Another Jekyll, Another Hyde by Daniel Nayeri

Author:Daniel Nayeri [Nayeri, Dina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5623-2
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2012-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

“Everyone, put your pens down. I see you, Mr. Wirth. Pens down. I mean it. OK, did any team finish the entire puzzle?”

Annie was still standing by the banquet tables, glancing occasionally at the entrance, probably waiting for Thomas to return. She looked self-conscious, hanging out all alone. She had her phone in her hand, checking it a bit too frequently.

Thomas expected her to look up and smile, the way she always did when she saw him walking in. But when they made eye contact, Annie didn’t seem to recognize him.

He looked like Edward now. Thomas wasn’t in control.

Thomas was forced to watch as Edward sauntered forward. Annie looked back down at her phone. As Edward passed her, he bumped her shoulder a little.

Don’t, thought Thomas — now he was the other voice, the silenced half, and he could feel the frustration of it. Edward was just doing this to mess with him.

Annie glanced up. “Sorry,” she said. Seeing her as a stranger, Thomas was suddenly struck by details he had long taken for granted. Her bangs, sweeping across her forehead and behind her ear. The tiny birthmark behind her earlobe. The near-invisible hairs on her neck that were standing up as Edward continued to stare at her.

Annie looked up again. She gave a nervous smile. “Do I know you?”

Edward just grinned at her and let the silence go stale before he finally said, “No, you don’t.”

He walked off, gliding through the crowd toward his mother’s table. The Marlowe girls standing with Connor stopped in midconversation to gawk at Edward’s chiseled bare arms. The undershirt hugged his pecs and six-pack like Cling Wrap — not exactly the Marlowe uniform. Edward nodded to a few of the girls and some of the moms but didn’t stop to talk.

This never happened before, thought Thomas.

That’s because I’m better-looking than you.

But that wasn’t what Thomas was referring to. Every other time, the W had given him some aspect of what he now knew were Edward’s emotions — his excitement, his sadness, his charm; each pill was a different piece of a new other self — then knocked him out. It was like watching a dream — or reliving a memory — of his time as Edward, all to the beat of the flashing lights of Club Elixir. But this time, W wasn’t the cause. He hadn’t taken any. Could it still be in his system? Thomas was awake, inside his own brain, fully aware of what he was doing but unable to change any of it.

Is this how Edward feels when I’m in control? Is he watching me from the inside?

Suddenly, Thomas feared that the W had had some lasting effect on his mind. Or worse, that this Edward was far more than a persona but someone else entirely, possessing him. John said the bonedust was a source of immortality. Maybe instead of giving him long life, the W had given him a second life.

Welcome to the movie, Tommy. It’s almost time for the credits.

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