Chapter 2

I was about to leave the apartment building when the neighboring metal door creaked open.

An old lady poked her head through the crack. She waved at me and whispered, "Are you the doctor who's treating Lydia? Is her illness acting up again?"

"Are you familiar with Mrs. Warner, ma'am?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, of course! We've been neighbors for decades, so we're very close. In fact, I watched her son, Jeremy, grow up from a boy to a man. He also always greets me when he sees me.

"They're good people. It's just that Lydia's been getting more and more senile in the last two years. It's honestly a tragedy that she can't even recognize her own husband and son anymore."

My eyes flashed. "Have Mr. Dean and Mr. Jeremy always looked like that?"

"Yes!" the old lady answered without any hesitation. "Their appearances have never changed. The neighbors would definitely notice if their faces changed.

"Lydia has always been a bit of a religious fanatic. Now that she's gotten older, she tells everyone she comes across that her husband and son are monsters. I suspect that she's losing her mind. You can't trust anything that she says, doctor!"

"Did you notice anything different about Mr. Dean's and Mr. Jeremy's habits or behaviors?" I asked.

The old lady frowned as she sifted through her memories.

"Lydia always told us about how Jeremy became terrified of the dark after he fell into an abandoned pit when he was a child. All of us know that he sleeps with a night light. He also keeps the lights in the hallway on throughout the night.

"He stopped turning on the lights in the hallway about a year and a half ago. Sometimes, I would even see him throwing trash in the middle of the night. He's not afraid of the stairwell anymore even though it's pitch-black. In fact, he has no problem at all traversing through the darkness.

"But he's in his 40s now. I suppose that it makes sense that he got over his fear of the dark."

I thanked the old lady for the information and rushed back to the hospital. I then searched the system for Jeremy's records.

Finally, I found an emergency room record that was filed with the pediatric department over three decades ago.

"Patient: Jeremy Warner.

Age: 7 years old.

Diagnosis: Suffered a panic attack and minor injuries after falling into an abandoned pit.

Treatment and Notes: Disinfected and bandaged the wounds. The patient has nyctophobia, which triggered his panic attack."

I mulled over my thoughts.

There was no way that Jeremy and Dean had doppelgangers who were also father and son. If they truly had been replaced, the police would have conducted an investigation after Lydia called them 99 times.

I also ruled out the possibility of Jeremy and Dean getting plastic surgery. Everyone who went under the knife wished to look more attractive and youthful. It didn't make sense for them to get plastic surgery just to look older.

However, I couldn't ignore the fact that Jeremy had nyctophobia. It was odd for him to suddenly conquer his fear when he showed no signs of getting better after decades of treatment.

Furthermore, Lydia was still very lucid. She was able to clearly express her thoughts, so it didn't seem like she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

I remained lost in my thoughts for a long time, but I still couldn't figure out what was going on.

Just then, I received a call from Jeremy.

He sounded panicked as he exclaimed, "Mom locked us out of the house, Dr. Simmons! She keeps accusing us of being monsters that want to hurt her. Please help us out.

"She's been acting like a madwoman. I'm worried that she'll kill all of us one day when she actually loses her mind."

I could hear Lydia's cries and curses on the other end of the line.

…

I made it back to the Warner residence about 20 minutes later.

Dean was sitting in the stairwell. His back was hunched, and he kept sighing.

Jeremy was standing by the door. His eyes lit up as if he had seen his savior when he spotted me.

"Hurry and tell Mom that she's going senile, Dr. Simmons. Tell her that she needs to be good and take her medication instead of stirring up trouble for us."