April 11, 2010 (32)
7:15 p.m.
University of Michigan

I had decided to go with them, too curious as to what might happen if I didn’t go. Like if Cole were to recognize him right away and start freaking out. I knew I couldn’t let that happen. I really didn’t want Cole meeting him at all, because there was a chance he’d recognize him. And if he recognized him then Michael would kill him. But there was one thing that wasn’t quite clear to me. If Michael didn’t want anyone to know who he really was, then why had he asked Shaun to meet up with him at the college Cole lived at? Something just wasn’t right here.
I sighed when we began to approach Michael, my stomach churning at the sight of him. But when he saw me, his eyes lit up and an impish grin slowly spread across his lips.
“Evalynne, what a pleasant surprise,” he said when we reached him.
“Hi, Ben,” I murmured back. Shaun loudly cleared his throat, as if to remind Michael that he was there too.
“Thanks for meeting me like this, Shaun,” Michael said to him. Then his eyes landed on Cole. “I don’t think we’ve met yet. My name’s Ben,”
“I’m Cole,” he replied, but he sounded sort of weird when he said it. I looked over at him, noticing the terrified look in his eyes right away. Yep, he definitely recognized him.
“Are you ok?” Michael asked him. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was enjoying every second of this. But I didn’t understand why. I thought he was trying to keep his true identity a secret.
“I’m fine,” Cole assured him. He glanced over at me and I bit down on my lower lip as I met his gaze. Realization washed over him as he comprehended why I’d gotten so freaked out when Shaun mentioned that he was going to be meeting with Ben earlier.
“Shaun?” a vaguely familiar female voice called out from a few feet away.
“Megan!” Shaun said with a smile when he turned to see his girlfriend walking towards us. “Hey,” he greeted her, kissing her gently and wrapping an arm around her waist.
“Hey, Cole,” she said, looking over at Cole’s aghast facial expression in concern. “Evalynne,” she added quietly.
“Megan, this is my friend, Ben.” Shaun told her. “And Ben, this is my girlfriend, Megan.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Michael told her, giving her a quick once-over.
“You too,” she replied with a polite smile. “So, what’s going on here?”
“I was just going to show Ben around campus. He’s thinking about applying to go here next semester. Cole and Evalynne wanted to come too though.” Shaun explained to her. “And now you’re here too. It’s like a reunion!”
Megan laughed along with her boyfriend, but out of the corner of her eye, she was still watching Cole. She obviously noticed that something was up with him. “Hey, are you ok?” she finally asked.
“I’m fine,” he repeated, although it was so evident that he wasn’t.
“If you say so,” Megan uttered, clearly not believing it. And at that exact moment, I spotted Addison and Ashton, making their way across the quad. I silently prayed that they wouldn’t see us and come over here. If Addison acted weird around Michael earlier, she was sure to do it again now.
But the moment Addison saw me, her eye lit up with recognition and she began walking towards us. Ashton followed close behind her, looking nervous when he saw me. He probably thought I was going to start grilling him about Ash again, but that could wait until later. Right now, I wanted to deal with the murderer standing before me.
“Evalynne, hey!” she greeted me. “Hi, Cole,” she said to him. Then she noticed Michael and her cheerful eyes went hazy with uneasiness. “Hi, Ben,” she said softly.
“Hi, Addison,” he replied, grinning darkly at her. She took a step back towards Ashton, clearly afraid.
“Hi, Addison!” Shaun added brightly.
“Hi,” she replied, sounding unsure. “Do I know you?”
“Nope,” he said. “My name’s Shaun. I’m Cole’s roommate.”
“Oh, well it’s nice to meet you,” she said to him with a friendly smile. It didn’t reach her eyes though. She was too nervous around Michael to act like her normal, amiable self. “This is my boyfriend, Ashton.”
“Hi,” Ashton spoke up.
“Well what a coincidence that we’re all here at the exact same time,” Shaun stated.
“I know right,” Michael added, obviously still keeping up his role as the friendly Ben, even though half of us knew the truth already.
“Yeah, all we’re missing is Valerie,” Addison said. The moment those words escaped her mouth, my heart began to race with fear. I looked at her with wide, petrified eyes. At first, she seemed confused, but then her eyes went just as wide as mine when she realized what she had done.
“Who’s Valerie?” Ashton asked her.
She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Frantically, she glanced up at Michael. He stood there with cold eyes, looking like he was ready to push Addison down a flight of stairs just like he’d done to his ex-girlfriend, Jennifer.
I looked over at Cole, who’s face had went a shade paler than it normally was. He looked just as frightened as Addison and I. Megan and Ashton still looked incredibly confused. And at first, Shaun did too. But then he seemed to realize what was going on. He recognized the name from when I’d told him about Valerie and Michael. When he looked back at Michael, he seemed to identify who he really was. Now, he looked beyond scared.
“Who’s Valerie?” Ashton repeated, placing a hand on Addison’s shoulder as if to get her attention.
She looked over at me desperately, but I didn’t know what to do either. “She’s just a friend of mine,” Addison finally said. “Evalynne knows her too.”
“Yeah, I’m surprised you’ve never met her.” I replied, playing along with this. I looked up at Michael, but he was now deadpanning Shaun, an amused smile on his face. Shaun on the other hand, looked as if he was about to pass out. His face was extremely pale and his hands were shaking at his sides.
“Yeah, I never even heard about her.” Ashton said.
“Oh my gosh!” Megan cried out of nowhere. We all turned to look at her, wondering what that little outburst was all about. I couldn’t help but notice that she was staring right at Ashton. “I know who you are! I knew I’d seen you somewhere before, but I just couldn’t remember where. Now I remember though. You used to date my friend, Katrina. She’s shown me pictures of you. You’re Ash Mongolia!”
“Oh my gosh, you’re right!” Shaun exclaimed, looking twice as scared now. “Are you like, a ghost or something? Did you come back from the dead?” he cried out.
I couldn’t help but to laugh at that. Shaun just sounded so crazy asking Ashton if he was a ghost that had come back from the dead, yet this was exactly what I’d been thinking this entire time. I wondered if I sounded as bizarre as Shaun did when I was accusing him of being Ash the other day.
“He’s not Ash.” Addison answered for him. “He just looks incredibly similar to him.”
“Plus his name is incredibly similar to Ash’s and he’s going into the army like Ash did,” Cole remarked, eyeing Ashton suspiciously.
I glanced over at him, smirking. You see? I’m not the only one who thinks it’s weird, I wanted to say to him. But I didn’t.
“Ok, this day just keeps on getting weirder and weirder,” Shaun said. I couldn’t agree with him though. I was already used to all the weirdness. It was practically what my life consisted of now. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Will of all people came strolling down the quad next.
“So if you aren’t Ash, then why do you look exactly like him? You guys are pretty much identical.” Megan added.
When she said this, a flash of déjà vu hit me immediately and I remembered something. I remembered to a time back when I was with Will, when I was yelling at him. I’d said that it had always been hard for me to believe that him and Michael were twins, because they looked and acted so different from eachother. But then I’d said that now, they were pretty much identical.
“He’s his twin.” I stated. I glanced up at Michael, who smirked, realizing I was right. It was kind of ironic really, how I attracted twins like that. It wouldn’t have shocked me if I found out Cole had a twin too.
“How is that possible?” Cole asked. “They don’t even have the same last name. Besides, Ash never mentioned anything to you about having a twin, did he?”
“No,” I replied, looking straight at Ashton. “But that was probably because he didn’t know he had one.”
I could tell by the look on Ashton’s face that I was right. And now that I knew the truth, I wanted the full story.
“I don’t know what the hell you guys are talking about,” Ashton lied. “I don’t have a twin and I never have either. I’ve been an only child all my life. It’s just a coincidence that I’m so similar to Ash.”
“That could be true,” Michael added. “Besides, not all twins are alike you know,”
“No,” Cole said. “But usually they have at least some of the same qualities. Like violence for instance, I heard that type of thing runs in the family.”
I was shocked that he actually had the nerve to say this to Michael. But I was also kind of turned on by how brave he was being. And when he said this, it seemed to remind Shaun of how brave he had been when Michael came to my house such a long time ago.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that too. I also heard that if one twin has a disease like, oh I don’t know, sociopathic disorder, then the other twin usually gets it too.” Shaun remarked.
“Well I’ve never heard that.” Michael hissed back. “It’s getting kind of late. I should start heading home now. Angie’s probably wondering where I am.” And without saying goodbye to anyone, he turned around and marched off across the quad.
“We should get going too,” Ashton said to Addison. “I’ve still got to get that research printed out for my paper.”
“Yeah, ok,” she agreed. She smiled at me before turning around and heading off towards the library with Ashton.
“I was actually headed to the library to check out a book for a research paper I’m working on too,” Megan said.
“Ok, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Shaun told her. He pecked her on the lips before she turned and began walking in the direction that Addison and Ashton had just went in.
Now it was just Cole, Shaun and I. We all looked at eachother, clearly freaked out by all that had just happened.
“So what do we do now?” Shaun asked.
“I say we call the cops and have that psychopath hauled off to jail,” Cole remarked.
“We can’t,” I informed him. “If we tell the police…he’s going to kill you,” I hated having to tell him, but Cole needed to know the truth. Now that he knew Michael was here, I couldn’t keep anything from him anymore.
“Me?” Cole cried. I nodded, feeling dizzy all over again.
“He’s not going to kill me, is he?” Shaun cried, looking terrified. “I’m too young to die!” I didn’t want to tell him the truth: that Michael told me he’d kill him if he found out who he really was. But I couldn’t lie to him either.
“I’m not sure,” I replied instead.
Cole sighed, looking beyond frustrated with this whole situation. “Well tonight, why don’t we all just go home and get some sleep? Tomorrow we can figure out what we’re going to do.”
“Sounds good to me,” I agreed. I was tired anyways, and I really didn’t feel like thinking about this anymore tonight. So all of us went our separate ways, and when I got back to my apartment, I climbed into my bed and fell right asleep.

Author's Note: Check me out on Youtube if you wanna! I have videos posted that I made for the EC+AM=4ever series & my username is LexiWrites (: