got the idea to write this from this drawing I made. blog/view/friendly-neighborhood-imbecille/693129412250681344?source=share

hope you like the story


He was jolted awake with pain. It seared through his entire being, like he was being stabbed, ripped apart, like a part of him was being broken away, then it stopped. He fell to the floor hard, like he was tossed. He heard metal clanging against the concrete, then silence.

"It worked."

He could hear loud sobbing. Was he crying? He opened his eyes, but everything was blurry.

"I can't believe it, it worked. You're free now, you don't have to be burdened with that guilt and sorrow."

"Vlad?" He croaked. The man grabbed his hand and pulled him up into a hug.

"It's okay Daniel, you won't have to feel that pain anymore. I found a solution, everything will be okay." Something was horribly wrong. He felt like he was panicking, hyperventilating, but his breathing was too slow. It didn't even feel like he was actually breathing, just filling his throat with air and forcing it out. His legs felt like they could fall apart at any time, like there wasn't any sort of structure to his body, like he wasn't real. Vlad waited a couple more seconds before releasing him from the hug and putting his hands on his shoulders.

"I'm so glad it worked."

Danny just stared ahead, he didn't know what else to do. The sobs turned into choking sounds followed by wet splats, Vlad cursed and led him over to a bench to sit on before quickly moving away. The choking slowly died out to ragged breathing, then nothing.

He sat on the bench, his vision slowly coming back, and the lingering pain fading away. He remembered bits and pieces, he was in Vlad's lab. Vlad had asked him to help with an experiment as a way to take his mind off things. He didn't want to, but he didn't want to make Vlad upset. So he obeyed.

He looked around, the lab was darker than before, Vlad was standing in front of some sort of table. He stood up and started to walk towards Vlad, something was wrong and he needed to know what was going on.

As he approached the table the feeling of wrongness grew. He wanted to run away, but he kept walking forward until he could see what was there, then he froze.

"Daniel, I can explain." Danny stepped back, he needed to get away.

"Is that a clone? Did you kill him?" he almost didn't recognize his own voice. It was soft and strained, like he was afraid to speak.

"No it's not a clone." Vlad kept his voice eerily calm. It was unnatural, almost emotionless.

"Then who is it?" Danny unwillingly looked back to the corpse on the table. It was turned to its side, facing him. A line of red human blood trailed from its lips into a pool on the table and its eyes stared straight forward, right into his.

"It's you."

Danny's thoughts froze. He locked eyes with Vlad, searching for any evidence that he was lying, but found nothing. "What?"

Vlad's face softened. "Dear boy, you were so upset, you were blaming yourself, you were depressed, you didn't want to live anymore-"

"So you killed me?" his voice cracked and his eyes started to water. This couldn't be happening, this couldn't be true.

"I saved you!" Vlad yelled angrily, "All of this was to protect you! If I hadn't done it, you would have destroyed yourself!"

Danny looked back towards the corpse on the table. He was dead. He was really dead. Tears started streaming from his face and he failed to hold back sobs.

Vlad's face softened and he stepped towards Danny. "Now don't be like that dear boy, it'll all be alright, I'm here for you." He opened up his arms, walking towards Danny as if to hug him.

Danny grabbed the first thing he could off the ground and brandished it as a weapon against Vlad.

"Don't come any closer, get away from me!"

Vlad hesitated, looking down at the weapon in his hands, before cautiously stepping forward, just out of arm's reach.

"Daniel, I know this must be jarring, and I promise you, I did not intend for you to perish, but sometimes, sacrifices must be made for the greatest outcome. Everything will be okay now."

Danny saw red, he charged forward, stabbing Vlad and tearing the weapon through him. Vlad fell to the ground, weak, but instead of any wound appearing, a wispy red eyed figure was forced out of his body. The figure locked eyes with Danny. It felt wrong, unnatural, unnerving, predatory. Danny took a step back, he wanted to disappear, to fly, to sink through the floor, anything to get away from this thing, but his core was frozen in fear.

He ran.

The second he started running, the thing began its pursuit. He bolted for the laboratory stairs and tried to open the door, it was locked, he was cornered, he dropped to the floor and curled himself into a ball, maybe it wouldn't see him if he made himself look small. He knew it wouldn't work, but he couldn't do anything else.

The thing appeared at the bottom of the stairs. It locked eyes with him again and he was frozen. He couldn't look away, no matter how much he wanted to. He could only see those eyes. He felt so small, like a mouse on a glue trap with a cat in sight. Then it surged forward. It engulfed him completely, he felt like he was drowning in acid, like his core was being stripped away, piece by piece. He struggled for freedom, tried to claw his way out, but it was no use. Everything faded to black.


He slowly faded out of unconsciousness to movement. Something was carrying him. Usually, being carried like this felt all enveloping, secure, and comforting, but this was different. The arms supporting him were too thin, the movement was too irregular, and it didn't feel warm and safe like it usually did. Something was wrong.

He forced himself to open his eyes. He was in Vlad's lab, Vlad was carrying him towards a table, then he remembered what had happened.

He struggled against Vlad's grip, he needed to get away, he needed to escape. He started kicking and screaming, fighting with everything he had. Vlad slipped and fell, and he ran to the only place he could, the portal. Vlad was getting up, he needed to hurry, he put in the code for the portal, Vlad was on his feet, the portal started to open, Vlad was limping towards him, he bolted through the portal door, Vlad reached his hand out to the portal, the portal closed. He was safe.