Double

 ****

He fled his doppelgänger. To far places he sought refuge, always denied by the pursuit of his spectral twin. 

After years of fruitless escape, he at last reached a perilous slope. The sky bled red.

His double lingered close behind, a silent challenge etched in shadow.

At the edge, escape denied, he stared into the abyss below. The vermilion sky whispered the futility of his flight. 

He suddenly realized. In fleeing his double, he had forsaken his true self. Evading imitation, he forsook essence. 

He sighed. And then he leapt.