"When a clock hits twelve—does it mark the end of a day, or the beginning of a new one?"
It seems like the voice is attempting to communicate with "you"
The voice didn't belong to anyone you knew. It belonged to something else.
"Yes, you. Whoever's listening to this. Maybe life was easy for you. Or maybe you clawed your way up and still got nowhere. I don't really care all too much. I'm just trying to pass the time."
You dismiss it as a dream—just your brain filling silence with nonsense. But the voice feels too clear, too deliberate. It couldn't possibly be your brain that is making all of this strange knowledge up.
"Anyways as I was saying-" The unknown being continued it's one-sided rambling. The way it speaks makes you feel a range of emotions. Sadness, happiness, rage, joy and so on. Sometimes you agreed, sometimes you did not.
But suddenly the voice stopped as it realized you were no longer paying attention to its great "manifesto"
"If there's one thing you should take from anything I've said, it's this—everything you think you know is a lie. Your kind made it all up to fill in the gaps you couldn't understand. Origins, meaning, purpose… fiction, every last bit of it. The truth lies elsewhere. The only way to see it—is to ascend The Reality Chain."
…
Leto shot up in bed, heart racing. He couldn't remember the details—just darkness, a voice, and something heavy pressing on his chest. His breath came shallow. The words had vanished, but the feeling stayed. Maybe there was more than one voice he thought to himself.
A lucid dream? No it can't be. The words I heard—It was like my brain was filled to the brim of raw, unfiltered knowledge. And it made me want to puke...
Leto lives alone in a cramped bungalow, paid for by the inheritance his parents left behind. It was a rather chunky amount, more than enough to last a few decades. The small place Leto called home was good enough for his basic needs. Although he could afford it, he didn't live an extravagant lifestyle. He is a simple man with no goals—a completely average human being.
I can't hold it in any longer!
Leto threw the blanket off his body and rushed to the bathroom in a panic. The hallway was dim, barely lit by the pale glow of the moon. He made it just in time to spill out all the "excess waste" from his gut. Afterward, he lifted his head from the toilet bowl, gasping for air. His vision blurred, and everything around him looked like it was swirling clockwise—like the whole room was spinning. Text from an unknown language appeared to be floating on the walls. The dream was almost bleeding into Leto's reality.
"I think I need to go back to sleep." Leto slurred the words to himself aloud. He then came to an obvious realization.
No! I can't go back, I might have that terrible nightmare again...
His fear of falling asleep again was more than reasonable. Leto figured he needed something—anything—to do until morning came. After a minute of half-baked thoughts, an idea finally came to him. With some effort, he lifted himself off the cold bathroom tiles and stumbled back toward his room, dragging his hand along the left wall for support as he moved down the hallway.
He made it onto his bed and started feeling around for the television remote.
It has to be here somewhere. I can't see a thing in this damn darkness.
Leto stepped back from the bed and reached out toward the wall, running his hand along the surface until he found the light switch.
Click!
To his surprise, nothing happened. The room stayed completely dark.
Are you kidding me, the power is out? For what reason? Too bad the breaker is outside... It's like four degrees for some reason! I don't want to go outside! But I'm not going back to sleep, that's for sure.
Leto didn't bother searching for his phone—he had no idea where he last left it, and the thought left his mind just as quickly as it came.
Unfortunately, Leto had to make his way outside into the night on an unusually cold day. Unbeknownst to him, something far more mysterious was behind the sudden shift in temperature.
He turned his gaze toward the dark, eerie corridor. A faint gust whispered through the passage, carrying with it a strange, hollow echo. The hallway seemed to stretch farther the longer he stared. Leto began walking again, slowly, pressing his hand against the wall for balance as he moved forward.
A few seconds after he began making his way toward the exit of the house, an unnatural light started shining through the window of his bedroom, casting a glow down the corridor. The inside of Leto's house was now bathed in a bluish-purple hue.
Leto brushed off the absurd anomaly, assuming it was just some teenagers messing around with UV lights outside. Nothing interesting or noteworthy had ever happened in his life before. The strange nightmare, the unknown language on the bathroom walls, the sudden shift in temperature—all of it felt too bizarre to take seriously.
Soon, he eventually reached a chipped, wooden door that lead outside. The moment Leto touched the door nob he reflectively yanked his hand away in the matter of a split second.
Its so cold, it felt like it burnt my hand! I think I have an idea...
Leto grabbed the bottom of his shirt and wrapped it around his hand to shield himself from the strange "burning" sensation. The doorknob refused to budge—it felt like it had been frozen in place. Leto placed both hands on it, doubling his effort. After a bit of struggling, it finally twisted counter-clockwise with a sharp creak.
There was now a different problem at hand. The door is now too refusing to open! Leto—now fed up with his situation—put his right leg on the wall and pulled as hard as he could, using the wall as leverage.
Bang! The door opened too fast for Leto's body to react. The force from the door sent Leto flying two or three meters away on the ground.
Ouch! What the—
Leto flinched and held his forehead, letting out a groan from the pain. He was now too covered in a purple hue. He took his hands away from his head to look at what was emitting the bluish purple light.
The poor guy quickly got up from the floor after what he had just seen. Leto—still trying to make sense of it all—walked back to the door and stepped outside...