Posted my first video on YouTube

It's my first video so it's probably shit, but I hope I can help people write stories and give them good advice. I just used my laptop's camera as the recorder in case you wanted to know.

New free eBook

My next free eBook is out! Check out three free psychological horror/thriller stories with their own themes and morals.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/733279

Mistera, which is the next eBook, will probably be out late next month. I've yet to start writing it, but I do have it written down physically on a book because that's how it started out. It'll also be on this blog as well for those who wish to look at all of it before downloading it.

Choice and Consequence Side Stories (The Most Frightening Monster)

Adrian is on his way home after work with the streets of the city he lives in being oddly quiet. This doesn’t bother him too much as he enjoys quiet, calm nights with nice weather especially since he walks to and from work all the time to save money. With no one around, he pulls out a special photo from his wallet of a girl he loves. His emotions start flaring so he puts the photo away, but when he looks back up, he’s somewhere completely different then where he’d thought he’d be. The street Adrian was walking down is a straight shot to his house and yet he’s somewhere different. A siren blares throughout the city and night quickly descends on the him. Fearing the abnormal occurrence, he seeks shelter in a nearby building, but the darkness overtakes him and traps him in it.

Confused and afraid, he takes his phone out and turns the flashlight on. It doesn’t light up much at all so he turns it off and wanders the darkness with no direction. He also doesn’t have cell reception so he can’t call one of his friends or the police for help. The city seems much emptier than it was before, but despite that, Adrian still feels like he’s being watched by someone or something. He hears weird noises in the distance that sounds like someone is choking on something then sees a black liquid with a tint of crimson on the floor that is almost in the shape of an arrow. Adrian follows this trail until he comes to an alleyway where he finds the source of the liquid. It’s a creature with its insides on its outsides with various organs showing. Some of its arms and legs are oddly shaped to say the least and its face is malformed. The thing approaches Adrian as if curious then opens its mouth to speak.

Its voice is that of young girl, “What are you doing daddy?”

Adrian immediately recognizes the voice and runs away from it as if he needed another reason. He can still hear it in his head despite being further away from the creature.

“I love you daddy!”

“Where’s mommy?”

“Is there something wrong?”

There’s nowhere to run. There’s no place that he can hide to escape the voice. He calms down and tries to empty his mind, which brings the voices to a muffle. There’s danger in the street now and the only place he can think to go is, is home to wait out the apparent night. He finds street signs to map out where he is and goes in the direction home is supposed to be. On his way, he passes by a dead body on the street. It’s a fresh body of a woman who has died of mysterious circumstances. Adrian looks around then walks away since he can’t do anything to help her. As he walks away, a mangled dog-like creature approaches him from the darkness. It’s body parts are all mixed up with various parts of its anatomy in a way that the creature shouldn’t be alive much less walk.

It stands on its two feet and a mouth in its under belly says, “What could you possibly do against a force like that?”

Again, Adrian runs away from the voice and again he can’t escape it.

“Time and decay will overcome you.”

“You aren’t God. You can’t do anything to overcome it.”

“You won’t even do anything to make it worth it.”

“You failed her in the worst way possible.”

“You can’t even find the strength to redeem yourself you worthless, pathetic maggot.”

Adrian does the same as he did before to muffle the voices, but now he has two voices stuck in his head. Two voices he wishes he forgot by now.

Wanting to get home or someplace safe, Adrian enters a small library with its doors open and nobody in it. He wanders its halls for a short while until his eyes catch a particular book on a table. It’s a book he read and enjoyed before and he goes through it until he reaches a part in the story that always gets to him. This is a part where the main character’s family. With nothing and no one left to live for, he becomes a monster and slaughters everyone who had their blood on their hands as it could not be washed out. After the slaughter, the man killed himself after looking into the mirror since it showed that he had turned into a monster.

Adrian puts the book down and turns around to see a little girl who asks him, “Are you going to become a monster too? You already look like one.”

“I’m no monster. I mean really take a look at me.”

“Are you going to kill yourself?”

“What? No.”

“You thought about it.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m going to do it.”

“That’s what I thought before.”

The girl breaks her own neck then tears it off. Her body falls to the floor and her head rolls to him.

She still speaks to him, “You do the same thing every day and say you’re going to change, but will you?”

“I am…I will…” he says with tears in his eyes.

“And yet you are afraid of the pain of it. Pain is natural when it comes to doing actions such as these and you are afraid of suffering only a small portion of it. You call yourself a father?”

The two voices come back from their muffled tone.

“Daddy, why are you crying?”

“Just try fighting against it.”

“Are you going to pick yourself up?”

The two voices then manifest themselves by bursting out of Adrian’s ears and continue to torture him.

“I want you to be stronger.”

“Fight against an enemy with no physical form?”

“Do something!”

“I will!” Adrian yells out at the top of his lungs.

“Then face the pain,” the three say in unison as one being.

Adrian’s legs and one arm fall off and the library door opens with a bright light in it. The three creatures “offer motivation” by having their arms turn into saw blades which slice through the floor behind him.

“This is the kind of pain you will face.”

“Are you weak?”

“Move forward to prove who you are.”

Adrian pulls himself towards the light with the pain being unbearable and yet, he has to keep moving lest he is destroyed. He starts to lose consciousness at certain moments, but he gets through it. He then wakes up at a bus waiting area. His legs and one arm are asleep so he hits them a bit to get the blood flowing. Remembering his past thoughts, he remembers thinking that he’d walk home if the bus didn’t come in time so now he’s going to walk. What he dreamt gives him a reminder of the past and motivation as to what to do.

In the past, Adrian lost his wife in an accident that completely disfigured her along with their dog. The two were on a walk and accidentally got hit by a truck driver who was a bit too tired from doing his job. Because of this, he’s had to raise their kid on their own. The country he lives in doesn’t give much aid to widowed fathers so it was difficult to care for their child on his own, but he was happy as long as she was alive. She caught him reading the book from before and asked about what he would do if he lost her as well and he couldn’t bare to think about it so he just assured her that he’d never lose her, a promise not kept. On one beautiful afternoon, he saw a news report of a bombing at a grade school by a member of a radical group. This was a grade school that his daughter was from. Her names were ones of those confirmed as being deceased though she reportedly died from trying to stop the bomber and got her head blown off in the process. He lost everything because of factors outside of his control and has tried to cope with it over the years with varying amounts of success. Tonight marks another attempt at that so he’s at least strong enough to keep trying.

To keep trying to be the strong father, husband, and person the two people he loved the most think he is. To make the most of his life and be a great person that anyone would love to know. He keeps trying and trying, clawing and clawing to get to that degree of strength. That’s more that can be said for most people so he’s made them proud in that regard.

Choice and Consequence Side Story (Actor)

Marlia barges into the director’s office and says, “I can’t fucking do this anymore!”

“What are you talking about?” he responds.

“I’m not going to play these roles that you want me to anymore! I’m not your damn doll that you can dress up and play with!”

“Again, what the fuck are you talking about? You wanted to be an actor and this is what you’re going to do. It’s how all actors are.”

“But this isn’t who I am!”

“Then who are you?! You barely interact with others and only do so when you act. You’re nothing, but a doll that can be dressed up and played with unless you change your act.”

“There’s nothing I can do to change!”

“Yes you can. You’re just too weak right now to realize that you can.”

“Fuck you!”

Marlia grabs a pair of scissors off the desk and stabs the director in the eye. With anger, she shoves the blade deeper and deeper into his skull until it is permanently stuck in his head. The police barrage in with their guns pointed at Marlia.

“You’re coming with us Marlia!” one of the officers say.

“Who’s Marlia?” she asks with her head tilted, “I’m Shiki, Asuka, Mirai, Haruka.”

With each name, her head twists and her face along with her body change to the characters she’s played.

“Sonja, Dejah, Gwen, Natalia.”

At the last name, she charges at the officers in an unnatural way with her body still contorted. This gets the officers to shoot her, ending whatever life or lives she had.

“Cut! That’s it for today everybody, good work!” the director says.

Everybody moves from their places and the set and its props are moved away.

“That was great Marlia,” says the director.

“Thanks Fitz.”

“Do you maybe want to go out later? I can arrange something with everyone here to go to a nice restaurant or a bar.”

“Nah I’m good. I have stuff to do at home.”

“I understand. See you tomorrow bright and early.”

“Right.”

Marlia leaves the shooting area and goes home to her luxury apartment room to do the stuff that she had to do. Nothing. Or at least nothing important. Since becoming a famous actress, she’s gotten work for many acting jobs which has been both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, she makes a lot of money, but on the other, she doesn’t feel like she has the time to be with others and is constantly tired. The only way her friends and family communicate to her are through the phone and the only way she shows her love for them is through the gifts and money she sends them. She has only their words, her possessions, and some medicinal drugs to help her through her life, but she’s going to need more than that to fix her next problem.

She sets her alarm and falls asleep on her couch then awakens seconds later. Confused, she looks around the room until the TV in front of her turns on by itself. It shows one of the many movies that she starred in. What’s weird about this, is that she’s dreamed of certain movies because of how many times she’s rehearsed them, but she’s never dreamed about them from this perspective. The TV screen statics a bit and the actress’s arms disappear though the actors or characters don’t seem to take note. Marlia wonders if the TV screen is busted or something or if her eyes are deceiving her. The arms are then seen running around on the floor by themselves until they decide to move towards and through the screen. Marlia slowly moves away from the hands that were once hers as they lie on the ground with veins protruding from its shoulders. Without a second though, it scurries towards Marlia, leaps up in the air and stabs her arms with its razor blade like veins. She panics while trying to remove them but more veins and arteries come out of the arms and stab into her arms until both sets of arms are on top of each other. The new arms devour her old arms, which cause immense pain that she cannot stop. Her alarm wakes her up when it’s supposed to and she sees that it was all a dream though her arms feel tingly. Somehow heavy and light at the same time.

With another dose of medication, she goes to work and acts like last night never happened. She’s approached by a supporting actor during a break.

“I’m a big fan of your work,” the man says, “How do you star in so many movies and keep going?”

“The paycheck helps me with that. It takes care of all my needs.”

“Oh. Well why do you act and what made you go into it?”

“My first answer and I had a natural talent for it so I just went with it starting with plays and theaters then went to the big screen and Hollywood.”

“Oh.”

“Were you expecting a more inspiring story? Me too.”

Everything that needs to be done today gets done and Marlia goes home like always. She’s met many people like that fan and coworker and every time she wonders why she isn’t as happy as she should be. She has money, influence, stardom, everything that a woman or man could want from the world, but something’s still missing. Tonight, she goes to sleep in her bed and makes sure the TV is working right. Again, she sets her alarm and goes to sleep and yet again, she wakes up in front of her TV. It shows a different movie she was in and this time Marlia gets a knife from the kitchen and prepares herself whatever comes out next. A pair of legs come out of the TV and she immediately stabs them both with her knife. They shriek like an injured mouse and run out of the room and out a window at an incredibly fast speed, faster than Marlia can manage. She sighs in relief and wakes up the next morning feeling better than last night. During her morning shower, she feels a strange presence around her, but can’t pinpoint it so she shrugs it off. She then feels something brushing by her feet then sees the legs from last night at her feet in a venus flytrap-like position as it chomps down on her legs and replaces them with itself. This wakes her up again as the first time was just part of her dream or nightmare.

Though she doesn’t feel right, she still goes to work. At work, she sees body parts moving around or on people. Some replace certain parts of the actor’s body while others eat and devour it. Marlia can’t contain her disgust at the sight and wants to turn away, but isn’t allowed to. Her arms and legs force her to move forward and act as she’s supposed to though the director and a couple coworkers catch her odd behavior. They tell her to take a break for today and she agrees and goes back home. At home, she takes her medication and eats several kinds of sweets and delicious food to calm down. After which, she decides to go out for fresh air and maybe some shopping since she hasn’t done that in a while. She picks out a nice skirt and top though the top appears to be a bit bigger than she remembers. Once she puts the top one, she feels immense amounts of pain on her chest and back. She takes it off to reveal another body part that eats and replaces her body. “Her” body then moves around and forces itself to puke out what she just ate.

“Gotta keep that figure up. It’s one of your best-selling points,” comes to her mind.

Her body is perfect for most characters she’s played as she isn’t too skinny nor too fat. After what has occurred she still goes out, as there’s nothing else to do. She can’t run away from her own body or maybe all of these events are just in her mind. Once she gets home, she decides to do something new to solve her problem. She pulls out a knife from the kitchen and tries to cut off the new body parts, starting with one of her fingers. The fingers contort, twist, and resist until the knife is dropped to the floor. Her body then forces her to lie down in bed and keep resisting her until she falls asleep.

The next morning doesn’t give her a break because as soon as she wakes up, her body moves on its own, doing what she usually does, and gets her to work. She acts natural despite everything, but seriously wants to talk to someone for help, a first for her. When she has the opportunity and she’s in control, she moves towards a few people that she’s worked with but then stops because she now thinks that they’ll think she’s crazy. No one can help her and she can only help herself is the mindset she’s been in ever since she was able to work.

One of her coworkers go up to her and asks, “Are you okay? You haven’t been acting right off set.”

“I’m fine!” Marlia says before she rushes out of the studio.

“Don’t bother with her man. She’s always been like this,” someone else says to the coworker.

There must be something to help her. She’s heard of people having the same condition she has with monsters and other psychological occurrences happening, but she hasn’t seen an other her or entity that looks and acts like how she herself acts. Maybe today something can be done to fix her problem, but nothing seems to be the answer that comes to her mind. As soon as she gets home, she reflects on how her life got to this point. She looks over pictures hanging in her house. Pictures of herself from various films and interviews. Pictures of her smiling, but she knows that those smiles were fake. Fame and fortune only gave her momentary happiness for a year or two that seem so short in comparison to the rest of her life. She touches one of the pictures of her face with both of her hands then wonders why she’s using both hands to touch it. Her face from the picture begins to contort and cut itself out of it. Marlia tries to move away from it, but her hands, feet, and body stay in place. The face then leaps from the picture and wraps itself around her face with razors inside of it. It replaces her face by devouring it like the other body parts do. It’s a painful process to say the least and once it’s done there’s only one more piece left to completely replace Marlia. A shadow figure that looks like Marlia appears from nowhere behind her. Her new body turns around and the shadow possess Marlia’s body, completely erasing what personality she had.

Marlia walks out the door and drives and goes on a rampage. She’s done acting. She’s done being someone who doesn’t exist. She’s done with everything. With her car, she drives into the shooting area and runs whoever she sees until she crashes into the wall. Her next target is the director who she heads straight for while someone calls the police.

Marlia barges into the director’s office and says, “I can’t fucking do this anymore!”

“What are you talking about?” he responds.

“I’m not going to play these roles that you want me to anymore! I’m not your damn doll that you can dress up and play with!”

“Again, what the fuck are you talking about? You wanted to be an actor and this is what you’re going to do. It’s how all actors are.”

“But this isn’t who I am!”

“Then who are you?! You barely interact with others and only do so when you act. You’re nothing, but a doll that can be dressed up and played with unless you change your act.”

“There’s nothing I can do to change!”

“Yes you can. You’re just too weak right now to realize that you can.”

“Fuck you!”

Marlia grabs a pair of scissors off the desk and stabs the director in the eye. With anger, she shoves the blade deeper and deeper into his skull until it is permanently stuck in his head. The police barrage in with their guns pointed at Marlia.

“You’re coming with us Marlia!” one of the officers say.

“Who’s Marlia?” she asks with her head tilted, “I’m Shiki, Asuka, Mirai, Haruka.”

With each name, she twists her head and body as if it changes with every name.

“Sonja, Dejah, Gwen, Natalia.”

At the last name, she charges at the officers in an unnatural way with her body still contorted. This gets the officers to shoot her, ending whatever life or lives she had.

Upcoming releases

The next book I going to release to Deception and Despair. The ebook version of it is already out here. Later next month I will release two free books. One is a collection of three Choice and Consequence short stories that I was going to turn into full stories but couldn't find a way to. The second one is a book called Mistera which is about a female government agent who kills groups of people the government doesn't approve of. This particular book will be in the format I originally wrote it in as a video game. This will have plenty of extras as well as the other two stories that I wanted in the Mistera trilogy but found to not be book worthy.
I'm really spoiling my fans and others aren't I? Also don't think I'm just shelling these out or rushing them. I've been writing stories since senior year in high school and haven't really been taking any long breaks because of all the material I think of. I'm just now publishing it all for the world to see and to publish my older and newer works to show what else I have to offer.

A big giveaway!

Cursed Tales of Fright Giveaway

Hello everyone! I'm holding two giveaways so there's 60 ebook copies avaiable so enter for a chance to win!

The other 30 copies

Steam summer sale

Getting these two amazing games! You guys should also get out there and see what great games you could get as well!

New albums from Rise Against and Demon Hunter

Though this album doesn't have as many heavy songs as previous Demon Hunter albums, this is still a great album.

All the songs are pretty good, but Jesus wept is the best one.

Eyes wide
See red
I’m why
Bloodshed
So I don’t forget
I’m why
I’m why Jesus wept

This is about how people, pretty much anyone can be the person in this song. People ranging from Christians to Atheists etc.

This new album is ok. Not good not bad but ok. This is probably because this is more of an anti-Trump album that tries to stay unbiased but it tries to stretch itself both ways and as a result doesn't really have a real standing point.
The best song in the album is The Violence with these notable lyrics.

Are we not good enough?
Are we not brave enough?
Is the violence in our nature
Just the image of our maker?
Are we not good enough?
Are we not brave enough?
To become something greater
Than the violence in our nature?
Are we not good enough
Or is it all a dream?

This is about people blaming weak human nature and/or God about their own weakness.

New Choice and Consequence book! Plus estimated release dates for my other books.

Another Choice Another Consequence is out on Amazon today for $6.99! Get the next volume in the psychological horror series and experience a tale of loss and rejection of self, revenge, and forgiveness.

- Deception and Despair will be released around late June/ early July.
- Mistera will be a free ebook about a secret government agent who kills groups of people that gets in the way of the government. This will be released around late July/ early August since I'm going to Disney in July.

Also Happy fathers day!

Sample of Another Choice Another Consequence

Memories are what we’re made of. Without them, we’re no one.

Prologue – A Fateful Meeting

       A slightly injured young woman dressed in homeless clothing and long black hair that was once dyed white stumbles into an abandoned warehouse with empty shelves and boxes and tries to quickly escape it as if there was something important going on. Something important did happen, however, she doesn’t remember what it was and yet her body is moving forward as if it knew. She goes through the back door and she ends up in the same place she was in before. To make sure she isn’t imagining things, she looks back and confirms that the next area is a mirror of the one she was previously in. The woman continues on, hoping that the exit will be close by, but when she goes through the entrance, she just ends up in the same area. Someone appears from behind the door and gets the attention of the confused woman, someone who is like her, but with black markings on her body, an other her.

       “Hi there,” it says, “Did you find what you’re looking for?”

       “No, not yet,” says the woman.

       “Do you know what you’re looking for?”

       “Ye-…No. I don’t know.”

       “Well keep looking. You’re bound to find it.”

       This other her accompanies the woman as she goes back to the exit, but this time, the door is locked.

       “Hmm, guess we can’t go that way. Let’s go back, it’s not like we made any progress anyway.”

       The two head back the other way, but then the other her stops herself.

       “Wait!”

       The door gets dented from something on the other side.

       “That locked door looks like a great idea now.”

       A terrifying ear piercing screech is made from the other side.

       “Fucking move!”

       The two try to open the locked door, but it still won’t open.

       “Here,” the other her gives the woman a lock pick, “Use this.”

       “How?”

       “I don’t know, I just know that you have a feeling on how to use it.”

       With shaky hands, the woman tries to pick the lock. At first it’s difficult for her to understand what to do, but something about what she’s doing gives her déjà vu and she acts on instinct and more relaxed, which allows her to unlock the door. A monster of the ugliest and the most terrifying caliber that cannot be put into words is behind the door she unlocks and it stares the two down in the face. The other her grabs the other’s hand and runs away and the monster gives chase through the cycle of rooms as the monster destroys everything around it.

       Realizing this, the woman says, “We aren’t going anywhere!”

       She looks around and gets the idea to use the windows above the shelves that she didn’t take note of before. The other her automatically knows what to do and climbs up the shelves and out the window. Gravity is inverted and the two fall towards the side of the building. They brace for impact, but feel nothing when they hit it. Once they open their eyes, they find themselves outside the warehouse.

       “You ok?” says the other her.

       “Yeah”, she catches her breath, “Who are you anyway?”

       “I think it’s pretty obvious when you look at a mirror.”

       She looks in one the reflection of the building’s mirror and sees that she looks almost exactly like herself.

       “Alright then, so what are we going to do? I feel like there’s a reason I’m like this, but I can’t remember it.”

       “Maybe if we look around the city we’ll find the reason. What I’m most concerned with is that monster we saw. I hate it for some reason like it has something that it stole from me.”

       “I’d rather not see it again so let’s get moving.”

Chapter 1 – The First Feelings of Love and Blood-Lust

       With no clear direction, the woman wanders the streets using only her instincts to guide her wherever it wanted her to go as rain falls from the sky. She comes to a small deserted playground and she is transformed into a small child. The past warps the area into a sunny day with people going for walks and other kids playing in the area. Her childlike instincts take over as she plays on the swing sets, monkey bars, and slides as her parents look on with smiles on their faces. She looks back and smiles back at them. The moment she turns around, she notices a figure in the alleyway in a fettle position. Curiosity drives her to investigate this and the figure reveals itself to be a small child about her age. He is homeless with cuts and blood on his arms and tears in his eyes. There appears to be drawings all across the pavement and wall where he’s at in a red color.

       She looks at the small boy and says, “Hello, did you draw all these pictures?”

       “Y-yes.”

       “They look pretty cool.”

       “Really?”

       The boy starts to smile.

       “Yeah! What’s your name?”

       “I don’t remember it.”

       “Ok, how ‘bout I call you…James the Painter!”

       “I like that.”

       “Do you have a home?”

       “No…this is all I have.”

       “Mommy! Daddy!”

       The parents walk over to see their daughter talking to this dirty and homeless little boy. They have small feelings of disgust towards the child, but they don’t show it to their own.

       The mother then asks, “What is it sweetie?”

       “Can we take James home with us?”

       “Who?”

       “My friend here. He doesn’t have a home and he is all dirty and hurt.”

       The parents whisper to one another whether or not to take the child in. They’re like every middle-class family, but they can see people are watching them, anxious to see their decision. The parents themselves also want to be a good example to their daughter so they decide.

       The father says, “We will. It would be wrong not to.”

       The two kids and some people behind them cheer and express their happiness in the parents’ decision. The small family with a new addition make their way home and the past fades into the present with the woman back in her current age and situation and yet she follows the past as if it is leading her home. Along the way she catches the shadows of past events with her friend like going to the movies, shopping for toys, and general pranks that they played on others they knew. This all leads her to what seems to be her old house that is covered in red as if the rain that fell in this particular spot is blood.

       The other her appears and says, “Well this doesn’t look like home sweet home.”

       “But it feels like it is.”

       “Is that all you feel? There is more to it.”

       “Yeah…There’s sadness and rage.”

       “Well don’t keep me in suspense, let’s go in.”

       Not wanting to keep herself waiting, she walks to the front door of the house. It’s surprisingly unlocked, so she carefully walks inside and is shocked to see the dead bodies of several people under flickering lights. She feels like she should recognize these people, but only the bodies of the parents seem familiar despite their mutilation and decay. These feelings then turn into anger and sadness that fill her body, feelings that are too familiar. A dark figure darts away from the window and the woman quickly notices this to catch it at the front door and what she catches, is a monster the size of the both of the two with a giant dark brown mouth from a head and snake-like, slimy black body. It attacks them on sight with its mouth and the other her manages to pull her away from its attack in time. The monster then coils itself into attack position while hissing and goes from a hiss to a growling noise and looks the other way to see the monster from before rapidly approaching from far away. It quickly closes the distance and the monster dies almost instantly as the other one chomps and stabs the newer one as if it hated it. It then turns around and transforms into a seemingly normal person with a black hoodie, pants, and shoes with a strange black emptiness where the other half of a head should be that is shadowed by the darkness of its hood.

       “What are you?” the woman asks.

       “Someone who is like you, an other you if you want to say,” it says.

Chapter 2 – Dealing with Yourself

       “Hey! That’s supposed to be me!” says the other her.

       “And you are, but you are a lesser being.”

       “You fucking-”

       A hand of the monster transforms into its ugly self, which stops the other her in its tracks.

       “I know your tendency for violence and though I share it, this is not the time for it.”

       “It’s right,” says the woman, “We have to find out who I was so I can get my life back on track.”

       “That’s one thing we could do,” says the other her, “But I have a better idea. We could use this opportunity to start a new life and put the past behind us. I think the dead bodies we saw were our family and friends based on the feelings we felt. The shadows that lead us here are related to loved ones so we can assume that our connections to our past are gone.”

       The monster steps forward and says, “No, we have to accept our past and continue what we were doing before.”

       “But why? If it resulted in everyone we cared for dying, then what’s the point of going back to it? If anything we could’ve been running from our past in the first place, so this could be what we were doing so we should just continue doing it there’s nothing stopping us but ourselves.”

       “How do you know that for certain? I’m getting the feeling that we’re doing something different so we should at least retrace our steps and make sure who we were and what we were doing just to be safe instead of assuming we don’t have any traces of our past that could haunt us.”

       The woman finally chimes in, “I think we should do that.”

       Stunned by her taking the other side, the other her says, “What?! You’re listening to it? It tried to kill us earlier.”

       “Correction. I tried to kill you.”

       “That’s basically the same thing.”

       “Why were you trying to kill her/it anyway?”

       “Because she’s a terrible influence on you.”

       “You’re no different with your violent nature and willingness to blindly follow what you believe to be right. Besides, you’re ugly as shit.”

       The woman sighs as she hears the two bicker at each other.

       “Let me help you and I will unlock the power within you to give you an advantage unlike any other,” the other her offers.

       “Let me help you and I, a one creature army, will give you the support and strength necessary to overcome all obstacles,” the monster counteroffers.

       “Damn it. I can’t spilt myself in two so how about you both try to help me and deal with it.”

       Speechless, the creatures look at each other.

       “I guess this would be for the better,” says the monster.

       “I guess so too.”

       “Good.”

       The woman then walks off into Hillside City to wander in search of who she was. Some of her memories slowly return to her as she enters the main city district as streets and structures look familiar to her. She walks past many people along the way with many of them looking the same to her. After living in this city for so long, you can tell who is better off and who should be avoided. This woman looks like one of the latter people and yet her imagination makes everyone look like some sort of faceless, naked mannequins with the only defining aspects being their body shapes, skin color, and distortions where their face should be. These people can’t even seem to speak correctly or at least it’s what her ears hear. Her memories slowly stop coming to her as the scenery can only bring so much and she is now wandering directionless as if this is different from before.

       The other her notices this and prioritizes something else, “Hey, I think we’re hungry so we should probably eat something soon. It feels like we haven’t eaten anything in a while.”

       “I agree,” says the monster, “We don’t have any money last time I checked so I guess we have to eat garbage or some kind of vermin.”

       “OR we could steal the food.”

       “That’s a terrible idea.”

       “OR better yet, eat a person and take everything they have.”

       “Where the hell did you get that idea? That’s horrible!”

       “Think about it! We could have a home, food, water, and fresh clothes! We don’t even need to kill more than one person, let’s just look for a loner and take their life and all their shit!”

       “What if the person lives alone, but knows other people that they go to or people that come over?”

       “One step at a time ugly.”

       The woman sees a church in the distance and decides, “Maybe that church will spare some food.”

       “You know just because it’s a church it doesn’t mean that they’ll be charitable. I know it’s one of their virtues, but I don’t really think they’ll give bread and wine to someone like us.”

       “It’s worth a try.”

       “Psh, fine. I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

       The church seems to be in state of decay as they get closer. Not a bad state, but the paint is fading and some of the architecture needs repair. Not wanting to pay attention to these small details and worrying more about food, the woman approaches the church doors and opens it to find that the inside of the church looks more like a shelter for the homeless than an actual church with tons of actual normal looking people who are dressed similar to the woman and who appear to be in the same dirty state. They take a moment to see that she’s entered the church then go back to socializing and planning things for the shelter. A man with brown hair, long sideburns that stretched to his chin, a black pea coat, black work pants, and shoes looks surprised to see this woman and cautiously approaches her.

       He asks her, “Are you okay?”

       “I’m not feeling too well. I’m really hungry,” she responds.

       “Oh. Well we’ve got food to spare.”

       The man calls over someone to give her leftover meats, bread, and water, which she eats as if she hasn’t eaten in weeks.

       “So what are you going to do now?”

       “I’m actually trying to find myself. I don’t really remember who I am.”

       “What? Really?”

       “Yeah.”

       “Well I can help you regain it if you help us out.”

       “Really?! I’ll do it.”

        The man smiles.