The Other

Abraham was an extremely successful business man. He often credited his success to having a dominant will power that never allowed him to give up and he was always constantly pushing himself forward to better himself and his future. Abraham was responsible for bettering the train infrastructure in North-Western Wisconsin. He created a high-powered rail system that connected parts of Northern Wisconsin to parts of Minnesota, Michigan and even Canada and in turn, this made the public transit in Willow’s Peak a more desirable form of transportation. Willow’s Peak was a small town that Abraham moved to after his studies in university were over. Most of his family and friends questioned his decision to move to such a small place. To them, it was small, desolate, and completely out of touch with the rest of modern-day society.

But to Abraham, Willow’s Peak was more than that. Abraham saw more than just some slump of a city that no one ever heard of. To Abraham, he saw more than just some city that seemed to be stuck in the past. To Abraham, he saw opportunity. He saw a city that was ripe with invention, and he saw a city that was hungry for revival. It just needed someone that was able to give it the spark that it was looking for. Abraham spent his last four years studying rail road engineering and he was an advent traveler so with a combination like that, he set his sights on improving the public transit infrastructure of Willow’s Peak. Abraham took a dead city that was stuck in its ways and cut off from the rest of the world and jump started it. He gave the city a new lease on life and reintroduced Willow’s Peak as the next big thing in infrastructure and in time, there would be plans to explore his business to other parts of the state, country, and possibly the rest of the world.

As his success and ambitions grew, so did his status in the city and Abraham would be become a well-known figure in Willow’s Peak. Soon after the start of his business, Abraham would go on to marry and eventually start a family. His wife Evelyn was a successful lawyer and soon after getting married, she and Abraham would give birth to a lovely little girl, Sarah. Although he had built his wealth from the ground up and had created a beautiful family with the woman of his dreams, this wasn’t enough for Abraham. He still obsessed over his work. Everything needed to be bigger, better, and newer. It were as though Abraham were afraid that his success would disappear overnight, and he would go back to having nothing. He would go back to being nothing and he needed to do everything in his power to keep that from happening.

On most occasions, this meant sacrificing time with his wife and daughter. Even after Sarah’s tenth birthday, nothing seemed to change for Abraham. He was still hungry for more and still refused allow himself to be content with the riches that he and his family had, even if that meant putting strain on his family that would eventually tear it apart from the inside. Now and days, an older, bitter Abraham spent most of his days locked away in his office on the top floor of his luxurious office building, hiding away from the general public. His business continued to thrive however, it was being ran by his subordinates and various shareholders. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, Abraham was a ghost, never to be seen by human eyes again.

Abraham sat in his office looking out at Willow’s Peak. A small but booming city that owed all of its success to this man, who lost so much in his attempt to keep the city from being taken back into the graveyards of the past. Abraham was a tall figure, with pale skin, blue eyes and jet-black hair that would normally be neatly combed but today however, it was disheveled and restless. He wore a black suit with the jacket of the suit hanging on the back of his office chair. His sleeves to his white shirt were rolled up to the elbows and his red tie hung loosely from his neck. Around his office were various items that told the story of his long, successful career. A Nobel peace prize even sat on the book shelf behind his desk. A painting of Abraham hung on the wall above where he would sit. He wanted it so that was the first thing people saw when they entered his office.

Sitting on his desk was a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Whiskey, half of which was already depleted but this didn’t worry Abraham in the slightest; he always kept a bar stocked full of the world’s best liquor, especially on occasions where he wanted to drown away the demons that most often kept him company. Abraham looked down at picture of his wife and daughter that sat on the desk. He recognized it instantly. It was a trip that the two of them took to France. Abraham was supposed to have been there but had been called away on an urgent business meeting. He slammed the picture down on the desk and finished the rest of the whiskey that he had been nursing in his glass.

Without hesitation, Abraham quickly walked over to the bar and poured himself another drink. After he was finished with the Jack Daniels, he figured he would finally open the bottle of Tennessee Whiskey that he had kept for the past five months. He had been saving it for a special occasion but figured tonight was as a good a night as any. Abraham heard a shuffle from behind him and quickly turned around. There was nothing. Just he and he alone stood inside of the giant office. Abraham looked back at the window before rubbing sweat out of his eyes. He often wondered how it would feel if he were to jump from this office. Would he be dead before he hit the ground? Would it hurt when he hit the bottom, or would the end come so quickly and swiftly that he wouldn’t feel a thing? This was something that Abraham often fantasized about but didn’t quite possess the nerve to go through with these suicidal tendencies.

Once again Abraham heard a shuffle behind him. This time it seemed louder and closer to where he stood. Startled, he turned around once more to once again, be met with nothing. Just the empty office sat at his back. A cold chill ran down his spine. Perhaps he had too much to drink, and the alcohol was beginning to play tricks with his head. Yes, that had to be it. Abraham considered himself to be a very sensible and logical man and didn’t play into the idea of fantasies. He took a deep breath before taking another sip of his drink. He took a hard gulp, barely able to keep down the liquor that he was drinking. It felt like acid going down his throat.

“Surely you haven’t hand enough already?” The voice was loud and clear and came directly from behind where Abraham stood.

Abraham turned around abruptly and nearly dropped his glass by what he saw. Standing right in front him, not more than two feet away, was himself, or rather a version of himself. The Abraham that stood before him was clean shaven, his jet back hair neatly combed to the back, and he wore an all-black suit finished off by a black tie. Abraham stood in disbelief. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Was he dreaming? Was this due to the amount of liquor he had consumed? He didn’t feel drunk or sick but perhaps that’s what someone who was drunk would say.

“Oh, don’t worry.” The second Abraham said. “You’re perfectly sane-well mostly.” He smiled. It was a conniving smile, almost as if he had something to hide.

Abraham took a step back, nearly tripping over his own feet as he did so. He had trouble speaking, he wanted to scream but his mouth was dry, and he seemed to lose his voice. After a moment, he was finally able to stutter out the words:

“Who…what are you?” He was flat against the window, with the other version of him so close, Abraham could almost see his own reflection in the other’s eyes.

“Well, I’m you of course.” Said the other. “Or don’t you recognize me?” Abraham didn’t say anything. He stood, flabbergasted and at a loss for words. He kept thinking that he was dreaming and any moment, he would wake up, laying in his own bed with a light hang over.

“This isn’t a dream, Abraham.” Said the other. It was as though he could read Abraham’s thoughts without him saying anything.

“You aren’t dreaming, and this isn’t a figment of your imagination. I’m a real as you.”

Abraham looked at the other for a moment before he finally began to conjure up the courage to speak, “Impossible!” he said. “This is madness! If I’m not dreaming than how are you here? How do you have my face?”

The other simply smiled without saying anything. He walked over to the bar, grabbed a glass, and helped himself to some of the whiskey that sat on the desk. After a taking a few sips, he slowly walked over and stood next to Abraham who remained silent and just watched his curious doppelganger with his mouth slightly ajar. After a moment of looking down at city, the other finally spoke without taking his eyes of off the people from down below:

“Why do you think I am here?” he asked. His voice was calm. Despite having an almost sinister appearance, the other seemed perfectly harmless. “Why do you think I have arrived here at this hour?”

Abraham didn’t respond. He stood with the assumption that his unwanted visitor would answer his own questions. When the other didn’t speak, Abraham stammered a response to put away the dead silence, “I..I don’t know.”

“Of course, you do.” The other walked back over to the desk and picked up the picture that Abraham had placed faced down.

“Such a lovely family you once had.” He said, looking up at Abraham who remained where he stood in front of the window. The sinister smile he possessed earlier was beginning to take its shape once more. “Such a shame you didn’t appreciate them until it was too late.”

“No..” Abraham responded. “That’s not true. I loved them.”

“You loved your work.” Retorted the other. “You loved your rail roads and your precious business.”

“Stop it.”

“You pushed them away.”

“I said stop.”

“Evelyn was miserable, and you did nothing.”

“Shut up!”

“It might as well have been you driving the car that killed them!”

“I SAID STOP!” With his sudden surge of outrage, Abraham took his glass (still half full) and threw it at the other. To his horror, confusion, and disbelief, rather than hitting the other, the glass simply went threw him, hitting the wall with a crash and spilling it’s contents over a picture of the city. Abraham stood for a moment, his eyes were wide and sweat ran down his face in all directions. Feeling too weak to stand, Abraham kneeled down on his knees with tears running down his face. He couldn’t pull himself to look away from the other who’s face was beginning to take an almost other worldly shape to it. At first glance, he looked like a perfectly normal man, but the longer Abraham stared, the more disillusioned the face seemed to get. The other wore a smile that was beginning to stretch from ear to ear, almost as if it were getting too big for his face.

“Devil!” Abraham yelled.

“Oh, come now.” Responded the other. “No need to be irrational.” He placed both his drink and picture down on the desk in front of him and stood with his hands placed behind his back.

“I know how you can make it up to them.” He said, the elongated smile still sitting on his face. “I know how you can see your family again.”

Abraham looked at the other without blinking. “How? Tell me!” he demanded. “I’ll do anything!”

“Anything?” The other asked. Whatever little light was in the room before was now gone and the only light that remained seemed to be coming from the other himself. It was a warm, radiant glow that managed to light up the part of the room where the two men were talking.

“Yes.” Abraham responded with tears and sweat rolling down his face.

After a moment, the other took three steps to his right and revealed a noose that hung from the ceiling of the office. Abraham looked at the rope without saying anything.

“This is your way out.” The other said without taking his eyes off of Abraham who began get more desperate the longer the conversation took place. “All you have to do is get up there, put that rope around your neck and the pain will all be over. You will be reunited with your family once more. The choice is yours.”

Abraham stayed where he was without moving. He looked from the rope to the other, and back again. “Do it!” the other urged.

Abraham got up, walked over to the rope, and grabbed it with one hand while pulling it around his head with the other.

“Then, I’ll see my family again?”

The other nodded without saying anything, only his unnatural smile showed on his face.

“What are you?” Abraham asked with more tears rolling down and staining his face.

“I am you.” The other responded. “I am your pain, your guilt, you’re envy. I am your success, your happiness, your downfall. And now I am your death.”

With these final words, almost as if the floor had been pulled out from underneath him, Abraham hung in the center of the office, only struggling for a moment before becoming still. Only the gentle sway of his body moving back and forth. Gone was the smiling doppelganger. The only occupants left to keep the lifeless body any company was that of the giant portrait that hung on the wall, and picture of the already dead family that sat on the desk