“Let’s just say I am your worst nightmare.” 

“A bit of a cliché wouldn’t you say?” Devin tried to maintain nonchalance, but his heart beat a rapid staccato and he fought to speak evenly. 

“That’s just the point, punk.” He brandished the gun in Devin’s face. “But I don’t have to do it this way.” His body shimmered and morphed into a brooding teen vampire. “I can seduce the world with my character.”

“Or lack thereof.” Devin laughed.  Hallucination or not, he forced the bravado.

Once again, the light flickered in the man’s eyes and he shifted again, revealing himself as a long-haired, bare-chested, muscle-bound Adonis. He held a woman, fainting in passion to his side. “You see, I am anything I please.”

“Interesting, and I am afraid of you because?” Devin turned his back on the shape-shifter. He tried to will his mind to behave.  How can this be happening? Devin knew if the hallucinations continued, he would have to go back to Dr. Solomon, or find another doctor.  He hated the meds, but he couldn’t continue this way. "You are just another hallucination."

An evil laugh broke into his thoughts. “Hallucination? That’s what you think I am?”

Devin spun around. “Of course you are. What else can you be?”

“I am Story, or I will be once I get rid of you.”

“Story, and what is that supposed to mean?” Devin stared at its newest manifestation – a stereotypical alien.
 
“I am the muse – the new muse. My stories will fill the shelves of book stores. Legends, myths will be pushed to the side.” His essence shimmered again. Not taking any human or quasi-human form this time, it sparked with lightning on a dark and stormy night.  “I will fill all the e-readers with drivel and self-published crap, and the world will learn to worship the mediocre.”

Something haunted the corners of Devin’s mind. Story, collecting stories, memories flashed – impossible memories. He cowered under the weight of them.  This is insanity. His mind grappled for purchase, falling deeper into the abyss.  Fight it. Don’t let it win.

“You know you can’t fight me. I am too big. You will either crack and embrace your insanity, or you will seek treatment. Makes no difference to me. You see either way I win.  The only way to stop me is to acknowledge your true self, and you, Gwerve, oh pardon me, Devin, are a sniveling coward. No threat here.” 

The thing vanished, leaving Devin fighting for his psychological life.  The maelstrom sucked him in. So much easier to let go and allow the emptiness to invade. He rocked. His knees pulled to his chest, he rocked. His mind tripped over ideas both foreign and familiar.

Gwerve. He heard that once before. Gwerve. It held something solid and familiar. He clung to it, pulling himself from the void.  Somewhere in that one word lay the answer.