As he let his thoughts wander, he found Xavier behind one of the commercial buildings. There was a car parked in the gravel by the shore, and the young man was holding the passenger’s door open. He was completely immobile, as if hypnotized by what he was looking at. He hadn’t yet noticed Noah.

In the driver’s seat, an entire skeleton, fully intact. No trace of flesh or organ remained on it. It had been picked clean of everything, almost if someone had intended to make it look like a perfect bone monument. Then, even more troubling, was the corpse in the passenger’s seat: emitting a putrid odor, only the face was damaged, but it was ruined beyond recognition, almost entirely obliterated. Noah was able to make sense of the scene, having a semi-clear picture of what had transpired. The glove compartment in front of it was smeared in coagulated blood, so it stood to reason that, some time ago, someone grabbed the victim’s head and smashed it repeatedly with great strength.

Or was it what really happened? Noah surprised himself thinking.

A blinding flash. He was back in the land of the dead. For a fraction of a second, he saw the face of the girl he had killed. It then quickly shifted back to where he had been standing a moment earlier. The car was in front of him, parked like before. However, he could see the exact moment of the kill, all in slow-motion, like having a window to an in-depth analysis of the situation. In the driver’s seat, a girl, panicking, looking at the man next to her. In the other seat…

Xavier. Yet, nobody was holding his head. Only him, of his own will, an expression of shock and surprise, violently smashing his own face against the car. His nose broke first, the bones and cartilage shattered. Blood flew everywhere, some of it splashing on the woman’s face. But it didn’t stop there. It kept going, again and again; the skin tore, parts of the skeleton and the muscle now revealed. And again; the jaw fractured and dropped, the tongue loose outside the mouth, pieces of tooth falling. And again; remains of tooth and bone cut the tongue off, a hurricane of red juice flooding the vehicle. From there, he was unconscious, probably even dead. But it didn’t stop. Again, the motion happened; almost entirely crushed, an eye fell out, the other reduced to paste. And again; a hole opened in his face, a good part of the skull was annihilated. And again; parts of the brain leaked out, the head reduced to about half its original size due to the sheer amount of force created by the impact.

Another flash. Noah came back to reality. He gasped, his head spinning. He tried to find his footing but his stomach protested against the very notion of existence. His innards exploded, propelling vomit and black ooze out of his mouth. Xavier finally noticed him.

“What are you doing here?” he said, approaching him menacingly.

“The man, in the car… it’s you.”

Xavier stopped in his tracks, completely dumbfounded.

“Don’t be stupid. I’m right here. And how can you tell who that would be? The face is completely destroyed.”

“I - I saw it. I saw what happened.” Noah said, catching his breath. “His face was identical. Or maybe… maybe he was your twin?” he suggested, trying to find a logical explanation.

Xavier took a step forward, rummaging through his pockets.

“No,” Noah said, overcome by some instinct that he had been wrong. “Not a twin… That was the real Xavier. Then… who are y-”

Xavier leapt forward, a pocket knife in hand. A hint of madness in his eyes, he pushed the sharpened steel against Noah’s throat. He breathed heavily, his face distorted with rage. “I am me!” he yelled. “I am real!”