"I can no longer recall the first time I became someone else." the words reverberate like a released cork in the small apartment, "I have been Sophie for fifty-two years." pop! She inhales deeply in the swell of foam that kicks up, "Does that not make me Sophie, as much as you are Joe?" the flow carries her along as she continues.
"I've wanted to tell you for years Joe, I did..." her truth spills upon her body, changing its form. "How does one explain a lifetime of wandering?" the flood gives way, "I cannot place my original life, nor the ones I knew in it. I cannot differentiate any point in time from another anymore, except the time I've spent with you." momentum fizzles out, leaving her dripping in the cold breeze of uncertainty.
Her full lips formed around the next details, but Joe's clenched jaw gave pause. Shaking, he reaches for the arm of the couch, gripping it with a force Sophie could see in his knuckles. As he stands, his hand finds the bridge of his nose. Squeezing his eyes tight against the lunacy she was spouting, his chest heaves in a drawn-out sigh.
"I can't believe that you would think this is an appropriate time to be whimsical, I don't find it charming at all." his grey eyes are piercing. "I just want to know the truth Sophie, are you cheating on me?" verbalizing the accusation breaks him. "Why do you have a fake birth certificate?" his voice cracks, as he paces across the room to hide the gathering tears.
"We've been together for ten years Sophie..." he faces her, betrayal weighing his handsome features down, "I never questioned your odd behavior, I respected that there were parts of you that belong to no one." anger crosses his face, shoving the grief aside.
"This entire damn time, it has all been a farce! I don't even know if Sophie is your real name!" a wild look overcomes the gaze that has always met her with patience, "The woman I fell in love with isn't someone who would hide an entire secret life... the woman I fell in love with must not exist."
A tired mind stretched by the vast expanse of innumerable memories reaches out, grasping at the stands of time that tied this experience to her. A myriad of life highlights flicker across her consciousness, drowned out in their similarity. It would always go like this, she knew it in her bones. Yet, no matter how much time they are given, some people never learn their lesson.
What is the point of being immortal, if you are alone? "My name is Ember, although I don't know who gave it to me. I understand this is a lot, so let me show you who I am." her face begins to melt. She knows what happens next, yet she denies it with every misplaced scrap of hope she has. A ripple shakes the surface of her golden skin, distorting and reshaping her features.
Joe blinks a dozen times, yet the illusion holds steady. Shaking the madness from his head, he grips the auburn hair at his temples, squinting his eyes at the reflection. In front of him, stood himself. "Wha-" he shakes his head once more, "What?!" he can't seem to manage any more than that.
Ember steps forward, placing her arms around Joe's identical body for a brief instant, before he shoves her away. Ripples expand from the points of contact, and she morphs into Sophie again.
Joe falls back on open palms, looking up at her in horror. "Stay away from me!" he gasps, as he scrambles backwards along the floor, towards the exit. "You're a demon!" he crosses himself, before grasping the doorknob to come to a stand. Terror has chased away all tenderness.
The slam of the front door brings another chapter of Ember's saga to a close. She knows the way forward, as a blind man knows the dimensions of his home. Each detail elaborated by intimate knowledge; she navigates onward by sense memory. Her perspective shifts in an endless cycle... this world is a playground. Perhaps she had been dormant too long.
A backpack is sufficient to gather the items that matter here, there is nothing in this world she cannot replace. She pulls the cushions from the couch her decade long fling just unraveled on, squatting down in front of it. After some digging in the frame, she pulls saran wrapped bricks of cash out, piling them at her side neatly.
a year later...
Ember laughs at her publicity stunt, of course she could've liberated any sum of money with impersonation. Failing to buy Twitter was a great ploy, more people were speaking the assumed name now. Life was boring, why not make people freak out?
It should only take a few more years, then a new experience would spring forth in the stale life of a woman who had truly seen it all. Space travel. She would corner the market on earth now, and leave the legacy to an endless string of heirs to impersonate. No more rebuilding.
It might take a thousand years, a million... Ember had the time to spare. Someday, she would head the teams that explored distant planets. Her desire for romantic love evaporated in the heat of excitement. After all this time, maybe there was still more to do.
