*blood warning
introduction to a character.

__


Who am I?

I am you

__


His blood was sticky, soaking into the obsidian earth. His head throbbed with an unfamiliar ache, as if he had received a considerable blow to the skull. No, he knew that feeling too well.
Had he been shot?

The senses came through with urgency, he seethed as each beam of light had revealed its beauty through the blackened pines around him. Onyx ballerinas dancing with the tender breeze that fluttered their limbs.

Limbs.

His head was heavier than usual. As if a considerable amount of weight sat upon his crown. Precisely that—his skull really did feel different. He forced his eyes open and forward, pointedly staring at the two black branches that scooped in front of his vision.

Antlers.
Antlers?

He vomited.
The heave suffocated him, with serrated fangs slicing through the flesh of his tongue. He spat, blood splattering the ground.

"Get up you fool." A haunted voice hissed before him—so intimately it felt as if it was his own voice speaking.
A shadow stood wickedly—regarding his form with contempt. The fog clouded his vision and the sounds of this forest were unbearable which made it nearly impossible to comprehend the beast before him. However, as confused as he was, he felt the beast observed him with disdain.

"Help me." He choked out the words with a humiliating plea.

When the chime of birds was his only response, he attempted to stand. On four deer-like legs. Not quite—although he possessed hooves, his legs were not elegant like the deer he had seen. Thicker—they were. Uglier. Scarred.

The landscape around him flipped, darkness swallowed the corners of his vision as he snuck a glance at the massive figure fronting him. Then his legs buckled, sending him crashing back into a pool of his own blood. The figure watched, scoffing at his attempts.

Everything hurt, he was going to be sick again.
"You miserable pig. Stand up." The voice boomed louder, however the beast remained unmoving. It just watched. Watched him struggle. Watched as he was dying.

“Who the hell... are you?” he rasped.

After what felt like hours, Aldrich finally stood. With trembling limbs, he sluggishly raised his head and peered through his brow to the creature before him. Blood and saliva wept from his gaping maw as he beheld the shadow.
Thick burnt antlers, a massive form that stormed over him. A snarled expression uncloaked malevolent teeth, but it was the eyes. The brilliant blue eyes that the being bore. Stolen eyes.

Aldrich's eyes.

His head rose as he mirrored himself, beholding the clone that stood strong before him.

"I am you."