The subway car was half-empty at 2 AM, which meant the man in the gray coat had plenty of seats to choose from. He chose the one directly across from me. I'd been writing in my notebook—a scene where a character discovers their reflection has started moving independently—when I felt his stare. Not the quick, dismissive glance city dwellers exchange. The kind that settles in and stays.
I kept writing, scratching out a line that felt too obvious. The character would notice the discrepancy slowly, I decided, not all at once. A hand moving a fraction of a second too late. A blink that doesn't quite sync. The man across from me shifted, and when I glanced up, he was reading a book with its cover turned inward against his palm. Hiding it, or just holding it that way? I couldn't tell.
"Do you believe in doubles?" he asked, not looking up from his concealed pages.