A smile that didn't reach his eyes appeared on Fen's face, before he slowly picked up the masculine shoes up from the rack.
"I came home from my date." Confusion appeared on Alex's face, replacing her surprise, but her fear increased. Her eyes trembled as she formulated a response to Fen's statement. However, Fen was quicker with his words.
"So? Who's shoes are these?"
"M-My brother's. Those are Fen's. FEN!" She turned around and called his name back upstairs.
"I think I would recognize my own shoes sis-" Fen froze mid-sentence as he saw himself come down the stairs. No, not him. It had his face. The hell, why did it have his face?
It looked like him. But, was it him? Fen knew that it wasn't and yet, he didn't miss that his sister hid behind the imposter, her fearful look tearing a hole in his heart.
He tried to absorb the information of it, of himself, when the nausea set in. His mind could barely comprehend the information that he was seeing. It was similar to looking at a distorted mirror, but Fen wouldn't look away-no, he couldn't look away. No matter how he tried, he couldn't look away from his own face. Fen tried to convince himself it was a dream, but he saw his face. Not someone else's face, but a direct copy. It even had the tiny mole on the right side of his head…
No. Its eyes were different. They weren't like his brown eyes that he saw every time he looked in a mirror, that thing's eyes were a creepy, eerie blue. Like some sort of doll, the color looked painted on, fake. It wasn't just the eyes either. Its hair was also different, the color was blonde and the shape was odd; it looked almost like fiber and not like real human hair.
Now armed with the ability to tell apart their differences, a small amount of relief entered his chest. But that relief was violently overpowered by the nausea that invaded his head, which sent his body staggering from the vertigo. His balance was flipped upside down, right was left and left was up.
He staggered and grabbed the wall, gasping for breath, clutching his head. His hands were sticky with sweat when they came off his head, and streams of sweat came down from his head. His vision was being constricted by his own nausea. He felt like vomiting but managed to control himself, if only barely.
Although he himself didn't know it, his own skin was constricting and various muscles in his body were spasming in pain from the strange signals his brain was sending his body.
"Alex, come here now. Get behind me. Mom and Dad are on their way." The imposter called and pulled Fen's sister to its side. Its words were barely understood by Fen, who was struggling to stay upright.
'Behind you?! You fucker, what are you? What the fuck are you doing in my house, IN MY PLACE?' Fen wanted to scream those words, but his mouth couldn't move, and his vision quickly turned orange, then steadily grew darker. He was slowly losing control over his body, even though he tried to fight against it with all he had.
"Who is he? What's he doing in our house?"
"I don't think he's ok. Look, he's gasping like he can't breathe." It pointed at Fen, who was now slowly sliding down the wall, his eyes turning bloodshot as he stared at it with rage. The seething anger was the only emotion in his chest besides the overwhelming nausea, but even his rage wasn't enough for him to push himself off the floor.
Its eyes were filled with something like contempt, and Fen would've sworn that it had a sneer on its face if he could just get another look... now he couldn't, because his vision was turning darker with each second.
His clothes, which were already wrinkled from the night's activities, were now damp with perspiration. It spoke. Just like him. Down to the bass inside his voice. His body rejected the entire concept of the imposter, while his mind was unraveling from the effort it took trying to understand what was happening.
'Are you….me? No, what the fuck are you doing to me…What's happening to me?!' Just looking at him leeched his sanity and strength away, entrapping him into a slowly repeating nightmare.
Trapped into his growing exhaustion, Fen didn't notice his parents arriving. His dad came first, with a bat. Seeing his daughter hiding scared behind the fake Fen gave dad some visible relief, but the relief turned to anger as he turned and saw the crumpled mess near the entrance of his home.
"Who are you?!" He could barely hear his father's angry words.
A whistling sound came from Fen, a sound that came from his lungs trying to pull air through his parched throat and mouth. His legs finally gave out, and the only thing supporting him were his hands, which were shaking whilst clutching the ground. During the time he fell however, he managed to tear his eyes away.
Now, he was looking at his sister's face, which was frozen in fear at the strange scene in front of her.
He looked at the face of his father, who stepped closer with the wooden bat. The man who he always planned pranks with was staring at him with anger, seeking to protect his family. A family that Fen was no longer a part of.
'Or was I ever a part of them? Ohh, please, stop' A groan escaped his lips, even as his head split even more at the possibilities stemming from the appearance of the imposter. Justifying his own existence with his memories slowed the growth of the massive headache.
He then looked at his mother, who had just arrived. His mother, who always loved him no matter what mistake he had made or how much of a brat he was when he was younger. She too, held no love in her eyes for him. Instead, she stood in front of Alex as a bastion of protection. Protection from her own son.
Desperate, Fen reached out with his hand, calling out, "Mom.…Please.…", unaware that his voice wouldn't reach them even if his voice worked properly.
Fen's last burst of energy disappeared, and he collapsed. The youth with bloodshot eyes in the entrance of the Altairus family home finally stopped moving, unconscious from the mixture of magical interference and poison.
****
"Ah. He finally collapsed. About time, that was taking longer than it should have.." A burly man inside of a car marked with a police decal was smoking a cigarette while watching his tablet. The tablet turned off, but not before the visual of the Altairus family appeared, complete with Fen unconscious of the floor of the home.
On the quiet night street, the vehicle filled with armed men dressed as police officers listened as they waited for the order to move in and collect the Guardian candidate.
"Did you see his face?" A creepy laugh came from a wiry man in the car. The man smiled, "Kukuku, he looks like he almost pissed himself! Damn, I knew the effects would be obvious but wow! I need some of that stuff!" The others in the car shuffled uncomfortably at the man's words.
The burly man in particular looked disgusted at the laughing man.
"Hey. Shut it. We need to act the part of officers."
At his words, the man stopped laughing, frowning as he leaned forward from the back seat. "Ah, come on. Not like they'll mind. Besides, the family won't start to remember until the morning time. Until then, we can have our fun..."
"They'll remember sooner if we don't play our parts well enough." The man in the driver's seat growled.
At that moment, a blue orb on the dash of the vehicle illuminated with cyan light, a voice speaking from the orb.
[He's ready. Candidate 178-3001 knocked out and ready for transport to the other candidates. The family called the authorities, but we intercepted the call with some of our own. You have permission to transport.]
At the end of the message, the burly man shifted into drive, and started pulling out from the side of the street. The conversation from before ended, replaced with disciplined silence. Even the disgusting man from before was silent.
The siren on the top of the car began to throw blue and red lights around the neighborhood, disturbing a stray cat lying on the porch of a house.
When the white house came into view, the police car rolled to a stop on the sidewalk of the house, destroying some grass in the process. As if they had planned it beforehand (Which they had), the 4 armed men stepped out of the car and stepped up to the front door of the house.
Giving one last look full of hidden messages at the 3 other men, the burly man knocked on the door of the house, stepping away as he fixed a look full of concern and authority onto his face, waiting while the others did the same, to varying degrees of success.
The man who laughed for example, was barely able to hide his amusement at the situation before he strapped on an emotionless face.
A clean shaven man, the father, opened the door, and when he saw the 4 uniformed men he swung the door open.
"We heard there was a disturbance here? Did you make the call sir?" The burly man greeted the father as he stepped inside the house.
"Ah, yes. I mean, no, you see my wife made the call. But uh, he's right here." Finishing his words as he led the men inside his house, the father guided the men to the collapsed individual, covered in sweat and radiating heat.
"We don't know who he is. But, uh, he called our daughter his sister, I think?" He scratched his head and stared at the youth on the floor, his lips curling in disgust. As if he could feel the stares, Fen's body twitched, before stopping, unmoving.
"You made the right decision to call us. We'll take care of him, and bring him to the station. Sorry to have to disturb you guys tonight." The burly man in the lead turned away from the candidate and tossed a friendly smile at the family, attempting to calm their nerves.
"We don't know how he got into the house, he most likely picked your lock. You might want to change them, in case something like this happens again." While the man was talking, one of the men put a pair of lockpicks into Fen's pockets, as evidence in case anyone questioned their story.
"Really?" However, the father seemed even more worried at his words, making a mental note to do what the man said as soon as he could.
"Yes, well, something like this will never happen again, so you don't have to change the locks if you don't want to." An awkward smile floated from the man's face as he realized that he almost made the family change their locks with his words. Away from where the father could hear them, the other squad members shook their heads as they held in their laughter.
"Hehe."
"Haaa. So embarrassing. Can't imagine making a mistake like that."
The man's face reddened in response to hearing the laughter they couldn't hold back, but he quickly reigned his embarrassment and anger and quickly signaled to the others. They then quickly grabbed and carried Fen's body to the car, leaving the burly man alone with the family.
"Thank you for coming so quickly, I was worried what might've happened if he woke up." It seemed the father was still worried about the appearance of a strange youth in his home. While he was speaking however, the burly man searched with his eyes and found what he was looking for. The item in question was actually the replacement Fen.
'Didn't know you could do that with magic. Well, I'm not that proficient in the Arts anyways.'
The Fen that was currently with the Altairus family was a golem. It was made with an unknown white material similar to plastic, and used a magical power core as fuel to create the illusion of the blonde Fen. That, combined with powerful Mind magic was able to temporarily make the family forget about their son and misremember certain events.
The real body of the golem was filled with inscriptions and arrays to help implement the mental magic that overlapped the appearance of the imposter Fen. As to why the golem had lighter hair and eyes, he didn't know; he was just the hired muscle and training instructor, not a Mage. Although the idea was to mimic the appearance of the candidate as closely as possible, mistakes were bound to happen in such a complicated operation. The Foundation wasn't omnipotent after all.
Taking into account that magic like this was supposed to be implemented dozens of thousands of times around the world, the VPF was only able to make the effects last a day. So he just put the details of incorrect features to the rushed production of the golems.
Months ago, he questioned whether a day would really be enough time to successfully train thousands of Guardians to protect the Earth. The curiosity that beset him has since been answered; a day may seem short, but inside the Rifts, it would be a year, and for some even longer.
After they were trained, they were free to go back to their families. If they survived, of course. But not without a price. The successfully trained would be expected to kill all invaders that entered the Earth, or their families would die from their inability to protect themselves.
Continuing his conversation with Fen's father, he said, "No problem. It's our job. Alrighty then, I'll just go back to the station and write the report. Have a nice night. With any luck, you won't have to see me or any of my friends ever again." With a smile, the man headed out the door and back to the squad car.
However, the father stopped him before he could step out. "I'm sorry, but could I get your name? My family would like to thank you."
At the spoken words, the man turned around.
"Terrence. My name's Terrence Smith."
The family then repeated the name as they thanked him for helping them. Terrence inwardly felt ashamed as he knew that he didn't deserve their gratitude. It would be morally right for them to curse his name and throw him out instead after beating him half to death, but perhaps it was better that they didn't know what was happening in front of them.
And so, Terrence hid his shame and self-disgust. He buried it deep inside, and tried his best to forget the events that happened that day. But he knew he wouldn't. The shame was just another part of the job, however.