Your world is blackness and pain. You can see nothing, you know nothing, nothing but the agony that consumes every fiber of your being. You try to scream but are unable to make a sound; the attempt only exerts new agony on your incorporeal form. Pain consumes you for hours, days, years... Or seconds. And then...
It stops.
You are floating; you sense levitation, a feeling of lightness, a feeling of weightlessness in fact. Yet no body, you are small, that is all you know, small and weak. Eyelids open and light is thrust upon you, burning you, searing your flesh, but... You don't have flesh, you have nothing, it is bodiless pain on an indefinite form, your form. They aren't your eyelids either, you didn't tell them to open, yet you look out through them, like a pair of windows, onto a view you know so very well. A dark scene lit by a green glow, the panic-stricken figure of a cowering caniform, a brown bear. You feel your hand tighten on the bear cub's nape and a low voice echoing in your ear.
"Now, after that inconvenient pause of irritating resistance by my host form, to finish you," Yet, it isn't your hand or your ear, but it is. You feel it, in its movement and the nerves and muscles, the feeling of the shrunken cub's soft fur, you are aware of them, they flare in your form and then fade into nothing as the stimulation ends. But it is involuntary, you have no control. The hand raises the cub closer to your view from the eyelids; you stare into the cub's terrified eyes. "You shall be the first victim of my reincarnation, quite an honor, you should be proud,"
The voice comes from your mouth, your lips move the words are formed, but you did not choose them. The cub lets out a whimper. You hear it as though patched through another pair of ears before your own, both attached and detached, it is hard bordering impossible to explain the sensations to yourself, but that's all you can compare it to. You try to look away from the stricken face, but you cannot, you strain to turn, to close your eyelids but cannot, terrible pain shoots through you with the attempt. You are forced to look into those terrified eyes, and you feel sorrow. That is the one thing you can control it seems, your emotions and your memory. You feel pity for this creature and shame for what you brought upon it... What you were still bringing upon it. What you were about to bring upon it...
And there is malevolence around you; there is glee and spite. You can sense them as well, as apart from you as separate beings, yet still within your mind. You are going to kill this creature and you are going to enjoy it, yes- watch it whither, watch it squirm and die. Yes... No! You can't! You struggle to control your body once more, but are rewarded only by pain, building terrible pain. Your arm releases the cub and it falls painfully to the dirt, it squeals and you feel its pain as your own and are mortified by it, yet there is delight all around you. Your hands grip your watch you stare down at the hands, frozen, the tarnished metal glinting in the surreal dark green glow of the surrounding wood. The silver knob that controlled the timestream was grasped giddily in your fingers.
No...
Slowly, lovingly your fingers begin to very slowly twist the knob backwards. Your view is forced back upon the bear who was crumpled in the dust. Your knees bend and your view descends... 'To better enjoy the show'. It was happening very slowly, the bear struggled to its feet and tried to run away, but you could see the watch's power already sapping away whatever minuscule muscle the bear had left. Its cubhood was rapidly reversing and it was clear the energy it was exuding in its attempted escape was becoming increasingly taxing on its shrinking body. It continues to run, its strides progressively clumsier with its oversized paws. You hear its high-pitched panting with relish and anguish. You feel your fingers expedite the knob's rotation and the regression speeds up.
The bear stumbles and falls with a feeble squeak. Your legs carry you the short distance the bear was able to struggle and crouch once again, your eyes hungrily feasting upon the helpless tiny beast below. Its limbs were splayed as it lay on its stomach; it fought to return to its feet, but only exhausted itself. It continued to shrink, smaller and smaller. It was looking scrawny, less and less like a bear and more like a rodent as it approached the size of a large guinea pig. Now its fur was shortening and thinning, exposing blotchy pink flesh. Its scared eyes force themselves closed.
And you've seen enough. You can't stand it anymore, you must stop, you MUST! You struggle with all your might, immediately intense pain attacks you and it builds as you continue your efforts. But the pain of watching the cub dwindle away to nothing is greater and you are able to fight.
"No! No! Stop! I won't let this happen! No!" You force this thought into being with immense pain. You feel your finger twitch and know for the first time that it was you doing so.
"NO!" A snarling voice booms out in your mind, "I AM IN CONTROL NOW! YOU ARE NOTHING! NOTHING! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO STOP ME, HUMAN!"
"This- Th-This is my mind!" The thoughts come with searing pain, "This is my body!" With torturous pain you are able to force your hand to seize up and stop, you clench the fist so hard your fingernails draw blood from your palm, "GET OOOOOOOOOOUT!!!" You force your consciousness into the rest of your body, the weak and feeble form of your soul growing to fill your body once more. And now the pain is in your limbs, the demon of the watch was the one feeling your suffering.
"AAAAaaAAaaAUGH!" The quavering scream escapes your lips as the pair of you are united in agony. Your whole body trembles, your presence in the corporeal world flickers, your mind a mass in throes of chroma.
Can you maintain control?