Black Monday

**Black Monday** is the eighteenth chapter of Zak Saturday's Immortal Love Life. It was first published on January 18, 2016.

## Chapter

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**Zak's POV**
Me, my family, and the Hollingers are in an Aztec temple somewhere in Mexico, looking for a kind of mirror that my parents want to study. The temple looked like ancient ruins, making it seem like we were in Egypt.
“Tezcatlipoca, one of the Aztecs most powerful gods.” Mom said, gesturing to a statue of the god near the wall with a mirror next to it. “Night and sorcery. That’s the smoke mirror he used to vanquish enemies.”
Komodo walked up to it, but Mom pulled him back by his tail.
“I’d be careful,” she said. “Lots of dark magic in there. If you close your eyes, you can feel it.”
Fiskerton, Komodo, and I closed our eyes. I sort of felt the dark magic a little bit, but it was vague.
“Or you can open your eyes and see the prisms imbedded in the walls,” Dad said. “They’re catching the light from the outside, making the refracted light seem depulsing. Very impressive engineering.”
“No, no. You can’t engineer magic like this,” Mom argued. “Prisms don’t explain the green tint.”
“There’s always an explanation.” Dad turned toward me. “Look closely, Zak. Tell me what you think.”
I walked up to the mirror and examined it. “Green glow. It could be a via luminescent film, right?”
Fiskerton seemed to agree with me.
“No. No, it could be,” Mom said. “But go intuitive, Zak. Tell me what you feel.”
“I feel like every time we find something weird, you two have to argue.”
“Honey, we’re not arguing.”
“We’re debating and discussing,” Dad assured me, agreeing. “That’s how we learn. It’s essential for every scientist to do everything by the book.”
“I really don’t see a difference between debating and arguing,” Raylee said. “To me, they’re exactly the same thing.”
“Ok,” I said. “But how about we just read ahead to the good part?”
I may have said that too soon, because the moment I touched the mirror again, there was a bright green light and debris started to fall.
“Zak!” Mom said.
I tried to pull away from the mirror and I couldn’t, but she was able to pull me away.
The light eventually blinded us. When my vision cleared, there was chaos all around me. Debris was falling all over the place. Zon could hardly dodge any of it, and the same with Komodo and the animals. But I couldn’t see Sarah anywhere. That is until she grabbed my arm.
“Zak, what is going on?” she asked frantically.
“I don’t know,” I replied, just as frantic.
She looked around, then suddenly gasped. “Zack!”
At first I thought she was calling me, but then I looked where she was looking and realized she was talking about her brother. He was lying on the ground, unconscious. I’m guessing a rock hit him pretty hard on his forehead, because there was a big bump there.
But that wasn’t the worst of it. A part of the temple’s walls were about to fall on my dad, but he didn’t notice.
“Dad, look out!” I called to him.
I tried to run to his aid, but for some reason I couldn’t move at all. I mean, my feet were moving, but I couldn’t move a step. It was like anti-gravity.
Then the statue of Tezcatlipoca next to me started shaking. I knew it was going to fall on me. I tried to move, but of course, I couldn’t.
I groaned. “I can’t get any traction.”
“Zak!” Mom called.
She ran toward me. Then, out of nowhere, a twister came and lifted her off her feet, sending her flying.
I still couldn’t move, but it was too late. The statue fell on top of me, and I blacked out.
————————————————————————————————————
I woke up to someone looking down at me, and I recognized that someone.
“Mom?” I groaned. Then I remembered what happened, and I sat up. “Mom! What happened to—”
She laid me back down. “Just rest. You got hit pretty hard.”
I looked around the room. We were in the infirmary on the airship, and I was lying on one of the beds. I had a patch on my right eye, and bandages on my right arm, but it didn’t really hurt that much.
“I’m fine,” I insisted. “What happened to everyone else?”
“You should go back to sleep for a while,” Mom suggested.
“Mom.”
She knew she wasn’t going to win the argument.
I sat up and then pulled the patch off my eye. It was swollen shut. Mom walked up to a curtain a few feet away and pulled it aside, showing Fiskerton, Komodo, and Zon half covered in bandages.
“You guys look, uh . . . good,” I told them.
Fiskerton complained.
I looked past them and noticed someone lying on a bed behind them.
“Dad!” I called.
I ran to his bedside. He had bandages covering his eyes and up his forehead.
“Dad,” I said. “I tried to save you, but the floor, it just . . . evaporated.”
He muttered something.
“What? I didn’t understand.”
He muttered again.
“Buccaneer?”
“He just needs some rest,” Mom said. “And he’s not the only one.”
“We should get him back home,” I suggested. “There’s better equipment there.”
“I wish we could. But if we fly now, the change in air pressure could make his head trauma even worse.”
“But maybe—”
“Trust me. He’ll be ok.”
I nodded. Then a thought came to me: Where were the Hollingers?
“We’re over here, Dude,” Zack said to me.
He probably heard my thoughts by using his powers.
He and the rest of his family were at the other end of the room. He had bandages on his forehead and left arm. His mom, Raylee, didn’t seem to have any injuries at all, like my mom. Pikachu’s tail was completely covered in bandages. The animals, well, Shillow and a couple of the cubs were completely covered except their eyes, ears, and mouth. The others were only half covered, like their tails and midsections.
But the only one who was still unconscious and lying on a bed was Sarah. I ran to her. She had bandages around her forehead and back. I caressed her cheek with the back of my hand.
“What happened to her?” I asked, even though I think I already knew.
“Well, I was unconscious at the time,” Zack said. “But the wall of the temple was about to fall on and Sarah used her own body to shield me from it.”
“She’s a good sister,” Raylee said. “It hit her pretty hard, so she’ll be out for a while.”
I nodded. “Ok.”
“How ’bout some dinner?” Mom suggested. “Since we’re in Mexico, I was thinking enchiladas?”
“I love enchiladas,” Raylee said with a little too much excitement.
“Yeah, I know you do,” Zack said.
She glared at him.
I turned back to Mom. “You sure Dad’s gonna be ok?”
“I promise,” she replied. “The scenery will do him good.” She looked outside the window at the sunset. “It sure is beautiful here.”
I nodded in agreement.
————————————————————————————————————
Later that night, after eating dinner and going to bed, I was sleeping in one of the bedrooms when I woke up to a squishy sound.
“Augh,” I groaned. “Tell me that’s not what I think it is.”
I sat up and turned on the light on the nightstand. I looked down on the bed, freaked out, and got off of it when I noticed that it looked like it was made of Jell-O.
I backed away from it and bumped into the desk behind me, accidentally knocking over the snow globe that was on it. It shattered against the floor, and all of a sudden, real snow began blowing from it.
I was totally confused. I put my hands on either side of my face and shook it side to side.
“Wake up. Wake up,” I said, then groaned when I realized it was real. “Why is it never just a dream?”
I left the room and ran right into Fisk. Literally.
“Fisk, something really weird is going on here,” I told him. “Like back at the Aztec Temple.”
He disagreed with me.
“No, look.”
I opened the door to the room and immediately snow blew out of it. I closed the door.
Fisk pointed at me accusingly. What did you do?
“What did I do?” I said in defense. “It’s not even my bedroom. How is that my fault?”
“Zak!” I heard a voice call.
Zack was running toward me.
“Zack, what is it?” I asked him.
“I’m sensing that something’s wrong here,” he replied.
“I know, and I’m trying to figure out what that is.”
Fiskerton suddenly growled and looked down the hallway. I looked down it too and saw a silhouette of a person.
“Mom?” I called.
The person backed away and I realized that the person was too short and a male.
“Not Mom.”
The guy turned around and ran.
“Hey!” I called, then ran after him.
I noticed he was on the ceiling.
“Who runs on the ceiling?” I wondered. Then I looked down and realized I was also, somehow, running on the ceiling. “Oh.”
The walls suddenly turned to soup and I slid back down to the floor.
I continued running after the guy, who was also back on the floor. He came to a dead end. When he turned around to face me, I tackled him to the floor.
“Ok, who are—” I faltered because the guy I tackled looked a lot like me, only his hair was different. The black and the white were switched. “Me. You are . . .”
“No, I’m me,” he said, his voice sounding the exact same as mine. “And you’re toast.”
He flipped me behind him using his leg.
I hit the air ducked and bounced off of it, landing on my feet in front of him. He tried to punch me, but I blocked it with my arm.
“I always start with a left jab, too,” I said.
“Then a right uppercut?” he finished. “Yawn.”
We both kicked out with our right foot.
“I knew you were gonna do that,” we both said in unison.
We glared at each other.
I backed against the wall, bounced off, then pushed him against another. He bounced off it and onto the floor. I held his arms down from above his head.
“The smoke mirror,” I realized. “You’re what happened when I touched it, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed. “But you’re the one going back in.”
He placed his legs on either side of my head and threw me forward, and I landed on the ground. I stood up and noticed he had something in his hand: a claw just like mine, except it was a little different. He activated his powers and his eyes started glowing green instead of orange.
“Whoa,” I said. “What’s with your claw?”
“What’s a claw?” he asked.
Then suddenly, Fiskerton busted through the wall.
“Fisk, help me out, buddy,” I said to him. “He’s gotta—”
When he faced me, his eyes were glowing green. He charged at me, but I dodged and he tripped.
“What’d you do to him?” I asked my other self.
“*I* didn’t do anything,” he replied. “The fang did.”
Then Zon and Komodo came down the hallway toward us. They were also under his control. They attacked me, but I dodged each of their attacks.
I grabbed my claw and activated my own powers. “Let them go now!”
They screeched in pain. My other half wasn’t backing down.
“I said let them go,” I told him.
“Make me,” he replied.
I ran toward him, slamming down the claw like a sword. He blocked it with his own. We kept at it for a little while.
Then suddenly water dropped down from an air duck, falling right on top of him. He dropped his claw. I slid toward it and picked it up.
“No!” he said.
I turned toward him. “Never mess with my family again.”
He pounded the ground with both his fists in defeat.
I deactivated my powers and Fiskerton, Komodo, and Zon collapsed to the ground.
“Mom, I need another hand in here!” I called. “That’s not mine.”
“You sure calling for mommy is such a good idea?” my other half asked. “Do you think I’m the only one who came out of the mirror?”
I was confused by what he was saying.
“Are you seriously that slow?” he asked me. “You don’t think it’s weird that she and Raylee are the only one of you losers without a scratch on—”
He was interrupted when he was suddenly blasted by a beam. He yelled in pain and collapsed to the ground.
I turned around and noticed my mom, who was holding a cortex disrupter, Zack and Raylee, whose hands were burning red with fire.
“What was that for?” I asked. “I had him under control.”
My mom walked up to me, gave me a kiss on my forehead, and ruffled my hair. “Just making sure my baby is safe.”
“Yeah,” Zack agreed. “And you asked for help. So we helped you.”
I shrugged. “Ok, fine.”
Zack and I took Fiskerton, Komodo, and Zon back to the infirmary while our moms locked up my other half somewhere. Afterwards, the four of us gathered in the kitchen where my mom made us all hot chocolate while I explained what happened.
“It was weird,” I began. “It was like Zak Monday didn’t just look like me, he moved like me. I mean, almost, but kind of twisted.”
“Zak Monday?” Mom asked.
“You know, like a no-fun-version-of-a-Saturday, seemed to fit.”
“Zak Monday it is. Here you go.”
She handed me, Zack, and Raylee a cup of cocoa.
“So, if he came out of the smoke mirror, then, it’s what? Like a portal to an alternate universe?” I wondered.
Mom took a sip of her cocoa. “Have you ever really tasted hot chocolate. I mean, really tasted it?”
“Yeah, it tastes like chocolate, only it’s hot, and there’s sometimes mini-marshmallows. Can we get back to the alternate-universe stuff?”
Mom gasped. “We have mini-marshmallows?”
She began looking for them in the cabinets.
Raylee face palmed herself and shook her head. “Stupid idiot.”
I was confused as to why she said that, but I was more confused by why my mom was acting this way.
“Mom, I’ve got an evil double who makes cryptids go psycho, it snowed in my bedroom, and I’m pretty sure I saw a door melt,” I complained.
She stopped looking for the marshmallows and sat down in the chair next to me. “Sweetie, there’s a simple explanation for all of it. Zak Monday is the anti-you. Matter and anti-matter can’t coexist. Bring the two of you together, and the fabric of the universe starts to come undone.”
“Solids turn to liquid, reverse gravity,” I agreed.
“And worse. That’s why I locked up mister Monday in the farthest hole until we can get him back through the mirror. It’s all simple, partical physics.”
“Wow. You figured that out fast.”
“I’m a scientist. Is that a problem for you, smart guy?” she snapped.
I was taken by too much surprise to respond.
Then Mom laughed. “Kidding. Drink your cocoa.”
She ruffled my hair.
I was completely confused now, because my mom has never “kid,” or even yelled at me like that before. Then the last words that Zak Monday said to me were replaying in my head: *Do you think I’m the only one who came out of that mirror?*
“Umm, maybe I’ll wait for the mini-marshmallows,” I said.
I stood up from my seat and left the room. Zack followed me.
“Well, that was weird,” he said.
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah.”
“So what are you gonna do now?”
“I’m going to go talk to my dad.”
“Ok.”
We headed to the infirmary. Sarah was still unconscious as well as my dad. Fiskerton, Komodo, and Zon were awake, but the animals were no where to be seen.
I walked over to my dad’s bedside. “I don’t know if you can understand any of this, Dad, but I’m sorry. I wish I never touched that mirror. And now you’re hurt and Mom, well . . . I don’t even know if she is Mom.”
Fiskerton asked me why.
“I don’t know, Fisk,” I said. “That’s what I’m saying. Maybe Zak Monday is just a huge liar, but Mom’s been acting really weird. Dad would know, but now I can’t even ask him.”
Dad mumbled something.
“Dad?” I asked.
He mumbled again.
“Ba coffee?”
“Bad . . . copy. Bad copy. Bad—bad copy.”
“Bad copy? Zak Monday? Yeah, but, I told you, we took care of him.”
“Bad copy. Bad copy.”
“What are you trying to say? Is there another—”
“Medicine time,” I heard Mom say. She entered the infirmary holding a tray with medicine on it. “Let’s go boys. Daddy needs his treatment.”
I had to keep her away from him.
“Hey, um, maybe . . . I can stay and watch?” I asked.
“What for, baby boy?” she asked, which only confirmed my suspicions even more.
“Well, you guys always want me to learn the medical stuff, right? You never know whose life you could say.”
“Oh, maybe tomorrow, sweetie. It’s past your bed time.”
“I am so awake right now.”
“Trouble sleeping? Maybe you need some medicine too.”
I knew I had to act now. “Bad copy.”
I grabbed the claw and used the cable to it to knock the tray out of her hands. She dropped it, and she stepped on one of the vials she was carrying, causing her to trip and fall.
“Fisk, get Dad,” I said. “We gotta go now.”
He did as I told him (with a little bump in the butt from Komodo).
I ran to Sarah’s bed, picked her up, and we all left the infirmary.
“Get back here now!” my bad copy mom called after us.
I led the rest of us outside, but in order to get to the ground, we had to slide down a cable connecting the airship to the ground. Fiskerton went first, holding on to Dad and Zon. Zack went next, taking Komodo, and I went last, holding on to Sarah tightly.
“Come on,” I said once we got to the ground. “We can lose her in the ruins and give us a chance to think.”
So we ran and hid. After a while, I ran out of breath.
“Give me a second here, guys,” I said. “I’ve just gotta find us a place to hide while we figure out what to do about Mom.” I face palmed myself. “Fake Mom. The mom poster. Monday Mom.”
“Bad . . . copy,” Dad offered.
“Yeah, that one.”
“Zak? Zak, are you in here?” I heard my bad copy mom call. “Zak, I know you must be scared. Just speak up so I can find you.”
Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. That’s why I ran away from you so that I can just call you back to me.
We continued on moving farther away from the direction from where her voice came from.
“Ok, we’re good,” I said. “That one sounded farther away than—”
Spoke too soon. I bumped right into her.
“Zak,” she said, sounding really happy to see me.
“Get back,” I told her while stepping back from her. “You’re not my mom.”
Fiskerton growled and Zack set fire to his hands.
“Zak, calm down,” she said while continuously moving toward me. “I know I have a double. I saw her come out of the smoke mirror with your double ganger, but I—”
I set Sarah down so I was holding her up against me with one arm while I grabbed the claw with my other hand, extended it, and held it to Bad Copy Mom’s face. “Don’t move.”
“Wow,” she said. “Good technique. Kind of wish I hadn’t shown it to you. Here, I’ll move slowly.”
I wasn’t taking any chances, but I let her go on.
“I ran into trouble getting this.” She pulled out something from behind her back and laid it on the ground. It was covered in a cloth. She removed part of it to show me what was under it.
“The smoke mirror?” I asked, surprised.
“We can send them back. But, if the mirror works like I think it does, we need both versions of ourselves together to make the portal activate.”
“Wait. I thought bringing matter and anti-matter together was a bad idea? Causes all kinds of—”
Suddenly everything around us started moving.
“That,” I finished.
“Careful,” Mom said. “She must be close.”
A burst of blue fire came out of nowhere and blasted her, knocking her a few feet back and knocking her unconscious.
“Mom!” I called. “Or . . . whoever.”
I turned toward where that blast came from and saw my mom (or anti-mom) with her fire sword in her hand.
She ran up to me. “Zak! I was so worried. About all of you.”
Fiskerton, Komodo, and Zon growled at her.
“Guys, guys, I know what you’ve seen and I’m sorry I couldn’t help you sooner,” she told them. “I lost you when the temple collapsed, and then I couldn’t find—the smoke mirror!” She noticed it lying on the ground. “Zak, we can put her back in.”
Zack seemed just as confused as I was.
“Mom—or not Mom,” I groaned. “I don’t know and, right now, I don’t care. I’ve gotta check on Mom. Uh, other Mom.” I sighed. “Next time, name tags.”
I ran to the other Mom’s side, laying Sarah down on the ground in the process. She groaned.
“You don’t want to wait until she wakes up, Zak,” my (anti?) mom said. “We have to send her back now.”
The other Mom woke up and sat bolt upright. “Zak, don’t trust her. Whatever she said, she’s lying.”
“Don’t you open your mouth again,” my . . . mom said, getting ready to blast her again with her fire sword.
I knocked it out of her hand with the claw.
“Just stop it. Both of you.” I looked at my pets. “Aren’t animals supposed to be able to smell fakes?”
“Mine can,” Zack said. “I wonder where they are.”
He wasn’t being very helpful, so I walked to my dad, whom Fiskerton was still carrying.
“Dad, if you’re in there at all, I really need your help right now,” I said. “You know Mom better than all of us. I need you, Dad. Anything.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Bad copy, bad copy, bad copy, bad copy, bad copy,” he said really fast.
I sighed. “Yeah, I know.” Then I realized something. “Wait. You are trying to help. Zak Monday isn’t an exact double of me. His hair is different. So maybe Drew Monday isn’t a perfect clone either.” I walked back to my mom and anti-mom. “A bad copy.”
“It’s a good idea,” one of them agreed. “The hair looks the same on her, but something else. Have her take her gloves off. Maybe extra fingers, or—”
“Oh, enough,” my other mom said.
She grabbed the claw out of my hand and slingshot it at the other one. Then something weird happened.
She grabbed onto the claw, but not with her hands. Her tongue stretched out impossibly long and wrapped around it. We all were shocked.
I guess now we know which one was my real mom.
“Oops,” Drew Monday said.
She grabbed my arm, but Mom tackled her, landing on top of her.
“How did you know she could do that?” I asked her.
“I didn’t,” she said. “I just wanted to hit her in the face. Now come on, let’s send her back through the—”
Suddenly Fiskerton grabbed her and pulled her away.
“Fisk, what are you doing?” I asked him.
Then my dad, who was standing now, picked me up by the back of my shirt.
“Bad copy,” he said.
“Dad, it’s me,” I told him. “The real me.”
Then all of a sudden debris started falling on us and I had a déjà vu moment from back in the temple.
“Ah, this can’t be good,” I said.
“Hey, it’s family bonding time,” someone said, and I recognized it.
I mean, it was my voice after all. Zak Monday. I looked toward him. He was standing next to Drew Monday, but then I noticed my real dad, Fiskerton, Komodo, Zon, Zack, Raylee, Pikachu, and the animals all tied up and gagged, and the Hollingers, except Zack’s clone, standing behind them.
But then that must mean that my dad, my pets, and Zack’s clone were . . .
“You couldn’t have shown up *before* she started hitting me?” Drew Monday asked Zak Monday.
“Could’ve,” he admitted. “But I like watching things get hurt.”
“All copies,” Mom said. “The whole time.”
“A whole family of Mondays,” I said.
“Bad copy, bad copy, bad copy, bad copy, bad copy,” Doc Monday said.
Is that all he says?
“By the way, genius,” Zak Monday said to me. “Pops wasn’t saying ‘bad copy’ *to* you. He was saying it *about* you. Your cheap, weak copies. And we’re sending you all into the shredder.”
All the doubles that had bandages on began removing them all, revealing their differences. Fiskerton Monday had horns like a devil instead of ears. Zon Monday had eyes on her wings. Doc Monday had an eye patch. Komodo had a black spot on his back. Zack’s double had different kinds of tattoos all over his left arm. Raylee and Sarah’s both had blond hair. Pikachu’s tail looked like a sword instead of a lightning bolt, and the animals, well, Shillow’s fur was all black instead of white, and some of the cheetahs had different patterned spots or stripes while the others had none at all.
“Are you disturbed yet?” Komodo Monday asked us.
Very. And not just because he can talk, unlike my Komodo, but for many other reasons as well.
————————————————————————————————————
The Mondays tied me, my mom, and Sarah (even though she was still unconscious) up. Then they took all of us to the center of the ruins and aligned us on the ground.
“I knew if the brat got scared enough, he’d find mommy for us,” Drew Monday said.
“Excuse me, Drew,” Komodo Monday said. “Nobody cares how clever you are. Just get the mirror ready before this place is torn apart.”
“I swear, once they’re gone, I’m turning you into a purse.”
“I can’t believe you guys haven’t realized who we are already,” Raylee’s double said.
“What do you mean?” Raylee asked.
“You and I have known each other for almost eighty years, Raylee.”
She thought about it for a moment, then her eyes widened. “Oh my God. Darleen?”
Her other self smiled evilly.
Raylee turned her head toward Sarah and Zack’s clones. “Danielle? Daniel?”
“Guilty as charged,” Sarah’s double said, whose name, I assume, was Danielle.
“Why didn’t we realize it was them before?” Zack asked his mom.
“Because you guys underestimate how stupid you are,” Daniel said, answering for her.
“Yeah,” Darleen agreed. “Did you guys really think that we came out of that mirror with them?”
“Well, at first, no,” Raylee replied. “But, when we saw the Mondays, we thought maybe you did.”
“Well, you thought wrong,” Danielle said. “You already have clones. Us. There’s no reason for you to have more because for your information, if you get other clones, they won’t just be your enemies, they’ll be ours as well. And you guys are enough of a pain in the ass as it is.”
“The only one of your clones that came out of that mirror are Shillow, Pikachu, and the cheetahs since they don’t already have their own clones,” Daniel said. “Until now.”
“We haven’t given them names yet, but we’ll think of some soon,” Darleen said. Then she looked directly at Raylee. “Oh, but you’ll probably never know what they are. Too bad your knight-and-shining-armor isn’t here to save you like he has so many times before.”
Raylee sighed. “Do you have to say that every single damn time we have an encounter with each other?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I know how much it hurts you, knowing that you now only have Cj to rely on instead of him.”
“I don’t rely on Cj at all,” Raylee said.
“I really pity you.”
Raylee became even more angry. “Stop saying that! And stop making me insult Cj like that.”
“I only do that because I want to remind you that you and I both know that Cj is nothing compared to him.”
“Of course he’s not! No guy on this damn planet is, or ever will be, anything compared to him.”
“Anything compared to who?” Zack asked.
Raylee blushed. “Nobody.”
“Oooo. Momma’s gotta a deep dark secret,” Darleen said. “Oh, wait. I already knew that, because I’m you after all.”
“Would you just shut the fuck up already before I make you?” Raylee threatened.
“How are you going to make me shut up? You’re all tied up.”
“Well, I could—”
Before she could finish, Sarah began to stir.
“Danielle?” Darleen asked.
She seemed to understand and unsheathed her sword. Then she walked up to Sarah and held the tip of her blade to her face. Sarah opened her eyes, blinking a few times to clear her vision, and was surprised to find a sword held to her face.
“Get up,” Danielle commanded.
“Oh, please tell me that this is just a dream,” Sarah said.
“Fortunately for us, no. Now get up.”
She did as she was told, but it was really hard for her since she had her hands tied behind her back. She was between me and my mom, so she kept bumping into us both, but eventually she was able to get herself into a sitting position. She looked at her surroundings.
“Are you sure this isn’t a dream?” she asked, noticing the Mondays. “Because it looks more like a nightmare.”
“Oh, it’s real,” Danielle said. “And it’s about to get worse for all of you.” She sheathed her sword. “Hello, Sarah. It’s been a while.”
“Not a long enough while,” she muttered.
“Yes, well, I can see why you like Zak so much.”
She walked over to Zak Monday and gave him a kiss on the mouth. They started having a make out session, which was too much for me and Sarah to watch.
“I knew you were an evil bitch, but I didn’t know you were an evil slut as well,” Sarah gagged.
“Well, if you’re not, I am,” Danielle said. “And besides, you know how hard it is to resist him.”
“Why thank you, Danielle,” Zak Monday said.
“You’re welcome.”
“It’s no longer that hard to resist him,” Sarah muttered.
That was hurtful, but I knew what she meant.
“Danielle,” Darleen said. “Can you please stop embarrassing them so that we can get rid of them already?”
She sighed. “Fine. Proceed.”
“Thank you,” Komodo Monday said, then turned to the rest of us. “Goodbye, Saturdays. Please enjoy our world.”
“Yeah,” Drew Monday agreed. “I hope you like darkness and smoke. On the plus side, you’ll get lots of good combat training.”
“They don’t like us very much there,” Zak Monday added.
“Gee, I can’t imagine why,” Raylee said.
“On the minus side, no hot chocolate,” Drew Monday said.
“Don’t think I forgot about you,” Zak Monday said, and walked over to me, holding the claw in his hand. “You hurt me, and since we’re doubled, I guess that means I have to hurt you.”
“What are you gonna do to him?” Sarah asked.
“Well, I was thinking of—”
He got interrupted when, all of a sudden, a big fire ball came out of no where and hit him, and half of the Mondays and anti-Hollingers. Zak Monday dropped the claw and Drew Monday dropped the smoke mirror.
The claw had landed in front of me. The others were too distracted by where the fire ball came from so I took my chance to break free. I did a backwards roll and slipped my arms out from behind my back so that now they were in front of me, and I used the bottom of the claw to cut the ropes from around my wrists.
I noticed Drew Monday was trying to pick up the mirror. I picked up the claw, and slingshot it over to the mirror. It grabbed onto it and pulled it back to me.
“I warned you never to mess with my family again,” I said.
I cut the ropes from around my family and Sarah and her family. After I was finished, we all began to fight our doubles, except me since I had the mirror. I had to stay away from them until I could seal them all back through it.
Komodo Monday came toward me. I backed away, but then fell into some mud.
“Careful, Zak,” Dad said while fighting off his clone. “If the portal gets broken, we never be able to send them back to their own dimension.”
Yeah, like I didn’t already know that.
I tried to move through the mud, but then it became solid rock, like cement.
“Just throw it to me, Zak,” Mom called to me from about ten feet away. “Hurry!”
I threw it to her, but just before she caught it, her double used her tongue and snatched it away from her. She turned the mirror on me. Mom tried to stop her, but like me, she fell into the mud.
“You do not know how nice it is not to have to pretend to care about you anymore,” Drew Monday told me. “Ba-bye.”
The portal activated, and I felt myself being pulled through it. I tried to move away, but it was no use. Then, suddenly, a big statue came out of no where and slammed into her, sending the mirror airborne.
I couldn’t help but watch as it fell to the ground. It surprisingly had a soft landing onto some feathers.
Doc Monday picked it up and licked it for some reason. “Shiny.”
The rest of the Mondays gathered around him.
“Give me that thing, dead weight,” Zak Monday said, and snatched it out of his hands.
“Don’t touch it,” Drew Monday said, and grabbed it from him. “Nobody touches it but me.”
“Since when? What are you up to? Trying to stab the rest of us in the back and get this world all to yourself?”
“Me? Who told the Braturday I wasn’t his mommy? You sold me out.”
“Oh, that’s how it’s gonna be, huh?”
They began having a tug of war for the mirror.
“Oh, this is not gonna end well,” Darleen said.
She and her family backed far away from the Mondays.
I began to walk toward them, but my dad stopped me.
“I don’t think you wanna get in the middle of family time,” he said.
Since the anti-Hollingers didn’t want to, he was probably right.
We all gathered behind a big pile of rocks and continued to watch Zak and Drew Monday fight for the mirror. Zak won it.
“You losers don’t deserve this world,” he told them, then held up the mirror toward them, its portal activating.
They were next to the Aztec Temple and it suddenly began to collapse.
Zak seemed to know what that meant. “No, not me. Just them.”
The temple turned to rubble, but before it could fall on them, the mirror sucked them all in and the Mondays were gone. After the debris settled, we saw the mirror in pieces and walked over to it. We could still hear them arguing with each other.
“I call no family arguments ever again,” I said.
“Absolutely,” Dad agreed.
“Done,” Mom said, also agreeing.
“What a bunch of idiots,” Darleen said.
It took me a moment to realize that she was referring to the Mondays and not us. But she might have meant us as well.
She and her family were standing about fifty feet away from us
“So, what do we do now?” Danielle asked her mom.
“I guess we’ll go home,” she replied.
“Who do you think summoned that fireball?” Daniel asked.
“You know who. But they probably don’t.” Darleen turned our way, looking straight at Raylee. “Especially you.”
“Who was it?” she asked.
“You’ll find out some day. We’ll see each other again soon.”
“We always do.”
They activated their powers, and they were gone.
“Great,” Amber said sarcastically. “Now we have our own clones to deal with.”
“Yes, unfortunately, you do,” Raylee said.
“Ok,” Sarah said. “Now that that’s over with, can someone please tell me what the hell just happened here?”
We all laughed.
————————————————————————————————————

```
                                        Sarah’s POV.

```

On our way back to the airship, everyone explained to me about the Mondays, how they came through the smoke mirror, and I was jealous that I missed most of it because I was unconscious and woke up at the worst part. And after we got back and were heading home, I pulled Zak into one of the bedrooms.
Me and him had been acting awkward around each other since that little scene with Danielle and Zak Monday. That was disturbing.
“Zak, we need to talk,” I said.
“Ok,” he replied. “About what?”
“Well, you and I have been acting odd since we got back on the airship, and I know why.”
“So do I.”
“Right. Can we please not let that ruin our relationship?”
“I don’t want it to.” He walked closer to me.
“Neither do I.”
“Do you think that’s what we really look like when we kiss?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. But right now, I don’t care.”
“I don’t either.”
He wrapped his arms around me, pulled me close, and kissed me. But we were interrupted when my twin brother, Zack, entered the room.
“Oh, sorry,” he apologized when he saw the two of us.
“It’s ok,” I said, pulling away from Zak while blushing. “Do you need something?”
“Actually, yes. I need to talk to you.”
“Ok.”
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Zak said, then left the room.
I turned back to Zack. “So what do you need to talk to me about?”
He suddenly turned serious. “I think Mom’s having an affair.”

I hope you guys liked this chapter. It ended with a little cliff hanger. What do you think about it?
This episode came out before the next one, but they later changed the order and had the next one air before this one because they thought that Black Monday was the best way to start the season again, but then changed their minds. I disagree with it, and that's why I posted this one first before the next one.
Please review **here**.

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## Character Appearances

### Main Characters

* Zak Saturday
* Drew Saturday
* Doc Saturday
* Sarah Hollinger
* Zack Hollinger
* Raylee Hollinger

### Pets

* Fiskerton Saturday
* Komodo Saturday
* Zon Saturday
* Pikachu Hollinger
* Shillow Hollinger
* Amber Hollinger
* Kimbia Hollinger
* Kika Hollinger
* Chewie Hollinger
* Toto Hollinger
* Honey Hollinger

### Enemies

* Zak Monday
* Drew Monday
* Doc Monday
* Darleen
* Danielle
* Daniel
* Fiskerton Monday
* Komodo Monday
* Zon Monday