The Black Teeth

XV - Clyde

He weakly pushed himself off the ground. He hit the ground hard, but nothing hurt. He touched his legs, just to realize the horrifying shock. He couldn't feel anything. His vision was blurred as he looked around. He wiped his eyes, still not having any sense of touch. As he adjusted his eyes, he found himself on 4th Harbour. Luckily he was still in Bliskam. The familiar smell of musky water wasn't there either. He was confusingly around. Each building looked deserted and overgrown in vegetation. This wasn't his natural world. As he surveyed the area, he noticed there was nobody. No ships. No shopkeepers. Nobody. Was this just a dream? He slapped himself to wake up, but felt no pain. He groaned and fell to his knees on the ground.

"Help." He whispered to nobody.

The waves splashed the rotting wood on the deck. The foggy air coated his lungs in a weird sensation in which he never felt before.

"I'm dead." He said finally. "I was killed by The Champion. Bled out. In the hands of Jasmine."

Where were they? He pushed himself up. He thought the best was to make for the Black Teeth hideout. It wasn't far, but with the amount of vegetation, bushes, and rubble lying everywhere, every step had to be watched.

-

He entered the hideout, and looked at the overgrown mess. He called their names.

"Jasmine! Wes! Hardam! Anyone?" Silence filled the room. A small vine hung into his eyes in which he yanked down. He looked in each room, which was an empty version of the actual hideout. There had to be a way out of this. He called more names, with no response. He sat quietly on the nearby chair.

"Shit." He said.

He turned to the creak of the floorboard in the other room. He gave a shaky breath. He checked his pockets for his secret knives. Gone.

"Looking for these?" A demonic voice called from the other room. Multiple knives scattered across the floor.

"Who the hell is there?" He shouted back, nervous. "Where the hell am I?"

"You won't need to worry about that for now."

A shadowy shape of a man turned the corner. It seemed to be made of a black particle-like dust swirling around.

"Where are they?" Clyde backed up a few steps.

"Not here. There safe. As for where we are. This is a parallel, a copy of our world."

Clyde scavenged his words. "Our. Your from where I am. So who the hell are you?"

"I am you." He shifted into a shape which closely resembled Clyde. He took a step towards Clyde.

"I don't understand."

"You will soon my friend. As for us," He changed his words. "As for you, normal people cannot travel to parallels."

"So how am I here?" Clyde finally decided that he was likely no harm, not that he could feel anything anyways. If he wanted any sort of information, the talking cloud of dust was his best hope.

"Do you know about the Amulet Holders? The ones who fought for freedom across the world. There was the main ones to name, Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water."

"I'm sorry but what does this have to do with me being here?" Clyde interrupted.

"You already know. We already know. You cannot deny it. We were chosen."

Clyde did know, but he couldn't put his tongue on it. He knew everything the Shadow told before he even spoke it, he saw every thought that it thought. They were all his. He was controlling the Shadow, yet learning from it. From himself.

"There are two other amulets believed to be in existing. Many believe they were not real, but a combined power of all the amulets at once. Others believe more power lies in those with the Dark and Light amulets."

"Are you saying I'm the Dark Amulet Holder?" Clyde asked. He pinched at his arm. They connected so much, but there was so many gaps between their connections it was hard to predict what they both were thinking.

"No. Your the balance. The bond between each one."

"But," He paused for a moment. ", why me? I'm just a street thug. I'm no hero. If anything I'm a villain."

"There is evil within us. But there is also good. We were chosen for this balance." The demonic voice began morphing into Clyde's own voice.

"This can't be possible though. There is a Dark and Light Amulet. They make the balance. I can't be middle-man. And so, I don't even have an Amulet."

"During the wars, these Amulets were lost. Destroyed. The Elemental Amulets are still around, but the Balance Amulets got destroyed. To make up for the shift of Light and Dark, you are the scale. The Stabil."

Clyde couldn't breath. The amount of stress the last while had been is overwhelming, and it just kept coming and coming. It didn't feel real. It felt like one of the books his mother would read to him as a bedtime story. Suddenly, Clyde felt a burning sensation on his throat and neck. It worsened and worsened. He looked down and saw a chain necklace, with a small emblem on the end showing a symbol in which Clyde didn't understand.

"What do I do?" Clyde asked sceptical of the amulet. He couldn't be an amulet holder. It wasn't real.

"Keep balance." The shadow said at last and morphed back into a spiral of black dust, which flew into Clyde. It knocked his breath out, but he finally understood. He held his hand out, stretching each finger out to summon the particle of Darkness, before quickly releasing his hand to stop it. He moved to the Lightness. Summoning a small beam of light, much similar to a lantern light. He attempted both at the same time in separate hands. He was unsure how he was controlling it, as he had no practice of any magic. He dropped his hands and closed his eyes. He knew how to get back.

With his eyes closed he saw the darkness,
And then opening them again he saw the light. Except he wasn't in the overgrown hideout anymore, but rather the cold damp floor of the Ring.