Darin: From Victim to Tyrant

The offer hangs in the air, its weight settling around you like a fog. You sit there for a moment, staring into the white nothingness, contemplating. A world without consequences? It’s almost too good to be true. You could get away with everything — and even more important: you could finally get the upper hand on Greg.

You’d be unstoppable, a god in your own little kingdom of chaos.A sly grin spreads across your face. The idea excites you, pulses of adrenaline coursing through your body. The voice is still there, waiting for your response. "Well?" it prods, almost amused.

You stand, dusting yourself off, feeling the strange absence of whatever fabric you had been holding moments ago. Your fingers twitch at the lack of control over your surroundings. You want to take it back, control the dream again, but something in you recognizes that you’re no longer the one pulling the strings.

"Fine," you say, the words rich with a sense of entitlement. "Let’s do this."

"Just a heads-up," the voice continues, its tone dripping with amusement. "You can’t change everything. Start small. Make some little choices, see what happens. Your power will grow as you learn the ropes."

There’s a pause, and for a moment, everything is still. Then, suddenly, the white emptiness around you fractures, like a shattered mirror.

With a snap of your fingers, you decide to test things out. The scene in front of you shifts into something familiar — your high school. It’s the same old building, but now it seems pliable, like it’s waiting for you to decide its fate. You grin.

A familiar figure appears in front of you, walking down the school hallway. It’s Greg, your old high school nemesis. He’s the kind of guy who always thought he was better than everyone else, his smug smile plastered across his face as he chats with some other students. He's the thorn in your side. The pain in your ass.

Greg was the king of high school — a charismatic bully with a quick smile and a sharper tongue, always putting you in your place with cruel jabs, pranks, and public humiliations. You had been the quiet, awkward kid, always in Greg’s shadow, never quite able to escape the mocking laughter of the croud or the sense of inferiority. No matter what you did, Greg always had the upper hand. But now, as you slip into the world of your dreams, everything changes.

You don't need to think too hard. With a quick thought, you change the scene a little. A slippery puddle appears in the corridor right in front of his feet, and Greg suddenly trips, sprawling face-first onto the floor with a loud smack.

He looks up, his face contorting in confusion, then pain. "What the hell?!" he yells, but his voice is muffled by the growing sound of laughter that fills the air.

And you love it.