Chapter 117: The Internal Conflict
Melissa’s POV
It was dark when I opened my eyes.
It wasn’t the lack of illumination. Something heavier, something thicker. As if shadows were seeping into my lungs and pressing against my skin.
I pivoted.
Two different versions of myself were standing in front of me.
I was one of them. Kane’s favorite gal. The girl who had struggled, who had fought, who had put love before retaliation.
Something else was the other.
Towering, bright eyes, encased in whirling black fog. The air hummed with the power radiating from her.
She smirked and cocked her head. “You’re afraid of me.”
I stepped back. “Who… what are you?”
“You already know.”
Smooth and authoritative, her voice slithered across the air.
“You’ve always known.”
She shook her head, the real me, the other me. Melissa, she is telling lies. She is not you.
Darkness – I chuckled. “Aren’t I?”
I balled my fists up. “I won’t let you control me.”
She repeated, “Control you?” “I am you, Melissa. I am the force within you that you have always dreaded. The part that does not plead for forgiveness. The part without hesitation.
She took a step forward. I remained motionless.
In a whisper, she said, “You feel it, don’t you?” “The world’s weight.” The suffering. The treachery. It never ends.
Her comments pierced me deeply and twisted my heart.
They had deceived me.
The people who ought to have loved me.
By people who thought I was weak.
The real me, “Melissa,” took hold of my hand. She had a steady, loving touch. “You’re not alone.”
Darkness – I laughed. “Aren’t you tired?”
I took a deep breath.
I was worn out.
Weary of battling. I’m sick of bleeding. I’m sick and tired of constantly having to prove myself.
Darkness-Me took a step forward.
“Let me take the pain away.”
I hesitated.
Only for a moment.
That second was sufficient.
Because she lunged all of a sudden.
My shoulders were seized by her hands, and I was struck violently.
I was drawn into her, and a scream ripped from my throat.
The globe whirled. I lost my mind.
Then everything went dark.
With his breath coming quickly, Kane crouched next to my motionless form and held onto my wrist.
“Melissa,” he said in a whisper. “Come back to me.”
I remained motionless.
Not even a breath left my body.
Kane’s knuckles tightened and his jaw clenched. “Don’t do this,” he whispered as he brushed my hair back. “I won’t let you go.”
The air was shaken by a distant roar.
He drew his sword and hurried to his feet. As the enemy forces rushed closer, the walls of the destroyed palace shook and the stones cracked.
He was surrounded by chaos.
But he never took his eyes off of me.
“Stay with her!” As a wall of energy erupted forth, forcing back the approaching shadows, Lydia yelled and slammed her staff into the ground.
Zephyr stood next to her, flashing his daggers. “We can’t hold them forever!”
Kane refused to back down.
He refused to go.
Not even as the adversary advanced. Not even when swinging his sword caused pain in his arms.
Not even after Darius came back.
However, he was no longer Darius.
He was no longer alive. All that was left was a gigantic mass of darkness that was throbbing with power and spinning.
The voice was deep and unnatural.
“She belongs to me now.”
Kane gripped his sword tighter.
“Like hell she does.”
The darkness lunged.
The battle for my soul then started.
The air around me changed, becoming more and more chilly than usual. As the shadows twisted about me, I clenched my arms and gritted my teeth.
No.
I was out. I was victorious.
Why, then, was there still darkness?
“Melissa.”
That voice-familiar, deep, incorrect.
I made a quick turn. And there he was.
Or what was remained of him, anyway.
Darius.
Not as a man, though.
Not even as a wolf.
Now he was something else, a whirling mass of blackness that could hardly contain a form. His sneer was twisted and monstrous as his visage shifted in and out of the darkness.
I felt deep down that I should be terrified.
However, I didn’t.
I was upset.
“You ought to be dead,” I stated in a chilly tone.
Darius chuckled. Goosebumps appeared on my arms as the sound slithered over my flesh.
“Death is not the end, Melissa.” His body moved, creeping nearer. “You, of all people, should know that by now.”
My fingernails sank into my hands. “Don’t come near me.”
“But why would I?” Like pools of unending night, his eyes shone. “After all, we are the same now.”
I felt sick to my stomach. “We are not alike.”
“Aren’t we?”
His words pressed against something deep within me, encircling me like chains.
I forcefully swallowed, attempting to resist his voice’s draw.
I had a sneaking suspicion that he might be correct.
“No,” I pushed out. “I’m not like you. I refuse to allow the darkness to triumph.
Darius laughed.
“Then why does it feel so good?”
Then-
Pain.
My chest began to ache sharply, and it quickly spread like fire and ice into my veins. I gasped and staggered.
What was going on with me?
“You feel it, don’t you?” Darius muttered. “The strength. The hunger. Melissa, you don’t have to fight it. All you have to do is-”
“Avoid her!”
The air was split open by Kane’s roar.
He lunged before I could even turn. The silver light of his wolf’s might pierced the darkness as his blade sliced through the shadows.
Darius, however, merely chuckled.
He mocked, “Foolish Alpha,” his body vibrating. “Your battle is pointless. I already have Melissa.
Muscles clenched in rage, Kane gripped his blade tighter. “Over my corpse.”
Darius smiled.
“That,” he stated with ease, “can be arranged.”
And the blackness surged forward before I could respond. –
It completely engulfed me.
It was chilly inside the shadows.
I was adrift.
Drowning.
I was unable to distinguish between my body and the shadows. Whispering in nearly familiar voices, they encircled me and drew me closer.
“You were meant to be more.”
“You were never meant to be weak.”
“Let go, Melissa.”
I resisted it.
I tried to cling to anything at all, but my thoughts were wandering.
Then a voice broke through the confusion.
“Melissa!”
Kane?
I sensed him.
As if a thread were drawing me back from the brink.
No.
I wasn’t finished.
I wasn’t his.
I clenched my teeth and struggled to climb into the chasm while the darkness weighed heavily on me.
And all of a sudden-
I let out a gasp.
My lungs were filled with air. I opened my eyes.
I had returned.
With Kane, Lydia, and Zephyr, the battlefield became clear. Behind them was the wreckage of a palace. The spiraling storm of shadows in the sky.
Slowly, I pushed myself up.
Kane let out a breath, his eyes glimmering with relief. “Missa.”
However, then-
He stopped.
His face shifted.
As if he were staring at an unknown person.
I scowled. “What?”
Kane remained silent.
He merely gazed at me.
Then he gripped his blade more tightly.
“Melissa,” he said in a whisper. “What… have you done?”
I blinked, unsure, bewildered.
Then I noticed my image in the broken glass at my feet.
My eyes were no longer mine.
They were radiant.
Bright.
Not natural.
And I experienced something new, a horrible throb inside of me, for the first time.
It wasn’t exclusively mine.
It had been marked by the gloom.
Furthermore, I wasn’t certain if I was still me.