“Please, you have to find him… something is wrong… I just know it,” I sobbed.
“Ma’am, it’s only been a few hours. We can’t start investigating yet,” said the police officer, coldly.
“He is never out this late! EVER! I know when something is wrong and I can feel it in my gut,” I cried.
“Ma’am, calm down and contact us after twenty-four hours if he’s still missing,” the officer sighed, rolling his eyes.
xxx
“You okay, hon?” asked Jack.
“Ummm yeah I’m good…” I replied, a forced smile on my face as I took another bite of my lasagna.
That incident had happened three weeks ago and I still couldn’t get it out of my head. Absolutely nothing had made sense in my life since the day my husband went missing. Or should I say “missing”?
Jack and I had the worst fight we have ever had that night. I knew he had been unfaithful and after the initial shock years ago I had let it go. Never confronted him, never talked about it and just shoved it at the back of my mind. We sort of just grew apart and lived our own lives, never really acknowledging that our relationship was over and staying together despite going days at a time not speaking even one word to one another.
That night, however, things changed. Jack admitted that Beth and him had been having an affair for a long time (shocking) and he told me he was going to leave me for her. I was so surprised by the admission that all those emotions I had held in for years came flooding back and I just saw red.
The next thing I knew, Jack was gone and I was sobbing to the cops hoping they would bring him back to me. I remember sitting on the floor of our bedroom crying uncontrollably when I heard our front door open. I rushed downstairs wondering who it could be and there he was. Jack walked in, cool as a cucumber, as though nothing had happened.
He handed me the flowers in his hand, kissed me passionately and told me he was going to bed since he was tired. I don’t know how to explain this properly but from the moment he walked in I knew that he was not my husband. I don’t know who he was, how he looked exactly like Jack, sounded like him too or why my husband had been replaced but that was not the man I married.
As time went by it became even more clear to me that this was not my Jack. When my sister came over with her kids, Jack was sweet and friendly. He even spent the whole time playing with the kids. The only thing Jack hated more than my sister was children. There was nothing in the world that would make him play with kids. Even my sister seemed stunned.
About a week after Jack had been replaced, I saw Beth standing at our door as I walked home from a neighbours. I hid behind the car trying to overhear their conversation, hoping it would help explain this situation but all it did was make me more confused. Jack firmly told her he was not interested in having any sort of relationship with her and that he loved me. She left sobbing.
To be honest, that was just the tip of the iceberg. There were so many incidents that proved to me that this man was some sort of replacement of my husband. At first, I even thought he may not be a human. Maybe some kind of robot? Maybe I was in some weird social experiment without knowing it? Elon Musk did seem to have a lot of free time and capital on his hands. But that theory was disproved when I saw him cut himself while cooking my favourite dinner for me one night. He was definitely bleeding.
So, what was he? Who was he? Why was he here? These questions had plagued my every waking moment for the last three weeks and I had begun to fear that I too would be replaced at some point. I didn’t know who I could talk to that would not instantly assume I had gone mad. I had no one I could explain my story to and I knew no one would believe me.
I wanted to run and tell the police but how could I? How could I possibly explain that this was not my husband and I knew that for a fact? And what made it even more difficult was that if I did tell the police about this man, I would have to tell them that I knew he wasn’t Jack because my Jack has been buried deep in my back yard since that fight three weeks ago. I had checked- twice. He was still there, dead as the day I had killed him. The only thing missing was his wedding ring which the new Jack had been wearing ever day.
I really hope you enjoyed this story. It was inspired by something I heard on social media but unfortunately I can’t seem to find the video now. If I do, I will definitely link it on this post.
I feel like I haven’t written a short story in forever so this may be absolute garbage for all I know. However, it was fun to write and I would really appreciate your feedback in the comments section so please do let me know if you enjoyed it! People always ask me if there will be a part two since most of my stories tend to end abruptly so I’m just letting everyone know in advance that there is not be a part two.
For more short stories please click here.
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