Chapter 11: Mirror Images

 

“Excuse me,” Eric said. 

“Yes?” The person in the mirror was technically him. It was his face, his body, and yet… something about it was off. It reminded him of computer graphics in movies, something about it just slightly uncanny. The movements were a little too jerky in places, smooth in others, a bit like a bird might. There was also a little golden… something in his eyes, a golden glow deep inside of his pupil, like a very distant sunrise. 

“What’s happening?” He tried to move his arm, and it obliged. Despite his body moving of its own accord, it seemed to do so only when he wasn’t doing something with it. Taking back control was as simple as deciding to. “I uh… I don’t… I uh…”

“Don’t freak out,” Amaranth said. “I’m a symbiote. Like a parasite, but cool.” It cocked its head again. “Though I guess, if you’re the landlord here…” It chuckled. 

“I didn’t sign any lease!” Eric said to his reflection, trying not to yell. 

“No, no, you’re right. Though you’re welcome for me saving your life, you know.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re excused.”

“What do you mean?!” He gripped the sides of the washbasin and resisted the urge to try to reach through the glass and grab his mirror image by the collar.

“You were pretty close to dying, babe.” Amy said. “You know, the fire?”

“Oh,” he said, and relaxed a bit. “Yeah, Penumbra said something about that.”

“Yeah!” Amaranth said excitedly. “That’ll be my parent, I suppose! Love them.”

“Penumbra laid an egg in me?!”

“That’s a bit reductive,” Amy said, but it was clearly having a pretty good time. “Also, I’d like it if you’d stop referring to me as an ‘it’ in your head. That doesn’t sit right with me. I’m definitely of the girlish variety.” Eric’s reflection thoughtfully touched their chin. “I wonder if that’s the Max in me.”

“You mean Maxine?” Eric asked. 

“Yeah! Guess she’s my mom? This is complicated, I tells ya. Anyway you should give them a call, I think. They’ll know what to do,” Amy said. 

Eric splashed some water on his face. He wasn’t dreaming, that was for sure. He’d had weird dreams before, but nothing like this, never like this. “How do you know that?” 

“Bit of me, bit of you, I reckon!” Amaranth said cheerfully. When he shot her an annoyed look, she giggled again. “Penny created me to heal you but there’s a lot of information in a little bit of them. I was in your entire system pretty much from the get-go, buddy. Couldn’t have put you back together otherwise. We’re basically roomies up here.” She was a lot more expressive than he was, Eric realized. She moved her hands when she spoke, and even her face smiled in ways he wasn’t used to. 

“So you just live in my head now?! I didn’t ask for that!”

“Oh, relaaax. I didn’t really move in. It’s more like I’m renting while renovations were ongoing.” She paused. “Pretty sick stuff we could do together though.”

“Hold on, one thing at a time,” Eric said. “Renting while renovations— You mean you can leave now that I’m healed?” His head nodded in the mirror. “Okay, what do you mean, sick stuff?”

“Your mom,” Amaranth said. “Would’ve had a pretty nasty fall, methinks. Your impulse was good but you wouldn’t have made it.” She tutted slightly. It was very strange seeing his own reflection look sassy. “Not without my help, at least. Slapping the gutter like that.”

“That was you?” Another nod. “Okay,” he said. “Okay, that was… thank you. For saving me and my mom, I guess.” He relaxed and sat down on the toilet seat. “I’m sorry, I’m not exactly used to someone in my head talking to me and then seeing my own reflection move like that and—“

“Oh, goodness golly fucking gracious,” Amaranth said, “I’m so sorry. Hold on.” Eric felt his legs move as he stood up on his own accord. It was a bit like sleepwalking, or typing. It was like his body knew what to do without his input. “Don’t try to move the other way,” she said, “or we’ll trip. Well, not while I’m walking, at least. There, does that help?”

He stood in front of the mirror, and Eric screamed. Well, he would have, if something hadn’t rapidly cover his face, like a piece of cloth being pulled over his eyes. The whole world went dark, his nose and mouth covered by something thick and viscous.

“I’m sorry I’m so sorry I’m sorry I’m so sorry please stop screaming please I’m sorry! Here! Look! Everything’s okay! You can see! Please BREATHE!” Eric took a deep breath and realised he wasn’t actually suffocating. Whatever was covering his face still was, yet somehow air flowed into his lungs with ease. 

He opened his eyes. There was someone else in the mirror now. It looked a bit like a girl, about his age and his height, though she was wearing what looked like the kind of full-body track suits he’d seen athletes wor, thought it had a full face mask, with holes for her eyes, which were a deep and seemingly-liquid gold. It didn’t have a mouth. 

“Hello,” she said, and waved. Eric saw his arm go up in the corner of his eye, and looked down. “Yeah,” Amaranth said. “Told you I’m the girly sort.” She laughed like Eric imagined a cartoon cat would. “Don’t worry, this is like… like a suit!”

“Like Penny and Maxine have,” Eric said. “That makes sense. So this is you… inside me, I guess?” His words were slightly muffled by the mask. It absorbed a lot of the bass in his voice, and he didn’t have a lot of bass to absorb to begin with. He held his hand in front of him and studied it for a second. On closer inspection, this wasn’t all that much like the kind of thing athletes wore. The surface moved slightly, like oil. He touched it with his other hand and subtle waves rippled through the texture. “Wild,” he said. 

“Right?” Amy said. “Okay, promise not to freak out? I want to show you a little more of what I can do.” Slowly, the deep red liquid around a part of Eric’s face retreated. Just the lower half, below his nose. Except that, instead of his own face, what appeared was a distinctly feminine mouth, with full lips and a gentle jawline.

“Huh?” The voice that came out of his mouth was his own but also… not. It wasn’t just pitch-shifted, there was a resonance in his throat he wasn’t used to. It sounded different. Feminine. “What did you—“

“Secret identity baby! Nobody would think you’re you if you look like a girl in a cool mask!” Amaranth said, slightly turning his head left to right so he could see. It looked like the kind of mask he’d seen superheroes wear as a kid. The fact that the eyes were still a bright gold definitely made him feel like he looked cool, even if he was a girl. 

“Dang.” 

“Right?” 

“So you can just, like, change shape at will? Even my shape?” He looked down again, but he felt a little voyeuristic looking at someone’s breasts, even if they were, technically, his. Or were they Amaranth’s? Oh God, was he staring at an alien’s breasts? She laughed. 

“No,” Amaranth giggled, “those aren’t mine. I mean, I definitely don’t hate them, but on my own I think I probably look a bit like a can of pasta sauce that’s gone bad a long time ago.” She spread her arms sideways, like a video game character model in its idle pose. “Think of them as… ours. Does that help?”

“I guess?” Eric still tried not to stare, instead putting his mind to figuring out what he was supposed to do next. “Wait, you said get into contact with Penumbra, but how do I contact them? They were going to check up on me, not the other way around.”

“Oh, I’ve got Maxine’s phone number memorised,” Amaranth said casually, fishing his phone out of his pocket. His… her… their hand had gone straight through the liquid suit, it looked like. Or had it opened up where she’d needed it to? It was a lot to figure out all at once. “One of the advantages of inheriting a bunch of Penny’s memories.”

Eric shrugged. “Go right ahead. I have no idea what to say, so I’m more than happy to let you do the talking.” Amy dialled the number, her fingers moving across the phone’s keyboard slightly clumsily.

“Don’t judge me!” She said. “I’ve literally never held a phone before, I think I’m doing amazingly, actually.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You didn’t have to! I could hear you think it. Judgy.” She dialled, and a second later, they heard Maxine’s voice on the other side. It was slightly husky, like she was recovering from a cold. His fault, he supposed. 

“Hello?” Max said. “Who is this?”

“Hello!” Amy said excitedly. “You must be Maxine! I’m Penny’s daughter, and I think I might be yours a bit too! Listen, Eric is freaking out a bit because, well, I don’t think anyone intended for me to be a real person, and I think it’s probably a good idea for you to talk to him. You’re the only other person to have a symbiote, after all!”

There was some shuffling on the other end of the line. “I— Wh— Okay— Hold on. V, I need a lift. Yeah. No, it’s a new one. Okay, are you still there?” Maxine asked.

“Sure am!”

“What’s the address?” After asking him, Amaranth passed it on. More shuffling, before Max came back on the line. “Cool, it’s not far. We’ll be there in ten. Okay, do you have a name?”

“Yup! Amaranth. You can call me Amy if you like!”

“Oh, Jesus, Penny, this one is even more than you.” Then, they suddenly heard a voice Eric had only heard say three words. It sounded like ripping leather, like knives being sharpened on cold wet stone. The kind of voice that crawled in the corner of your vision at night. It sounded proud. 

“Hey kiddo,” Penny said. “We’re coming over to you right now. Don’t do anything stupid, okay? We’ll help you figure this out. Maybe find you a new host if the current one isn’t willing. Speaking of, can you put him on, sweetie?”

“Sure can!” Amaranth said, and then, out of the corner of her mouth, “Eric?”

“Uh, hello,” Eric said. “This is Eric, uh, McCoy. I’m okay right now. Trying not to freak the fuck out. Is this really happening?” 

“Sure seems like it, Eric. Listen, Amaranth might be a little excited, but that’s because she’s only just been born— it is she, right? I got a vibe but—“

“Yeah!” Amaranth said. “Sorry, continue talking to Eric!” She made a motion of zipping her mouth shut, putting a lock on it, and throwing away the key. Penny chuckled on the other side of the line. 

“Okay,” they said, “my point is, she’s excited, because she’s learning a lot about how to exist right now, and her first instinct is going to be help, fix and feed. Now, don’t worry about any of those, because she isn’t bonded to you.”

“What does that mean?” Eric asked. 

“Take a left here,” Penny said. “It means she’s just kind of riding along with you, but she’s limited in what she can and can’t do, and she can’t do more without your consent. Think of it as… running software from an external drive instead of installing it.”

“And bonding would be…”

“Pretty much permanent. She wouldn’t be able to survive without you anymore. It’s a commitment.”

“And I can say no?”

“Pretty much whenever right up until you agree, yeah. So if you don’t want to, then Max and I will — safely and carefully, of course — extract Amaranth and find her a willing and suitable host,” Penny said.

“Just like that?”

“Just like that. Okay, we’re here. Do y—“

They were interrupted. The door to the bathroom swung open. Apparently Eric hadn’t locked it, or hadn’t locked it well. His mom stared at the girl in the superhero outfit standing in her bathroom. Reflexively, Amaranth covered up the face entirely and jumped backwards. Before Eric even knew what had happened, she had raised her arms in self defense, her fingers ending in long claws. 

Lauren screamed. A second later, in response to the scream, the frosted bathroom window exploded, and Penumbra landed on the windowsill. 

“Ah,” they said, “This is awkward.”