Forge heard Aiko go downstairs and then proceeded to go to the guest bedroom she had provided for him. He got into bed, but couldn't bring himself to fall asleep. His mind was buzzing with so many questions; he tried telling himself that the answers would come with time, but that calm his mind any.
Eventually, Forge felt sleep creep up on him. His eyes began to close, and he was almost asleep when he heard a raspy voice,
"Hehehehe. Is little Forge lost and confused? What a cute name you chose for yourself" Forge jumped out of his bed and faced away from it; his eyes were scanning the entire room. Seeing nothing, he then felt a tap on his shoulder. Forge spun around to see......himself? No, it wasn't him, at least not exactly. This doppelganger had all the same physical features as Forge did, but its skin was a sickly gray shade and covered in the red-lightning bolt shaped marks Forge had seen before. and his eyes were bright red.
Forge then felt something heavy in his left hand; he looked down to see it was something similar to a sledgehammer. Again it felt like the handle was literally attached to his hand. He picked it up; it was fairly heavy, even for Forge. "Who are you?" he demanded, raising the weapon in front of him as if he was getting ready to strike
Forge's double simply laughed ,
"You really think that's going to hurt me? Haven't you figured it out yet? I'm you" Forge simply stood there with a disbelieving look on his face, "You can't be me." The stranger simply sighed heavily,
"Fine, I'm not really you, but I am a part of you." "LIAR!" Forge roared as he swung the hammer. The stranger just sat there as it passed right through him and connected with the bedside lamp, shattering it. Forge's double laughed, then said calmly,
"Told you it wouldn't hurt me"
Forge was getting mad, "Tell me, just who or what are you?"
"I told you, I'm a part of you. A much darker, more sinister part of you. You have a great power, which I might add comes from my existence" it replied. The stranger then said with a smile,
"You know nothing about me, but I know everything about you. Your true name, your past, everything. I can play you like a fiddle and you can't do a damn thing to stop me."
Forge clenched his fists, "I ain't no one's fiddle. You're going to tell me what you know, and you're going to do it now." The stranger then got up off the bed and placed his hands on each side of Forge's head. He then smiled, and screamed as his eyes went bright white. Forge then started screaming with him, as nightmarish images began forming his head, going through his head like a fast-moving river. Images of people getting ripped apart, children being strangled, people screaming as they were tortured, hideous disfigured creatures charging at him while howling.
The stranger then severed the contact, and Forge collapsed onto his back, sweating profusely, his pupils hyper-contracted, and feeling his heart beating a million miles a minute; he honestly thought it was trying to jump out of his chest and run off. Forge's mind was shot; the images kept replaying in his head, causing him to hold his head in apparent agony as his breathing was quick and short. The stranger then stood over Forge and grinned as he looked Forge square in the eye,
"You'll find what I want you to know, when I want you to know it. Take care now" And with that Forge's double disappeared, leaving the real Forge to lie on the floor, trying to get the horrifying images out of his head.
(Just so you know, the stranger wasn't actually a physical being. It was a projection of Forge's mind. If Aiko did hear anything, she would hear only Forge himself. Oh and MAJOR CLUE ALERT!!!!!!
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