I can't

They were all dead. Sylvia. Elise. Mistress. All of them. I walked farther. The Archangel was dead. The Slender Man. The Cold Boy. The Unnamed Child was dead, a horrifying grimace locked onto her face.

The Manufactured Newborn was the size of a Airport Hanger, munching on a random skyscraper. The Empty City was screaming in pain. This had to be a dream. They wouldn’t all go down so easily. From the shadows, The Rake stared at me. He looked sorrowful, almost morose.

I walked by the Screaming Tower. All the patchwork vultures were dead, and the Tower was crumbling already. The Plague Doctor slowly moved by me, shaking his head slowly and sadly, the ground behind him a bland, dead wasteland.

The Dolls were dead. Every single one of them. They were hanging from trees by their own strings. I walked further. The death increased. Convocation Birds lay everywhere, Campers exploded on every surface. Continuing on, I saw more death. Humans. Some I knew, some I didn’t. Friends, enemies, people I had never seen, all dead. No signs of life.

Until I reached a circus. A large circus, with loads of tents and obnoxious calliope music. But something was off. All the clowns and dancers and acrobats, they all had the exact same face. Even the animals. Not knowing where I was going, really, I stumbled into the big tent, where someone who looked like a ringleader was balancing on a giant ball. “What’s going on? Can you tell me who killed all those people?” I asked him.

He hopped down from his ball gracefully, almost inhumanely. “Why, how do you not know? It was you, of course.” He smiled at me evilly. “You’re Daniel Thompson, correct?”

“Yes, I am, and I don’t believe you.” I responded, crossing my arms.

“Why not?” He hopped back up on his ball like it was nothing, and there were two of him. One on the ball and one where he just stood. “You’re a monster, Daniel. That almost-proxy? All those Timberwolves? You murdered them in cold blood. You’re a horrible person. What’s to say you can’t kill innocents, or even Fears?” He grinned.

“You bastard!” I let my rage get a hold of me, and whipped out my knife, and threw it at the one closest, and he fell, my knife in his neck.

“See what I mean?” The one on the ball said. “You killed him, and all he did was speak. Heartless, I say. Heartless.” The Ringleader shook his head.

“You…..you all look alike. You’re a Fear, aren’t you?” I asked.

“Exactly.” The one on the ground said. “This is OUR dimension. You can’t harm us here.” “Wake up.” Another said. “Sleep forever.” A nearby clown spoke. “Join us.” An acrobat said.

“Wake up. Daniel. Wake up.” I heard a voice that was not that of them saying. It was someone else. Elise. She had woken me up. She had freed me.

Not really. I sat on my bed the whole day, not eating, talking or doing anything. This incident really traumatized me. I am typing this out now, hoping things’ll be better tomorrow. It’s all I can do at this point.

~Thompson out.