It looked like me, but it wasn’t me

It looked like me, but it wasn’t me. The figure stood in the doorway and watched me as I lay in my bed. Its presence gave the air of my bedroom a sharp chill that cut right through my comforter and into my flesh. The staggered flashes of lightning piercing in through the window blinds cut jagged lines across its body, but even then, I could tell that the face looking down at me without a single sound was my own. I waited for it to make a move or say something, but it was perfectly still except for the occasional blink of its eyelids. It really did look like me, but if it wasn’t me, what was it?

At first, I thought that I was dreaming. A clash of thunder had roused me from my sleep and it was already standing in the doorway when I opened my eyes. My mind couldn’t make sense of it and I just assumed that I was still asleep, but the mad reality soon set in and I found my body frozen with fear. I wasn’t sure how long it had been standing there watching me sleep or how it even got in my house. I tried to remember the moments before I had gone to bed for anything strange, but my anxiety was clogging my brain and it was as though nothing had existed before this very moment.

As time slowly ticked forward without either of us making a move, the realization struck me that if it had wanted to hurt me, it would have done so by now. I let my shaking hands pull me upwards and as I sat up, the thing in the doorway flinched. Our eyes met one another and I realized that its lip was trembling. The thing was just as scared as I was, but neither of us were yet ready to let down our guards. Finally, I took in a deep breath and decided to be the first to speak.

“How did you get in here?” I asked.

“I could ask you the same thing,” it furrowed its brow in reply.

The air of the room only grew colder as the thunder continued to rattle the windows. The thing clenched its jaw and stiffened its back with a deep inhale. It would not be backing down so easily. Instead of fear, I could feel anger starting to bubble inside me. I couldn’t believe the audacity of this creature. I straightened my shoulders and sharpened my gaze. I wasn’t backing down either.

“How did you get in my house?” I raised my voice.

The thing scoffed and shook its head, “with my key.”

I just about had it with this thing’s attitude. I got out of my bed and stomped my feet across the floor towards it. Seeing it up close, I could really see the fear in its eyes, but I was still too angry to feel sympathy. I raised my fist so that maybe it would understand that I wasn’t messing around. In return, the thing shoved me back so hard that I was nearly knocked from my feet.

“Get out of my house before I call the police!”

The two of us shouted—our voices over lapping the other’s, but the words were the same. Then the room was silent once more. The thing looked me up and down with eyes narrowed.

“What are you?” it spat.

What was I? This body snatcher was asking me what I was? That was it. Something inside of me snapped and I knew that I was going to end this once and for all. I grabbed the lamp from the top of my dresser and before the thing could react, I brought the lamp down as hard as I could upon its head. It staggered back and I felt it grab onto my arm for balance before slipping away. It fell with a loud thump and red blood flowed onto the floor. I watched the light fade from my very own eyes.

I let out a deep jagged exhale, but my heart was still racing. I still couldn’t believe that this wasn’t some awful nightmare. I slumped against the doorframe and rested my hand against my chest to calm my heart, but the usually soft cotton of my shirt felt coarse against my skin. I looked down at my hand to see translucent white flesh that was strung with a blood-red mucus. On the floor, the thing laying there was still holding onto the flesh of my hand as though it were an old glove.

I ran my still-human hand over the alien white flesh and the tear where my skin had ripped off. I picked at the flap and to my horror, my own skin started to peal off like an orange. I ran to the mirror and began tearing at my face. As the lightning flashed, a different face appeared in the reflection. It was hairless and had two great black eyes that had no light of their own. This face looking back at me wasn’t mine, but if I wasn’t me, what was I?