— Delicious! Just like before. — I bit into the waffle, savoring the moment of silence. Joyce walked by, nodded with a smile, and returned to her work.

I continued eating the waffle, but thoughts of the coming day began to overshadow the simple pleasure. Chloe would definitely want to test my abilities — she'd probably think I was hiding something. I just hope it doesn't end with a nosebleed…

— Tasty, isn't it? — a strange voice suddenly spoke out of nowhere.

I jolted, almost choking from the shock. Looking up, I saw him — the man staring at me. But was he even a man?

— Uh… who are you? — I stammered, feeling terror coil tightly inside me.

Just one look at his face made me recoil. It was indescribably hideous, so much so that words refused to form a sentence. Reality around his features trembled and warped, as if his face didn't belong in this world. I quickly lowered my eyes, trying not to look anymore, but the image was already burned into my mind like a nightmare from which there was no waking.

The air around him seemed charged with electricity. I could feel something ancient, dreadful, and formless approaching me with every step he took. A primal fear flared in my chest, as if I were an animal cornered by a predator.

— I… let's just say, you took something from me… — His voice was repulsive and melodic at the same time, tearing at my ears with its contrast. Something inside me broke — I understood that standing before me was the one who had come to reclaim his power, the very power now coursing through my veins.

"He's going to kill me," flashed through my mind, and my heart pounded wildly, blood thundering in my temples. I was on the brink of panic, but I couldn't move. I was completely paralyzed by fear.

— Hmmm… — His hum was more terrifying than the silence itself. It scratched at my psyche, leaving me even more vulnerable.

Yet, under the crushing weight of terror, I managed to force out a question:

— So… why… are you here? — My voice barely held on to a thread of despair. I tried to speak evenly, but each word was an immense struggle.

He didn't answer. I kept staring at the floor, feeling his presence loom ever closer, pressing down on me like a boulder of incomprehensible dread. Time seemed to freeze, and fear was devouring me alive.

— …What… are you… going to do? — I whispered, my voice trembling as I bit my lip again, feeling it about to start bleeding.

— Nothing… — his voice sliced through the silence, and that "nothing" was the most terrifying thing I had ever heard.

Every second of his presence became unbearable. It felt as if I were suffocating, my mind melting from contact with this inhuman entity. And then, suddenly, I heard another voice — one that filled me with warmth and hope:

— Hey, Max, are you okay?

I lifted my eyes. There sat Chloe, alive and real, looking at me with concern.

— Chloe? — I studied her face, trying to detect any hint, any sign of the horror that had just occurred. But everything was gone, as if it had never existed.

— Yeah, Max. Did you get completely stoned or something? You look pale, and your eyes are red… — She stepped closer, raising her hand right in front of my face, nearly touching it. — Wait. Don't say anything, I'll say it myself. — She suddenly smirked, and in that moment, the fear began to recede, like a wave retreating from the shore.

Her words, full of familiar mockery, brought with them an unreliable yet comforting sense of relief. I felt better. This was the same Chloe I knew, the one I trusted.

— Your Seattle boyfriend dumped you, didn't he? — She said it with such confidence that for a moment, I forgot all the horror that had just unfolded. Her ridiculous assumption made me laugh. Silly Chloe… did she really believe that?

But little did I know, I was laughing at a shadow. The real Chloe was far away, her body torn apart and scattered across the branches of trees, each piece of flesh absorbed into the rotting earth. And the creature before me, wearing her face, was nothing more than that same monster, returned from the depths of darkness to continue the game that had started with a single bite of waffle.