They told me I was to spend a night in the Room. My grovelling did little to convince them otherwise. A solution the colour of acid was injected into my bloodstream, and my world blurred, darkened, and, finally, receded.
As my consciousness trickled in, I became aware of my prostrated and shivering self. Feeling disorientated, I stood groggily to observe my unknown surroundings, choking back a gasp as I discover I am not alone. The Room is austere and forbidding with its doorless walls of sterile white, and standing by one stark wall is a figure - a figure with my clothes, my hair, my face. My knees buckle and I crumple to the floor, scrambling to put distance between myself and the monstrosity before me. Without hesitation, my doppelgänger mimics my actions precisely. Swallowing my panic, I still my movements, opting to remain motionless in my squatted position. The figure follows suit and ceases its squirming motions immediately. I breathe a sigh of relief, comforted by the fact that it at least appears to be harmless. Deciding that I am not in immediate danger, I pick myself up from the ground and experimentally raises a hand towards my doppelgänger. Predictably, it reciprocates the gesture - however, in reverse: I raised my right and it raised its left. I reach for my doppelgänger’s hand, it doing likewise, but my fingertips met a cold, smooth surface instead . It appears as if a clear glass wall separated us, and I realize the Room is half the size I thought it was.
“Can you hear me?” I whisper. My doppelgänger mouths my question with me, but did not offer a reply of its own.
I give up my attempts at communication with my doppelgänger. It, like me, appears to be confined to the Room. I close my eyes and tried to will time to hurry. Time always passes more slowly in the Room.
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