Toby woke up with a sudden jerk.

“What a strange dream... it... felt so real,” It felt like as if he had been living in two places at once.

He got out of bed and padded silently into his bathroom. Turning on the water and looking in the mirror, his reflection staring warily back. A sudden feeling of wrongness surged over him, “Why is my bathroom adjacent to my bedroom?. Don't I have my bathroom next to the entryway, past the living room?”. “I live in a small... No wait, large apartment outskirts. No, It's downtown.” Toby shook his head violently. It felt like he was two people at once. Both options couldn't be true. The feeling of being himself, but yet not himself kept nagging at his mind while he got ready for his day at work.

Once again he froze in his tracks. “Something is very wrong here!” he said into the empty air. He tried closing his eyes to sort through what was real or not.

“Who am I?” he asked himself. “My name is Toby Williams, I am 39 years old, a bit over 1.70 tall and quite a bit overweight”. He whispered out loud to the mirror.

Opening his eyes again took another look in the mirror. Meeting the gaze of someone that looks a lot like him, except that he is missing the extra fat he knew should be there. It didn't feel like he was looking at the real himself.

Closing his eyes again asking he voiced out another question: “what have I been doing the last few years?”.

“I've been a NEET for 3 years after an accident, caused by a seizure of some kind when driving the company delivery van. Losing both my job and drivers license”.

Toby opened his eyes again. Looking around he found his wallet on the shelf next to the mirror. Hesitating for a couple of seconds before taking it.

He grabbed it and opened it up with a slight tremble in his hands. There, in the transparent pocket for an ID card, his own picture smirked back at him. It was as if it was mocking his own failure at life. He still had his license in this version of himself. His eyes roamed around the room for more confirmation when his view fell on the medicine cabinet. His right hand shot forward as if it had a will of its own and snapped open the door, almost tearing the poor thing off its hinges. It was almost empty, only a small pack of light painkillers and some eye drops on the little shelf in the middle. All the prescription medications they put him on after the accident were gone. It was like this Him never had an accident at all.

Toby tried to stare down his own image in the mirror, almost shouting now “what have I been doing these last 3 years?”

Answers rushed through his mind like a cold slimy surge. “I've been working at a delivery service, and got recently promoted to logistics coordinator”. “Recently I have started working out, and dating a girl named Lisa, She is pretty and way out of my league”. “I am considering proposing to her”.

The answers all felt like lies. It wasn't real, he was certain now. Lisa had rejected him 3 years ago, and not in the nicest manner either, It was bad enough that it would still make him cringe just thinking about it. A memory like that just can't be fake.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

This reality was clearly the false one, a delusion acting as if to please him, keep him happily confined to a soft and happy dream. He must have lost it, and gone insane.

Shaking his head, “I need to wake up, I can't remain in this state, there are real people out there that care about me, I have to wake up now”. Anxiety twisted his gut. The rolling and churning feelings in his belly intensified as his imagination went wild with images of himself in a mental institution. Unresponsive and semi brain-dead, or something worse. Comatose in bed, with tubes going in and out of his body, keeping him artificially alive while his mother cries at the side of his bed.

“I refuse to remain in a lie, no matter how comfortable the delusion, I prefer the harshness of reality!” Toby croaked in a desperate whisper. He felt like shouting it out loud in order to dispel the gut-churning anxiety having him in a near panicked state.

“I reject this delusion! And want to wake up to reality once more” He repeated as if it was a mantra that could make everything right again. The fear and doubt nagging on his mind, what If he couldn't? What If he was locked into this prison of his mind until the day he died?

Suddenly a window popped into his mind, he could see it, but still not really see it. It was directly in his mind without being part of what he could see. His view of his own shocked expression in the mirror was not affected at all.

Notification: Subject-Dreamland simulation has encountered a critical failure!

<>Simulation error detected!

<>Entity 14B129B555A7933 Access level 0 rejecting simulation.

<>Entity attempting simulation shutdown.

<>Critical error, Access denied. Insufficient user privileges.

<>Attempting rectification of error:

<>Reviewing entity event log: 8 cases of failed information injection event's recorded.

<>Scanning for mental anomalies.

Toby watched in horror at the messages scrolling through his mind, watching the scanning percentage grow upwards. 1%,2% 10%, What were happening to him?

<>Anomalies found. 5 instances of rejected memory infusions.

<>Removing rejected memory fragments to prevent mental corruption.

<>Removing fragment 1 - Success!

<>Removing fragment 2 - Success!

<>Removing fragment 3 - Success!

<>Removing fragment 4 - Success!

<>Removing fragment 5 - Success!

<>5 Anomalies removed successfully!

<>Mental integrity is restored to optimal condition!

<>Entity 14B129B555A7933 has exhibited Sufficient mental capability for promotion to access level 1. User:

<>Creating new user profile.

<>Logging current Events to User records.

<>Entity 14B129B555A7933 successfully Promoted to USR-14B129B555A7933.

<>Admin support ticket submitted for finalizing acceptance into World 1 - Nexus.

<>Message from: ADM-13B9584A5 delivered.

As soon as one window disappeared, another popped up in its stead. Making Toby even more confused than before.

Private message from ADM-13B9584A5

Hi, Please remain calm for a few minutes, I have accepted your automatic support call, and will be with you shortly, I will come get you as soon as I can.

The world froze, then cracked and crumbled apart around him, revealing only a gray void of nothingness behind the facade of a false reality.

The only thing remaining was the window in his mind, but then that too slowly faded away as if mocking him with its unreality. Thus leaving Toby standing all alone on a gray featureless floor reaching out to infinity in all directions beneath a featureless gray void.