Death

Because the Shadowy Girl From the Underworld Said So

I woke up on the ground.  Obviously, Fiery Eyes hadn't bothered to move me. That was great. My back was killing me. Perhaps because of the shadow wings, perhaps because I had landed on it after falling several hundred feet. How was I still alive? I was sore, sure, but alive. Groaning, I opened my eyes.

I was in the shadow world, and the girl who looked like me was sitting next to me, looking smug. "You're an idiot," she said with no preamble. I groaned again for good measure and rubbed my head. Oh, everything hurt.

Duh. That's your own fault. You're an idiot, me! From the past! I mean, I'm clearly an intelligent person right now. Yeah. That's totally what I meant.

I ignored the girl and looked around.  She grabbed my face, her fingernails digging into my cheeks, and pulled it around to point at her.  She looked serious.  "I brought you back here," she said, gesturing with her head.  She still hadn't let go of my face.  I made a muffled sound.  "No, just listen.  You are an idiot.  You shouldn't have summoned those shadows to begin with.  The first shadows are very important to the demi-human." Then, she finally let me go.

I rubbed my cheeks.  Was it going to bruise?  Was that even possible on my face?  Probably.  "Well, what was I supposed to do?  Everybody kept yelling at me to hurry up and summon the shadows, but it's not really that easy!  So I finally do it, with the only ones I can figure out how to summon, and apparently those are the wrong freaking shadows?" I exclaimed.

The girl looked slightly mollified.  "Yeah, pretty much," she mumbled. I sighed, my anger dissipated. Now that it was gone, I found the fact that she looked exactly like me extremely creepy.

"Okay, what's the deal with my creepy reflection?" I asked. She smirked and crossed her arms.

"I'm not your reflection. I'm not you, either. Well, I sort of am. In a way. It's kind of hard to explain, but-" she paused, thinking. I would have tapped my foot in impatience, but writhing floor shadows didn't really make clicking sounds. I probably would have ended up kicking smoke into the air and coughing.

"Okay, have you ever read Dune?" she asked, smiling confidently. I shook my head. Her mouth dropped open. "You've been living under a rock for your entire life, haven't you? Dune is one of the best science fiction novels that the world has ever created! It was popular way before I died!" she exclaimed. This time, it was my turn to have my mouth drop open.

"Okay, you just said that you're dead, right? I didn't mishear that? If you're dead, then why do you look like me? If that's meant to creep me out, it's working and you should definitely stop, it's kind of off-putting," I said, looking into my own eyes. She grabbed my face again and pulled me nearer to her. I started to panic. What the heck was she doing? I definitely didn't want to kiss myself!

You are an idiot. You are a complete idiot. Why am I even doing this? Why are you still reading? This girl is completely clueless. There's no hope for her anymore. I'm just going to go sit in the corner and rethink my life choices a little.

...

The ghost doesn't want to kiss you, you freaking moron!

"I'm not you," she said, repeating her words from earlier. Before I could say anything, she smushed my mouth shut. "Nope, don't speak. I'm you, but I'm better, basically. I'm like a dream version of yourself. I also happen to be the shadow of a past demi-human, sent to help you and guide you on all of your adventures. Because, for some reason, you are more important than anybody else I've ever spoken to," she complained.

I was so confused. What was she talking about? If she was the shadow of some past half-reaper girl like me, then why did she look exactly like me?

"I can see the question on your face. Your eyebrows are all furrowed and you look creeped out. I look like you because, duh, this is all in your head. You are almost talking to yourself, but you're really speaking to the remnant of me that also happens to have melded slightly with you. Did that help?" she explained, letting my face go. I groaned.

"Nope," I replied. "Now, can I wake up? I'm sick of being confused."

The clone looked at me and rolled her eyes. "Do you honestly think that you'll be less confused if you wake up?" she asked. I scrambled back from her. There had been a definite stay here vibe in that last sentence.

"Okay, if you're going to bust out the red eyes and start creepily talking about how I'm going to stay here and play with you forever, I'm going to stab you," I warned.

"There are three problems with that. One, you don't have a weapon. Two, you've been watching too much anime. Three, you can't hurt me, I'm a figment of your imagination that also exists at the same time," she said. I sighed.

"I'm going to wake up now," I decided. She nodded.

"Good idea. You're so awkward."

With that, the shadow world disappeared around me, and I realized that I didn't know why the shadows I had summoned were bad. Or, really, why I had fainted and gone there in the first place.

Wow, that was a lot of info. It happened to me and I still don't understand. Let's recap, shall we?

No? Yeah, I'm too lazy to anyway. I'm going to get back to my popcorn. Ah, crap, it's cold. You readers have killed my popcorn! Murderers!