Disclaimer and Notes: see Prologue
The Experiment – HST 17
by Belladonna
~Chapter 4~
William had returned to his diagnosis table, on which he had awoken first and laid down. He seemed defeated and all around here made no sense to him. He never had felt anything like this before and he did not like it a bit.
The unconscious man still lay there in his restraints on the other diagnosis table while William proceeded to stare at the ceiling. Not even the slowly returning knowledge of what he was could pull him out of this state of defeat. And he truly hadn’t even begun to fight yet, but his mind never registered that. Instead he seemed lethargic and depressed, pondering about his situation and the implications.
The other man awoke immediately, the short electric impulse shocking him enough for that. He opened his eyes and glanced around curiously, quickly assessing his new situation and studying everything he was able to see form the position on the table. By doing so he noticed the computers and also the other man on the table next to him.
“Hey!”
Windsworth nearly jumped when the other spoke to him. The strange sound of his own voice, coming from another person was enough for the moment to let him waken up from this apathy he currently dwelled in. He turned his head around towards the other, to look at him, something he frantically had avoided so far and saw him, saw his eyes staring at him with an icy coldness that caused the blood inside his veins to freeze. Windsworth rose, putting his legs once again on the floor and bracing himself for the nausea that had followed the first time. Surprised he noticed that he already felt a bit better and stronger also but then he also remembered that he always recovered really fast. He slowly made his way to the other table where the other still was restrained on but already fought against the metal holding him down there. Windsworth watched him closely and not without the generous amount of suspicion he saw in the other’s eyes too.
He began to remember much clearer now what had happened and especially what he was; he wouldn’t take a risk in coming closer to the other if he truly was like him. But why did he fear him then, they should be like brothers if that was the truth. Windsworth shrugged all the uneasy feelings off for the moment and concentrated back on the other, remaining in safe distance from him. Because he might no longer have felt that weak like he had before but clearly was no match against the other man, the strength he had displayed previously when snapping the first restraints was proof enough for him.
The other also studied the man in front of him once he stepped out of the shadows and into the light. He looked at him, head to toe but his glance remained locked onto the other’s face. This Windsworth reacted a bit more composed than William had done at the sight of his mirror counterpart. He also didn’t waste much time with unnecessary questions or wonderings about the situation and the implications created with the fact that he had an identical Spike in front of him. Right now he decided to act only to his instinct.
“Who the hell are you!” he angrily hissed towards William. “Let me go!”
He again fought his restraints, wildly bucking so that William took a step backwards, shocked and also afraid and once again forgetting for a moment what he was and that others usually feared him.
“William Windsworth, but these days I prefer Spike!” he said shyly. The other shook his head, hissing.
“I am William Windsworth!” he insisted, still the fury not gone out of his voice. “Even though I bloody well haven’t been that nancy boy for a long time now. You can’t be him for I am Spike.”
“I am also Spike”; William tried to explain and fetched a chair for himself, feeling the nausea returning but maintained the secure distance once he was seated. Now he began to feel a bad feeling growing inside him and that was doubt mingled with fear this time. He was so much lost in thought that he now had no time to even wonder at the implications and the fact that lay behind what the other said or even was and why.
“I have no clue of this or how he did it, but this Dr. Jonas, some bleedin’ geneticist or some such said that you are me, my dark soul”, he laughed humourlessly at that; “and that you were created out of my aggressive emotions and thoughts. That he had separated us and most of what he said didn’t make any sense at all.”
“Who’s that Jonas bloke?” Spike growled angrily and his temper flared anew as he spit his anger at the other. Whoever that imposter might have been, it sure wasn’t him and a good portion of scare hadn’t done harm to anybody in the past.
“T-the man you saw when you woke up the first time”; William told his mirror image, fighting down surprise and nausea. The other Spike seemed to consider his answer because suddenly he relaxed and leaned back before he somehow politely asked William to release him from the restraints. William hesitated for a moment; he wasn’t sure whether he really should do what the other had asked but then if he couldn’t trust himself, whom else could he?
And also the other would certainly not harm him, him being the one who had freed him. He began loosening the cuffs on the left hand and then cautiously waited what the other would do now.
Said other one slowly moved his wrist, letting himself feel for a moment the freedom from being restrained so long but then his hand snapped forward with inhumanly speed and closed itself around William’s neck, merciless and hard and he felt William stiffening inside from fear and surprise.
Inside his observation room Jonas leaned forward to get a closer look at the scene behind the window. He truly was fascinated about this particular development and also truly taken by the data he got from both of them.
“You’re lying!” the other practically spat towards the other, hissing through clenched teeth. “I am Spike, the real Big Bad around here. So, who the soddin’ hell are you and this time I will get a satisfying answer, understood? I’ll kill you right here if you’re lying and I can tell.”
“I am Spike”, William managed to get out, slowly choking; the bare threat still hanging between them and the other didn’t make it easier for him by pulling him down towards the table to get an even more iron grip around his neck. “You are also Spike, your true name is William Windsworth just like mine and what I told you is the bleedin’ truth. It is what that Jonas bloke told me.”
“I still don’t believe you!” Spike growled again and squeezed. William made some strange gurgling sounds and insisted on his point, at least as much as it was possible for him with the cut air supply. And William didn’t even waste a single thought as to why he really needed the precious air for the moment.
“It is all I know”; William continued to bubble out. He felt like a fish outside the water and the grip that held his neck didn’t move an inch. If only it hardened.
“Please…let…go.”
Reluctantly Spike loosened his grip from William who immediately staggered several steps backwards. He gasped for air and rubbed his neck on which one fine set of fingerprints clearly was visible in an angry red by now. Spike opened the remaining cuffs and sat up, sniffing around. All he received was the sterile stench of the lab and the fear, unmistakably coming from the imposter. Spike threw his legs off the table and his eyes wandered around the room, taking in every detail that he had overlooked before but then rested anew on William. Spike’s thoughts raced now, his mind working with a clarity he hadn’t encountered before and he had the slight feeling to see all his senses sharpened, being sharper than they used to. Still he did not believe this wimp William a single thing. Spike stood up and straightened his posture right in front of William. The other involuntarily held his breath once he felt the prying and hard glare of Spike resting on him.
Both men were facing each other, like the two images of a mirror; twins created in the middle of their lifetimes and not from birth. Spike circled his counterpart and noticed with satisfaction that the other moved with him, obviously afraid to turn his back towards him. He might have lied to him about being him or his double or whatever but at least he wasn’t completely stupid. And it was absolutely impossible that the crazy story he’d told him would be the truth.
They now studied each other for the first time really closely, curiosity equally present on their faces as was suspicion and fear. Spike now looked at the man in front of him, his mirror image a picture he hadn’t seen since decades, plus some additions and changes that was. Still he was the same he had been before. And now the other wore the same grey sweatpants and the shirt with the symbol of the DNA strand on it. Spike looked at the same hairstyle, the short bleached blond hair and the scar on the left eyebrow, the same he wore on his own and had earned himself in his fight with the first Slayer he’d ever killed. It was good that it had been a magickal blade that had cut him, otherwise he wouldn’t have scarred and that way he always was reminded of this glorious victory. Spike had considered this scar a trophy ever since, like his coat that was nowhere to be seen. They must have taken it off when they brought him here and it pissed him off. He would get that coat back, even if he had to kill every single one around here, of which he unfortunately only had seen two people yet; that Jonas guy and the other, his “twin”.
Spike didn’t understand what had happened, but at least he now wasn’t so eager to ignore what the other had claimed to be, not after seeing it with his own eyes. And the other seemed to be very real.
But he also seemed to be completely human, his smell of fear assaulting his nostrils and the heart beat so terribly loud in the silence of the laboratory for Spike’s ears screamed human to him, betraying the other’s nature. That couldn’t be him, there was no chance in hell of the other being him because he hadn’t heard his own heart beat since over a hundred years and it still remained dead within his own chest, un-beating since the night he had been turned.
And it continued to remain silent inside him but how could the other then be him too like he had claimed and even insisted to be, after him nearly being killed? And not an imposter or a cleverly prepared deception even if he was completely human?
Spike raised his hands to rub his temples, an unconscious habit that remained ever since the time he had been human and then from time to time suffering from headaches. Somehow he felt one building inside again, despite him not having had one because of his own vampiric nature. He also felt a bit dizzy what must have come from the fact that he was hungry. Or was he really? Spike couldn’t remember the last time he had fed but he didn’t have the desire to feed even though there was a potential victim within his reach. He now noticed for the first time the white plastic band around his wrist. He read the numbers on the plastic and his name: William Windsworth aka Spike.
How the hell did they know who he was, especially his true name and who the hell were they?
Spike was confused, more than that to be precisely and he didn’t like it a bit. He felt the other slowly approaching, his racing pulse that surely drove him into feeding frenzy without feeling it and he reacted out of pure instinct again. He changed.
William recoiled in horror at the sight of the other now, at how his face had deformed. They eyes began to glow slightly yellow and when he pulled back his lips he revealed pointed and razor sharp fangs William felt truly nauseous. With the sight of the other in front of him he felt his memories, the whole memory of him suddenly crashing down on him and he also knew now what had felt so strange during the whole time; what had been missing and all the time just seemingly being out of reach. Now he knew that it hadn’t been just out of reach, it was no longer there.
William staggered backwards and had to hold himself upright at the table so that he wouldn’t break down like he had before. He couldn’t quite remember when it had been the last time he had ever felt such weakness before. Not even when he had been human, but then something else came back into his mind, something Jonas had said and he now fully understood.
He was human now.
Jonas had not separated his dark side or soul as the doctor had pronounced it, but more the demon from the man.
go to Chapter 5
back to Chapter 3