Daniel Astier blinked several times, confused and disoriented. He was sitting on his couch just then, browsing internet forums on his smartphone and having dinner. Now he stood in the middle of nowhere, a strange vastness shrouded by a white mist. When he turned around, he felt his skin crawl and stumbled backward as he faced... himself. Only it wasn't really Daniel. Same clothes, same hair... but the [i]thing[/i] in front of him had a disturbing grin, distorting its face and wider than what should be possible with a normal mouth. "Wh... What the fuck is that?"

"Rude." The thing cackled. "Besides, you already know, don't you?" It stepped forward. "The voice that murmured to you all this time. The voice that you chose to ignore because you're afraid of the truth."

"You're... you're not real. You're not." Daniel was sweating. Was that it? Was he finally going insane, as he feared he would?

"Not real?" The other Daniel growled, his body bulging and convulsing as it morphed into a larger, bestial form, with arched legs and long arms ending with claws. The face was worse, a mockery of human features with a mouth stretching from ear to ear and full of sharp fangs. But the worst part was that the thing spoke again. "I am the [b]only[/b] real one! You are a fake person. Nothing more than a shell full of lies. Lies to yourself, to others... But I know. I know your dreams, your deepest secrets." The hulking beast took another step towards a Daniel too paralyzed by shock and fear to even try to run away. "You're nothing but a coward. Too cowardly to be yourself, to act as you really want to."

 Daniel breathed heavily as he struggled to keep his wits about him. He couldn't bear to hear this maddening voice that was so like his own. "Sh-shut up! You don't-"

Before he could say another word, the thing grabbed his face with its massive clawed hand and lifted him up, leaving him to helplessly kick the empty air. "You shut up. You don't deserve to live. You don't deserve to have ever existed. But I'm going to change that." The beast then effortlessly threw Daniel away like a cloth doll, sending him sprawling to the floor and screaming in pain when his left femur broke and perforated his skin. Daniel's head was spinning, and the pain was excruciating. "I don't want to die. I'm not going to die..." he thought as he got up on one knee, grunting with pain as the beast snarled and walked towards him, clicking its claws with a sickening laugh. "...but how?"