A Will Of My Own

I planted my feet firmly waiting for my fighting instincts to kick in. Tenebris glared me down as he started walking forward. I kept my feet in place, trying not to show my fear. I felt a soft tapping on my leg. I looked behind me to see Fesha handing me something. With the slender blade pinched between her fingers and the warped wooden handle facing me, she handed me the knife she uses for cooking. Without a single word said, I knew what she wanted me to do. I clutched the knife's handle in my right hand and pointed it toward our approaching enemy.

"So, even thou now wisheth to fight. I shall feed my gracious god with the corpses thee leaveth." Tenebris said. 

Soon after, his first swing toward me was made and I could not dodge in time. The impact slammed my ribs and flung me into the right wall of the church. My back scratched against the wall as I slid down and landed sitting down. I fell over, my body aching from the immense pain. Though I had been knocked back, I somehow managed to keep hold of Fesha's knife. As I got back up, I saw another strike of Tenebris's appendage aiming for me. The tendril caught my stomach, pinning me against the wall. I gasped for air as it continued to squeeze me against the wall. Its sensation was warm and rigid, yet had the consistency of flesh. Its stench was foul like a rotting life. Despite both my arms being crushed, I somehow found the strength to pull my arm out that was wielding Fesha's knife. A raised my free arm up as high as it could go, then swung it swiftly downward. The silver knife plunged into the black mass with some resistance. The top of the handle managed to touch the mass with how hard I stabbed it. As soon as my knife penetrated the surface, I dragged my it across, making a large open wound in the appendage. Still, this had done nothing. Tenebris continued to squeeze me against the wall and I started to suffocate. My ribs slowly collapsed on themselves and I couldn't hold out for much longer. My vision began to blur and eventually, I had blacked out.

I couldn't tell how long I was blacked out for, but I found myself in an abyss that was all too familiar. Darkness surrounded me and I felt a tightness all around my body. In the void of silence, I started to hear mumbling just above me, or at least what I thought was above. I looked up to find a man standing there, but he was upside down. He wore raggedy brown pants with metal greaves. His shirt was white with a gold trim, but had been torn at the edges and stained with dirt. Atop the shirt was a shiny, trapezoidal shaped chest plate with a beautiful engraving of a pair of wings. He wore a thick metallic piece of shoulder armor that was flared upward near his neck, but only on one side. On the other shoulder, a dirty, short, dark red cape hung from the chest plate and over his shoulder and went down to his waist. He had pale skin and long gray hair down to the middle of his neck that covered his eyes. It didn't take long for me to realize that I was staring at myself, or at least the body I had been borrowing.

He continued to mumble as I stared at him. I tried to get his attention but not a word came from my mouth. As I was about to try and scream, the space behind him tore in half allowing light to seep into the empty abyss. As the light came into focus, I had realized that the tear in the black space displayed my point of view from just before I had passed out. The man stood silently this time as I watched the sight of my arms struggling to push the black tendrils off. Then the man simply turned around and walked toward the light. I attempted to chase after him but I couldn't move. All I could do was float through space as he walked into the light. I tried to reach out, but it was no use. The man had disappeared into the light. My vision blurred and soon I was back in my body, still pinned against the wall, but some how it did not feel right. Like I was watching my sight from a distance. 

My arm lifted up, pulling the knife from out of the black tendril. I flipped the knife in my hand and caught the side of the blade. With a flick of my wrist, I had sent the knife hurling toward Tenebris's head. He had realized what I had done and jerked sideways to dodge. The tendril followed and I was free from the pressure. Though I narrowly escaped death, I felt I couldn't be proud of my accomplishment, since I had no control over my body. Every movement that I had just performed was far beyond my capabilities. My body was now moving on its own and doing things I never thought possible for myself.

After Tenebris successfully dodged the knife, my body began full on sprinting toward him. Tenebris reacted and swung his appendages side to side so as to block my path. My body effortlessly jumped over and dodged every swing. I felt the wind of each attack graze my skin, yet despite all the sensation, I still had no control over my movements. My body had been taken over like it was on full autopilot. Eventually, my body had closed enough distance between Tenebris and it. My legs lunged forward as my arm cocked its fist, ready to strike. My fist flew forward with immense force, landing a clean blow to Tenebris's carved out temple. Tenebris flew back, his back slamming into the blacked out wall underneath his son. He stood there for a bit, slouched forward, trying to catch his breath. My feet acted quickly, moving toward the knife that had been thrown. My hand swooped it up effortlessly and my vision focused on Tenebris. With a knife in hand, the distance was closing between Tenebris and I. As I stayed afloat in the dark abyss, I blinked for a split second, and in that time, the knife that had been grabbed of the ground was now deep in the side of Tenebris's throat.