“Are you Ben Florence?”

“My head... where am I?”

“Depends. Are you Ben Florence? Because if not then there was one hell of a mix up.”

“Yeah that's me. I'm Ben Florence.”

“Oh good. If you weren't I would have had to kill you.”

“... Why can't I see. What happened to me?”

“You're asleep dumb ass. And you mean what happened to me. I don't know who you are but I gave you a trick question before. I'm Ben Florence and I've never seen you before.”

“You can't see me now.”

“Touché douché. So listen, here's what could be happening. Scenario one; you dragged me into your dream and now I have to kill you.”

“... Give me a second option?

“You're dead and somehow got into my body like a truck driver at a pit stop. In which case I have to kill you. Painfully.”

“Oh.”

“You don't seem so surprised.”

“You keep saying it but you haven't killed me yet. So I'm guessing you can't. And the name really is Ben Florence.”

“The sass on your bitchy little mouth amazes me. But you're right. I can't move any more than you can, so tell me Imposter Ben Florence -if that is your real name- what do you remember.”

“... I remember going to sleep.”

“Somebody give this guy a fucking medal. I figured that out and I'm asleep.”

“You're... A real ass.”

“Poetry to my ears kid. But I'd recognize my husky and fabulous voice anywhere. So does that make you my conscience? If so you can go kill yourself for me.”

“You'd... tell your own consciousness to go kill itself? That doesn’t seem like a healthy lifestyle choice.”

“I have seen some messed up shit in my life, enough that I don't need a conscience any more.”

“If... you're going to exposition on me... teach me how to kill myself now. What is this? Some sort of afterlife?”

“I saw my parents killed you ass.”

“My parents are dead?”

“No. Ben Florence's parents are dead. And you're not him. I know that because I'm him.”

“But... my parents aren't dead. I saw them last week. Fine and healthy.”

“Imposter Ben Florence, that might have been the realest thing you've told me. You know what, I'm just going to assume everything is fine and dandy, my parents aren't dead despite me seeing them and I'm just going to chalk you off as one more more voice in my head. How does that sound?”

“Terrible... Are you sure I'm not dead? This could be my punishment. But I always thought I'd go to heaven.”

“Trust me, what I've done in my life is definitely going to land us a one way ticket to hell.”

“So it's us now... You seem to have accepted this easily.”

“Nope. Not at all. But I've learnt to not care about the little things and go with the flow. Also, I'm almost positive that you're dead, or I’m dead.”

“You... don't know? This all seems weird. I still can't see.”

“Why was I cursed with this numbnuts as my conscience. You don’t seem to be the most tightly fitted nut in my brain, but I guess I may have a screw or two loose.”

“Do crazy people know they’re crazy?”

“Slip slap straight onto my heartstrings meat bag. So tell me, do you know what a hero is?”

“Hero... like in comics?”

“Holy shit on a stick. Just answer the damn question.”

“... Are you a hero?”

“Yeah. No.”

“Oh... that's disappointing.”

“Way to kick a man in the nuts when he's down dirt-bag.”

“I'm not sure if I'm sorry for that.”

“Well you should be, I’m a very sensitive soul .”

“… Are you?”

“No, but that’s not the point. I’m the one asking the questions here bucko.”

“Where is here? I have no idea where I am.”

“Listen, don’t talk to me like we’re all familiar now. All this talking and feeling is making me uncomfortable. Normally I'd have killed you by now. But since we're both here and not doing anything I figured I'd ask you a question.”

“I'd say you're ten questions too late to ask me for permission now.”

“I’m surprised you could hear them when your head is clearly so far up your ass.”

“… Are you going to ask your question or not? I don’t have all day. Or maybe I do… Why did you ask me about heroes?”

“J-just shut up. Can you feel that? Can you see that?”

“Pictures… memories? Flashing all around me, like a movie

“What are you doing to me queef cookie? Is this an attack?”

“Dad… killed? Mum too? Why… what’s happening here? Who is this person. So much death… you, you’re killing people… so many innocent people. What are you doing?”

“Happiness, I can feel myself turning into a sappy little shit. Mum, dad, why are you still alive? I have a brother? Impossible, Who are you? What are you? Why are you so normal.”

“This isn’t my life.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“This isn’t my life.”

“You... I'm you? What is this. What are you doing to me?”

“No wait. Shut up a second. I'm- I'm starting to remember now. What is this?”

“… You tell me. I-I’m so confused, so tired, no, these aren’t my feelings. Why are you so tired? So much anger, so much hate. It’s like you’re in constant agony. Swirling in your heart, digging into it. My… I can’t take this. Make it stop.”

“Ben Florence. Two of us. Parents, friends, allies. This isn't my life, what the hell is this. You're not a dead body, you're me. But- but I'm me. God damn am I going crazy again, please tell me I'm going crazy again. Hey you worthless sack of crap what the hell are you doing to me?”

“I'm... I'm you... What happened to you? My parents... they're not dead. What are you doing to me? You... You're a murderer. You're a villain.”

“Hehe, well, told you I wasn't a hero.”

“Well... what are these? They're not my memories... but they are at the same time. Why are you so calm about this? Our parents are dead... But they're not dead... I saw them just before... But they died years ago.”

“Get the fuck out of my memories Ben. Stop looking right now before I do something we both regret. I can't move yet but I swear if you keep going I'll pop a cap in our heads when we wake up.”

“I don't want to see this. Okay... It... It's stopping. You're a millionaire? I was never a millionaire.”

“Gave it all away kid. I didn't need it then and I don't need it now.”

“It’s… all jumbled up. You’re all screwed up… what the hell did you do with yourself. Our parents die and you become a killer?”

“Wait it’s coming to me, a memory, a-ah, you’re sleeping? Dying? But you’re not dead.”

“What do you mean I’m dying?”

“Keep your head in the game shi- Ben. You're dead now, but I'm alive.’

“How do I know you’re not dead and I’m alive… why don’t I remember anything? I swear I only went to sleep.”

“You didn't die. Did something do this to us? I have a lot of enemies, I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody did this to us. My parents… were they were never meant to die? I-I should have had your life. I want your life. This- ah, fuck it. Thanks for the new memories Ben. This isn't your fault. You're just as useless now as you were when you were alive.”

“Awfully nice of you. So... What is this? I’m not stupid. A dream? The memories… this feeling of awareness… am I like some sort of parallel universe you that got stuck in your body?”

“I wish. Well, maybe kind of. I need time to think. I’m going to try and figure this out. There's going to be a lot of killing. Things might get a bit complicated.”

“... What the hell. I'm not killing anybody. You… seem to be making a lot of decisions all of a sudden.”

“Yeah well you don't get much of a choice right now. You may have stopped remembering but I didn't. I remember it all now. The images I saw. There are no heroes in your world? No villains. No aliens. No powers and no magic.”

“... You guys live in one weird as universe.”

“Your universe kid. Why does it seem like all this stuff didn't exist until just now. I-I'm not sure why I know this. None of this is right. Somebodies screwing up my reality. None of this should exist. They shouldn't have died. Now I'm pissed. We're going to get to the bottom of this. Not me, not you. Us.”

“I’m… not quite sure I’m following you. Are you crazy? Am I crazy now? God, is this me going insane.”

“Just… we have to do something first. You and me, we need to work this out. We need to get this whole thing fixed.”

“... How can I help you?”

“We're going to find the fucker that did this and put a bullet through his head.”

“... Huh?”

“You heard me. How far did you get into my memories Ben?”

“Snippets… so much killing. I saw things that couldn’t be real. You-you’re covered in shadows, killing so many people. Our parents died… killed by some sort of creature? What is that?”

“That’s an alien. Killed our parents in cold blood and I murdered it in return. The first time I ever killed. The first time we ever killed.”

“… I never killed anyone. There’s so much I need to wrap my head around. Why did you ask me what a hero is? No… I see it now, you actually have those here.”

“Told you that before slow poke. Keep up with me here, this isn’t your average garden variety movie film shit.”

“Are you… asleep? This is impossible, there’s so much here that is unbelievable.”

“Listen Ben. I've been around this community for years, when somebody says that an alien invasion just got stopped or some new guy with powers is trying to take over the country I don't bat an eyelid. I've lived like this all my life. I've done a lot of terrible things. So, as you can imagine, there's not much I can't do.”

“… Stuck up about yourself much?”

“Don’t interrupt me while I’m brainstorming. I have so many enemies… But this is different. What did they do? It’s like somebody altered reality for me. Memories I’ve never had, is that what you are? Just a new personality somebody stuck into my head. Did somebody think that giving me these sorts of memories would make me less of a threat?”

“I don’t particularly enjoy being sidelined as your imagination… I’m real, you’re the one that seems too fantastic to be fake.”

“That's some heavy crap right there. I mean some people can do it, common knowledge you know. If there’s a power for everything then surely someone could have planted memories in me. Maybe somebody could have even altered reality. That's where you come in. You're not dead Ben, you're just me, but not me at the same time. I think something screwed up our lives somehow… if you’re real then what does that make me?”

“… I still vote for parallel universe. Or a dream, I enjoy dreams.”

“God you’re so- You're not meant to be in my head right now, you never existed. We're the same person. Except we're not. What is this I’m seeing? You lived a normal life with your parents in some world with no superheroes. I got the shitty end of the deal on that one. If you’re real. And this is a real big IF. Then you’re what? Another time line version of me? Gah, I’m not used to this… this familiarity. So we're going to do this my way. We’ll find the son of a bitch that's been screwing with us and put a bullet through his head. That should solve the problem. That always solves the problem.”

“Uh... umm...”

“Umm?”

“It's just... a lot to take in one go... where did you suddenly get the idea that somebody is warping reality from again… or whatever they did?”

“Listen Ben, this may surprise you since you didn't look through my memories but somebody warping reality isn't the craziest thing that I've heard about in my life.”

“That's great and all... but even if that's true and somebodies messing with us... we have no way to stop them. We're just a normal guy.”

”No. You're a normal guy. My parents were aliens.

“Wait… what?”

“And you should know that thanks to some other crap in my life I'm also an almost unstoppable killing machine. Not a pussy like you.”

“You seem to have skipped an important point there… When you say unstoppable... You mean like unkillable? And how many people have you killed.”

“I stopped crunching the numbers a long time ago. And not unkillable. Just really hard to kill. I didn't spend my entire life fighting for survival without picking up a few tricks.”

“So... do I call you Ben too then? This is pretty confusing. What do you mean your parents are aliens? I’m not an alien.”

“Were. I said were. Don't even try to call me Ben. The name's Shroud. Didn't make the name, it's just what people call me. You'll get used to the life once you live it a while.”

“Uh.... Shroud... So how does this work? We share a body?”

“Don't get comfortable Ben. You're an ordinary guy that's never even seen a kid mulched by a wood-chipper before. I'll do the controlling and the killing. You take a seat and close your eyes when I tell you to. And whatever you do, don't look at my memories.”

“That seems... like a rather extreme example.”

“More common than you’d think in my world.”

“What happens if I don't want to stay some voice in your head?”

“Ben, I'm barely paying attention to you because you're me and I feel like its wrong to kill myself no matter how much I want to. But if you do anything, and I mean anything, that impacts me negatively and I will call it quits and blow my brains out. Sure I wouldn't gain anything and more than likely I would die with you, but I swear I will die with a smile on my face and laugh as I drag your screaming soul down into the lowest level of hell with me.”

“Dude... I don't think I even want the possibility of looking at those memories of yours.”

“Yeah well. I've lost enough to not care about losing my life. Now are you ready to wake up or am I going to have to force it?”

“... I thought you were the one that's sleeping.”

“Yeah well hopefully this isn't a permanent thing. Spending every little second asleep with a pussy ass bitch version of me is not my picture of an ideal dream.”

“... That hurts man.”

“Suck it up sugar. It's a bit of a risk for me to even kill you alive when we wake up but I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. Think of it like paid vacation with no pay. I've never had it before and now you get it for the rest of your life.”

“I don't know...”

“I'm going to mentally strangle you if that's what it takes to wake you up you frutty little shit. You might not have any problem with being here but I've got a dead me in my mind and I don't like it. Your memories are probably already causing my harm I can't see. Hurry up.”

“But... I don't know how to wake up. It's like my whole minds drowsy... I'm almost certain its a dream... Please let it be a dream.”

“Yep. It worked. It was all a dream. Whoop-dee-doo let's all go home and celebrate. Oh wait, I'm still here and you're still being a little turd.”

“Fine... I'll wake up. Why would I even have control over that if it's your body. God you make no sense dream me.”

“Good. Get to it then.”

“... How do I do it.”

“Oh for fucks sake. This is going to hurt.”

“Hurt? What is? We're not even... oh my god... that really hurts!”