I'm A Myth -- On hold

Chapter Two

  Emma sprawled out on the worn down love seat, it was the only furniture she had in her tiny apartment except for her even tinier bed.

  She stared at her walls, every inch covered by her sketches. Some ink, some pencil. Sketching for her was a compulsive habit, she called it her curse. She could be going through a normal day of work, and then the urge to sketch would hit her from nowhere. And she wouldn't be able to focus till she drew what was in her mind, her pen would fly across the paper. Many times she wouldn't even know what she was drawing till she had finished it. And then she would bring them home, and try to find a space to hang them upon her wall

  She took a deep breath, she was so full she thought she might pop, so much for ice cream. But she was thirsty so she decided the Dr. Pepper was going down. She stood up to make her way to the fridge, but gasped as her feet almost went out from under her. She caught herself on the counter.
Head rush, she thought. Her head was pounding.
Ok, never mind then. I'm just gonna go to bed. She tried to take a step towards her bed, but this time her feet did go out from under her, she landed on her knees. She moaned, her headache  spreading down her neck, down her spine. The lights, they're so bright. I just need to get to bed. I'll be fine in the morning. I'm just worn down. Tomorrow is Saturday. I'll have the day off to rest. She crawled across her floor, glad for the smallness of her apartment. She dragged herself up into her bed, her headache getting worse by the minute. She pulled the covers over her head to escape the light, but the darkness under her blankets, instead of giving relief, seemed like a monster, enveloping her, trying to invade her. She tried to kick the blankets off, but they were like a net. The more she struggled, the more the monster tightened around her. And then, unconsciousness hit her like a sledgehammer
                                *   *   *   *  
  Her dreams were strange and dark. Full of fear and confusion.

  She ran along the empty streets. Fleeing from a dark adversary. As her fear mounted, a storm grew above her. It's wildness matching the strength of her terror.

  Rain poured down wildly, water running down the gutters. She stopped in the middle of the street. Watching the water rush by her. And then suddenly, she was the water.
 
   She sped down the drains in a wild flood. Like a wild animal trying to escape its pen, and threw herself against the side of the gutters as her speed increased. Then the water rushed out in a violent waterfall. Bashing into the trunk of a pecan tree.

  And then, she was the tree. She whipped and thrashed in the violence of the wind. Her limbs groaning in the wild dance. She felt her soul running through the veins of the tree to the very tips, where leaves fluttered frantically as the wind tore at them. And then she leapt, and she was the wind.

  She howled through the trees, beating herself against their branches, against buildings. Swirling violently as she sung a wild song. Then she traveled up and up. Higher and higher. Then she was amongst the clouds, ripping and tearing at them. Untill she was them.

  Hanging low, roiling and boiling. The dark clouds unleashed a torrent at the earth. Lightning crackled forth from her in furious bursts of jagged energy.

  And then her wild fear began to calm. And with it the storm. The wind slowed and the clouds dissipated.  And she was the wind again, but calmer this time. A cool nighttime breeze, that began to warm as the sun rose

  As the day went on she went from creature to creature, element to element. Frolicking through nature, last night's terror forgotten. The sun rise and fell twice as she lost herself in the dream.

  As night fell once more, she was the breeze again. She was winding her way through the trees. Free and happy. When she felt a cold dark hand on her soul.
 
    It wrenched her down to earth with a violent strength. And then she stood in a moonlit clearing, the moonlight was ominous and frigid. She looked down at herself, surprised to see her human body after frolicking bodiless for so long.

   She was clothed in a strange dress that reached the ground. It was as if all of nature's elements had come together to make the dress. The bottom seemed to be made of trees and vines and leaves. The part at her throat was lacy and vapory, like air. Her right shoulder was fire, and her left shoulder was ice. Her hair was loose down her shoulders like a fiery lions mane.
 
    She looked out across the clearing to see a figure opposite of her. And off to her right was a large mirror, it's edges shrouded in shifting mists.  She looked back to the figure who was now approaching, and moved forward to meet her.

  The figure was a woman, clothed in a pitch black dress that seemed to drip around her like oil, clinging to her. Her skin and hair was white. Not pure like snow, but like someone had sucked the color and life from them. As they grew close to each other Emma could see her eyes. The were black, completely black. Black like terror, death, and decay. Like nightmares and empty hearts. Emma stopped walking, and so did the other woman.

  "Who are you?" Emma asked.

  "I am you" the woman said. In a voice that matched her own. And yet was different. Darker.

  Emma looked closer at the woman, realizing she told the truth.

  "Give it to me" her alter ego said.

  "Give what?" Emma asked

  "Power. Control. Yourself. If you give me control, I can give you so much power. We can crush the people that hurt us. We never have to run again. They will bow to our power. They will cower in our sight. And we will have no mercy. Because we are darkness. We are power. We are death"

  "No" Emma said. Taking a step back. "I will not".

  The dark one launched herself at Emma, her hands outstretched like claws. She drug her down to the ground as they struggled on the forest floor, the dark one lashed out with her claws, wrapping her hands around Emma's throat.

  Emma planted her feet in the belly of her other self, and kicked her off, launching her back several feet. Getting to her feet and rushing at her adversary as she picked her self off the ground. Emma looked behind her enemy as she rushed at her, seeing the mirror and had seen earlier. As the dark one stood back up, Emma tackled her into the mirror. Screaming " You will not have control, you will not beat me!! I will not give in to your evil!"

  When her dark self hit the mirror, she dissipated. And when Emma looked into it, she saw it caught within the confines of the glass.

  "This is not the end" it spat "I always win. Where there is no light there is darkness. Where there is no life there is death. Life and light must be created. While I just am. Your fighting an uphill battle. One that you will not win. I will have control."

  With that the clearing she was in began to fade. And Emma woke up from her dream.