24

Pennies. Charlie tasted pennies in her mouth, but couldn't feel any on her tongue. She swallowed dryly. It was dark and, for some reason, damp. It smelled like someone's grandmother's old basement...complete with a granny corpse. She coughed and fire ripped through her neck. Her arms were stiff and didn't cooperate properly when she wanted them to move.

"Wh-what's going on?" She mumbled. The. Everything came back, slamming into her like a wrecking ball. "Shay!" she screamed, even though it tore her throat and cracked her lips. "Shay, no! No!" She felt actual physical pain in her chest that outweighed the pain of her limbs, of her throat, her stabbed leg...all of it. It was all...for nothing...because Shay was gone anyway, and she would never come back. "Noooo!" Charlie cried openly.

"Stop your blubbering," Jonny said.

He clicked a light on and the room blazed. Dead foggy eyes of a man gave an empty stare straight into her face. Waxy skin surrounded them, blackened blood around a rotting nose.

Charlie's anguished cries turned into screams of terror. Jonny said something, but it didn't register. She'd reached her breaking point. Shay was gone. It was just her and her childhood nightmare now. After everything, she had lost. At that moment, she was sure she was going to be in this guy's place, looking at the next victim without seeing. Facing them with her eternally screaming, dead mouth. She couldn't focus. Couldn't think. Something wrapped in her hair. It pulled her forward, away from the corpse, then roughly slammed her into a nearby wall.

"I said shut up!" Jonny shouted. "It's just Jonny. He's harmless."

Charlie's throat hurt so bad, it felt as though she'd swallowed a nest of bees and they were stinging her inside. She almost didn't register what he'd said. It's just Jonny.

Jonny? As she thought it, the name croaked out of her. Jonny laughed.

"It's what I do, Charlie," he said. He walked across the room to a work table, turning his back to her. "Those ID cards, they were all me. They looked different didn't they? I'm good at what i do." He gave her a sneaky smile, then went back to his task. "I lucked up, bumping into Jonny boy here. He was coming to town to stay with his cousin whom he hadn't seen in many, many years. He even joked about how he probably wouldn't recognize him. I knew most of my work was done then. Usually I have to grow facial hair, or get a haircut, gain or lose wight, change my eyebrows or nose shape, create a fake scar...frankly it's a lot of work stealing identities."

So, he wasn't ever really Jonny. Just like he was never truly Jack. Charlie sobbed. Who is this evil person with so many faces, so many names? Her arms worked now and she hugged herself, pressed against the wall. Her mind wanted to rationalize, needed to create a plan to escape...but she was taken by his confession. He seemed to like the sound of his own voice. Or maybe he was simply trying to distract her.

"All I had to do to become Jonny was dye my hair and wear colored contacts. That's all they remembered about him before his aunt got custody and took him far away from his mother's family. His parents died you see, at the hands of someone like me." He turned around and gave a little grin. "Maybe not just like me, but a killer nonetheless. So, if you think of it, I was doing him a favor. Reuniting them, if you believe in that sort of thing. I just killed him because...well, it was fun. That moron Jake's silly friend was eager enough to play a girlfriend for the new Jonny. Not that I give two shits about her, but she was a good camouflage. A terrible lay, though." He seemed to give a thoughtful look filled with disgust. It bothered Charlie that he would talk so bad about Demi, who had trusted and cared about him.

"No wonder," she spat. "She was having to sleep with you."

He gave her a neutral look, as if her words merely bounced off of him without making a mark whatsoever. "Serum has worn off, I see," he said.

He stepped toward her and she shouted, tried to push him away. He was average sized, but much stronger than he looked. He was unmoved by her. He took the front of her shirt in both his hands and pulled them apart. The fabric gave, bursting apart and revealing her grimy off-white bra. It was now stained in so many various fluids, it would never be white again. The shredded shirt hung in ruins on her shoulders and back.

"I'm a little stronger now," he said with a harsh cackle. "And I have got a lot of fun planned."

Charlie's eyes drifted over to the work table he had stood at and saw all of the things he had laid upon it. Dreadful things. Painful things. They were all going to be used on her. Her horror spilled out with her voice and thundered through the building.