The Other Me

By ...

I never thought much about fate. Life, for me, was always quiet—work, sleep, repeat. I had dreams, sure, but I knew what was realistic, possible. Until I met him.

It happened by chance—or so I thought. I was at my regular café on lunch, checking emails. It was crowded, the usual weekday rush, when I felt it—a pair of eyes on me.

I glanced up.

There, standing at the counter, was a man who looked exactly like me. Taller, straighter posture, but it was my face—my eyes, my hair, my expression. The resemblance was so uncanny it froze me in place. My breath caught. I couldn’t look away.

He turned, seemingly oblivious, and took his coffee from the barista. I watched him, trying to shake off the discomfort building in my chest. Maybe it was a trick of the light, a coincidence. Until I saw him glance over at me—catching my stare.

His expression shifted. He smiled.

It was a strange, knowing smile, like he was aware of something I wasn’t.

“Good to see you,” he said, his voice perfectly matching mine. There was something too smooth about it, like he had rehearsed this.

I blinked. “I—I’m sorry, do we know each other?”

He chuckled softly, but it wasn’t a nervous laugh. It was too confident, too calm. “You could say that. Mind if I sit?”

Before I could respond, he was already pulling out the chair across from me, sitting down like we were old friends. My heart hammered.

“I don’t understand,” I muttered. “Who are you?”

He leaned back, a casual ease to his movements. “My name’s Nathan,” he said. “I think we’ve been through similar things. I’m just... doing it better.”

I stared at him, the hairs on the back of my neck rising. There was no way this could be real.

“Doing what better?” I asked, the words leaving my mouth almost before I could stop them.

He smiled again, that same eerie, too-perfect smile. “Living. Succeeding. Living a life you were meant for.”

I opened my mouth to speak but found no words. Could he be... could he be me? No, that didn’t make sense. This was impossible. There was no way a random stranger could look exactly like me—act like me—unless…

Unless he was something else.

“I think,” Nathan said, leaning forward, “you’ve been stuck in a rut. That’s why you can’t get ahead. You’re always making the wrong choices, always running in circles.”

I flinched, irritation and unease mixing. I didn’t know this man. And yet, he knew everything about me.

“Who are you?” I repeated, forcing the question past my clenched teeth.

He chuckled softly, shaking his head. “I’m you. Or rather, I could have been you. But I made the right choices. I’ve been where you are. I’ve seen everything you’ve tried to do.”

My mind reeled. This couldn’t be happening. There was no way anyone could know that much about me.

“You... you’re lying,” I said, my voice shaky.

“Am I?” He smiled again. “Let me ask you something. How’s your career? Still stuck at that dead-end job, waiting for that promotion that never comes?”

I froze. He knew about my job.

“And your relationships,” Nathan continued, his voice smooth, like a lullaby. “How are those? Still pushing everyone away because you’re too afraid to let them in?”

The walls of the café closed in around me. My breath quickened. How was he doing this? How did he know?

“You—” I stammered, “What do you want?”

He sat back, his expression softening before returning to that unsettling calm. “I want you to live the life I’ve built. The life you deserve. I’m here to help you get there.”

I felt the cold grip of panic rise in my chest. He wasn’t just a stranger. He was... me, but better. Perfect. Everything I could never be.

Nathan reached into his pocket, pulled out a small business card, and slid it across the table. “This is how you can start,” he said. “I’ve already made the connections. The people who can help you. Take it. All you need to do is follow my lead. Trust me.”

I stared at the card, my fingers trembling. The urge to take it was almost overpowering, but something deep inside screamed to walk away.

But as I reached for the card, I saw him for what he truly was—no, not him, but me. The person I could have been if I had only made the right decisions. And there, in that moment, I felt something snap inside me. The question that had haunted me for years echoed louder than ever: Why can’t I be like him?

“I don’t want to be like you,” I whispered, pushing the card away.

He tilted his head, narrowing his eyes. “That’s the problem, isn’t it? You think you can live without sacrifices. You think you can be happy without giving up something.” He stood up slowly, slipping his hands into his pockets. “But I’m not you. I’ve moved on. And soon, you will, too.”

I watched him leave, my heart racing. I should have felt relieved he was gone, but something gnawed at me. The thought that maybe... just maybe, I was going to become him. That my life, as ordinary and unremarkable as it was, was about to be hijacked by the other me.

In the days that followed, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Little things started to happen—my phone rang at odd hours, and the voice always sounded too familiar, like it was a conversation we’d had a thousand times before. People at work treated me differently, like they knew I had changed.

Then one night, I received an email. The subject line read: It’s time to take what’s yours.

The message was simple: Everything you’ve built can be mine. You’ve made the wrong choices, and now, I’ll take what’s mine.

I realized, sinking, Nathan wasn’t just a stranger. He was me, and he was going to take everything I had, everything I’d worked for, until nothing was left but the reflection of someone else’s success.

And I was powerless to stop him.

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