Vincent has always been on the weirder side. He isn’t like his older brother, Edward, wanting a degree in law, or like his younger sister, Elaine, wanting to become a doctor. No, Vincent wants to discover aliens.

After making it out of high school he went on to pursue an apprenticeship as a mechanic, but his main focus always has been and always will be invention and discovery. Vincent became a rather well known and somewhat infamous individual on conspiracy theory forums, and has a complicated web of connections because of this.

There had always been a degree of separation between Vincent and the subject of his interests. That was, until, his brother returned from university three states away.

Edward was not really Edward anymore, Vincent was sure of that.

It was something about the way he talked, the way he moved, the way his eyes had a strange luminescence in the dark that nobody seemed to notice. His parents didn’t care, Elaine brushed him off as crazy but he knew he was right. Edward had been replaced.

Over the next two months, leading up to Edward’s birthday, Vincent watched him closely. He documented everything his brother did, everywhere he went. This did not go unnoticed by Vincents family, or by any of Edwards friends. It did not matter who Vincent told. They did not believe him. No one would believe him.

Vincent confronted him on Edwards 27th birthday. It was a pleasant event, with friends and extended family in town to congratulate Edward and welcome him home. Vincent did not find it nearly as charming. How could they not see? How could they not see that this wasn’t his brother. He snapped. Vincent yelled, he screamed, he cried. He got violent. Someone called the police before any blood could be drawn, but Edward did not come away unharmed.

Vincent was committed to a psych ward, for being a danger to his family and to himself. He was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, and they were not kind to him. Medication followed by therapy followed by more medications, nothing ever worked and everything only made him worse. He found himself spiraling during the four months he was stuck there.

Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he was losing his mind, after all.

When he was released he grabbed the few personal items he still had left, got into his van, and left. He drove until he was too tired to do so any longer, and stopped for the night in a small town called Pinejack.

He is sure that there are people after him, government agencies and officials who want to put him away again for getting too close to the truth. He won’t let them. Not this time.