I awoke shivering in a dark room, water dripping somewhere behind me. The last thing I remembered was the sharp bite in my abdomen. Still in my pants, I glanced down and spotted two angry red circles in the middle of my waist. Damn Tasers, definitely not an invention I appreciated.

“You’re awake.”

I glanced up toward my captor standing in the doorway. Jake, Izzy’s brother.

Izzy.

Her face flashed before my eyes. What must she have thought of me as she woke this morning alone?

“You have no right to hold me here. This is kidnapping.”

He chuckled and leaned on the doorframe. “I won’t keep you long. Just long enough.”

“For what?”

“To talk some sense into you.”

I gestured at the Taser marks on my stomach. “And you had to do this? You couldn’t chat with me in my living room over tea like civilized men?”

He entered the room and closed the door. I stood thinking I was probably about to have to defend myself. In all my years, fighting was never a skill I wanted to learn. I could throw a punch when necessary, but I’d never gone out of my way to learn the various styles that passed in and out of fashion through the years.

“Sit down, I don’t intend to hurt you, yet.” He threw himself in a metal chair off to the side of the cot I woke up on.

“What do you want with me? Are you even Izzy’s brother or did you use that as a ruse to get to me?”

He shifted forward so his elbows braced on top of his thighs and narrowed his eyes. “What do you think?”

I scanned his features. Their eyes were the same and yet different. It disconcerted me I couldn’t get an accurate read on him as I was usually very good at that sort of thing.

He waited, and I didn’t answer, which I supposed he took for not knowing. “I am Izzy’s brother. My name is Jake as I mentioned.”

“So, what is this about? Did the Americans decide I’m a threat again and send you to bring me in?”

He shook his head, and then let it hang down. “No, this is all personal.”

I failed to see the logic in his plan. How was this meant to play out? “Are you intending to threaten me into staying away from your sister? I assure you, I already tried pushing her away, and it failed spectacularly.”

The press of her hands on my chest flashed in my head. I dropped my gaze so he couldn’t see that there. It was mine. She was mine.

He stood and scooted his chair closer, so only a foot of space lay between our knees. I tried to stop the shiver in mine from the chilly room. “I have no intention of threatening you. You’re going to stay away from her all on your own.”

“And how is that?”

Anger was replacing any sense of honor I had in dealing with her brother. Kidnapping people, tasing them, that was the action of a lunatic. That sort of person didn’t deserve my respect, no matter who his relations were.

He reached around and pulled out an envelope from his back pocket. I watched carefully in case he had some sort of needle or weaponized powder stashed inside. He pulled up the flap and lifted out a piece of paper. It had already been folded and refolded several times. I glanced between the paper and his eyes, waiting for the answer. Each action he made was slow, precise, and deliberate. I had no doubt this was his end game. Something I was supposed to realize.

He opened the paper, folded horizontally in three parts, and handed it to me. It was an old picture, a photocopy of a painting. The style was from the era when I was born, and by the shape and size it looked to be a miniature. A small, framed portrait people had made to give to family or potential spouses in my day.

“Why are you showing me this?”

He pointed to the paper. “Do you recognize her?”

I scanned her features, trying to associate something with my past or my memory. Nothing. I didn’t recognize a single thing about the girl. “No, I’m afraid I don’t know who she is.”

“Look again.”

I glanced back down, my patience running out. “No, I don’t know her.”

He smiled, it was the smile of a man who had just delivered a check mate. The one given just before a killing blow. “That is Sibyl Vane.”

I replayed his words in my head and glanced back down to the image on the page. The woman had brown hair like I recall Sibyl having, but this round faced-creature stirred no memory in me. “This isn’t Sibyl.”

“It is,” he said. “I assure you, I have impeccable sources.”

I flicked the paper at him and he let it fall to the floor between us, not even flinching to grasp it out of the air. “You may have sources, but I was there. I knew her personally. That’s not her.”

He pulled another piece of paper from the envelope, a small gray square, and I snatched it from him to look.

The obituary spoke about Sibyl, but I don’t remember having ever seen an obituary for her. The image in the painting was exactly the same as the girl in a photo accompanying the article.

I stared at it, rereading for as long as I dared. When I looked back up, Jake sat watching me carefully. “Do you recognize her now?”

I shook my head. “I’ve never seen this woman in my life.”

What did that mean? Was I never acquainted with Sibyl? Or perhaps the woman I knew was someone impersonating her?”

No, that was impossible too. I met her the first time after she performed on stage. I folded over and clutched my head in my hands. “I don’t understand.”

The chair in front of me shifted, and the paper was scooped from the floor. I glanced up to him holding his cell phone out to me. I took it, uncertain what else he wanted to show me.

The image on his screen was Izzy. Her short blonde hair that wide smile that could drop me to my knees. She looked so beautiful, so happy, in that picture. “Do you know who that is?”

“It’s Izzy.”

He nodded. “Well, you’re one for two, at least.”

I opened my arms, surrendering to whatever game he was playing. “What do you want from me? Why am I here?”

He shook his head and slipped his phone into his cargo pocket. “You’re here until you realize that being with my sister is detrimental to her health and happiness. You’re not a sane man, Mr. Gray.”

“What do you even know about me? Who the hell are you?”

“My name is Warrant Officer Jake Vale. Isobel is my sister. That’s all you really need to know about me. And more than most do.”

“I’m going to ask you again, what do you want with me?”

He leaned in, his face only inches from mine. I could see Izzy’s eyes, and it threw me off even more. “Do you recognize me at all?”

“You and your sister share eyes.”

“That’s not all we share. Izzy and I are identical twins. I was born two minutes before she was.”

I scanned his face, but it was like trying to turn on a light when the bulb had blown. I couldn’t line his features up with Izzy’s and make them fit.

“You don’t see it, do you? It’s because you’re not well. I spoke to the medical team that treats you, Gray. They confirmed your symptoms already. You’ll start seeing things, inverting memories and faces, until the past and present mix up and you will be unable to untangle the two. Apparently, its common once a patient passes the hundred-year mark. It’s the start of your mental deterioration.”

I let his words sink in. Hadn’t I considered the very same possibility? But Sibyl and Izzy? I’d only sought Izzy out because she looked so much like Sibyl, hadn’t she? And now, after seeing those images of Sibyl, it was fresh in my mind that they looked nothing alike. Then there was Izzy and her brother, who also looked nothing alike to me.

“Did the doctors tell you how to fix it?”

He shifted in the chair, causing it to squeak some more under his weight. “They advised you go stay at their center for treatment. Do you understand why I’m doing this, Gray? My sister cares about you. Once she told me about you, I showed up within hours to keep watch over her. I can see that she cares for you, and I know you care for her. If you truly do, then you will let her go so you can get the medical help you need.”

I thought about Izzy, how angry she must be waking up to find me gone. “I can’t just leave her without so much as a goodbye.”

He waved his hand like a magician presenting a new trick. “You already took care of that too. That note you left on the counter was very effective.”

I remembered writing her the note, but I could barely recall the words. The most important part was that she thought I left her, just up and left without a word.

Damn. I did intend to leave, didn’t I? I knew something was wrong already, maybe subconsciously?

“Let me take you to get treatment,” Jake said.

I met his eyes and let him see the anger I’d been keeping at bay. “I will not be going anywhere with you. What I do with my life and with whom is none of your concern, even if she is your sister. She is an adult and can make her own choices.”

“Wait, a…”

“No,” I stood up and tried to muster all the dignity I usually possessed in my bespoke suits while still in my boxer briefs. “You are letting me out of this rat cage, and you will give me some clothes. Talking about your sister, my health, all of it...not a single thing warranted being tased, kidnapped, and locked up like a prisoner.”

He rubbed his neck and had the gall to look sheepish now. “Some of it may have been for my benefit. I know you’re fucking my twin sister, and I don’t appreciate it.”

“She’s a grown woman, and if I know her, if she knew about this, she’d have your balls in a bell jar under her sink.”

He laughed, and for the first time, I could see her in his face. That smile was just like hers. “Well, you do know her, I’ll give you that. I don’t intend to tell her about all this. And if you tell her, it will only hurt her more. You should get out and away while she thinks you’re just gone. A clean exit is open for you, just take it, Gray.”

I had no intention of taking advice from this man. In fact, I had no intention of saying another word until I was properly showered, fed, and clothed. “Take me home now.”

He nodded and stood up. I watched him carefully before following him to the door. “I’m sorry about this,” he said.

I thought he meant the kidnapping and lecture. But, he actually meant the pistol whip he gave me to the back of the head.