Doppleganger by Shawn Stern Spotlight and Excerpt!

Hardcover: 234 pages
Retail List Price $24.95
Publisher: INVADER PRESS (January, 2014)
Distributer INGRAM
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0984926619


WHAT WOULD YOU DO...
IF A DUPLICATE STOLE YOUR LIFE?

The day Shane Fisher is mistaken for one of the thieves of a bank robbery, his ordinary life is turned upside down. Propelled into a dark dangerous world, he must race to discover the truth about himself and a reality he never knew existed. With the help of a mysterious stranger, Shane discovers that he possesses powers and abilities far beyond his wildest imagination.

DOPPELGÄNGER is an adventure of murder, betrayal and chaos; one man's loss - and discovery of personal identity. This novel blends scientific realism with technological fantasy, blurring the lines between fact & fiction. After the first few pages the reader will find themselves in a world at once both familiar yet bizarre and thrilling.

About the Author
Shawn Stern was born in the summer of 1977 in Los Angeles, California. He holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has a propensity towards naming his pets after writers and philosophers. He lives in his hometown of Malibu, California.
DOPPELGÄNGER is his first novel.

Read an Excerpt

The boy barely had time to put on his shoes without socks before Daedalus shoved a backpack with money and other supplies into his hands. The boy quickly slipped the pack over his shoulders before climbing into the hidden hole in the wall.

Daeda would always tell the boy the same thing when he showed him how to access whatever particular route he had devised, "If you should ever have to use this, run. Run as fast as you can." Daeda said to the boy as he chiseled out drywall and re-plumbed the pipes to allow room enough for the boy but no larger, "Don't look back. Don't go to friends or neighbors for help, because they might be compromised too. Try to escape and lose yourself the way I've taught you."

So the boy escaped. The boy had watched only briefly through a crack in the hidden wall partition, as the intruders tied Daeda down and began 'questioning' him on the whereabouts of the missing child, before climbing down between the plumbing and electrical pipes to the small crawlspace underneath the building.

The sounds of torture still echoed in the boy's head as he squeezed himself through the tight passage that would eventually lead him to an access tunnel to the sewer system and into the darkness below the city.

Once in the sewer tunnels, the boy flicked on the flashlight Daeda had supplied in the backpack. The light it created flickered across dark, dank walls, while the ceiling overhead seemed to be crumbling away. In this subterranean environment, no matter how carefully he tread, there was a danger he could lose his footing on the slippery surface, so his progress at first was slow, listening to the hushed drip of water.

That is until he heard the enormous explosion come from what he thought was his old home. The heat from the blast was coming at him and despite the danger of slipping in the dark he began running as fast as he could. The air was close and putrid, making it unpleasant and difficult to breathe as he furiously made his way through the underground labyrinth. Far off in the distance, the sound of a gushing torrent from an unseen channel could be faintly heard and so he followed that and it wasn't long before he reached a metal ladder leading up to the surface. Wanting nothing more than to be free of the black subterranean pit he began to climb.

At that time of night the streets were completely deserted, but the boy wasted no time and began sprinting down the road. Despite not even knowing from whom he was running, it was the terror of being caught that drove the boy to run faster than he ever had, before eventually falling in a heap to the ground. Crying out in pain and gasping to catch his breath he could do nothing but lay there for a time. The boy pulled his bloodied knees in and held them tucked up against his chest forming a tight fetal position.

While on the ground, the boy imagined a form of himself looking down at his own curled-up body. The duplicate briefly stood there before it ran away. Escaping.

The second time he envisioned another, more confident version of himself standing up, as if it were ready to charge back up towards the house taking on anything that might still be there. Once again, this more fearless self-image sprinted off in the direction the first one had. This mental exercise made him feel better, so the boy repeated the process over and over in his head. Each time a version of himself ran away, he wished the horrible memories and emotions would leave with it. He drove away the terrible thoughts that hurt him so badly, until his heart rate and breathing slowed down and his body relaxed.

He rose to his feet disoriented by this self-inflicted amnesia. The horrific memories were gone but so were other vital aspects of himself.

Lost and confused, he walked in the same direction he had imagined himself going while still huddled in a ball on the ground, a short while earlier. Still burdened by a sense of grief and loss but now not knowing why, each step carried more weight than his small limbs could measure.

The boy's first night found him hidden away in the local urban sprawl. He collapsed in exhaustion behind a fast-food restaurant chain's trash bin. At that point he was so tired and hungry he didn't care anymore if he was even found or not. Hunger and discomfort outweighed his fear of capture. But the pursuers, if there ever were any, never came for him that night.

He dug into his backpack and pulled out some money to buy some food. He was cold and hungry with nowhere to go. An empty vessel lost at sea, yet not alone.

The P.R.I.M.E. was never truly alone.