[ WP ] While walking home from work one day , someone who looks exactly like you jumps out of a bush and attacks you saying `` YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST REPLACE ME ? ! ''

As I walked down the granite steps of the library, I pulled down the brim of my scally cap and turned up my collar against the frigid night. Tiny snow flakes had just begun to wreath the sort yellow glow of the street lights. A dump truck lumbered past laying sand and salt in preparation for the nor'easter and it occurred to me that if ever there was night to have a quite brandy after work; it was tonight. It was at that exact moment I first noticed The Cobalt Cafe. 
 
 Every day for the past ten years I've walked the same to work and back. I knew every store front and every stoop on every block from the library to my address and never once had I noticed the faded painted sign that hung above a peeling blue door between the check casher and the barbershop. A peculiar feeling swept over me. Something akin to deja vu. Ten years and I've never seen or even heard mention of this bar that was directly across the street from my work. I had to go in. 
 A haggard old man was slumped on the small bench out front with a cigarette hanging out of his unkempt gray beard. As I approached the door he murmured something to me but I could n't quite make it out. I just nodded to him and he nodded back smiling. 
 
 I opened the door to find the inside of the bar to be surprisingly big and unsurprisingly dead. It was narrow but seemed to go back a hundred yards. The meager population was strewn about the many small tables with three or four people at the bar. I hopped on a stool at the bar and the bar tender smiled at me. He was a paunch little man with a broad ruddy face and shining bald head. As I opened my mouth to order he placed a rocks glass filled to the brim with black berry brandy in front of me and said `` Here you go, Joe.'' 
 
 The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and the blood rushed from my face. I had n't said a word and this stranger knew my name and exactly what I was about to order. `` Excuse me, have we met?'' He stopped and stared at me. He was smiling but his eyes were worried as they appraised me. 
 `` Kid, are you all right?'' 
 Heads turned at the end of the bar and I could feel the tension building. I nervously laughed. He laughed. `` You're a fucking wierdo, Joe.'' 
 I quickly downed my drink and cut a bee line to the bathroom door, my head reeling and my stomach in a knot. I was surely losing my mind. 
 I ran the faucet and began splashing cold water on my face. Behind me the bathroom door opened and someone came in. I lifted my head to the mirror. Before me I saw my panicked wide eyed reflection, and behind me I saw an equally panicked figure. It was me. I spun around to face the man. My hand to God we had the same face. The same green eyes and shock of red hair and pointed freckled nose. We were wearing the same clothes even. I stood staring in disbelief as my counter part's face turned from fear to anger. 
 `` You think I'm one of them? Me?! I've been loyal to the party my whole life and you want to snatch me?!'' He grabbed me by my coat collar and swung me against the wall. My heat was pounding so fast and it happened so quickly I could n't speak, hell I could n't even think. 
 `` You think you can just replace me? Think again you son of a bitch! I know what you are I know the protocol I can put you in the fucking ground no one would ever know!'' 
 As he reached to his waist I saw my chance. I reeled my head forward. Smack! 
 My forehead connected with the bridge of his nose. He yelled out and released me staggering backward. I bolted out the bathroom door and staggered into the bar. The bartender was headed towards me `` Joe!'' I heard the door behind me bang open and I ran, bowling over the bar keep full tilt for the front door. The bar was in chaos, I heard a woman scream and my own voice bellowing from behind me `` You son of a bitch!'' followed by three rapid cracks and the zip of bullets flying past me and burying into the wall in front of me. 
 
 I exploded through the front door into the night and sprinted diagonally across the street. I heard a final shot ring out amid the cacophony of screeching tires and blaring horns and I dove to the opposite side walk just as a city bus veered violently side ways desperately trying to stop. I got up and ran as fast as I could as long as I could until I collapsed in deep in the park under the willow tree. 
 In the distance I could hear sirens. I sucked in the freezing night are and took stock of my surroundings. I was in the public gardens. As I had been a million times before. But the buildings. I did n't recognize the skyline. My small city had grown in the half hour of me being in the bar. Where once stood five and six story brick structures were now huge spiraling glass towers. The acrid smell of exhaust permeated the air and the chopping sound of a helicopter came in over head. 
 As I looked to the sky I saw a several choppers scanning the ground with search lights and saw a massive zeppelin hovering above the city center. From it a calming computerized female voice could be heard. `` Attention sector D: Immediate mandatory lock down is in effect for zones 10,11,12, & 13. Please remain sheltered in place and stay off the street until further notice. Thank you for your cooperation.'' 
 
 I tried to pull myself together. Was I dreaming or had I been dreaming and just now woken up in this strange world? I could n't make of heads or tails of anything. And that's when I met you...
