Short Story - Doppelganger - Grant Eagar

The Doppelganger

By Grant Eagar

Picture link by Anna Lucylle

To order my books:

 Angelica: The Princess and the Pig  

Henry and Sophie: A Steampunk Adventure 

Sheila the Vampire: Dancing with the Enemy

Prompt: GRAVELY RUN

By A.R.Ammons

 

Partial quote:

 “for it is not so much to know the self  

as to know it as it is known

   by galaxy and cedar cone,

as if birth had never found it

and death could never end it:”

 

 Doppelganger

 

The doppelganger glanced into a full length mirror and frowned. Whose memories were behind those indigo blue eyes? Some of Henry’s but mostly those of Sophie, the girl who was the mother after a fashion of her human body. She touched her check and smiled, there could be worse bodies to be fashioned after. Another of Henry’s inventions gone terribly wrong; or wonderfully, depending upon how she looked at it. Some days she wanted to embrace him and other days not so much.

She ran her hand through her long auburn hair then wrinkled her nose. Was she more than the combined memories of Henry and Sophie; memories that were fading fast. She showed her teeth and picked out a piece of broccoli. The perfect white smile was glorious to behold, but was it hers or had she somehow stolen it?

She pursued her lips and gently kissed the glass. An imprint of a kiss stayed on the mirror. Would she retain Sophie’s desire to kiss Henry or Henry’s desire to hold Sophie close? She then wrapped her arms about herself and spun around.

She thought of Henry’s memories and smiled; since he had held her after the accident she had his memories as well. He had a hundred inventions bouncing about his head and now hers as well. She then considered the memories of Sophie and she touched her breast with a pang. Those memories she was glad to be rid of. Sophie's life was not her own, she owed it to the crown.

When these glorious, terrible, wonderful, horrible memories were gone what would be left? When Sophie and Henry’s essence left her what would remain? Was she just a portion of their souls that had been torn away and was slowly being pulled back? When their essence left her would her life continue? When the last fragments of their souls departed would her last breath also depart?

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used this prompt as part of a background study into the doppelganger who appears as part of my upcoming story Henry and Sophie: A Steampunk Romance.