It took a moment for the psychic to gather his wits. He cocked his head to the side and squinted as he examined this unfamiliar entity. Still slightly weary because of the earlier retaliation of the creature, Demmy kept his distance. His entire world flipped upside down, however, when his own voice rang out through the moist air of the forest a second time.

"What are you?"

It was neither an echo nor his imagination. The hovering menace in front of him had just repeated exactly what he'd asked it. Not only was the flying cloud of black seemingly sentient, but it was also capable of speech. Incredible, thought the man. This newest development completely disarmed him and put his worries aside. He stepped closer to the mass, which seemed to emulate his earlier paranoia. It pulled back as he had. This multiplied his curiosity.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he told it. He took another few steps forward and the being retreated another metre. As it moved away from his outstretched hand, it produced several more buzzing sounds, like it had before speaking earlier.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

It was copying him? For whatever reason, the being was trying to impersonate him.

"What are you? I'm not going to hurt you."

A confused look blanketed Demmy's face. The cloud bounced here and there as it continued to steal Demmy's voice, primarily forming incoherent sentences. "What are I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not are you? Are you not going to hurt you."

Demmy's walking stopped entirely and he simply stood about with a puzzled frown. What was it doing?

"I'm not you."

"I should say not," Demmy replied.

"I should say not," it echoed. It then continued to mix and match words, looking for some sort of response in Demmy other than perplexity. It continued until one rather grim amalgamation of words caught Demmy's attention, causing his eyebrows to unwittingly rise.

"I should hurt you." It repeated this many times, and with each utterance Demmy's mind raced. What exactly was he dealing with? When this sentence stopped drawing a reaction from the human, the floating cloud searched for a similar combination. "I'm going to hurt you."

Demmy took a step back. The ominous forewarning caused him to retreat as his new emulator had only minutes earlier. The roles reversed, the copycat closed distance with the psychic, making him more than just a little uncomfortable.

Demmy raised a hand to the approaching observer. Once more, he was met by a human hand, reaching from somewhere within the cloud. A twinge of searing pain reverberated through his memory and Demmy refused to let it progress that far. He launched a forceful psychic push at the collection of dark particles and sent them flying backwards.

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