My eyes fluttered awake, slowly acclimating to the dark cell. Paralysis. Then I remembered. “Joshua?”
Silence.
A haunting, sinister laugh. This can’t be my brother.
“The cult was actually my idea, a perfect front,” Joshua informed me, detailing his slight of hand. “I recruited Paulo first because I needed someone sufficiently handsome and charismatic to run operations. You wouldn’t believe how quickly he transformed. Before long, he did my bidding without provocation. I knew you’d come after me, always the hero, so I sent Amanda to lead you here.”
“Why?”
“What’s the first thing these clones do when they are initiated? Who benefits when they cut ties with the excesses of the old life?”
“My god, this is about money?”
“Before you die, I want you to see something.” Joshua raised my hospital bed and I saw Amanda on her knees, bitterly betrayed. His gun trained at her head, Joshua laughed. “It wasn’t only about the money. It was about getting a new life.”
An instant later, Amanda and I were dead.
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A Perfect Front (A New Life)
Posted 6 months ago
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