The Interview: Seeing Double (Patreon)

If anyone is still reading these messages, I’m still out here.  After my experience in Colorado I had to lay low.  The nightmare in that hotel room...lingered.  For weeks afterwards, every time I closed my eyes that humming would start to grow.  I’d feel myself start to shake and vibrate, the memory of the four young men hanging in midair burning in my mind.  If you’ve ever gone a night without sleep you can probably imagine what that was like after just a couple days.  Sleep was entirely out of the question.  I think I went a little crazy for a while.  I stopped digging.  I stopped looking.  Eventually the humming stopped.  

I tried to convince myself that none of this was worth it.  Andrew emailed me constantly at first, worried that something had happened.  When my guilt finally got the better of me I at least told him I was fine, but even that simple message left me a paranoid wreck.  Were people watching?  Was I being tracked?  It felt like something was always standing just behind me.  The initial resolve I felt after watching that horrible video crumbled against the reality of the forces at play.  I had a new found respect for the men I’d already talked to, and a growing fear of whatever did this to them.  Then the dreams started.  

They were always the same.  I’d find myself running down darkened alleyways, the deafening hum drowning out all other sounds.  The walls around me and the very ground seemed to shake from it.  I’d inevitably wind up in the middle of a crowd, a sea of bodies that only served to slow me down.  As I try and push my way through them, they start to change.  One by one their images blur, only to be replaced by some twisted version moments later.  Slowly, everyone in the crowd, now fully changed, turns to face me.  I realize the deafening sound is coming from their open, gaping mouths as they stare unblinkingly at me.  

That’s when I wake up, shaking and covered in sweat.  It never changes.  Whether this is my guilt finally punching through or a sign that something’s on my tail again, I can’t keep ignoring it.  I reached back out to Andrew, who thankfully understood.  Even though I bailed, he’s been as busy as ever.  He had a mountain of leads waiting for me, starting with Ricky and Billy, known in the business as the “Wonder Twins.” Andrew came across them through his work contacts, a pair of twins who’d come out of nowhere and took the field by storm. After a bit of digging on his part they seemed to fit the bill for what we were looking for. 

I’m more convinced than ever that whatever’s out there is still active, and I have a sinking feeling that sooner or later I’m going to find out for myself.  We’ll get to why I think that at the end, but all I know for now is that I have to keep digging if I’m to have any chance at making it through this.  After this last meeting, I hope I find my flow again, and quickly.  I could tell the second I sat down at that Chicago bar just how out of practice I am.  

I’d seen the pictures and videos of Ricky and Billy online, but they didn’t do the pair justice.  They weren’t just twins. I’ve known identical twins before, and even through the similar appearance, you get a feeling of individual identities. With these two it didn’t just look like copies of the same person, it felt that way too.  They even blinked in unison sometimes, sparking an overwhelming desire to get up and run.  

As if that wasn’t jarring enough, there was the matter of their gorgeous appearance to contend with.  The duo was a stunning display of contrasts.  They seemed almost innocent, with their soft, sandy blonde hair and delicate facial features, but their bodies radiated masculinity.  They were dressed in matching, light blue tank-tops that the same tanned, perfectly sculpted pecs bulged out of.  Their arms were veiny pistons with thick, striated forearms that rested the same way on the table as the two sat next to each other in the booth.  The face of an angel with the body of a god. It was unsettling at best. Think Invasion of The Body Snatchers meets the Stepford Wives meets a ‘90’s Abercrombie catalog.  

“You two are easy to spot in a crowd,” I said, trying not to sound as scared as I felt as I walked up and introduced myself.  Their copycat smiles were alarming, and I watched them both eye me suspiciously.  “I’m J--.”

“Have a seat,” one of them nodded.  

I could feel the chill coming from them as soon as I sat down.  This wasn’t going to be an easy conversation to get started.  “Thanks for agreeing to talk to me.”  

“We haven’t agreed…” one of them began. 

“...to anything yet,” the other finished in the same voice, without missing a beat.  

“Whoa...that’s a party trick,” I laughed nervously.  “Like I said on the phone, I just want to hear your story.”  

“What? Of the Wonder Twins? That story’s out there.”  

He was referencing their rather successful porn career.  One of their bodies alone would have been enough to make the cut in the world of adult entertainment, but a beautiful adonis that came with an exact double?  That was a money maker.  I’d done my research and had seen the videos.  They were certainly an impressive pair in action.  I knew the lower halves that were concealed by the table were every bit as firm and sculpted as their upper.  “No,” I said, shaking my head and looking back and forth between them.  I was trying to guess their ages.  They looked young, no more than their early twenties at most, but they felt older.  “I’m talking about the real story.  Of your lives before you changed.”  I paused as their eyes flashed with a recognition that only lasted a moment before going back to cool and collected.  “I’m sorry,” I said with another nervous laugh, “can we start with who’s who?”

“Ricky,” the one on the left said.  

“Billy,” the same man said from a few feet over.  “It doesn’t really matter though.”  

“What does that mean,” I asked, lowering my voice.  

“So you know about what happened to us? Before?” Ricky asked, ignoring my question. 

“No, not exactly. I just know something happened, that you two maybe haven’t always been like this,” I said carefully. “I’m trying to get to the bottom of it.”

The two exchanged a glance and Billy nodded towards the door.  “Okay, we’ll talk, but not here.  At our place.  Agreed?”  

“Sure.”  I pulled my phone out to punch in their address but they shook their heads.  

“We’ll drive.”  

I didn’t particularly like their tone, but I also didn’t have a choice.  I followed them out, watching the way their large, firm backsides shifted in unison beneath the tiny matching shorts that showed off their powerful legs.  “Business must be good,” I joked as we arrived at a sleek, black mercedes.  

“We’re a niche market,” Ricky said as we climbed inside.  “It pays better.”  As soon as the doors shut, the friendly veneer was dropped altogether.  

Billy hit the lock on the doors and I knew I wouldn’t be opening mine unless they let me.  “Alright, what the fuck is this?  Who sent you?”  They spun in their seats so fast I half expected one of them to pull a gun.  

“We’ve kept our end of the bargain.  We haven’t said a word about what happened.”  Ricky’s eyes drilled into mine in a way that made it clear he was definitely older than he looked.  

“Whoa!  Whoa!  Easy,” I said, slowly raising my hands.  “I don’t work for anyone.  Seriously.  I’m just trying to figure out what happened to all of you.”  They exchanged another glance as soon as I said “all of you.”  

“What do you mean ‘all’? Who else is there?” Ricky asked after a moment of hesitation.  

I motioned for my bag.  “I’m going to reach in here nice and slow and you guys can see for yourselves, okay?”  I waited until one of them nodded before reaching in an handing them a folder.  Ricky flipped through it quickly before handing it over to Billy.  The way they looked through it, skimming and handing pages back and forth, only further cemented my theory that these weren’t a pair of young kids.  

“What the fuck…” Billy muttered under his breath.  He threw the car into gear and we were off as Ricky kept flipping through the pages of my notes and pictures.  

I waited for them to say something else before asking, “uh, is this where I get murdered?”  

“No...sorry about that,” Billy said over his shoulder.  “We can’t be too careful.  After the feds got involved and told us to stay quiet, we’ve stayed quiet.  And a little paranoid.”

“We didn’t know there was anyone else,” Ricky said quietly.  “They didn’t tell us about them.”  

“Why would they?” Billy asked him.  “I told you they were hiding something.”  

“Of course they’re hiding something!  They’re the fuckin’ spooks!  The CIA, area 51, X-Files...all that shit.”  Ricky just kept staring at the folder.  “This is…”

“Exactly what happened to us,” Billy finished.  

My head was already spinning.  From the backseat it sounded like a single person was having a conversation with himself.  More than ever the pair seemed like extensions of one being.  

Billy handed me back my folder, a distant look replacing the suspicious one in his eyes.  “How’d you find us?”  

“From someone else who went through what you did.”  I felt it best not to mention exactly who until I knew more about these two.  The copies of my notes I carried had fake names and no specific locations in them for this very reason. I knew I’d need to use them as a hook, but I didn’t want to give everyone away. “They’d like to stay anonymous for now, but they’re also just trying to get to the bottom of this.” 

“You sure about that,” Ricky asked.  I opened my mouth to say yes, but paused.  It suddenly occurred to me that I wasn’t. 

We pulled up in front of an expensive looking townhouse a few minutes later and the two led me inside.  “And I thought the car was impressive,” I whistled.  

“Wealth has its advantages,” Ricky shrugged as the two kicked their shoes off.  

“Why do I get the feeling that was something you knew before all this happened?  How old are you two really?”  

They looked at each other with broad grins.  “How old are we now?” Billy asked, his chiseled arm inflating as he scratched his head.  “50?  51?”  

“51,” Ricky said admonishingly.  “Pretty good for our age, right?”  To emphasize their point, both men stripped out of their matching blue tank-tops.  Their chiseled torsos were the exact same, down to the placement of individual muscles and a few small beauty marks.  “Most people have to pay for this, you know.”  

Their tiny grey shorts went next, leaving both men in the same lavender thong.  They turned in a circle so I could see the entire, carbon copy picture.  I took a deep breath and suddenly regretted not getting a drink while we were at the bar.  I’d never seen a single ass look that good, let alone two at the same time, and the straining pouches could barely contain their duplicated monsters.  They were lean, built and flawless from head to toe, with smooth, tanned skin the exact same shade on both of them.  

“So this is how it goes for the others, too?”  Billy asked, motioning to their nearly naked bodies.  “The difficulty with clothes and staying covered?”  I nodded and they both looked stunned.  

“I can’t believe there are others.  All this time and we…we thought it was just us.  It’s impossible, right?  What happened to us?  It shouldn’t be able to happen at all, let alone to multiple people.  How many are out there?”  

“I don’t know….but I’m starting to think it’s a frighteningly common occurrence,” I said, shaking my head.  

Ricky looked distant again and continued.  “They told us our boat drifted into a chemical testing zone.  Right.  We’re not stupid.  There’s no chemical that does this.” He sighed and stared at his hands, almost in disbelief. “But we’re not stupid.  When the government throws money at you to stay quiet and declares you dead, you don’t argue.”  

“I need a drink,” Billy said abruptly.  I followed them through the first floor and down into the lower level, my eyes never drifting south of their shoulders.  The bare, round cheeks were like sirens and I was the unfortunate sailor being pulled under.  

While the upstairs looked like a the home of a hip young couple, the basement was a reflection of their true age.  It was decked out like an old pub; the kind of place a pair of fifty-something men would hang out in.  Even the liquor matched, with a wall of expensive whiskeys and scotches.  Billy grabbed a bottle that cost more than I make in a month and poured us each a glass.  “So what do you want to know?”  

I tried not to guzzle down the expensive liquid in a single, nervous gulp.  “Can we start at the beginning?  You said you were on a boat?  Are you two actually twins?”  

“Show him,” Ricky said, tilting his head towards a picture on the far wall.  Billy gave a quick nod and walked over, swinging the picture open on a hinge to reveal a large safe.  He punched in a code and pulled out a box, motioning for us to follow him over to the plush leather sofas.  

“This is all that we’ve got from our life before.”  Billy pulled out a large photo album and an unmarked DVD.  He flipped the book open and, sure enough, I saw myself looking at two middle aged men.  Unlike the pair I was currently with, these two looked nothing alike.  One was tall and broad, with thinning, salt and pepper hair on top of his round face.  He was handsome, but not strikingly so, with a body that was probably in great shape at one time but had filled out with age.  He had a beer in one rough looking hand while his arm was slung over the shoulder of a thinner, shorter man.  The other man wore glasses, with short cropped raven hair and a trim beard.  Where the first man looked beefy, this one looked wiry.  They both had huge, drunken smiles on their faces.  

“That’s me,” Billy said, pointing to the tall, beefy man.  “I went by William back then.”  

“I was Rich,” Ricky said, tapping the leaner man.  

Even knowing what I knew, it was still hard to believe.  “So you two were just friends?”  

“Yep, since college,” Billy said quickly.  I caught Ricky shoot him a look but didn’t want to press yet.  

“Our lives were pretty average, really.  I worked in finance and Billy owned a construction company.  We were both well off, but our day-to-day wasn’t quite as interesting as it is now.”  Ricky turned the pages slowly, showing me more pictures of the two of them.  There were some from their younger days, showing a pair of handsome, athletic looking men on what appeared to be a college campus.  Regardless of the age, the two were always together.  

“Were you married?  Kids?”  I asked when I saw a ring on Billy’s hand in one of the photos.  

He nodded.  “Married, no kids.  My wife’s name is...was...Barbara.  Things were...when it happened we...I mean…” 

Ricky interrupted his stammering.  “Would you just tell him?  It’s a moot point now.”  He waited while Billy squirmed uncomfortably.  “Fine, I’ll tell it.  Billy and I had been lovers since just after college.  Looking back it was clear we were both interested in being more than friends, but it was a different time back then.”

“My family...coming out wasn’t something I could’ve done.  Not really.  I met Barbara early and thought why not?  She was nice, and pretty...I thought I could make it work.  But I couldn’t change how I felt about Ricky.”  William flipped to the back of the album and I saw some much more risque photos.  A brawny, naked William stretched out on a bed, his short, wide cock flopped over a hairy thigh.  I immediately thought back to the guys in Colorado.  They’d been built like Ricky and Billy but ended up looking like William.  Now, beefy William ends up looking like they did before their change.  A connection?  I had no idea.  There were multiple polaroids of the two of them from their younger days up until what looked like the early nineties.  You could see the progression to their aging, finally reaching the two fifty-something men from the beginning.  

“This is actually what we were doing when it happened,” Ricky said.  “We were on a “fishing trip”...it’s what we called our weekends away.  We were out on a boat, but there was no fishing,” he laughed.  He took the DVD over to the TV and came back, sitting next to Billy and leaning against him.  If I squinted hard enough they looked like one blurry person.  

The video kicks on, a shaky, handheld view of Billy, back when he was William, standing naked in a small cabin.  He turns and looks at the camera, smiling bashfully and blushing.  

“Oh come on,” he laughs in a deep, gravelly voice, looking embarrassed.  “You know I hate it when you do that.”  

“How else am I supposed to make it between these trips?”  A smoother sounding voice asks.  

William deflates momentarily.  “I thought we weren’t going to talk about that?”

“Sorry, sorry, I’m not trying to start anything, I swear,” Rich says.  The camera moves forward and the scene shakes as he leans in to give William a quick kiss.  There’s a period of laughter while the camera moves about wildly before settling on a lean, naked man in glasses.  

“It’s not gonna just be me on this thing,” we hear William laugh from off camera as Rich casually stands, motioning to his thin, runner’s build with his hands.  His long, twitching cock is the opposite of William’s pudgy rod.  

“Drink it up,” Rich says, turning in a slow, seductive circle.  The comfort and chemistry between the two on screen is immediately evident.  A moment later Rich lunges forward, and after a few minutes of jostling the camera winds up on a shelf while the men fall onto the bed.  They’re not entirely in frame, but the moans and whimpers make it clear what’s happening.  You can just barely see Rich’s small, toned cheeks flex as he pumps into William.  

Despite having watched plenty of sex scenes of the two in their current bodies, I can’t help but feel a little embarrassed at witnessing a truly intimate moment.  I feel like an intruder.  Thankfully Ricky picks up the remote and jumps ahead.  The rest is your standard vacation video that any other couple could have made.  There are meandering shots of the large yacht, sweeping panoramas of the view, and plenty of the two of them horsing around like guys half their age.  There are lots of scenes of William sleeping, his beefy frame slumbering peacefully while Rich watches.  It doesn’t feel creepy or voyeuristic, but more like something Rich would watch to remind himself when William wasn’t around.  

“Being on the boat was paradise,” Ricky says sadly.  “We loved the gulf coast.  The water was calm and the weather was always perfect.  Out there, we could just be ourselves with each other.  We didn’t have worry about anyone catching us...hell, we didn’t even have to wear clothes.  After sometimes going months without touching each other, it was heaven on earth.”  

We watch as the video continues in the same vein.  It’s hard to tell what’s normal with these two and what’s not.  The other guys I’ve interviewed were straight, so when they all started desperately humping it was clearly out of place.  “Are, uh, all the videos you guys made usually this risqué?”

They both seem slightly embarrassed for the first time.  “Not usually.  I mean, we liked to record ourselves, but this time we…” As if to illustrate his point, the scene shifts to the bedroom again.  Rich is flat on his back while William’s beefy frame writhes on his lap.  “It had been a bit longer than usual, but from the second we hit the water we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.”  

Ricky has a far away look in his eye.  “We were insatiable.  Not just horny, either.  We had stamina like we hadn’t had in years.  And we didn’t need to be quiet, clearly.”  On screen they’re both practically screaming.  

The scene switches to another one of William slumbering, this time out on the deck as he suns himself.  His wide cock is rock hard, and Rich zooms in on it before turning the camera to face himself.  He winks and puts a finger in front of his lips in a “shushing” motion before setting the camera down on a nearby table.  He’s naked and hard too, and I watch as he drops to his knees and takes William’s sleeping cock in his mouth.  He bobs his head slowly until the burly man groans awake and folds his huge arms behind his head.  I’m so busy watching the two of them that I almost don’t catch the huge, blurry patch that falls over the water next to the boat just before the camera cuts out.  

“That’s it,” Billy says, almost like he wants to play the video over.  

“What was that blurry patch?  Just before the video cuts out?”

They both shrug.  “A cloud?  It could be anything. Neither of us actually remember that last bit happening.”

I’m doing my best to keep from shaking. “Do you remember hearing anything? Any loud noises?” 

Ricky purses his full lips and cocks his head. “Not really. We remember waking up that morning, but after that it’s...hazy.  I remember boat horns, loud ones, but nothing specific.”  Ricky pats Billy on the thigh.  “They say we drifted for a few days before the coast guard boat found us.  When they did, we were like this.”  

“When we woke up...I knew I was looking at Ricky the second I opened my eyes.  I didn’t know where we were or what happened, but I knew, somehow, that beautiful man was the one I loved.”  

Ricky laughs and leans his head on Billy’s shoulder.  “What he didn’t know was that he was also looking at himself.  Imagine our surprise.”  They both laugh, but there’s nothing humorous about it.  “We’d only been there a day...not long enough to adjust to anything, or, hell, even fully grasp what happened to us when out of nowhere the government guys showed up.  It all happened so fast.  What choice did we have?  They let us cash out our finances and said they’d set us up with new identities.  Our other option was they lock us up for “trespassing” on private waters.” 

“You’ve gotta understand...at the time, we thought we’d hit the jackpot.  Yeah, it was a little fucked up that we looked exactly alike, but we still woke up looking thirty years younger.  Overnight we were young and hot and being given the chance to start a new life.  Is it the same for the others? We don’t even have to work out and we still look this good.” I nodded and he continued. “So there we are, looking like this, AND we could finally be together?  I feel bad for having to lie to our friends and family, but at the end of the day it wasn’t even a choice, not really.  I mean, I was already lying to Barbara and this way she could at least move on. She got a hefty life insurance cash out too. Of course we said yes.”

“We just didn’t know the full extent of what happened,” Ricky said flatly.  

I nodded.  “I was going to ask...the other guys...things didn’t seem to go as well for them.  You two have the issues about clothes, but I’ll be honest, looking the way you do it doesn’t seem to be much of an impediment.”  

“Right?  Dream come true.  It didn’t take long for Billy and I to find out that we don’t just look alike, we’re connected on a deeper level.  It’s like we know what the other’s thinking and feeling….like we’re sharing a brain.  I’ll look at him to say something and he’ll open his mouth and say it for me.  Half the time when it’s just the two of us we sit around in silence.  But there’s a catch.”  

“You’ve seen our videos, right?”  I nod awkwardly and Billy laughs at me.  “Don’t be shy...we’re always happy to meet our fans.  Ever wonder why none of them are just the two of us?” 

It hadn’t actually occurred to me until just then.  “No...I never really thought about it.  I was a little...distracted.”  

They both laugh, but it’s Ricky who stands and pulls his thong free.  “This is going to seem weird, but humor me here.  See this?”  He starts tugging and stroking his long, thick hose.  He squeezes and kneads the heavy balls, but he doesn’t harden in the slightest.  “Nothing.  Now you try.”  He laughs when I hesitate.  “Go on.  It won’t bite.  You said you wanted the full story.”  

Not knowing what else to do, I reach out and grab the warm, heavy organ.  I give it a few gentle tugs, but it’s Billy who gasps.  I look over and see his identical cock twitching and hardening while Ricky is soft and limp.  “What...how does this work?”  

Billy stands, his thong now tented by his massive rod.  He slips the fabric free and nods down at it, indicating that I should do the same for him.  Since I’d already gone this far, I slide over and wrap my other hand around his pulsing cock and start stroking.  Instantly, Ricky started to harden.  “See?”  

I was stunned, and more than a little overwhelmed to have the two, matching hunks standing naked and hard inches from my face.  “So...wait...you guys…” While I stammered, Ricky put in another DVD.  A few minutes later I was watching Ricky and Billy with two other guys.  I couldn’t tell who was who, but both were equally enthusiastic.  

“Just our luck, right?”  Billy shakes his head and gazes longingly at Ricky.  “We’re closer than ever mentally and emotionally, but we’ve never been farther apart physically.  We can’t get each other off, either.”  He walks over and tugs on Ricky’s cock but it’s clear the other man isn't experiencing it the same as when I had.  “He feels it.  It’s not like we’re numb, but it takes another person.  And even then, I’m the one who feels whatever you do to him, and vice versa.”  

Despite how it seemed when I first met them, I started to feel worse for these two than any of the other guys.  It seemed terrible, to be completely in love and connected with someone, just to be denied that physical closeness.  

“We figured it out pretty quick,” Ricky sighed.  “Luckily with these new bodies we don’t have a hard time roping people in.  The opposite, really, which is why we turned it into a business venture.”  

“Always the business man,” Billy smiles, planting a long kiss on the face that matches his own.  

“I even learned to bottom for this guy,” Ricky says, bumping his forehead into Billy’s.  “I was always a top, but if Billy wants to get fucked, that means I have to get fucked.”

“And if Ricky wants to ride someone, I need to be the one stuffing ‘em.”  

At this point I’m too stunned to say anything.  I’m trying to process what I heard but I keep imagining what it must be like.  

Ricky watches me process my confusion for a minute and gives me a raised eyebrow.  “You want to see it in action?”

“What, like with toys?”  I blush when they shake their heads.  

“We wish.  Toys don’t work.  It HAS to be a person.”  

I’m taking Billy’s hand before I even think about it.  They lead me all the way to the top floor, which is essentially one giant bedroom overlooking the city.  The view alone is worth the price of admission, but I’m too busy letting the men strip me down to enjoy it.  I’ve got one in each hand, both of them gasping and whimpering as they paw at me.  It’s entirely disorienting, turning back and forth but facing the same person, and I quickly lose track of who’s who.  I remember Billy saying “it doesn’t matter” when they introduced themselves at the bar and suddenly I understand.  I know I’m nothing but a conduit for these two, but after hearing their story, I’m okay with it.  I drop to my knees and suck one of them into my mouth, the other groaning loudly behind me. Then I switch to the other and work the slick rod I’d just left with my hand, knowing full well that this was a line I told myself I wouldn’t cross.  I start to wonder if this is the beginning of the end.  Maybe the forces at work already have me in their clutches.  I’m going to start acting weird and horny and then wake up as a different person one day.  

I can’t worry about it for long.  Ricky spreads his cheeks in front of me and soon Billy’s ecstatic moans are filling the room.  It’s an odd sensation, to have one person writhing on your dick while an entirely different person is the one who feels it.  Billy eventually pulls it together and drapes himself against my back.  I grunt as what feels like a small arm works its way inside, and soon the three of us are a gasping blissfully in a bizarre feedback loop.  Crossing a line or not, in that moment I’m all too happy to be the tool that lets these two be together.  

I don’t stick around when we’re done.  They’re understandably reluctant to relinquish the original material, so I take photos and record the video second hand.  After brief goodbyes I’m in an Uber on the way back to my hotel, my head still spinning.  They offered to drive, but I still wasn’t sure I wanted them knowing where I stayed.  The evening had raised several interesting questions and I didn’t feel like being particularly trusting. 

Back in my hotel room I went over and over the materials I’d gathered. The revelation that the two men had been a couple was illuminating. I was able to scratch “only straight guys” off the list of what I thought I knew, but the knowledge that the window of potential victims had just expanded was less than comforting. 

I kept coming back to the large blurry spot.  It was the same as all the others, even down to the “boat horns” this time.  Frustratingly, though, there was still no hint at what it was. Was it just invisible to cameras? Could people see it? Were people reacting to the blurry spot itself, or what it held?  Johnny’s terrified face on that riverbank is forever burned into my brain. He was clearly seeing something horrific. 

But why the government cover up? It would have made much more sense to just eliminate the guys outright if they wanted to keep it quiet. I still didn’t think the government was directly responsible, but they clearly had a better idea of how this all worked. My gut told me the altered men were being kept for research purposes, but exactly what kind of research I had no idea. 

When it became clear I’d learned all I was going to, I pushed away from the small desk seemingly present in every hotel room and walked over to the window.  By this point it was nearly two in the morning but sleep was elusive as ever. I could see a good chunk of the city from my elevated vantage point and stared absently for a while at the twinkling skyline.  Then I screamed.  I didn’t even know why at first.  One second I was staring out at a bustling night time city, the next I was crawling away from the window, shrieking.  Dawn found me sitting on the bed, knees pulled up to my chest, rocking back and forth.  It took a few hours for my brain to stop being merciful and let me piece together what I’d seen.  

Staring out at the city, everything had blurred, like my eyes had gone out of focus. This wasn’t just a fuzzy patch like in the videos, but my entire field of vision. I stepped away from the window, rubbing my tired eyes, and when I looked back up I saw a distinct shape outlined in the blur. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it was huge. In one terrible flash I understood why the whole city had gone hazy. It wasn’t eye strain. Whatever this thing was, I’d been looking through it mere inches from my face. There was no roar this time; it was just silently watching. 

There’s no doubt anymore.  It knows I’m looking for it, and it knows where I am.  It could take me at any time.  I know that now.  The only question is why it hasn’t?  If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that it’s already too late for you as well.  I know that now, and I’m sorry.  All I can promise is that I won’t stop until something makes me. I can’t run again, and even if I did I know it’s futile.  They say that the only way out is through, which means I have to keep going.  There’s another lead close by and I’ve already got my plane ticket for tomorrow morning.  

I’ll report back when I can.