"Let me help you" with Actor x attorney?
:)
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Prompt: “Let me help you.”
Now from the darkness spilled the light; they blinked, finding the mirror clear of dust and dirt for the first time in . . . how long had they been there?
Surely, longer than they had thought, because there stood Damien, gentle and kind as he’d been the night he’d welcomed them into the accursed place in which they were now trapped.
Except Damien’s eyes were a different shade of brown and when he spoke he sounded different. Like there was fluid gurgling at the back of his throat. Like something in him had soured and died. His knuckles dripped with blood from an apparent attempt to shatter the mirror-- yet no new cracks marred its surface. “Do you know where it is?”
You’re not Damien.*
“No,” Not-Damien said, and it occurred to them suddenly that Not-Damien did not appear gentle. Or kind. The edges of his smile were tight. Forced. “But you know who I am. I’m surprised-- hurt, really-- that you don’t remember me.”
But they did. In an instant, they did, and their oggy eyes-- weakened by years in near-dark-- widened and they backed away as much as they were able. Mark-
“And circle takes the square.” Not-Damien-- Mark-- leered, and leaned heavily on Damien’s cane, using Damien’s body. “About time, old friend. Now, perhaps you might be able to answer a few questions for me.”
You betrayed Damien. And Celine. And everybody! Their anger-- pent up for decades, kept sealed and bottled away-- burst forth suddenly and violently, their fist pounding the inside of the mirror’s surface, rattling it. You killed yourself, then tried to kill the rest of us! You stole Damien’s body, and Damien--
“Stole yours?” Unrattled by their fury, Mark only smiled, smiled, smiled, his lips thin and bloodless, mouth blue around the edges. He leaned closer to them, and they saw blood flecking the white of his teeth. “If you tell me where it is-- your body-- I can help you get it back.
“Let me help you,” he said, leaning even closer, and as he did his eyes glittered, more black than brown, they realized. “I would really like to.”
Why?
Mark’s eyes lit up with some strange emotion.“Because I want to help them, of course. They’re trapped together in your broken, dead corpse, in incredible pain. That’s more than any human being should have to bear.”
They hesitated. Why did you try to break the mirror?
“Oh, you saw that, did you?” Mark held up his bloody knuckles, the bruised, split skin stretching as he wiggled his fingers. “To free you, of course. But your new home seems to be very . . . resistant.”
Something flickered behind his eyes as he spoke. A wriggling worm of something they instantly knew they couldn’t trust. But instead of speaking, they merely turned their back.
“That’s how it’s going to be, then?” Gone was the facade of Damien, kind friend and heartbroken betrayer. Here was the same, evil thing who’d turned on them so long ago. There came a blow to the mirror; Mark striking it again. Not to save them; to break them. “Very well. Rot in this godforsaken place.”
His presence ebbed. Eventually vanished. Left them once again alone, waiting for friends who weren’t coming.