The temperature dropped suddenly.
Not gradual. Not natural. One moment warm, the next cold enough to see breath fog.
Maren's shadows recoiled violently, pressing so close they nearly disappeared. Her mug slipped from numb fingers, tea splashing across floorboards.
The doppelgänger materialized in the doorway.
Solid this time. No flicker, no smoke, no wavering at the edges. It stood tall and perfect, wearing Maren's face like a mask stolen and claimed. Silver eyes glowed too bright. Black veins crawled beneath pale skin, pulsing with something that looked like blood but moved wrong.
"Hello, sister." Its voice layered, multiple whispers wrapped around Maren's tone. "Did you miss me?"
Sage screamed.
The sound was pure terror, the kind that went straight to bone. Freya grabbed her daughter, pulling the child behind her, green light already sparking around her fingers.
"Get out," Freya said, voice steady despite the child crying against her legs. "You're not welcome here."
"I go where she goes." The doppelgänger pointed at Maren. "We're connected. Blood and shadow and fear. Everything she is, I am. Everything she'll be, I already am."
"You're nothing." Maren stood slowly, shadows spreading wide despite their terror. "A construct. A copy. Not real."
"I'm more real than you every day." The creature stepped forward. Veins pulsed darker, spreading across its cheeks like cracks in porcelain. "The town believes in me. Fears me. That makes me solid. You? You're just the ghost they want gone."
Sage's crying intensified. Downstairs, the bell over the shop door chimed. Voices rose, urgent and overlapping.
"What's wrong?"
"Heard the child screaming?—"
"Is someone hurt?"
The doppelgänger smiled with Maren's mouth. "Perfect. An audience."
Footsteps pounded up the stairs. Thomas Wells appeared first, followed by three others. All armed. All ready.
They saw Maren standing near Freya and Sage. Saw the doppelgänger wearing Maren's face. Saw the child crying and Freya's protective stance.
"She's torturing the kid," Wells said, already moving. "Grab her?—"
"That's not me!" Maren pointed at the construct. "That thing is what's been causing the incidents. It's using my face to frame me."
"Sure it is." Wells raised his club. "You’ve been using your twin here as a distraction to think you aren’t around when dangerous things happen. We know the truth!"
"Thomas, stop." Freya's voice cut sharp. "Use your eyes. Look at the veins. Look at how it's standing. That's not human."
"Neither is she," someone else said.
The doppelgänger laughed, the sound like shattering glass. "They've already decided, sister. You can't argue with fear. Can't reason with hate. All you can do is run."
Sage's crying turned to hiccupping sobs. Maren's shadows reached toward the child instinctively, trying to comfort.
"See that?" Wells pointed. "Shadow magic near the girl. She's doing something to her."
The construct's smile widened.
It dissolved into smoke, dispersing through cracks in the floorboards. Gone in seconds, leaving Maren alone with armed townspeople and a terrified child.
"I didn't hurt her," Maren said, backing toward the window. "I would never hurt Sage."
