In Memoriam - An Unus Annus Fanfiction

30.12 - 12/30 - You blink you lose

»Look who decided to pay me a visit! Houdini, was it?«
     »Marvin.«
»Ohh yeah, right. My bad. What can I help you with, Melvin?«
    »Marvin.« The green haired mage rolled his eyes. »Why don't we skip to the point where you tell me what you're up to?«
»I'd love to! But, you see, I don't see any reason why I should do that.«

The mage kept a surprisingly good poker face. »Because I you do, I'll end you quickly. If you don't, I'll simply leave you there to rot.«
   The black eyed being laughed. »We both know you can't do that, silly! And it's just a matter of time until I get out of here.«
His opponent was good. Blank lnew that Marvin was scared of that possibility, and that he knew that he was right. These chains wouldn't hold him forever. Yet, you couldn't see, or feel, the slightest trace of fear on him.
    »What are you.«
»Why don't you tell me?«

For the fraction of a second, he saw insecurity flit across the Mages face. »You're nothing. In the truest sense of the word. There's no way you could exist. I've met beings without own energy before. But they always got it from somewhere else. Blood. Emotions. The world around them. But you don't do that.«
     »Maybe I am the nothing that is needed to define the something?«

Marvin let out a disparaging huff. »Nice try. But you're a real entity, not a philosophical concept.«
    »Am I? Good to know.«
»Fine. Have it your way.« The window between them began to close.

»Boy, do you give up easy,« Blank mocked. »And I just wanted to tell you what you wanted to know.«
   The window stopped shrinking. »Talk.«

He cleared his throat dramatically. »You asked me what I am. It's interesting that you haven't figured it out yet. I am a whisper. The shadow at the end of your bed. I am your best friend, and I know everything about you. Every flaw. Every imperfection. I am the person that stares back at you through the mirror. You feel safe behind your screen, don't you? I am in here in the darkness, and you're out there.«
    He made a dramatic pause when he saw a small twitch just underneath the mages left eye.

»But I am there when you wake up tired. I am the dark sky inside your head. I'm absence. Absence of thought. Absence of hope.«
»You're right, there is no way I can exist. Life and death are meaningless to me. I'm nothing that can be explained, only felt, and this is the best monologue I've ever held. Hey, that was a rhyme!«

Marvin blinked. He straightened his back, and closed the spyhole without a word.
For a brief moment, he considered what he just heard. Then, he tossed the whole monologue aside. Blank wasn't the first being that tried manipulative mind games and cryptic monologues on him.
He had experienced it before, and he could handle it now. Then why did it sound like he had to reassure himself of that?