Daniel looked around at his surroundings.
He whispered to himself, “This room looks familiar, but I’ve no idea how I got here.”

The light was dim, too dim for the size of the room, and seemed to come from nowhere in particular. Dust floated in the air, in languid swirls. The wallpaper was yellowed, peeling in long strips, revealing dark plaster underneath.

He turned in place, heart beginning to thud. There was a chair in the corner, its back turned toward him. A small table sat beside it with a single lamp that wasn’t plugged in. The smell in the air was faint but wrong, like wet soil and something metallic.

Daniel tried the door. The knob was icy to the touch, but it wouldn’t turn.

He swallowed. “Hello?” His voice seemed to be swallowed by the air, as if the walls absorbed sound.

Then he saw it—a photograph hanging crooked on the wall across from him. He moved closer. The frame was cracked, the glass smudged, but the image inside made his skin crawl. It was a picture of him. Sitting in this very room. Wearing the same clothes. Looking at this very photograph.

A cold pressure settled in the back of his skull, like someone had placed a hand there. He spun around. The chair in the corner was no longer empty.

A figure sat in it now, slouched, face obscured by shadow, but its head tilted toward him in a way that made Daniel’s stomach lurch.

He stumbled back until he hit the wall. “Who are you?” he demanded, though his voice cracked.

The figure didn’t answer. Instead, the lamp on the table flickered to life without being touched, bathing the room in a sickly yellow glow. And in that light, Daniel saw the figure clearly.

It was him.

Dead eyes, pale skin, lips pulled into a slack, awful grin.

Daniel clawed at the doorknob, but it turned freely now—and when he wrenched the door open, there was nothing beyond it but the same room, the same chair, the same figure waiting for him inside.

And somewhere, very close to his ear, his own voice whispered, “This room looks familiar, but you’ve no idea how you got here.”

And, you know I mustn’t neglect the obligatory shameless self-promotion. New Yesterdays is available through the following links: Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon as well as your favorite bookshops. The Audiobook is available from Libro.fm, as well as Amazon.