Free Fiction - Sikes

Just a quick one today. I've had this idea for years but never did anything with it. I'd heard that director Ronny Yu was going to make a film with a very similar premise, so I let it go. When that movie failed to materialise I figured it was okay to go back to it.

Thank god I was alright, or at least alive. I still couldn't move, which was worrying, but the smell of disinfectant and the steady 'ping' of hospital equipment was oddly reassuring. At least it meant I was safe for now. By the looks of things I was in a private room. From my bed I could see through to the main ward. People crossed back and forth past the small rectangle of light in the door. Save for the electric glow of the heart monitor it was the only thing brightening the dim room. In the darkness the events that had brought me here tumbled through my mind unfettered by distraction. I had been in a car crash, but it had been no accident. He'd come for me. Just as he'd promised. For the past two weeks I'd been on edge, seeing him in every shadow, behind every corner. It had got so bad that I was spending more time at home, unable to justify it to my wife. When finally she confronted me I told her everything. I told her about the psycho and how I'd cheated him. I told her the entire elaborate plan and how I was sure I'd pulled it off. I hadn't felt guilty in the least, the man was crazy, violent and mean. He deserved anything he got. But he'd found out. I'd expected a swift vengeance but it never came. Not until last night. Memories were fractured. I'd gone out in my car, the first time in a fortnight. Driving hard through horizontal rain just to get out of the house before I went mad. I went the long route, the way no one goes anymore since the bypass. Twin beams of light flared behind me. I slowed so the car could pass but it stayed on my tail instead, shadowing me, forcing me to drive faster. Suddenly HE was beside me, window down screaming obscenities and threats, promising that he'd kill my wife and my daughters as I watched. The truck coming the other way didn't have time to brake. It jack-knifed as his car swerved into mine sending both of us sailing off the road and into darkness. I saw the red pulse of the ambulance beneath me and the medics scramble out. I watched them tend to my body lying like an inverted cross in a ditch. Only when I saw them give up resuscitation did I understand what was happening. I forced myself back down. No way was I letting my life slip away like this. I was going to live no matter what. And now I'm in hospital. Alive. I try to sit up but I'm attached to the bed. Then I see her- my wife. She passes by that little rectangle of light. I call out but she cannot hear me. She looks happy and so does the man with her. He turns to peer in my room and I recognise, with uncomprehending horror, my own face. The light switches on as the Doctor enters. A cop shadows him. "Mr Sikes," he says. "No," I protest, straining against the cuffs, "You don't understand. I'm not Sikes. He's Sikes!" The man with my face and my family.