Out of the Fire, Into the Harem: Niklas's Strange Journey of Transformation

I wake up, and my head is pounding. I feel like I’ve got a hangover.

I can see nothing. I don’t know where I am, or why I feel so confused. Something is in front of me. It feels soft, warm and… human?

I was just in the middle of the woods…. with a lamp…. and that journal…. my life could not have been better, more interesting than it was at this moment…

I start to rub my eyes, trying to get my vision back into focus. My hands are sore, and they feel wet. They are also covered in blood.

What is going on? Why do I feel like this? Where am I? What am I doing? Who am I?

My whole body aches as if it has been pulled apart and put back together again. My head feels like a thousand people are trying to break through it with such force that their ideas could spread faster than light through my body, giving me hundreds of new thoughts at once! And now that I think about it, that’s exactly what is happening: A million different thoughts are rushing through my mind at the same time, making me feel dizzy, nauseous, confused and disoriented all over again… but there’s something else too… Something familiar… Unfamiliar… Familiar… Confusing!

I don’t know how long it takes me to clear my head out enough to figure out what is going on, but finally the thoughts slow down and align with reality: By the time they stop rushing around in my brain, they all seem to suggest one single thing: “You might be dead.”