Don't Sleep Just Yet | Chapter 8

            It was noon. They were in the car, halfway to the hospital, when Ansel finally pulled out his cellphone. His hands were shaking as he unlocked the device, looking at his texts. Jay hadn’t sent him any messages since just after the phone call that morning, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that his lack of texts was a bad sign, if not for Jay, then for himself and Darcy. He glanced at his friend beside him.

            Behind the wheel, Darcy only seemed half present. He impatiently tapped his left index finger against the steering wheel even as they drove down the street, and he was so concerned about his co-worker, Dr. Park, that he didn’t appear to be paying any attention to Ansel whatsoever. It was this lack of attention that made Ansel feel less nervous about being questioned as he tapped on the screen and began writing a text to Jay.

            “Jay?” He sent. After a few seconds, the text was registered as read, but ten seconds later, Jay hadn’t even made an attempt to reply, so Ansel sent another. “Answer me.” Nothing. “Please.”

            “Oh, so now you want to talk.” Jay finally responded. “Is Dr. Adair not enough anymore?”

            “Are you behind all of this?” The question made Ansel sweat as he typed it.

            “Do you think that?”

            “I sure as hell hope not, but you not even asking what I’m talking about and giving Darcy that CD certainly say otherwise.”

            “Why did you leave?”

            Ansel couldn’t help but let out a frustrated huff. “Don’t change the subject.”

            “Was it because I didn’t have as much money as that little Jew?”

            “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re texting Jay right now.” Darcy’s voice made Ansel twitch and turn his phone off impulsively.

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He mumbled as he slipped his cellphone back into his pocket and sat back.

            “Ansel,” Darcy retaliated as he glanced up at the rearview mirror for no real reason, “you might not be as sentimental as I am, but you let your anger out easier than I do. You don’t have a poker face when it comes to frustration. The only times I see you looking at your phone with such hatred in your eyes is either when you’re getting texts from Jay, or you’re reading about domestic abuse.” The doctor turned his eyes off of the mirror, looked back at the road, then muttered under his breath, “Still don’t know why you read articles on that subject. They always make you so passionate with rage.”

            “Some things are better left unexplained.” Ansel answered quietly.

            “You also read about child abuse, don’t you?” At that point, it started to become clear that Darcy was merely making vacant small talk just to keep Ansel from texting Jay. Whether he was actually paying attention to anything that was being said, by Ansel or by himself, was unclear.

            “Ugh, yeah.” Ansel grumbled. “They’re all monsters. I could never imagine treating my own kids the way some of those pricks do.”

            “Do you want kids?”

            Ansel glanced at the doctor. The question caught him off-guard, and he wasn’t sure for a moment about how to answer. “Uh… I guess not.” He eventually answered. “What about you?”

            “I don’t know.” Darcy responded. “I think so.”

            He hadn’t expected that answer from the doctor, but after he was done being surprised, he tried to picture it: Darcy as a father. He couldn’t help but imagine Darcy with the whole package: a white picket fence, a beautiful home, a gorgeous wife (Dr. Park was who he pictured), and two�"maybe three�"kids. He knew that Darcy would make a wonderful father one day.

            However, that was when he had a thought that made him frown: there was simply no way for him to fit in that picture. If Darcy was to have a perfect future, he would have to leave him behind at some point. He would be alone again. Though it was selfish, Ansel scoffed and finally spoke. “I dunno, man.” He laughed nervously. “Kids are kind of a handful, don’t you think?”

            “I like kids.” Darcy answered. “Why, you don’t think I’d do a good job?”

            “W�"well, no, I… I didn’t mean it that way. You’d be amazing as a dad, it’s just…” He shook his head. “I mean, you’d… You’d never abandon me, would you?”

            Finally, Darcy turned his head to look at Ansel, paying full attention at last. “What?” He countered. “No. Don’t even ask that. I’d never do that.”

            “Well, you can’t stay with me forever, Darcy.” Ansel acknowledged.

            Darcy turned his eyes back onto the road. “Nothing can stop me from trying,” he concluded.

---

 

            When they got to the hospital, Ansel took off Darcy’s scarf. As the doctor was about to open his door to let himself out, he extended it toward him, and he stared at it for a few seconds.

            “Keep it,” he told the insomniac before getting out of the car. Ansel shrugged inwardly and wrapped the dark blue cloth back around his neck before stepping out himself. Once Ansel’s door was closed, Darcy pressed a button on his key ring to lock the car, and then he took off in a sprint toward the stairs.

            “Whoa!” Ansel quickly tried to keep up, but there was no denying that when it came down to it, Ansel was the slower of them. That was why, when Darcy started jumping up the stairs two at a time, Ansel let out a loud groan of frustration. The doctor was more agile, and his legs were longer than Ansel’s despite them practically being the exact same height. “Darcy, slow down, you dick!” He screamed, but the older man paid him no mind, continuing to leap his way to the main floor. “Darcy!!”

            “Cardio, Ansel!” Darcy called down to him before he hurled himself through the door to the lobby. After he flew into the room, Ryan stood up straight. The nurse seemed startled to see Darcy so suddenly. Catching his breath, the doctor adjusted his coat and approached the front desk, and as he did, Ryan seemed to shrink back, almost as if he was intimidated. “Ryan.” He greeted.

            “Dr. Adair.” Ryan quietly returned the gesture. “Where’s your scarf?”

            Darcy narrowed his eyes, only to be made that much more confused when him doing so made Ryan flinch. “I don’t know how it’s relevant at all, but Ansel has it.”

            “Oh.” Ryan stammered. “Is… Ansel�"”

            Before the nurse could finish, the door flew open again, and in careened Ansel, who immediately put his hands on his knees, panting. “B***h,” he managed to shout between breaths.

            “Yeah, he’s here.” Darcy then answered the unfinished question.

            “So…” Ryan made eye contact with Darcy cautiously. He seemed lost for words, and looked as though he’d just seen a ghost. “I… I’m confused.”

            “You think?” Ansel responded, still gasping for air.

            “About what?” Asked Darcy.

            Ryan laughed awkwardly. “It… It didn’t make any sense, but… Right after you called, like, the second I hung up the phone, you walked in and asked to talk to my dad… With your scarf on.”

            Darcy quickly looked over at Ansel, who finally stood up straight to return the stunned gaze.

            “But that’s not possible.” Ansel responded in a voice that sounded distant due to shock. “He was with me this whole time.”

            “I know!” Ryan shouted back. “I mean, here I was thinking the call was fake, but, I mean, you and I can’t both be imagining him right now!”

            “Look, Ryan, I’m real, alright?!” Darcy shouted, slamming his fists down on the desk and thus causing Ryan to flinch again. “What did this other me say to you?”

            Ryan shrugged and choked for a second. “W�"well, nothing, really. He just asked to see my dad.”

            “Who’s your dad?” Ansel inquired, stepping forward.

            “Dr. Raimondi.” The nurse and doctor both answered, almost in sync.

            “The coroner?”

            “Yeah.” Ryan continued, “Anyway, I… I thought he was…” He paused, not believing that he was actually saying the words that were about to come out of his mouth. “… really Dr. Adair, so I told him to look in the morgue.”

            “Then what?” Darcy questioned, looking intense.

            “Then, they came out of the morgue together and went to the parking lot. I tried to ask where they were going, but they both ignored me.”

            Darcy thought for a second, then muttered, “Dr. Raimondi’s car wasn’t there.” Then he tapped the desk somewhat eagerly. “Security cameras. Show me.”

            “I saw his car leave.” Ryan told him.

            “Which way?”

            “West, but I don’t think it matters. They could’ve gone anywhere.” Ryan worried.

            “We’ll find them, Ryan.” Darcy declared. “Your dad and Dr. Park… Somehow.”

            Ryan nodded. After a short period of silence, he spoke again. “You’ve got a patient in your office.”

            “Tell them to leave.”

            “They said it was important.”

            Darcy huffed and rolled his eyes. He glanced back at Ansel, gesturing for him to follow him, and they walked down the hall toward Darcy’s office together.

            “How the hell are we going to find them?” Ansel questioned. “I mean, shouldn’t we be calling the cops?”

            “Ansel, what do you think the cops would say?” Darcy responded, somewhat annoyed. “They’d call us all crazy, and then they’d arrest me, because somehow, whatever is doing this just happens to be wearing my goddamn skin.”

            “Fine, no cops. But that doesn’t answer my first question.” The younger man remarked when they finally reached the door.

            “I don’t know what you want me to say, Ansel!” Darcy replied. “I’m trying my best here!”

            “I know you are, man, I’m just worried that we’re stuck! We have nothing to go off of, Darc!”

            “I’ll figure something out.” Darcy then opened the door to his office. He was shocked to see Jay sitting in front of his desk, and he watched the shorter man lift his hand and wiggle his fingers in a sort of wave.

            “What is it?” Ansel asked. “Darcy, what…” He pushed Darcy aside a bit to see past him and trailed off, frozen in place, when he too saw Jay. Jay noticed him, and he looked almost relieved.

            “Hey, Ansel.” He greeted in a soft voice. “It’s been a while.”

            Ansel started shaking his head, slowly at first, then as he started backing up his action grew gradually wilder. Darcy looked at him; he’d never seen Ansel around Jay in person, and he was only half surprised to see him growing so panicked. “Nonononono,” He started repeating the word over and over under his breath.

            “Ansel, come on, hear me out.”

            “Get out.” The demand was low and calm, though Ansel’s expression was a mixture of both fear and intense fury.

            “Honey Cakes?”

            “GET OUT!!” Ansel roared, his voice suddenly shrill, as he pointed off to his left.

            Realizing he would get nowhere fast trying to reason with Ansel, Jay put on a serious face and turned his eyes over to Darcy. “I know where your friends are.” He confessed.

            “Ansel.” Darcy didn’t avert his eyes from Jay as he spoke, trying to calm Ansel, but to no avail as the man threw himself into Darcy’s extended arm, which was placed firmly against the doorframe, and tried to shove past him.

            “I’LL TEAR YOUR F*****G HEART OUT AND FEED IT TO YOUR FAMILY!!” He screamed, not caring that people in the halls were nervously staring and backing away.

            “Ansel!” Darcy shouted, doing his best to hold his friend back. He’d seen Ansel angry before, sure, but never this angry. Honestly, it was frightening him, because he wasn’t sure if the death threats he was making were completely serious or not, but they seemed very genuine. He could only imagine what Jay must have done to Ansel to warrant this kind of reaction from him.

            Jay sighed and looked down, standing up, and as he did, Ansel elbowed Darcy in the side, causing the doctor to yelp and pull his arm back. The insomniac then dashed forward just two steps, and then he stood petrified before Jay. It had been two months since he was even in the same room as his former buddy. Realizing that almost appeared to make him cower somewhat. Jay held his arms out at his sides and did a slow shrug.

            “What, are you gonna hit me? Do it, then. Do it like that last night we had together.” He lift his left hand and delicately tapped his left cheek. “You hit me here first. Come on, Angel Face.”

            Ansel tightened his hands into fists and pulled his lips back in a large snarl of contempt, but he did not move. Jay wanted him to lash out. That was what he always wanted: to watch him lose control. After a few beats of no one doing anything, Jay finally lowered his arms.

            “You done, then?”

            “I should kill you where you stand.”

            Jay scoffed. “Well, don’t leave Dr. Adair a mess.” He then turned back to the doctor again. “Speaking of, I assume you’re looking for Dr. Park and Dr. Raimondi?”

            Darcy stood up straight and stepped closer. “How do you know about them?” He demanded to know.

            Jay shrugged his shoulders. “I know about all of this.” He admit. “About them being kidnapped. About your parents’ deaths. About that doppelgänger of yours wandering around.” Then he chuckled lowly, and Ansel nearly hit him, but didn’t. “It’s just, see… Well, this has all…” He did a gesture with his hands, moving them about almost randomly in front of his chest. “This has all gotten so out of hand.”

            “So you are behind this.” Ansel growled.

            Jay inhaled, then paused. “Yes.” He announced, but then corrected, “But also no.”

            “What do you mean?” Darcy.

            “See, I made the doppelgänger. I won’t deny that.”

            “How?”

            “Let’s just leave it at ‘black magic is pretty cool’, okay?”

            “Black magic isn’t real.” Darcy argued.

            “Okay, well, maybe not black magic, per se. But whatever. My point is that the doppelgänger is very much real, but I was supposed to be able to control it.”

            “So you killed my father?” It was Darcy’s turn to start becoming utterly furious, but he kept it bottled up. It took a lot to make him act on his anger.

            “That’s where things get sort of complicated.” Jay seemed rightfully nervous. “I wanted to use it to get you out of the picture. To make you two hate each other so Ansel would come back to me.”

            “Not in a million years.” Ansel interrupted, but Jay didn’t pay any attention to him.

            “But, see, it, uh… It turns out that it kind of has a mind of its own?” He laughed apprehensively. “I think it wants to take your place. Maybe. I don’t know. Why it kidnapped Dr. Park, or why it’s taking Dr. Raimondi? Both mysteries to me.”

            “Why should I believe a word you say?” Darcy interrogated.

            “Well, frankly, you shouldn’t.” Jay admit. “I’m telling the truth, though.”

            “Sure.” Ansel remarked sarcastically. “And just what motive do you have to tell us anything? Why bother?”

            “Because it wants you.” Jay disclosed as he whipped his head around to look at Ansel. “That much of my intent stayed, but I don’t think it has anything to do with me.” He looked at Darcy again. “It’s because you want him.”

            “Um.” Darcy flinched at the wording of that sentence.

            “Your parents were useless to it. I don’t know what it wants with the coroner, but it wants Ansel as a companion, and Dr. Park…” Jay trailed off, waiting for Darcy to get the hint, which he did after a few seconds.

            “Oh God, no.”

            “Yeah, it’s… interested in her, I assume.”

            “It can do that…?!”

            “It can do whatever it pleases. It was meant to mimic you.”

            “Well, bang-up job it’s been doing so far!”

            “How do we stop it?” Ansel, surprisingly, was the one to ask this. “Some shady ritual?”

            Jay was quiet for a few seconds, meeting no one’s eye. “I’m… unclear on that.” He mumbled.

            “You’re what?” Darcy took a step forward, and Ansel looked at him out of the corner of his eye, noticing that the doctor was finally about to explode with fury, but didn’t try to stop him.

            “Well, I mean, there doesn’t actually seem to be a ritual to stop it.”

            “So you’re telling me,” as Darcy kept approaching, towering over Jay, the shorter man started to back away around the chair, “that you summoned some sort of demon to take my form,” he picked up the chair and tossed it across the room, causing Ansel to flinch as it crashed into the wall, “kill my parents, stalk Ansel, and rape my co-worker,” he pinned Jay against the wall as his voice quickly became louder in outrage, “and you don’t know how to stop it?!”

            “Only you can kill it!” Jay shouted, putting his hands up in surrender. “I’m ninety-nine percent sure that it can only be stopped if you stab it in the heart! Th�"that’s why I came here, honest!”

            Darcy glanced over at Ansel, who actually seemed sort of calm, if not solemn.

            “He’s not lying.” He answered the unspoken question. “He always smiles when he lies. He’s not smiling.”

            The doctor turned his hard glare back onto Jay, who smiled to ease the tension, but then immediately dropped it when he realized that would antagonize the taller man.

            “We just need to find it, and then you can stab it, and it will all be over.”

            “How can I be sure that you won’t pull something crazy like this again?” Darcy demanded.

            “I fucked up in the summoning ritual, okay? I won’t make a mistake like that again. Hell, I won’t even touch any rituals anymore.” He frowned, and with guilty eyes, he grieved, “You’ve gotta understand, Doc, I didn’t mean for anyone to die. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Everything that’s transpired is almost literally the exact opposite of what I wanted.”

            “And what did you want?” Darcy fumed.

            “I wanted you to leave Ansel. To go back to how you lived two months ago, with your dad, with your job. Just without Ansel.” He looked down. His voice trembling, he lamented, “I wanted to turn back the clock. No one was supposed to die.”

            Darcy looked over his shoulder at Ansel when the younger man let out a low sigh. He stepped closer, raising his head and taking a deep breath before speaking.

            “Look, Jelly Bean,” he began in a calm manner, using what Darcy assumed to be a pet name for Jay, “our run is over. I’m never going back to you. I moved on, and you really should too.”

            Jay shook his head. “I’ll wait.”

            “That’s unhealthy.” Ansel remarked. “I mean, in retrospect, summoning a demon is probably worse, but you get the point.”

            “Whatever.” Darcy interrupted. “You guys can settle your beef once this is over. As far as I’m concerned, you’re still a bag of dicks, Jay.”

            “Fair enough,” Jay mumbled.

            Darcy continued, “But my opinion might, and it’s a pretty big might, change if you tell us where to find this son of a b***h.”

            “We’ll need your car.” The shorter man told him.

            “I’ll drive to the ends of the Earth to kill this thing. You owe me vengeance, so tell me where.”