Post by Arihant on Jun 9, 2008 19:24:54 GMT
Arihant was fairly certain that what he saw when he walked into his dormitory that evening was pretty much the last thing he would have ever expected.
He blinked, sure it was a hallucination. After all, he’d just been to a very strenuous class: Control of Physical Powers – despite his apprehensions, he’d found that they did actually cater for his kind of ability here. They taught them combat (which was practical, for a class predominantly of Warriors) but also something else that Arihant had personally found much more useful –
Control. For the first time in years he was regaining command over his own strength and speed, and what helped him more than anything else was that he was with other people like himself.
Well, not exactly like him. Even if he discounted the fact that his other power was so different to the others’, most of whom had at least an element if nothing more spectacular, the nature of his physical enhancement was different to theirs. If anyone compared Arihant to one of the other students with super-strength, Arihant would seem puny in comparison. If anyone compared him to a student with super-speed, he’d seem slow as a turtle.
In activities that tested one aspect of physicality alone, Arihant was at quite the disadvantage. For him, everything was enhanced, but it was like all the power that others had concentrated in either speed or strength was shared equally among all his faculties.
And really, that proved very useful. In combat, when he was against someone who was stronger than him, he knew he’d be faster. He knew he’d be stronger than the fast people. And also, he had the added bonuses of not having to worry about being injured and fairly indefatigable stamina. The variety of his power made him a formidable opponent.
However, while his victories significantly outnumbered his defeats, there were still several people who had enough knowledge and experience to use their one concentrated power in a way that decimated his many diluted ones. These people had seen war. They were prepared for anything.
But it… still. Still, in a way, it was nice. He fitted in, somehow, in that class. Sure, it was common knowledge in the school now what he was…
That scared him sometimes. And the strange thing wasn’t that it was the hatred that scared him – because, of course, some people did hate him and he couldn’t really blame them. Yes, it did hurt for him to see people whisper about him behind his back, and to see the more brazen of his tormentors flatten themselves against the walls of the corridors he walked through…
… but that was nothing compared to how strange it was that people had accepted him. Then again, for his part, he’d accepted that he was never going to understand that. For now… well, he didn’t know. He’d just enjoy it, he guessed.
They’d provided for him in the physical control class. They’d got a conjurer to make thick elbow-length gloves that clung to his skin and kept his habitual turtleneck jumper in place, and elastic bands that he put around his ankles to stop his jeans from slipping. They did look fairly ridiculous, but it was safe and –
Well, it was nothing compared to what he had to wear on his head when they were fighting. It wasn’t like it was anything terribly abnormal or like it was a bad idea or like it was uncomfortable, but…
Arihant had never seen himself as a motorcycle helmet kind of guy.
Maybe that was why he was seeing these things. Maybe the helmet had… blocked the air supply to his brain, or something.
But no. When he opened his eyes, it was still there. Or, more accurately, he was still there. Just lying there, on the bed opposite Arihant’s own, gazing out at the clouded sky. It was… He’d accepted Orchid as surreal – but this –
On that bed, it was… it was him. Himself, in the flesh. Arihant could see himself lying on the bed beside the left window –
And that didn’t make any sense at all.
He massaged his eyelids with his thumb and forefinger. “Oh, God,” he muttered below his breath. “God, this is it, isn’t it? I’ve finally gone mad.”
“Mad? You may be many things, comrade, but I’d certainly prefer to think that’s not one of them.”
The room snapped back into vision, and Arihant’s eyes narrowed. So it spoke, did it? It had turned and was now sitting up on the bed. Every detail was there – the dark skin, scruffy hair – even the faint line through his right eyebrow from when he was scalded when he was little. Everything except…
“You’re not wearing your gloves,” said Arihant, and he walked over to his own bed and pulled his laptop out from underneath. It didn’t matter if he was going mad or not, really – his coursework would still be there, no matter what… and really, he believed that if he ignored the thing, it might just go away by itself.
No such luck.
“Ah, now, that’s interesting. People usually notice the eyes first – or in your case, the voice, I guess – not the clothes… Then again, you probably have reason to.”
Now that it mentioned it, the voice was wrong. It wasn’t Indian at all – it was… American, it was too nasal to be anything else– and it was higher and more melodious than Arihant’s own. But he didn’t look up from his computer. He typed in his password, ignoring whatever the thing was doing.
Go away… For God’s sake, just go away now…
However, clearly his will was not one of stone. A couple of seconds later, he had to look. He just had to. His curiosity got the better of him, and he wanted to see what it meant about its eyes…
They were disturbing, when he looked at them. That was… probably the most startling thing he’d ever seen. How had he not noticed before?
“All right,” he said, snapping his laptop shut. “Who the hell are you?”
“Well,” the other Arihant said, rubbing its chin with its ungloved hand in mock speculation. “At least we have recognition.”
Arihant just stared at it, his brown eyes hardening against the eerie purple ones that faced him.
The other Arihant smiled, and then there was a faint hissing noise. He disappeared for a second, appearing to shimmer away like wavy, heated air in the desert. Then, when he shuddered back into shape, the other Arihant was gone.
In his place was a pale, dark-haired boy, whose violet eyes shone as he grinned cheekily and extended his hand.
“My name’s Kennedy Delaney,” he said, and his voice had changed, too – in place of the soft American accent that had been there before, there was now a rough Scottish lilt that sounded of howling winds and tinkling bells of heather. “And it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Arihant said nothing, because there wasn’t anything for him to say. He just stared at him. It didn’t appear to perturb the boy at all.
“OK, OK, I see your point,” he conceded, still grinning, and put his hand in the pocket of his black coat. His clothes hadn’t changed through the entire process a second ago – the only thing that hadn’t, other than the eyes. “Odd way to introduce myself, true. But – well, for Christ’s sake, comrade! You’re not exactly the most talkative of folk, are you? You realise you’ve slept in that bed for nigh on three months and haven’t said a single word to anyone in the room at all? There’s a limit to how shy you can be without just being rude, you know.”
Arihant didn’t trouble himself to reply. Just looked at him. He honestly couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
Kennedy now did seem to be slightly thrown off by the silence he received in lieu of an answer, but he soldiered on nonetheless. “Um… Yes, so… What was I going to say?… Oh, yeah, I was going to apologise for the… It wasn’t my idea, you know, but Sally said that I ought to introduce myself, since we’ve been roommates for so long and I thought that I might as well do it… interestingly, seeing as how-”
“That – what you did there – that’s one of your powers?”
Arihant decided to stop making him uncomfortable. Months might have passed since he arrived, things might have changed in ways that he could never have even imagined, but he was as similar in that aspect as he had ever been. And he – the boy seemed to be acting as if he had upset Arihant, but he really hadn’t. It had just been… a little shocking, that was all.
Kennedy immediately relaxed, and stopped babbling. “Aye, I’m a mimic. Voices and appearances.”
“Oh.”
There was another silence, not so awkward this time.
“Then why were you being American?”
The Cheshire grin leapt back onto his face. “Because, comrade, I’d never heard your voice before. I did mean it when I said you hadn’t said a word since you came here, you ken.”
Ken?
He chose to ignore that.
“You need to hear the voice to mimic it?”
“Just like I need to see the face, aye. I’m not a shapeshifter.” There was an edge of contempt in his voice. “It involves more… research than that.”
Arihant looked at the boy speculatively for a moment, absorbing what he’d just heard. He had to be telling the truth.
He smiled back at Kennedy for the first time. “OK, I’ll admit that’s the most interesting way anyone’s ever introduced themselves to me-”
Kennedy was triumphant.
“-but I don’t think you should try it again. You practically gave me a heart attack.”
“And, of course, I apologise for that, comrade, but in my defence it would have been a very entertaining death. Symbolic, too. Doppelgangers and all that jazz.”
Arihant frowned. “What gangers?”
“Doppelgangers,” Kennedy said, as if repeating the word would make Arihant understand. “You never heard of doppelgangers?”
“No… Am I supposed to have heard of them?”
Kennedy looked surprised. “No… No, that’s not – You hail from India, right?”
Skeptical, Arihant replied, “No, I’m from Peru. Can’t you tell by looking?”
And his companion laughed. “Oi, that wasn’t a stupid question. Your accent is pretty faint. You could have come from just round the corner, for all I know.”
OK, that was a complete lie. Arihant was always painfully aware of every inconsistency in his pronunciation, and there were lots to be aware of. “Mm-hmm.”
“I’m serious! How come you know English, anyway?”
Arihant hesitated. “My mother taught me. She lived in Australia for twelve years.”
“Ahh.” Kennedy looked interested, but didn’t push the subject any farther. “Well, a doppelganger probably wouldn’t be something well known in the east. It’s from… thingy, it’s somewhere near – like Transylvanian, maybe or…One of those weird ones…”
He roused himself. “Well, it’s European, anyway. Like a kind of ghost, but one that looks just like the person who sees it. And they say that when you do see your one, it’s a sign that your death’s not far off.”
“Oh, that’s…” – What? Creepy? Morbid?
“…interesting,” he finished weakly.
“That’s one word for it, I guess. Still, though, it’s one of my favourite myths. It can be very… entertaining for someone like me.”
“…You mean to say you’ve actually gone up to someone and-”
“Well, it was someone who deserved it.”
“Oh, well then it’s OK,” Arihant said, his voice ironic again.
“Obviously,” said Kennedy, leaning back on the bed. “Ach, no, it’s not like it gave him a heart attack or anything. Just a… fright. One that he wouldn’t have received if he weren’t such a superstitious auld git.”
“Aha…”
Kennedy raised one eyebrow. “You’re judging me, now, aren’t you?”
“No… Well. Maybe. A little bit.”
The Scottish boy laughed heartily, now lying completely flat on the bed with his arms tucked behind his head.
Arihant paused, a sudden question popping into his head. Unfortunately, however, he had no idea whether to ask it or not.
Well, what the hell. This situation was about as surreal as it was ever going to get. It wasn’t like he could make it any worse.
“You said that…”
He trailed off.
“Aye?” he asked, glancing down at him.
“You said… Sally said you ought to introduce yourself?”
Kennedy propped himself up on his elbows. “Aye, I can see how that might concern you there. Look, though, we’re not stalkers or anything. Or at least, I’m not. Sally can get a little… curious… sometimes. I always said she should have been the spy, ‘stead of me, but our powers suggested otherw-”
“No,” said Arihant, waving a hand slightly to cut him off. “I don’t think you’re… you’re ‘stalkers’ or anything…”
“Oh?”
“No, I was just wondering who she is.”
Kennedy raised an eyebrow. “That’s all? Well, sure, you can meet her now, if you’d like.”
Arihant reacted as if a spark of electricity had just shot down his spine. “No, that’s not what I mean-”
“God’s sake, man. She doesn’t bite.”
“Yes, I know, but- I- I wouldn’t want to cause her any trouble?”
“Pathetic excuse. You’re meeting her. Here, I’ll call her now.” A faraway look glazed his eyes, but it was gone almost before there was time to notice it.
“What- What was that? What did you do just there?” Arihant was beginning to feel a little out of his depth.
“Look, stop panicking. Seriously. I just sent her an email, is all.”
“Without a computer?”
Kennedy rolled his eyes. “It’s complicated. Ah, here she is!”
Arihant glanced towards the door, suddenly realising how risky this was. If someone caught them with a girl in their dormitory-
But the door didn’t move. The mirror did.
A pale hand slid through the glassy surface, which rippled as if it was made of water. It was shortly followed by assorted other white limbs and a head of long, auburn hair. She pulled herself clear of the window in a couple of seconds.
“So you finally did it, did you?” she asked, rounding on Kennedy immediately. She had the exact same Scottish accent as he did. “After two months you finally got up the balls to-”
“Sally, dear, much as I am thrilled to see you again, you might want to edit your language for our company,” Kennedy said smoothly while seemingly trying to trip her up by hooking her round the back of the knee with his foot. Very mature.
She turned round, seemingly surprised. Then her face split into a grin wide enough to rival Kennedy’s. “Hey, Arihant!” she said, brandishing a white hand at him. “It’s nice to finally meet you. My name’s Lynn.”
“You know if you wanted to meet him you could have just introduced yourself by yourself, you bloody-”
Arihant didn’t move to shake her hand, just stared at how Kennedy was shut up quickly by a hand cuffing him around the back of the head. This was odd. This was profoundly odd. He still hadn’t recovered from the email thing, let alone the mirror. And wasn’t there-
“I thought your name was Sally,” he said quietly, and she turned quickly.
“No, it’s Lynn. Lyndsey Delaney.” She smiled. “Only my idiot brother ever calls me Sally.”
Arihant paused. “You’re twins?”
“I know, it’s such a surprise. This plain little thing being related to a god like me-”
“Kennedy, shut your d**n face or I will shut it for you,” Sally/Lynn barked at him, but the force of her tone was somewhat ruined by the fact that she was still grinning so enthusiastically. “It’s because that’s not his real face. Just one he picked up along the way… It belongs to some celebrity, I can’t remember his name.”
“Johnson something-or-other,” Kennedy supplied helpfully. “I kept my own voice, now, though, didn’t I?”
“These blessings do rain down on me, don’t they?” she asked sarcastically.
“And… the email thing?” Arihant interrupted. God, but he was confused.
Lynn looked pointedly at Kennedy. “You really haven’t told him anything!”
“Get off my back, you foul woman, I was only speaking to him for five minutes!”
“Uh-huh.” She continued staring at him, and Kennedy’s eyes glazed over in the same way they had before while hers started to sharpen, as if she were focusing on something in the far distance.
Arihant had no idea what the hell they were doing, but whatever it was, Kennedy seemed to lose (and that, for the matter, seemed to be a recurring trend.)
Kennedy turned round angrily, muttering, “Oh, for God’s sake!”, while Lynn turned to Arihant. She grabbed his gloved hand (causing him to flinch badly) with the hand that he’d neglected to shake a moment before, and pulled him up.
“Come on, Ari,” she said, and he blinked at the unfamiliar abbreviation. “Let’s go for a walk.”
He blinked, sure it was a hallucination. After all, he’d just been to a very strenuous class: Control of Physical Powers – despite his apprehensions, he’d found that they did actually cater for his kind of ability here. They taught them combat (which was practical, for a class predominantly of Warriors) but also something else that Arihant had personally found much more useful –
Control. For the first time in years he was regaining command over his own strength and speed, and what helped him more than anything else was that he was with other people like himself.
Well, not exactly like him. Even if he discounted the fact that his other power was so different to the others’, most of whom had at least an element if nothing more spectacular, the nature of his physical enhancement was different to theirs. If anyone compared Arihant to one of the other students with super-strength, Arihant would seem puny in comparison. If anyone compared him to a student with super-speed, he’d seem slow as a turtle.
In activities that tested one aspect of physicality alone, Arihant was at quite the disadvantage. For him, everything was enhanced, but it was like all the power that others had concentrated in either speed or strength was shared equally among all his faculties.
And really, that proved very useful. In combat, when he was against someone who was stronger than him, he knew he’d be faster. He knew he’d be stronger than the fast people. And also, he had the added bonuses of not having to worry about being injured and fairly indefatigable stamina. The variety of his power made him a formidable opponent.
However, while his victories significantly outnumbered his defeats, there were still several people who had enough knowledge and experience to use their one concentrated power in a way that decimated his many diluted ones. These people had seen war. They were prepared for anything.
But it… still. Still, in a way, it was nice. He fitted in, somehow, in that class. Sure, it was common knowledge in the school now what he was…
That scared him sometimes. And the strange thing wasn’t that it was the hatred that scared him – because, of course, some people did hate him and he couldn’t really blame them. Yes, it did hurt for him to see people whisper about him behind his back, and to see the more brazen of his tormentors flatten themselves against the walls of the corridors he walked through…
… but that was nothing compared to how strange it was that people had accepted him. Then again, for his part, he’d accepted that he was never going to understand that. For now… well, he didn’t know. He’d just enjoy it, he guessed.
They’d provided for him in the physical control class. They’d got a conjurer to make thick elbow-length gloves that clung to his skin and kept his habitual turtleneck jumper in place, and elastic bands that he put around his ankles to stop his jeans from slipping. They did look fairly ridiculous, but it was safe and –
Well, it was nothing compared to what he had to wear on his head when they were fighting. It wasn’t like it was anything terribly abnormal or like it was a bad idea or like it was uncomfortable, but…
Arihant had never seen himself as a motorcycle helmet kind of guy.
Maybe that was why he was seeing these things. Maybe the helmet had… blocked the air supply to his brain, or something.
But no. When he opened his eyes, it was still there. Or, more accurately, he was still there. Just lying there, on the bed opposite Arihant’s own, gazing out at the clouded sky. It was… He’d accepted Orchid as surreal – but this –
On that bed, it was… it was him. Himself, in the flesh. Arihant could see himself lying on the bed beside the left window –
And that didn’t make any sense at all.
He massaged his eyelids with his thumb and forefinger. “Oh, God,” he muttered below his breath. “God, this is it, isn’t it? I’ve finally gone mad.”
“Mad? You may be many things, comrade, but I’d certainly prefer to think that’s not one of them.”
The room snapped back into vision, and Arihant’s eyes narrowed. So it spoke, did it? It had turned and was now sitting up on the bed. Every detail was there – the dark skin, scruffy hair – even the faint line through his right eyebrow from when he was scalded when he was little. Everything except…
“You’re not wearing your gloves,” said Arihant, and he walked over to his own bed and pulled his laptop out from underneath. It didn’t matter if he was going mad or not, really – his coursework would still be there, no matter what… and really, he believed that if he ignored the thing, it might just go away by itself.
No such luck.
“Ah, now, that’s interesting. People usually notice the eyes first – or in your case, the voice, I guess – not the clothes… Then again, you probably have reason to.”
Now that it mentioned it, the voice was wrong. It wasn’t Indian at all – it was… American, it was too nasal to be anything else– and it was higher and more melodious than Arihant’s own. But he didn’t look up from his computer. He typed in his password, ignoring whatever the thing was doing.
Go away… For God’s sake, just go away now…
However, clearly his will was not one of stone. A couple of seconds later, he had to look. He just had to. His curiosity got the better of him, and he wanted to see what it meant about its eyes…
They were disturbing, when he looked at them. That was… probably the most startling thing he’d ever seen. How had he not noticed before?
“All right,” he said, snapping his laptop shut. “Who the hell are you?”
“Well,” the other Arihant said, rubbing its chin with its ungloved hand in mock speculation. “At least we have recognition.”
Arihant just stared at it, his brown eyes hardening against the eerie purple ones that faced him.
The other Arihant smiled, and then there was a faint hissing noise. He disappeared for a second, appearing to shimmer away like wavy, heated air in the desert. Then, when he shuddered back into shape, the other Arihant was gone.
In his place was a pale, dark-haired boy, whose violet eyes shone as he grinned cheekily and extended his hand.
“My name’s Kennedy Delaney,” he said, and his voice had changed, too – in place of the soft American accent that had been there before, there was now a rough Scottish lilt that sounded of howling winds and tinkling bells of heather. “And it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Arihant said nothing, because there wasn’t anything for him to say. He just stared at him. It didn’t appear to perturb the boy at all.
“OK, OK, I see your point,” he conceded, still grinning, and put his hand in the pocket of his black coat. His clothes hadn’t changed through the entire process a second ago – the only thing that hadn’t, other than the eyes. “Odd way to introduce myself, true. But – well, for Christ’s sake, comrade! You’re not exactly the most talkative of folk, are you? You realise you’ve slept in that bed for nigh on three months and haven’t said a single word to anyone in the room at all? There’s a limit to how shy you can be without just being rude, you know.”
Arihant didn’t trouble himself to reply. Just looked at him. He honestly couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
Kennedy now did seem to be slightly thrown off by the silence he received in lieu of an answer, but he soldiered on nonetheless. “Um… Yes, so… What was I going to say?… Oh, yeah, I was going to apologise for the… It wasn’t my idea, you know, but Sally said that I ought to introduce myself, since we’ve been roommates for so long and I thought that I might as well do it… interestingly, seeing as how-”
“That – what you did there – that’s one of your powers?”
Arihant decided to stop making him uncomfortable. Months might have passed since he arrived, things might have changed in ways that he could never have even imagined, but he was as similar in that aspect as he had ever been. And he – the boy seemed to be acting as if he had upset Arihant, but he really hadn’t. It had just been… a little shocking, that was all.
Kennedy immediately relaxed, and stopped babbling. “Aye, I’m a mimic. Voices and appearances.”
“Oh.”
There was another silence, not so awkward this time.
“Then why were you being American?”
The Cheshire grin leapt back onto his face. “Because, comrade, I’d never heard your voice before. I did mean it when I said you hadn’t said a word since you came here, you ken.”
Ken?
He chose to ignore that.
“You need to hear the voice to mimic it?”
“Just like I need to see the face, aye. I’m not a shapeshifter.” There was an edge of contempt in his voice. “It involves more… research than that.”
Arihant looked at the boy speculatively for a moment, absorbing what he’d just heard. He had to be telling the truth.
He smiled back at Kennedy for the first time. “OK, I’ll admit that’s the most interesting way anyone’s ever introduced themselves to me-”
Kennedy was triumphant.
“-but I don’t think you should try it again. You practically gave me a heart attack.”
“And, of course, I apologise for that, comrade, but in my defence it would have been a very entertaining death. Symbolic, too. Doppelgangers and all that jazz.”
Arihant frowned. “What gangers?”
“Doppelgangers,” Kennedy said, as if repeating the word would make Arihant understand. “You never heard of doppelgangers?”
“No… Am I supposed to have heard of them?”
Kennedy looked surprised. “No… No, that’s not – You hail from India, right?”
Skeptical, Arihant replied, “No, I’m from Peru. Can’t you tell by looking?”
And his companion laughed. “Oi, that wasn’t a stupid question. Your accent is pretty faint. You could have come from just round the corner, for all I know.”
OK, that was a complete lie. Arihant was always painfully aware of every inconsistency in his pronunciation, and there were lots to be aware of. “Mm-hmm.”
“I’m serious! How come you know English, anyway?”
Arihant hesitated. “My mother taught me. She lived in Australia for twelve years.”
“Ahh.” Kennedy looked interested, but didn’t push the subject any farther. “Well, a doppelganger probably wouldn’t be something well known in the east. It’s from… thingy, it’s somewhere near – like Transylvanian, maybe or…One of those weird ones…”
He roused himself. “Well, it’s European, anyway. Like a kind of ghost, but one that looks just like the person who sees it. And they say that when you do see your one, it’s a sign that your death’s not far off.”
“Oh, that’s…” – What? Creepy? Morbid?
“…interesting,” he finished weakly.
“That’s one word for it, I guess. Still, though, it’s one of my favourite myths. It can be very… entertaining for someone like me.”
“…You mean to say you’ve actually gone up to someone and-”
“Well, it was someone who deserved it.”
“Oh, well then it’s OK,” Arihant said, his voice ironic again.
“Obviously,” said Kennedy, leaning back on the bed. “Ach, no, it’s not like it gave him a heart attack or anything. Just a… fright. One that he wouldn’t have received if he weren’t such a superstitious auld git.”
“Aha…”
Kennedy raised one eyebrow. “You’re judging me, now, aren’t you?”
“No… Well. Maybe. A little bit.”
The Scottish boy laughed heartily, now lying completely flat on the bed with his arms tucked behind his head.
Arihant paused, a sudden question popping into his head. Unfortunately, however, he had no idea whether to ask it or not.
Well, what the hell. This situation was about as surreal as it was ever going to get. It wasn’t like he could make it any worse.
“You said that…”
He trailed off.
“Aye?” he asked, glancing down at him.
“You said… Sally said you ought to introduce yourself?”
Kennedy propped himself up on his elbows. “Aye, I can see how that might concern you there. Look, though, we’re not stalkers or anything. Or at least, I’m not. Sally can get a little… curious… sometimes. I always said she should have been the spy, ‘stead of me, but our powers suggested otherw-”
“No,” said Arihant, waving a hand slightly to cut him off. “I don’t think you’re… you’re ‘stalkers’ or anything…”
“Oh?”
“No, I was just wondering who she is.”
Kennedy raised an eyebrow. “That’s all? Well, sure, you can meet her now, if you’d like.”
Arihant reacted as if a spark of electricity had just shot down his spine. “No, that’s not what I mean-”
“God’s sake, man. She doesn’t bite.”
“Yes, I know, but- I- I wouldn’t want to cause her any trouble?”
“Pathetic excuse. You’re meeting her. Here, I’ll call her now.” A faraway look glazed his eyes, but it was gone almost before there was time to notice it.
“What- What was that? What did you do just there?” Arihant was beginning to feel a little out of his depth.
“Look, stop panicking. Seriously. I just sent her an email, is all.”
“Without a computer?”
Kennedy rolled his eyes. “It’s complicated. Ah, here she is!”
Arihant glanced towards the door, suddenly realising how risky this was. If someone caught them with a girl in their dormitory-
But the door didn’t move. The mirror did.
A pale hand slid through the glassy surface, which rippled as if it was made of water. It was shortly followed by assorted other white limbs and a head of long, auburn hair. She pulled herself clear of the window in a couple of seconds.
“So you finally did it, did you?” she asked, rounding on Kennedy immediately. She had the exact same Scottish accent as he did. “After two months you finally got up the balls to-”
“Sally, dear, much as I am thrilled to see you again, you might want to edit your language for our company,” Kennedy said smoothly while seemingly trying to trip her up by hooking her round the back of the knee with his foot. Very mature.
She turned round, seemingly surprised. Then her face split into a grin wide enough to rival Kennedy’s. “Hey, Arihant!” she said, brandishing a white hand at him. “It’s nice to finally meet you. My name’s Lynn.”
“You know if you wanted to meet him you could have just introduced yourself by yourself, you bloody-”
Arihant didn’t move to shake her hand, just stared at how Kennedy was shut up quickly by a hand cuffing him around the back of the head. This was odd. This was profoundly odd. He still hadn’t recovered from the email thing, let alone the mirror. And wasn’t there-
“I thought your name was Sally,” he said quietly, and she turned quickly.
“No, it’s Lynn. Lyndsey Delaney.” She smiled. “Only my idiot brother ever calls me Sally.”
Arihant paused. “You’re twins?”
“I know, it’s such a surprise. This plain little thing being related to a god like me-”
“Kennedy, shut your d**n face or I will shut it for you,” Sally/Lynn barked at him, but the force of her tone was somewhat ruined by the fact that she was still grinning so enthusiastically. “It’s because that’s not his real face. Just one he picked up along the way… It belongs to some celebrity, I can’t remember his name.”
“Johnson something-or-other,” Kennedy supplied helpfully. “I kept my own voice, now, though, didn’t I?”
“These blessings do rain down on me, don’t they?” she asked sarcastically.
“And… the email thing?” Arihant interrupted. God, but he was confused.
Lynn looked pointedly at Kennedy. “You really haven’t told him anything!”
“Get off my back, you foul woman, I was only speaking to him for five minutes!”
“Uh-huh.” She continued staring at him, and Kennedy’s eyes glazed over in the same way they had before while hers started to sharpen, as if she were focusing on something in the far distance.
Arihant had no idea what the hell they were doing, but whatever it was, Kennedy seemed to lose (and that, for the matter, seemed to be a recurring trend.)
Kennedy turned round angrily, muttering, “Oh, for God’s sake!”, while Lynn turned to Arihant. She grabbed his gloved hand (causing him to flinch badly) with the hand that he’d neglected to shake a moment before, and pulled him up.
“Come on, Ari,” she said, and he blinked at the unfamiliar abbreviation. “Let’s go for a walk.”
