Chapter 2

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, back at the motel. I'd been trying to sleep on the hard, warped wooden floor of the motel, when I'd heard a sound. I looked outside through the window, and everything seemed to be okay. My Mustang was snug as a bug in a rug under its car cover. I saw no activity of any kind outside. I grabbed a can of wild cherry Pepsi from the cooler and popped the top.

How the hell did I get into this situation? In just a few hours my company; or our company, Runaway technologies would be starting operations for the day. God I missed the hum and purr of those machines. I even missed the shitty political nature of the administrative and sales office.

It seemed like so many things had happened over the past few months. I had barely begun to grieve, over the death of my mentor, Sam Stevenson, when I discovered that his daughter, my wife Charlotte, was cheating on me and had gone crazy. A lot of people probably wonder why I'd married Charlotte in the first place. Our personalities didn't seem to mesh. All I can say is that love is strange and opposites attract. There was also the fact that the sex was good. Anyway eventually I found out about her and was devastated. I wanted her out of my life for good. But it wasn't to be.

I couldn't divorce her for business reasons. So I started a relationship with Annalise, the sweetest, kindest woman I'd ever met. I was also conflicted because it seemed like I was cheating too, but I've never claimed to be a paragon of virtue. I just wanted to be happy, but you already know that part right? If you don't, read the first part of the story.

Everything really went to hell in the first few days after Annalise's kidney transplant. When she first opened her eyes I knew that everything was fucked up.

Annalise had never in her life, at least as long as I'd known her, said a cross word to anyone. She had always loved Amanda, my mother in law. I love Amanda too, for the record. In fact everyone loves Amanda, except for her daughter Charlotte.

Anyway Amanda came into the room with a nurse, to check Anna's condition. The nurse looked at her eyes, and nodded her head. "Do you notice anything different about her eyes?" I asked. I know I sounded like a fucking lunatic, but I was scared shit-less.

"Yes," said the nurse. "Her eyes have cleared up remarkably. In fact her coloring overall is excellent."

I wrote the nurse off as an imbecile. But maybe only someone who had spent time looking deeply into Anna's eyes would notice the differences. Amanda hadn't noticed it yer either. Then Anna started talking about how her lower back was still causing her some discomfort, and some other non-sense. Amanda gently stroked her forehead and smiled at her, then left to make some arrangements for Anna's care when she left the hospital.

"God, I hate that bitch," hissed Anna. I was shocked, and realized that I wasn't crazy, there was definitely something wrong with Anna.

"Press, when I leave here, I am not going to stay in that mausoleum with Grandma," she said calmly. "I want you to arrange for me to stay with you instead."

"Annalise, are you crazy?" I asked. "We aren't married, my wife just died. We haven't even buried her yet. What would people think?"

"God Damn it Press, you know who I am," she snapped. "So don't start any of that bullshit. We're still married. I told you already that nothing could keep us apart. Now, we do have some issues to work out. And we aren't going to be able to work them out if we're apart."

"Hold on Anna," I said. My head was spinning faster and faster. She sounded exactly like the person she claimed to be. She sounded like my psychotic wife, or ex wife since she was technically dead. "How is this possible?" I asked.

"Press, do you remember all of those classes I flunked in college?" she asked. I nodded my head woodenly, trying to follow her.

"Well in one of those science classes we talked about cloning. Did you know that it is theoretically possible to recreate an entire organism or being, from a few of its cells? Each and every cell contains the genetic blueprint of the organism. So when my bitch of a mother gave my fucking kidney to your girlfriend, I had my way in. Think about it, if you can reproduce an entire organism from one cell, or a few cells; it's even easier to recreate my mind and personality from the millions of cells contained in my kidney. Then all I had to do was to take over this body from your wimpy little girlfriend. She had almost no personality, and she was nearly dead anyway."

"There are a few of her memories still left in here," she said tapping the side of her head. "But for the most part, she's gone. Do you want to know anything about her?" She smiled the way Charlotte always did. It seemed out of place on Anna's face.

"I know you think she was a perfect little angel, but she wasn't. Press, she had faults and failings just like the rest of us. Did you know that she loved you, very much? She had from the first day that she met you. Yep, your little angel just fell, ass over tea cup for you, the second she saw you," smirked Charlotte in Anna's body.

"What's wrong with that?" I asked.

Charlotte/Anna sneered at me, and in a very low voice said, "Because she knew that you were married, and she still wanted you. It was wrong. It was also a very stupid thing to do, because if I'd ever found out about it, I'd have killed her, Press. No one takes anything away from me ever!"

"Now that you mention it, you're not so fucking pure yourself, are you, my husband?" she asked. "From looking through her memories, I can see that you fucked this little bitch while I was in that nut farm, you sent me to. She was almost a virgin, but she was walking around with her almost unused little pussy just dripping for you, every time she saw you," sneered, Charlotte/Anna.

"So, what" I snapped. "As far as I'm concerned, our marriage was over. You cheated on me and I was going to get a divorce from you anyway. But I..." I stopped.

"Go ahead and say it Press," she laughed. Her voice sounded really funny because she had Anna's pitch and voice, but the inflection, tone and vocal patterns were purely Charlotte. "But you couldn't divorce me because my mother told you not to, because you might lose the company. Who told you about my cheating? My mother did, didn't she? Who told you that poor little Anna loved you? My mother did that too. Who told you that poor little Anna, with her dried up unused little pussy was going to die? Why, that was my mother again wasn't it Press?"

"Yes," I snapped. "But she was only looking out for me, someone had to. Because the person who promised to love and honor me was too busy fucking around on me."