The sky was tinted in warm orange by the setting sun's slanting beams.

Even though it was a

bright day, there seemed to be darkness over the face, a subtle sadness that cast a shadow
over the day. ALEX hurried through the front gate and straight to his room and then suddenly,
He raised his tone like a grandiose narcissist and went, 'One more nix.'
At 35, ALEX had only his father's pension to buy necessities to keep himself and his father alive.
ALEX attempted to get into the comic publishing industry, but he received daily rejections in
absence of a college diploma. He was dubbed "virile" by those who knew him. With the quiet
and unfathomable patience of a hound, he endured it all. He wrote a note to his mother in his
diary and reflected on his past whenever he was down.
ALEX had a childhood that could be described as simple and ordinary. Despite this, his
parents provided him with all he needed. They went for nighttime walks, Saturday movie nights,
and vacations during the summer break, and anytime he became scared, his mother tried to
soothe him with goodnight stories. Everything had been planned, but when he was seventeen,
his parents were involved in an accident, and he lost his mother. His father suffered from
traumatic brain injuries which kept his father in hospitals for months. His pleasures of childhood
and springtime were limited to library time and his comic characters.
As a result, ALEx spent much of his time at the library reading books and writing in his diary
since he was frightened of exposing himself and becoming a troglodyte.
Out of the blue, ALEX received a phone call from a company offering him a job if he could wow
them with his work. He couldn't hold himself and burst into tears. And on that day, in that
moment, he decided to empty the tank into the comic book.
He started working day and night or sun and moon; he worked all the time without stopping.
He wanted to show the protagonist of his comic as diametrically opposite to him, like oil and
vinegar. ALEX made him a flush full of money, a stickler, a noble and righteous man with a
perfect family in his comic. He began to spend most of his time thinking and conversing with his
primary character; he had hallucinations at times as if he could see a person other than his dad
and him. He became so enamoured with the comic, solely with the protagonist, that he began to
act and behave like him. After completing the comic, he had become a transformed man of a
dummy? He wasn’t a sociopath anymore. Now he had become robust with a beard and bristly
hair who exuded confidence with a darting gaze.
On a red-letter day, ALEX still got ‘Heebie-jeebies’ while presenting his work to the company but
at the same time HE was confident enough about his work. They liked ALEX work, it was time to
shake things up, he finally got into the firm and the Chairman CALLed him and handed him his
diary, which he had left in the library. Things had changed. Now he led a lavish life without
having to worry about how to pay for things and cleared all HIS debts.
Things were going GREAT.
But everything has a price; even though he was starting a new life in a metropolis, he still had
dreams about the character from his first novel, who kept beckoning him from the drawer of his
cold desk. The novel stretched his dream but choked his pleasures. He was content with his life
but not completely fulfilled. He was not as wealthy as his own persona, with no mom and sick
dad. A smell of jealousy, desire, bitterness and resentment were there. “How is it possible for his
clone to have a better life than he, without encountering any difficulties?”
He decided to write the second half of the tale in which he would kill his clone out of jealousy.
Before beginning his second series ALEX planned to burn his previous work, hoping that there
would be no terrible dreams or hallucinations and after that, he would be able to settle overseas.
He returned to his old abode without even a slight bit of amusement. Even though it was
October, the collar of his shirt was soaked in sweat. He was staring unblinkingly at the drawer.
He opened the last page, and he shook like a leaf when he read-
“IF I’LL DIE, YOU’LL DIE TOO”
TO BE CONTINUED…