Cesar held on tight to the steering wheel. It was taking everything he had to contain himself, all of his anxiety and the awkward half-erection in his pants.
He had to get that tucked away. What would Mark think of he saw that? It would blow his cover, and if this wasn’t the sort of “get-together” he thought it was, then, well, this was going to get weird fast.
When Cesar got a call from Mark, asking him to cover over to “help” him with something, the way he said it had Cesar’s mind drifting to the worst places.
Mark’s voice was breathy. Heated. Needy. Cesar knew he was thinking with his dick when he decided to rush to Mark’s side, considering he was probably just misinterpreting Mark’s heavy breathing as something dirty.
That didn’t matter. One way or another, Mark needed his help. Whatever that might be, he would willingly drop everything to go help him with whatever he needed. And what if that breathing was because he was hurt? He couldn’t just not go.
But as soon as he got out of his car at Mark’s house, he got the feeling that something was wrong.
The whole house was dark, with not a single light from the inside filtering out from the window shutters. If he’s home, shouldn’t at least one light be on? Or did the lockdown broadcast leave him that afraid? Cesar wanted to be there to provide him company, but something about this was making him feel sick.
He backed away, slowly climbing back into his car without breaking his eyes away from the house. Something was making him rethink going in.
As he settled back into the driver’s seat, the front door to the house cracked open just enough for him to see inside.
No light from the inside. That couldn’t have been Mark.
Found you.
What felt like a whisper in both of his ears at once sent him into a panic. Cesar slammed the car door shut and pulled away from the house, tires squealing until the car straightened back out onto the road home.
Cesar was forced into hiding, huddled in the corner of his room while something thudded against the other side of the door. Something that was pretending to be Mark, its voice sounding just like him… but not. It wasn’t him. Just a shallow imitation, a voice that stuttered like a broken record. A faulty recording. Scratchy and distant.
It taunted him, without rest, for at least two days.
Sometimes it would ask Cesar why he was hiding from him.
Other times it would mimic what must have been Mark’s final screams. Salt in the wound, a reminder that there was nothing he could do to save him.
Then it would go back to demanding to be let in.
“Come on, Cesar,” it would whine, deep and breathy, “You said you would help me. I need you.”
It could never stick to just one script. It changed its approach constantly, from begging to screams for help to suggestive pleas for his “attention”, all to try to convince Cesar to open the door for it. The screams were the most convincing — it did make Cesar want to open the door and just let it all end. Knowing what kind of end that Mark must have had filled him with enough guilt to make him want to die.
But he still wouldn’t move. The last bit of self-preservation that Cesar had wouldn’t let him.
The thing wasn’t content with the idea of just letting Cesar die alone in his room. The knocking and thudding suddenly turned into slamming, like it was trying to break the door down. Fists banging on the door, its whole body being thrown into it, it wanted in right now. Small shards of wood splintered away, the last barrier between Cesar and his death being chipped away at.
Then the door started to break free of its hinges.
He had to get out. Even if there was something out there, which there probably was, he had a better shot at surviving by jumping out and taking his chances with whatever was waiting on the other side.
The shutter was thrown open, but before he could grab his keys and make the dash to his car he felt something grab him by the neck and pull him away from the window.
Too late.
“Oh, there you are, Cesar!”
He shut his eyes. He wished he could cover his ears, too. It sounded too much like Mark, it was unbearable.
“Why are you trying to hide from me?” The alternate’s hand squeezed harder around Cesar’s neck, stopping him from answering even if he wanted to. “I only wanted to ask for a favor. Why did you have to run away?”
One wrong move, and he knew it would crush his neck.
He wished it were Mark, the real Mark, wrapping those strong fingers around his neck. And he hated himself for thinking about that, of all things, at a time like this.
A finger scratched and stroked under Cesar’s chin, much more gentle in comparison to how the other hand was manhandling his neck.
It was like it could tell what he was thinking. It must have somehow known that even now, he was wishing he could be fooling around with Mark. There were so many disgusting things that Cesar wanted Mark to do to him, and none of them felt like they were kept secret anymore.
Could Mark have been this strong and domineering? Would Cesar have had to ask for it? And if he did, would Mark be willing, or would he be too nervous and shy to ever even think about choking him?
He’d never be able to find out now.
Mark’s copy lifted Cesar’s chin until he was looking at their reflection in the window. What he saw looked just like Mark, but… something wasn’t right. Obviously, he knew it wasn’t him, but there was something wrong with this imitation that he couldn’t put into words.
No. The eyes were all wrong. The pupils were so small that they wouldn’t even be visible if not for how they were stark white in color. He recognized them, how they peered out from that dark doorway before he tried to escape. He wondered if he would have found Mark’s body in that house.
The hand under his chin fell to the collar of his shirt, then hooked into it just above the first button. Then, with terrifying force, it shredded down the front of his shirt, ripping the front apart and scattering buttons across the room. The hands, though they appeared human, seemed to leave shallow claw marks down Cesar’s chest, tiny beads of blood forming from the cuts.
His breathing sped up until he was nearly hyperventilating.
“Come on, Ces. You said you would,” the creature hummed, pushing him closer to the window until his face was pressed against the cold glass. “I saw it in his eyes. I saw the love he had for you. How badly he wanted you.”
The hand around his neck loosened up just enough for him to speak. “You’re not him,” spat Cesar, trying miserably to push himself away and break free of the alternate’s grasp. He was already dead; fighting was his last option. “Why do you care what he wanted?”
But the alternate held him in place. Nothing Cesar did could make it budge even an inch. “My purpose is simply to replace him. I am meant to fill the same role he was meant to fill. You’ll be replaced soon, too. But in the meantime, be good, and I won’t hurt you.”
Cesar’s body went still as the button of his slacks was violently popped off and the zipper was forced down so fast that it was nearly torn off, too.
“What are you trying to do to me?!”
“What Mark would have wanted,” it said, letting Cesar’s loose garments fall to the floor. “Clearly you felt the same. Why else would you be so easily convinced to come running to his aid in the middle of a lockdown? So easily swayed by honeyed words…”
“Because I thought it was him. I only wanted Mark,” Cesar muttered before he broke down into a mess of sobs. “And you killed him, didn’t you?”
“I merely gave him new form. Everything he fears, everything he loves, I know everything there is to know about him. I am him now.”
Something uncomfortably slimy made contact with his bare ass. It… felt like a dick, or at least shaped like one, but when did it have time to use lube? It was probably better that he couldn’t turn his head to get a look at what was rubbing back and forth against the crease of his ass, leaving it slick and wet. Its hands grasped his waist hard, pressing its chest flush against Cesar’s back to keep him firmly sandwiched between it and the window. His cock might have been out of view below the window, but it wouldn’t take long for someone to figure out what was going on if they happened to see him.
“Wait, wait, we can’t do this here! If someone sees—”
“Who is around to see? Everyone is hiding. Cowering in their homes, delaying the inevitable,” it said, then bent down to speak into Cesar’s ear. “I can’t promise your pride will be left intact, but nobody will witness you.”
The tip of its cock pressed against his hole, one of its hands leaving his waist to help guide it in, leaving Cesar squeaking as the slimy thing forced its way into him. It stretched him in a way that hurt, but there was nothing he could do but bite his lip until it bled. He didn’t have the strength to struggle against it.
And he felt so conflicted. Cesar couldn’t help but imagine it was the real Mark. His mind wandered with thoughts about what it would be like for him to do this to him, knowing he would never be able to know the real thing. What if Mark was as big as his imposter? It did say it was supposed to be a copy of him. A replacement. Did it copy everything about his body? How thorough could it have been when it couldn’t even repress whatever slimy substance coated its cock?
But it felt so fucking good, and Cesar hated it. And loved it. The thing wasn’t even moving for real yet, just pushing its cock deeper and deeper into Cesar’s hole. He wanted to believe that Mark could have given him all this somehow. It’s not like Mark couldn’t be as big, and the texture probably could have been replicated with enough lube to oil a century-old machine. Cesar let his body go weak and limp, his cheek pressed against the glass of the window.
Weak sounds escaped Cesar’s throat as it finished burying itself in deep and started to move. A low growl in his ear had his dick aching like nothing else, and fuck, did he feel guilty for being this easy. But the guilt didn’t stop him from fantasizing about that too. That was Mark’s voice, and hearing it make such feral and guttural sounds while Cesar was at his most vulnerable had his mind running wild. Mark was never a rough or aggressive guy, but Cesar spent many long nights jerking himself off to the thought of him asserting his control and ownership of Cesar’s body.
It would be out of character, but he wished he could have let Mark express that side of himself. Cesar knew he had it in him, it had to have been in there somewhere. Now he could only imagine.
“I see what he saw in you. Your body is fun to toy with.”
Cesar’s hips instinctively tried to jerk forward to rut against the wall. “Mark… oh, God, Mark… ”
“So you’ve finally accepted that he and I are the same.”
No, he didn’t. Because they weren’t. This thing could never be Mark.
But Cesar didn’t know how else to cope with the fact that the real Mark was dead, and his only hope of living out his fantasies before he met the same fate was to trick his mind into thinking that this was Mark. He just hoped that Mark wasn’t watching from whatever afterlife was waiting for him.
With a conflicted and guilty moan, Cesar drove his hips back into the creature’s swollen cock. It held so tightly onto his hips that Cesar would have been worried that it might crunch through his bones, but he’d rather die now than ask it to stop.
He closed his eyes and let his imagination wander.
It was Mark pounding his ass hard enough to leave bruises. It was Mark breathing against his face and growling in his ear. It was Mark’s cock, excessively lubed up for his lover’s pleasure, rubbing against his walls and prostate.
The damn thing even smelled like him. Whenever it leaned in close to his face, Cesar tried to sneak a long drag of the scent.
This was Mark. And he would try his hardest to fool himself into believing that until he was ready for it all to end.
He pulled their bodies even closer, tucking Cesar’s head underneath his chin even as he fucked him. So tender and loving.
Just as Mark would have been, Cesar was sure.
Because it is him, he reminded himself.
Cesar couldn’t move an inch, not even able to move his hips back. Mark took full control of their bodies, holding Cesar completely still while making fast and shallow thrusts, barely pulling his dick out at all before pumping back in. Cesar’s breath left a film of vapor on the window with each moan and whine. He peeked an eye open to check out the window to make sure nobody was there to see him and, thankfully, the streets outside were just as desolate as they were before. Nobody needed to see whatever lewd face he was making.
His body started to shake, his climax sneaking up on him quickly from how “Mark” was rubbing right up against the perfect spot. Cesar’s fingers tensed against the window, fingernails scraping against the glass.
“Right there?” it asked, its tone now mimicking Mark’s flawlessly. “Is that how you want it?”
“I’m…I think I’m gonna cum, Mark…”
“Go ahead,” it purred, “Just tell me what you want.”
“Yeah…Right there. Keep going, like that, don’t… ngh, don’t stop, fuck!….”
He felt Mark kiss the back of his head and nuzzle his face into his hair. “Anything. As long as you promise to stay here with me. Forever.”
“I promise, I promise, I—” Cesar repeated, as much as he could before he couldn’t stop the slew of pants and moans that tumbled out. All that was going through his mind was how good it felt to get fucked by Mark, get loved and doted on by Mark, to have Mark give him all his care and attention.
Mark pressed his forehead against the back of Cesar’s head and let out a long, low groan. His voice making that sound was the last thing Cesar could take before his mouth hung open in silent bliss and he started to cum hard onto the wall below the window. The whole time he heard Mark muttering something, but he could barely understand any of it, except for the string of “I love you”s at the end right before he buried himself to the hilt and let himself come undone. Chills ran down Cesar’s back, both from the afterglow of his orgasm and the warm feeling of Mark spilling himself inside of him.
“Such a good boy.”
Mark backed up enough to give Cesar room to move again. Immediately he slumped to the floor, legs weak and shaky. Only after he had the chance to catch his breath did he realize what he’d just done. He stared, blankly, up at the alternate as it kneeled in front of him and ran a hand through his hair.
“Rest here. I’ll be back to get you cleaned up.”
With a groan, Cesar leaned his back against the wall and watched the alternate leave the room.
Shame was the only thing Cesar felt now. That thing wasn’t Mark, but he willingly gave up his body to it. He dwelled over all the damage in his head: thinking for even a second that this monster was a replacement for Mark, his torn clothes… and the fact that Mark was surely gone.
Staggering to his feet, Cesar dragged his feet out of the room, to the kitchen. He wasn’t sure what to do, but he knew he had to do something.
Nothing could make this right, but maybe he could end the suffering. He could meet Mark again and spend the rest of forever apologizing to him for what he just did.
His eyes were hazy and welling with tears as he opened the knife drawer and pulled out the first one he could grab. There’s no way he could live with this. And if he was going to be “replaced” anyway, he wasn’t ready to sit and wait to find out what that feels like. A coward’s way out, but he would just have to face the music for that on the other side.
Both hands gripping the handle, he pointed it towards his neck, eyes clenched shut. When he opened them again, this would all be over.
But when he tried to plunge the knife into his throat, he couldn’t move. His eyes opened to see that same hand from earlier wrapped around the knife and his fingers. They crunched down, Cesar whining in pain as the handle of the knife crackled loudly under the pressure.
“You can’t do that. You promised you’d stay.”