Into the Void

I never meant to hurt you

“How can I trust her when you’re there too, corrupting her with whatever evil scheme you’ve concocted?!” Mark yells out as he slowly walks backward.

The shadows thicken to a suffocating degree that I’m not sure how Mark can still stand there so calmly. He raises the bat back up, ready to take a swing at any moment.

A giant cracking noise stops his motion, and then Anti is flung through the air and into a wall. Jackieboy is hovering in a hole in a wall made from Anti’s body, silhouetted by the sun.

Dark and Mark look at each other awkwardly before looking at the other two. There is now an Anti-sized dent in the wall, and he groans as he slowly picks himself up. Plaster and other debris fall from the dent.

Jackie gently lands, “You won’t be able to take him, Dark. You’re outmatched here, and you know it. You might as well crawl back into whatever dark hole you crawled out of and call it a day.”

A flurry of emotions coursed through me. Rage. Sorrow. Impatience. Dark doesn’t let anything show but a steady calm.

Dark says nothing as he takes the tie around my neck and loosens it until he can pull it over my neck. He just drops it, and the minute it touches the ground, it vanishes.

“You know I can’t do that, Jackie. Now, we can do this the easy way, or we can do it the long and difficult way. It doesn’t matter to me, but Mark will be leaving with me.” A show lashes out and attaches itself to Mark’s wrist at that statement.

That must have been a signal because Jackie lunges forward, reaching out for Mark. The shadow pulls Mark out of Jackie’s reach, and Dark steps in his way. Mark stumbles as he’s jerked backward, but the shadow keeps him from falling down.

“What do you gain from this, Dark? There’s nothing Mark has that you can’t get for yourself.” Jackie says, standing in front of Dark, still trying to get around to Mark.

“What I’ve always wanted. Freedom.” Dark throws a punch at Jackie’s face. “I’ll finally be free of these accursed chains I’ve been forced to wear.”

Jackie catches the punch with ease returning it with one of his own. “We are who we were made to be. We can’t change that fact, and the sooner you accept it, the sooner you’ll be at peace.”

Dark blocks the punch, kicking out instead to try and unbalance the superhero. A shadow reaches out to grab his cape. “Easy for you to say when you’re the good guy. You judge those around you and then praised for that judgment even if it’s wrong.”

Jackie doesn’t say anything as he avoids the kick. He’s taken off guard when he’s jerked backward and stumbles in the direction he’s jerked. His costume tightens around his neck as he’s dragged back toward a shadow covered wall.

Dark doesn’t take his eyes off Jackie when he starts talking to Anti, who has been awfully quiet throughout the entire exchange.” I ask you to do one thing, and you fail me. I find people to help distract the others, and you still fail. Distract Jackie while I get Mark out, or I will kill you myself.”

I don’t think Dark is serious about killing Anti, but I’m not entirely sure it’s a bluff.

“No.”

The tone of Anti’s voice sends a shiver of fear down my spine. It’s deadly and more menacing than I’ve ever heard it. Not even when he was torturing me.