The Double-Goer by Lilavarah
1961 Words
Slowly, Milette stripped the robe embracing her slender body. She stepped out of that silk and walked through the sea.
It was her honeymoon anyway. Nothing could be more rewarding than spending that week at the shore, soaking up herself under the sunshine and salt air.
"You come out of that water and face me, woman!"
Milette turned her face over her shoulder. "Who's that?" She tried to search for that voice but failed to see anyone aside from those palm trees standing along the shore.
She trudged out of the waist-deep water with her arms tightly wrapped around her torso as goosebumps formed on her skin. She looked around again but nothing seemed suspicious. The sudden thickening of the clouds made her chest pound harder though.
"Are you blind?"
Milette c****d her face to where that voice came from and her eyes grew wide. This time, her stomach turned upside down as fear crept into her system.
Her steps were heavy like metal balls were imprisoning her feet. She tried to walk towards the cottage's door but suddenly, her feet collapsed.
She wailed but managed to reach for her feet. Then she realized that the sharp pain coming from the sole of her feet came from a few pieces of broken glass. The pain was unbearable, yet she instantly got numb as she spotted the woman approaching.
"You stand up and look at me!" the woman roared.
Milette raised her chin and was taken off guard by the woman's looks. She knew every inch of the woman's face and her body as well.
"Oh, my God!" She swallowed the heavy lump clogging her throat and screamed, "Why do I look exactly like you?"
The woman, though looked amazingly stunning, gritted her teeth. "I'll kill you for taking my husband away from me!"
Milette wanted to scream. Her mouth opened but no sound would come out. She wanted to run but her legs were still paralyzed.
"No!" Eyes closed, Milette screamed as the woman sliced her through her chest and down her stomach.
___
"Honey! Wake up!"
Milette's eyes flew wide open as Dark tapped her cheek. Raising from her boyfriend's arm, she coughed as smoke filled her nostrils.
They were in the middle of the war against terrorists. Bomb explosions and the rifle's firing occurred every second, anywhere. However, Dark cared no damn for these. Even the rolling of empty bullets on his feet was just like dead marbles for him.
"Oh, God. Milette, please! Talk to me, honey!"
Dark's crying sound became rougher, but thank God, Milette's soul eventually came back from nowhere.
"D-Dark?" she gasped.
"Oh, Milette," Dark deeply sighed in relief. "I thought, I've lost you. Sadhir shoots you while we run away from the building."
"I w-was shot?" Milette inclined her head and saw the rich blood flowing from the wound on her pelvic area. "D-Dark... my waist. It h-hurts."
"Oh, no! You're losing too much blood!" Dark tore some portion of his uniform and tied it between Milette's hips and chest. He lifted her in his arms and they rushed through the small quiet street where dead cold bodies scattered everywhere.
"Stay here, Milette."
Dark placed his girlfriend on a swivel chair in an abandoned room. It was a half kilometers away from the bridgehead so he thought it was the safest place as for now. He knew Milette's life might at least be extended until the war was over.
"Don't worry. This won't take long. Wait for me until I blast their heads off and we're going home, alright?" he sealed his promise with a quick but deep kiss.
She wanted more than his kiss but her body was so weak. Beyond Dark's awareness, Milette's feet were close to her death pit as blood continued to flow away from her system.
"I love you," Milette whispered, ignoring the squeezing pain on her pelvis.
"I love you more," Dark responded.
Milette's spent the next hour daydreaming, aside from keeping her last breath intact. Luckily, she was now able to move her legs. So she stood up from the chair and dragged herself to the comfort room.
"How I wish this ends now..." Milette sough in frustration.
Leaning on the washstand, she mumbled, "God, I look terrible," as she frowned at the huge cracked mirror on the wall. She opened the faucet and bent down to hydrate her face.
She rinsed thoroughly. And that moment she lifted her face and opened her eyes on the mirror, the hair on her nape stood as she spotted someone behind her.
"No!"
She shrieked on top of her lungs as she'd never screamed before! For what she had seen wasn't just an image. It was another woman who looked exactly like her.
"This isn't real!" She covered her face and heard her own voice shaking inside her mind. "It's only my hallucination!"
Meanwhile, as Dark stomped closer to the battle bridge, his troop eyed him with hope. Their commander was down and he was the most skillful soldier of their group so they relied on him.
"Dark, you gotta finish Sadhir right away," said one soldier.
They stayed back from the wall and let Dark hold the sniper rifle against his shoulder. It was kilometers away from them. But for Dark, Sadhir was just a stone throw away from the mouth of his weapon.
This was the moment he'd been waiting for. He would bury a bullet inside the most dangerous terrorist's skull and bomb his body off into meat pieces.
"You're dead!" he roared, gritting his teeth.
But before he could even press the trigger, his hands hardened and his sight went white.
"W-what?"
After a split second, his target disappeared from the rifle's telescope so he scanned again.
"What's happening? Where's Sadhir?" Dark complained, blinking his eyes on the weapon's lens.
"What are you waiting for? Shoot him right away!" someone shouted.
Dark's eyes heated as he glared at the soldier behind him. "He's gone, Rosalez!" Again, he looked through the lens and his jaws dropped as he spotted another image brought by the compact.
"M-Milette?"
It was damned unbelievable seeing his girl in their enemy's camp! But from afar, she was staring back at him, wearing that same bloody fatigue. Her lips were pale as snow as her cheeks.
"H-honey?" he whispered, stepping back on the bridge's support.
"You're a poltroon, Dark!" Rosalez grasped Dark's arm and tore him away from the rifle stand. "I'll spend all of my money after this war! I need my life back!" Without a second thought, he fired the rifle and screamed insanely as empty bullets fell to his feet.
And so they won the war.
The victory followed after the dreaded battle, however, lots from Dark's team lost their lives, including Rosalez whose head had been blasted by Sadhir. Milette was still fortunate on the other hand. She was still alive when Dark returned to where he had left her.
Dark celebrated her girlfriend's new life. They got married right away and went out of the city to spend a honeymoon in a resort in Puerto Princesa.
One night, Milette went out to buy some food in the resort's convenience store. Her eyes were full of joy when she approached the cottage's gate. But she suddenly stopped as she heard something coming from their cottage. It was her husband's voice.
"That's it, honey."
Her heart pounded harder. "W-what... what is t-that?" she whispered. Without her awareness, the tray on her hands fell and those bottles of soda broke into pieces.
Her knees were shaking, yet she managed to roam around the lodge and minced to the window. It was closed and sealed with glass but the room was visible from the outside because curtains were apart, so she dared to take a peep.
"God no!"
Beads of tears fell on the corners of her eyes as she witnessed how Dark cheated on her. The sight was disturbing so she turned her back on the window. She wrapped her arms around herself and whispered, "T-traitor."
She wanted to attack them like a mad lioness starving for years. She was a complete package of tough and fearless soldiers during those war years. But ever since she became Dark's wife, everything had changed. Now, the vulnerable soul within her just wept silently like a street child.
The next day, Milette found herself lying on the cold ground of the lanai. She turned her head to the door and stood up. He must avenge herself!
"You're gonna regret this day, Dark. You and your mistress!"
Milette minced into the bedroom. But her eyebrows contracted, realizing that the bed was empty.
She ran through the kitchen and looked for a knife, and blankly marched towards the main door.
"Dark. I'll slice that woman into two!" she sent her warning in the air.
As she reached for the gate, her burning sight looked for the woman. Seconds later, her lips curved into a grin for she saw the woman soaking her sinful body on the beach.
"You come out of that water and face me, woman!" she howled.
The woman from afar turned to her back sharply.
She shook her head and tried to get the woman's attention by waving her hand with the knife. "Are you blind?"
The mistress spotted Milette finally. Maybe out of curiosity, she walked directly towards her direction. However, she collapsed when stepped on something buried in the sand.
Milette was too restless. So she rushed through the sand to lend her the warmest welcome she could ever have. "You stand up and look at me!" she roared.
"Oh, my God!" the woman cried in awe upon seeing her. "Why do I look exactly like you?"
She was right. But Milette was too preoccupied with hatred that even noticing the similarities between them was so impossible to do.
"I'll kill you for taking my husband away from me!" She raised her knife in the air and without any hesitation, she plunged it directly into the woman's chest and down her stomach.
Blood continued to burst as Milette continued to s*******r the woman. But then when she stared at the mistress' face, she gasped and the knife fell from her hands.
"W-wait..." she muttered, shaking her head. "She looks like... me."
"No!"
Milette almost jumped, catching that hoarse voice. She turned to her back and saw Dark standing on the balcony. His face was wet with tears and his lips were shaking.
"Dark!" She stomped toward her husband. "Why do I look like her?"
"Stay away from me, you murderer! I swear I'll kill you!"
Again, bafflement revolved inside Milette's head. "W-what? No! Dark it's me, your wife!"
Milette's next words turned into chokes. Then she felt the nerves in her neck tightened. "I can't... I can't breathe! D-Dark, I can't breathe!"
Her senses gradually sank. She touched herself but couldn't feel anything. She stared at her arms and legs but they were disappearing as she watched them.
"Dark, help me!"
Though her feet were gone, she managed to move towards her husband. But Dark wasn't in the cottage anymore.
"No! Milette! Don't leave me!"
Milette shifted her sight to the woman's dead body. Though her senses were disintegrating, she could feel the pounding pain inside her chest as his husband roared in desperation.
"Why are you calling her Milette? I'm your wife, Dark! That's an impostor!"
Dark was screaming and the woman who looked like her laid on his arms. He raised his head and glared at Milette. "I'm gonna kill you!"
"N-no! Dark, it's me! I'm the real Mi..."
Milette failed to say her name. She eventually became a pitchy black mist and vanished in front of her husband.
- Writer
