A cold, sharp pain ran down his spine. He could feel it now, even without having taken the medicine. Sebastian could feel the man watching him, every step he took. The world spinning, the blood on the walls blurring, some of it real and some of it his. The rest belonged to the corpse on the floor.

Sebastian grabbed a cloth and began to dust his forehead and wipe off the sweat beads that were dripping down his nose. He looked in the mirror, and staring back was the familiar stranger who he never wished he’d met. They were the one covered in blood, not him. Their ties were matching, their suits stained in the same way, but he forced himself to believe that he was not the man who was looking back at him.

He pulled the medicine down off the shelf. The bright label scorned him for thinking about trying this, but he had to. It was the only way he could escape the vile creature he could become. His mind shut off for a brief moment, and Sebastian was looking at himself in the mirror once again. The familiar stranger smiled at his new reflection.

Returning back to the mangled corpse, he took out a knife and ripped off a small memento. A single finger, the ring still stuck firmly on. The blood dripped out from the wound, but it was not as much as the pool that had spilled out when he last killed.

The familiar stranger stepped out into the dark, black night. A shroud would allow him to take the body to where he intended to. Hoisting it up using his newfound strength, he dragged it over to his car.

No witnesses must see it, but he so loved the thrill of having to kill, so having a witness for him to pull apart increased the excitement he got from this. He’d hoped that by carrying this over into the river, he’d get caught more easily… and his knife would taste blood sooner.

Sure enough, a young man was waiting by a lamppost. He was the only one around, and he appeared to be watching. The moment he saw the body fall into the river and sink beneath, he opened his mouth. The familiar stranger had already cupped a hand over it, and the knife was at his throat. Sebastian hissed silently, and pulled the man aside. A quick flick of his wrist and the man was on the floor, twitching violently and making a fruitless effort to cry out for help. Another strike, straight into the heart. The man fell silent, and Sebastian ripped off a ring finger, the wounds much more clean this time.

Hurling the other body into the river, he watched them both drift downstream. He had made sure that there was as little DNA on either body as possible, but his bloodthirsty smile showed his enjoyment of the hunt.

Now was the time to make an exit.

Sebastian picked up his coat and wiped off as much of the blood as he could. The familiar stranger detested looking unclean so much, so he may as well appease it. His neat hair had flopped out of place after the last victim, and Sebastian focused on readjusting it as he wandered the lonely street back to his car.

When he got back, he’d swallow another one of the pills, then sleep.
He twisted the key in the look, and as he stumbled in, his vision began to fade. Lights dancing around him, illusions cast by his eyes. The voices whispering in his ear grew louder, and they spoke with his voice. He was coming back, and Sebastian needed something to numb the intruder.

Legs trembling, he pushes his way into the bathroom, and grabs the pills. Clenching his chest, he unscrews the lid and takes one last look in the mirror. In it is a ghostly apparition, a shadow of who he is. Which side of him it was, it was hard to tell. The writing on the wall shifted between the normal and the bizarre.

The familiar stranger in the mirror showed one last expression of horror as he realised what Sebastian was about to do. Hand shaking, he downed the whole pot. Both men collapsed, Sebastian laying quite still. Sebastian cursed the pills the doctor had given him.

The pills he used to suppress the side he never wished he had met..

The side that stopped him from killing.