked at it for several minutes, patted my shoulder and once again said.

“Looks like you’re good to go now bud. Happy to help.”

With that, he walked back to his truck again and drove off. His voice sounded off when he spoke, just barely deeper but yet he still kept his same southern accent. He said the sentence exactly the way he did last time but with a deeper, distorted voice. I was starting to feel unnerved. Was this some kind of joke? Some kind of bad prank? Why would an old man be pulling a prank on me in the middle of the night? Nothing made sense to me.

‘What is going on’ was the only thing going through my head. I was now more desperate than ever to get my car started up. This was all too uncanny for me to handle, I was slowly starting to panic. The way he performed his actions were as if he was being controlled, it’s hard to describe without sounding insane.

I snapped out of my trance and ran back into my car. I hopelessly tried the car again, and somehow it actually started up this time. At first I was happy, I could finally get out of here and get home. But the car wouldn’t move. Everything was working exactly as it should have been, but no matter how hard I pushed the gas pedal, the car just wouldn’t move.

Throughout all of this, I have yet to see a single car on the road since I broke down. I had been on the side of the road for nearly an hour at this point, yet I never saw anyone.

As one last helpless attempt at getting out of here I decided to try calling the police, I had no bars but I still wanted to try. I was desperate and terrified, grasping at straws. As I dialed, I was surprised to hear a few rings. It was somehow going through. Then someone actually picked up. Relief washed over me.

“911 what’s your emergency?” It sounded like an older woman.

“Hello? I’m stranded on a freeway, I need someone to come out here and help me.” I said feeling somewhat hopeful.

“Alright where exactly are you on the freeway?” The operator asked.

I explained to the operator as best as I could where I was.

“We’ll send someone over right now bud.”

I paused, the feeling of hope now completely vanished. I had to hold myself back from vomiting from the pure adrenaline fear I was experiencing. The voice sounded exactly like the southern man with his normal voice. Down to the last detail.

I almost dropped the phone when I heard a tapping noise coming from the driver side window, right beside me. I slowly turned around and saw the man outside the window. The car door being the only thing separating us. He was smiling and lightly tapping, it seemed like he was taking pleasure watching my panicked state. He spoke and when he did, I heard his voice through my phone.

“We’re here.”

I wanted to run, I wanted to get up and beat him to death but something was holding me in my place. I couldn’t move.

I wasn’t paralyzed with fear. I was physically being forced to stay in my position, almost like a sleep paralysis. Except I was awake.

The man moved away from the window, and I could see what was behind him.

I saw at least ten people, standing completely still in the middle of the road watching me with no emotion whatsoever. They were in a line, perfectly asymmetrical to each other. The part that bothered me the most however, every single person I saw looked like me. The longer I looked, the more I started to believe they were me.

They looked like exact replicas of myself. All of them wearing the same clothes, had the same hair, same face structure, and the same build. They even stood how I stood. They were all me, down to every last detail. They just stood there watching me.

I once again tried to break myself free, doing anything I could but nothing worked. I was completely trapped in my position and there was nothing I could do about it. I had no choice other than to stare back, the man still lightly tapping the window as I fought for my life.

Eventually I just barely managed to move a finger, and that’s when the clones started to walk towards me, the man slowly backing up. My clones were walking at a slow pace, taking their time. They were either confident I wouldn't be able to get away or it took every ounce of strength they had for them to move. I was frantically trying to move myself but nothing would work no matter how hard I tried. They were getting closer.

Before I knew it they had reached the door, the man walked over and opened it. I knew it was over by this point. I expected them to start hurting me or trying to kill me, but they didn't. I have no idea what I was expecting, but it wasn't what they did next.

The clone closest to me reached his hand to my mouth and opened it abnormally wide and started to shove his hand down my throat, then his arm, then his entire body. He had opened my mouth wide enough to crawl inside me and I was in the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my life. I felt my jaw crack and could hardly breathe while my clone got down to it's last leg in my throat. I could feel blood pouring from my mouth, feeling every last movement he took in my body.

Then he was gone. My clone had crawled fully inside of my body. The pain had become so overwhelming I could hardly feel any part of myself. My vision became blurry and the last thing I saw before passing out was the man turning around towards his truck and walking away.

When I woke up, I saw police cars. I was at the same spot my car had broken down. There had to be at least 5 of them in front and behind me. They had found me passed out on the road drenched in blood.

They tried to question me but I couldn't speak, my mouth wouldn't allow me to. It had been stretched wide enough to cause me to never be able to speak again. I only looked in a mirror once to see myself, and ever since I've avoided going out in public and anything that might show me my reflection. I don't need to be reminded with how I look. My mouth had been stretched all the way to my ears and I could see my broken jaw and blood drenched bones where my cheeks used to be. I looked like a monster.

My actions and thoughts are hardly my own anymore. I sometimes find myself doing things I would never do and think things I would never think. I have done horrible things I wish not to speak about. My body and thoughts will just move by itself at times. But I know what it really is. I know what's really controlling me and invading my thoughts and actions.

I've stopped trying to make sense of what happened to me that night. The more I try, the more I feel myself falling into madness. I have no idea who that man was, or how I saw so many clones of myself or why it felt like nobody else in the world existed that night.

All I can do now is live with it.