Chapter 16:

Interlude: Inner Demon

MiracleBound


I was standing in a field of blood. My hands were stained purple.

One by one, my enemies came to kill me, but they weren’t strong enough.

                One by one, they came to die.

I couldn’t speak.

                I was laughing uncontrollably.

I was horrified.

                I was cathartic.

I was standing atop a mountain of corpses…

                …soaking in the view…

It was so disgusting…

                It was so beautiful…

I was alone…

                I was triumphant…

I began to cry.

                How could I not? It was too beautiful.

I reached my blood-soaked hands toward the sky.

The light evaded me. I was encased in shadow.

                The light from the new moon reflected strongly on me.

It was so dark I couldn’t see anything…

                It was so bright my eyes hurt…

I was in a dark pit…

                I was on top of the world…

I’m the lowest of the low…

                I’m riding so high…

I’m the worst of the worst…

                I’m the best of the best…

I’m a monster…

                Yeah, I am.

Would you just shut up?

                No, feel free to do so yourself though.

I said shut up!! Get away from me!

                Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you…

Then I split in two. Both parts of me flew in opposite directions as the scenery around us cracked and tore away, replaced with emptiness so that there were no distractions.

It was only me and Marion.

I landed on my back and stared up into the blank sky. Despite the fact that we had been blown in opposite directions, Marion landed just a few inches opposite me.

“Hello again, lovely,” Marion said. “Fancy meeting you here, but I guess we always do meet in our dreams don’t we?”

“I already told you to shut up,” I responded.

“Ouch, so cold. I’m getting chills…”

“I’m sure they’ll heat you up in hell.”

“Hahahaha!” Marion kept laughing as though it was the funniest joke she ever heard. “You really must hate me, huh?”

“Well at least you’re not stupid.”

“It’s bad to hate yourself, you know?”

“I don’t care what you have to say,” I said as I sat up.

“Why are you so mad at me?” Marion said, appearing in front of me in the same position I was in. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Just leave me alone!”

“I’ll be with you forever whether you want me or not,” she responded. “Till death do us part.

“Speaking of which, what’s up with your infatuation with miracle boy?”

“I believe he can save me.”

“Save you from what?” Marion asked. “Those assassins? Hate to break it to ya, but he barely seems to be scraping by-”

“Not from them,” I interrupted as I stood up and looked down at her. “From you.”

“And when have I ever hurt you?” she asked. “In fact, I only heal your wounds.”

“You might not hurt me, but you hurt others,” I said. “Like that Trigger Happy guy! You didn’t have to go so far!”

“He was trying to kill us!” Marion yelled as she stood to meet my gaze. “And for what, some stupid bounty!?”

“That bounty’s only there because people are afraid of you!” I yelled back.

“They’re afraid of us, Marion! Us!” she yelled. “You can’t keep denying me forever!”

“They’re afraid of me because of you!

“They’re afraid of us because of our power,” Marion said as though correcting me. “Don’t you just get sick of it all? Don’t you want to just crush those weaklings under your heel and finally be done with it?”

“No! I don’t want that! I’m nothing like you!”

I am you!

“No! I don’t believe it! I won’t!”

I-I can’t believe it.

She’s the monster, not me. I just have to suffer the consequences of her actions. I’m nothing like her… and yet… she’s still me. Why did she have to be me?

“Fine, be that way,” Marion snarled. “But whenever you lose control, whenever you’re angry, or scared, or sad, whenever you can’t handle this world anymore, I’ll be there. And I’ll help you get rid of your problems. One way or another…”

“I don’t want your help!”

“Then I guess it’s too bad you need it.”

“I- Ah!” I fell over, it felt like my whole body was just slammed against a wall. It looked like she got hurt too.

“What just happened?” I asked.

“How am I supposed to know if you don’t?” she asked. “We’re the same person.”

I glowered at Marion. Luckily it seemed as though the time I was forced to spend with her was coming to an end…

\\\ Oliver ///

I woke up in the middle of the night.

Why?

I just wanted to sleep, that’s all. That’s all I’m asking for right now. Is it really so grand and selfish a request that I should be allowed a full night’s sleep? I don’t think so.

Actually, now that I think about it, I think I feel something on top of me. Something soft…

“Get Off Me B-!”

Oh, it’s just her pillow.

Thank God it’s not one of those stories.

She must have dropped it in her sleep… Or something? I’m too tired to be thinking right now.

This room only came with two pillows, so I’d better give this one back to her. Don’t wanna be accused of stealing both pillows when she wakes up now do I?

I grabbed the extra pillow and rose to my feet.

Wait, is that really how you say that? Wait, what am I even thinking about? This isn’t a play-by-play, is it? When did my life become a play-by-play!?

I gotta hurry up and get some sleep.

I looked at Marion. She definitely was a restless sleeper. The blanket’s all thrown around and she’s about to fall off the bed.

Aw… are you having a nightmare?

Good.

My body still aches cause of you, damn it.

I know that’s a mean thing to think but I don’t feel empathy when I’m tired. And yesterday was something else. Or was it today? I don’t care! Everything’s been a mess lately.

How many times have I almost died? And it’s still only my second (or third) day in this new world!

If I didn’t have Accelerate or Miracle, I would’ve died. I just barely scraped by with those powers, and I had two!

Marion might’ve been able to heal my wounds, which I am grateful for by the way, but she couldn’t heal the aching from doing the Dance of Death and utterly overworking myself. It better not be like this everyday or I’m quitting damn it!

I was then reminded by the contract that quitting wasn’t allowed.

Screw it. I’m just tired, I’m not actually gonna quit! It’s not like I have any other choices anyway!

With silent bitterness, I put the pillow in the middle of the bed and rolled Marion onto it.

Good job me. Although…

Wrapped up in the blanket like that, Marion kinda looked like a burrito. You know, like one of those breakfast burritos you get with the eggs and bacon inside of them. Man, I could just eat her up…

“…?”

Great! Now I’m tired, hungry, and just plain confused!

I laid down in my bed again trying not to think about food.

Screw that, I’m soooo hungry…

Tomorrow, I’m getting a breakfast burrito, and they better have that in this world! If not, I’m committing seppuku! And no, that’s not an extreme reaction! It’s completely normal damn it!

Oof.

Something heavy just landed on me.

I opened my eyes and saw that Marion had just rolled off the bed onto me.

I’m starting to get irritated.

Why don’t you look like a burrito anymore! Your appeal is totally gone now! I’m trying to think about food, woman!

Angered, I grabbed the back of her shirt while charging my Miracle powers in my left hand, and then simply tossed her back onto her bed.

Miracle Throw.

A job well done if I do say so myself.

Thud!

Or not.

I jumped to my feet and ran to the other side of the room.

Apparently I had overcalculated my Miracle Throw and it had ended up slamming Marion into the wall. My bad.

She was now face first on the floor, still asleep.

Dang! She can sleep through a lot, can’t she!? Kudos…

I turned her over to make sure there wasn’t any damage on the other side and-

Her nose was… definitely broken.

Oh shit! The contract! I just hurt her, didn’t I?!

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.

Wait, I don’t feel like I’m dying. Or near dying.

Oh, it must’ve been because I didn’t mean to hurt her. I’m so glad I added that unintentional damage clause. And if I hadn’t added that for the greater good clause then I don’t even know what I would’ve done yesterday.

I looked back at Marion, her nose had already healed itself.

Haha… The perfect crime leaves no evidence.

But I need to not use Miracle so casually, not until I can better control the output at least. But won’t using it casually be the easiest way to learn to control the output?

Wait, so should I use it more or not? I’m too confused.

I looked back at Marion.

She’s still sleeping peacefully… actually, she looks dismayed about something. She probably was having a nightmare.

Shit. Now I feel worse about what I thought earlier.

Not the burrito part. It’s still burrito or bust for me.

I should probably wake her up…

I grabbed Marion’s shoulders and began to gently shake her awake. I was actually kinda surprised when it worked.

“Oliver…?”

Wait… how am I supposed to respond again? Think of something quickly dumbass!

“Are you alright?”

Booyah! Perfect!

“Y-yeah, I think so…” Marion responded. “But what happened?”

“You- um, fell out of bed,” I lied. Well, technically she did fall off before I threw her, so there’s that.

“Oh, really?”

“Yup, landed right on your face.”

“I’m sorry to have worried you so much…”

“Don’t think anything of it.”

“Also, why is there blood on that wall over there?” Marion asked.

I turned my head and saw that there was indeed a small mark of blood on the wall.

“You must be imagining things,” I said as I reached out my hand to help pull her up. “Come on, let’s get you back in bed.”

“Thanks,” she said as she took my hand, although she didn’t meet my gaze. “You’re always helping me… I’m sorry about all of this… It’s my fault…”

And now we’re back here. Fun.

I really don’t want to deal with this right now.

“It’s fine, we’ll talk about it tomorrow or something,” I said. “Right now I just wanna get some sleep.”

“Yeah… okay. Sorry I woke you up.”

I debated going into a “there’s no need to apologize, keep your head up,” type spiel, but I’m really not feeling it. I just wanna wake up tomorrow and find out breakfast burritos are still a thing.

We each went to our respective beds, although I guess mine’s really the floor, but I’m not about to complain about the arrangement I set up.

“Good night, Oliver…” Marion said.

“Good night,” I replied.

And so, we both drifted off into peaceful dreams.

“…”

Actually… I stayed up and quickly cleaned that blood off the wall, but then I went to sleep.