Battle Between Shadows and Demons
The water crashed over her, the cool liquid rinsing the first layer of blood and grime off of her body. Hair clung in soaked strands around her face and shoulders, the water dripping red from her already crimson tresses. “I can feel your light flickering, Little Shadow... I can see the Shadows swallowing the small piece of normality that you used to cling to. What are you doing? Why do you seek to comfort that which you used to try to chase away?”
Lin's eyes closed as she took a deep breath, her body sinking slowly into the tub of warm water, stopping only when the water was to her lips, rippling from the long, deep breaths that came from her nose. Ears twitched violently, then subsided, causing the two emerald orbs to slowly slide open. “Light is not required in the eye of the storm...” She mumbled as she briefly rose her lips from above the surface of the water. “You fought so hard for your freedom. You used to dream of it, cry for it. Now that you have it you are going to just... Throw it away? For what? The future? What kind of future will it be if you are dead...?” Lin sat up slowly in the water, raising her arms above the surface. The wounds on her forearms, the deep slices in her flesh, were now clean, and she could eye the marks. She opened her hands, turning the palms upwards, and regarded them. The slice across her left palm was clotted, the deep gash finally on the mend thanks to the magics from that morning. The deep cut across the bottom of her four right handed fingers though were what she stared at. “Death is just another trial in life. It does not scare me.” She whispered, taking a deep breath as her right hand curled into a fist. “Look at you, Little Shadow... Covered in blood. Your flesh cut and bruised from your... Adventures. The pain means nothing to you now... But can you imagine what it will become? I can give you a taste. I can show you, once again, what it feels like to completely lose who you are.” Lin sighed and sank into the water once again, sitting back and leaning against the low wall of the tub. “You don't understand. You only wish to change my mind because you are scared to leave the Shadows. But you do not realize that I'm not forsaking the Shadows... I'm becoming one with them.” “What will you do when nightmares become reality? What will you do when those terrors you avoid become part of you? The Shadows frighten you but you speak about becoming one with them. You speak of embracing them. You idolize the eye of the storm... But do you not see that you are the hurricane that threatens? Your mind is the maelstrom that will be your undoing... I will be your end.” Lin growled as she sank down into the water, taking a deep breath as she sank low beneath the surface, letting the deathly silence come crashing down around her. She laid within the water, submerged entirely. The whispers were gone. The world around her now calm and tranquil. All there was now was a pulling urge, an unbearable pull at her very being. And briefly, the thought of ending it right then came to her mind.
“Your blood hungers. It craves to be spilled across the stones. You feel it within you, do you not? The way it crawls through your veins and claws at you for escape. You can not hide it away from the shadows forever. We need to taste blood. We yearn to smell the stench of death in the air. We crave to feel the pain of death! It could be so easy for you, Keeper of Secrets. A single drag of the blade over your body... Spilling that warm crimson magic you hide in your veins... You could make this so much easier for us..” Lin's lungs were burning when she came to from the daze, the pain shooting through her chest and into her throat. She gasped for air, only to fill her lungs with the bloodied water in the tub. Hands clawed at the edges of the tub as she thrashed in the shallow water, her mind forgetting where she was. Finally though, her body shot upwards, sitting up as her upper body broke through the surface of the water. She coughed violently, grabbing at her chest and clawing at it as if to tear the burning from her lungs. Water passed through her lips as she coughed, long moments passing before the coughs subsided and the pain in her chest was replaced by the sting of the scratches she'd just inflicted on herself.
“Too simple... You will fail.”
Lin pushed herself up from the tub, stepping out of it and allowing the water to drip off of her, puddling around her feet, as she tried to catch her bearings. The world was spinning. Her mind was silent, not a single thought or whisper passing through. All there was now.. Was the urge. The deafening pull in the silence. It was like a silent scratching at the surface of something much deeper. There was something there, just within the shadows, beckoning her closer. Soft footsteps carried her through the door into the bedroom, her dazed eyes slipping over the room until they fell on the folded leathers that laid on the bed. Uneven, crooked steps carried her to the bed, her hands coming down to run her fingers over the deep purples and greens of the armor that laid there. “To forsake the Shadows means to become vulnerable. Skin becomes a gift, not a necessity. Protect yourself while you make them suffer.”
New leathers adorned her limbs and body, the heavier protection tightly gripping her figure, hiding every cut and every bruise on her flesh. Her mask was pulled over her face, hiding the sadistic curl that came to her lips as she smelled the blood that still lingered around her from the night before. All the deaths weighed heavily around her, screaming for more.
Lin walked through the halls of the old house, fingertips stretched out to drag over the walls of the destroyed contents. She hadn't been in this house for months... She hadn't thought about it, or the memories that it held within. Being here now made the whispers laugh, pulling at memories and thoughts that had long been pushed away. All of her armors were thrown about in the bedroom. All of her numerous daggers... Her bombs and poisons... Her guns... They all laid out across the table in the dining room. All of her most prized treasures and memories were in these walls.
Lin walked to the door of the house, her eyes on the dual, glowing daggers that were pierced through the wood on the inside of the door. She carefully reached up, long fingers stretching out towards the blades hesitantly. “If you take them, there is no turning back. If you walk from these walls do not ever look back. If you forsake the Shadows, do not ever think they will welcome you back willingly!” That sadistic, twisted curl to her lips was there, hidden beneath her mask. “No.” She said softly. “I will no longer be owned by the Shadows.” She slowly began to wrap her fingers around the hilts of the daggers, causing them to glow even brighter from her touch. “I will control the Shadows that once controlled me!” Lin tore the blades from the door, the blades singing as she pushed herself through the door. Walking down the front steps, she stopped and turned, eyeing the house for a long moment. Green eyes swept over to the corner of the house where the large containers from her shop had been spilled over, the stench of the liquids strong in the air. Lin walked over to where her shop was just past the barrels and containers, opening the door and walking inside. “Do not do this, Little Shadow. We need you. You need us. Who will you be if you do not have us beside you? Who will you be if you leave the embrace of the Shadows? You can never control us! Who will you be without your life?!” Lin's hands moved across the keypad inside of the door, fingers dancing across the buttons and codes. <”Initiating Defense Protocol. Self Destruct in Thirty Seconds”>. Lin's ears twitched at the words, and booted feet once again carried her back outside. She began that long walk down the path away from the house, back towards Erudition, towards the life she'd chosen, leaving nothing behind her as the low rumble of contained explosions were heard, the fires that sparked to life quickly engulfing shop, home, and memories. “No! Little Shadow! Who will you be without your past? Who will you be without the whispers from the Shadows!?” The curl of her lips was evident beneath her mask as she rested her hands on the hilts of the glowing daggers at her hips. “I will be me... Linedari Darkshadow...”