How far would you go if no one could stop you?

Daniel Harlow has always been the quiet one. The overlooked one. The man in the corner at parties, invisible to the crowd. He lives a life of muted routine and soft avoidance, haunted by tragedy and defined by fear. Since losing his parents at thirteen, plunging him into a childhood plagued by abuse, Daniel has hidden behind his anonymity, choosing solitude over risk, comfort over ambition. Even his relationship with Hannah, the woman who somehow still loves him despite his inertia, is teetering on the brink.

Then, on a rain-slick night heavy with argument and regret, everything changes.

A lightning strike – random, brutal, and miraculous – leaves Daniel alive, but altered. His once-hazel eyes have turned ice blue. And that’s only the beginning. He soon discovers a strange, terrifying gift: by locking eyes with someone, he can become them – slipping inside their body, living their life, seeing through their eyes while his own lies dormant. A silent witness with the power to do anything…and vanish without a trace.

At first, it’s a rush. Daniel dances, sings, and laughs with borrowed voices. He lives out fantasies through strangers whose confidence and charisma he could never possess on his own. But with each step into another life, he begins to see what lies beneath the surface: secret shames, buried trauma, and the darkness that clings to every soul.

Soon, Daniel stops using his power to escape. He starts using it to act out. A prank here. A ruined life there. Petty revenge escalates into violence. And then, something worse. A fatal accident. A body too broken to return to: Daniel’s own. Now brain-dead and unreachable, Daniel is a ghost in a world of skin he no longer owns.

He watches his funeral from a distance, powerless. Watches Hannah mourn. Watches Alex, his best friend, begin to take his place. Enraged and spiralling, Daniel loses what little humanity he has left. His gift becomes a weapon. He hunts down his childhood abuser and exacts revenge. He becomes chaos, destruction; unknowable, unstoppable.

But then, he meets Dr. Lilian Royce.

A renowned therapist with a chilling brilliance, Royce sees through Daniel in a way no one else has. She doesn’t recoil from his darkness. She invites it in. She stokes it. And soon, Daniel finds himself ensnared in her twisted vision of power and authority. Under her guidance, he descends further into depravity: starting riots, destroying lives, and crossing every line he once believed sacred.

And yet, fragments of Daniel remain. In rare moments, he uses his ability for good. A saved life. A kind act. A whisper of the man he used to be. But those moments are fading fast.

As Royce’s grip tightens, Daniel faces the unthinkable: a final act of violence disguised as justice. Betrayed and manipulated, he discovers too late that she’s used him in the most awful way possible.

The end comes high above the city skyline, where Daniel takes control in the only way he can. One final switch. One final fall. This is the end…or is it?

Vanilla is a haunting psychological thriller that explores the terrifying potential of power without consequence. A meditation on identity, morality, and the fragile line between victim and monster, it asks a single, unforgettable question:

If you could live anyone’s life, would you still want your own?