All My Favorite Monsters

Betrayal

[Inferno]

Every movement sent agony through me as I slowly awoke. I was on the ground in an expansive dark space.

Somehow I knew before I was told that I was in the Between.

I dragged myself to my feet, wincing as I felt the burning pain again, and looked around for anything, anyone. I felt someone there, so I knew they were here.

"Show yourself!" I growled, "You can't hide from me."

The shadows parted, and Crescent revealed herself standing a few feet away. Her eyes shone in the dim light, reflecting light off of the black pen she twirled in her hands. Her calm smile had a hint of glee.

I snarled, and lunged at her. Suddenly, I was knocked back by some invisible wall, forcing an agonized screech from me as pain shot through my limbs.

I groaned as I slowly stood. Crescent laughed, amused.

"Down, girl," she said, smiling as if she was the only one who thought her joke was at all funny. Because she was. To me, it was just another thing to make me mad.

"What do you want from me?" I seethed, my blood boiling with rage.

"Oh, nothing much," Crescent grinned. She flicked the pen, and I was standing. "I just want to see your suffering."

"I did nothing to you, why are you doing this?!"

Crescent tilted her head. "That's funny, coming from you. Aren't you the one who came back after being dead for hundreds of years, only to kill the humans that weren't responsible for your species' demise?"

I remained silent, glaring coldly at her.

Her smile faded. "And actually... you did, indeed, do something to me."

A blink of an eye, and she was behind me. Her claws dug into the soft skin of my neck. Blood dripped from the punctures. I growled, trying to break free, but stopped as her claws carved themselves deeper. My ears fell in submission.

"I was the persona," Crescent snarled (rather loudly) into my ear, "And then you came along, and I was left in the dark. You took everything from me."

It was like I felt her smiling behind me.

"Now I'll take everything from you."

She tossed me to the side, sending me sprawling on the ground.

I don't like this feeling. This feeling of being helpless, tossed around like a dead carcass in need of disposal.

Their screams, their cries of agony as they were slaughtered... I could only watch... I could only turn around and run, run away...

No... no...

"Familiar, isn't it?" Crescent smiled again. "Remember that moment, that moment when you watched everyone you ever loved mercilessly killed in front of you?"

She knelt down next to me. "It's time you felt that again. Maybe it'll make up for what you've put me through."

Crescent grabbed the collar of my shirt, dragging me along as I thrashed and writhed to escape her grasp. I considered leaving my host, leaving Addie for her. No, then Crescent would keep her until I came back. I doubted Addie even knew what was happening right now.

She dragged me along, eventually throwing me into a chair. As soon as I touched it, it was like it trapped me there, preventing me from moving anywhere. My tentacles retracted without me doing so. I growled at Crescent.

"What is this, some kind of torture chair?" I scoffed, "Please, you gotta be more creative than that."

Crescent put her hand on my shoulder, digging her claws into my skin through my shirt again.

"Oh, relax," She chuckled, "This is much better than it looks."

Crescent looked to the shadows. "Prismarine! Come on out!"

From the shadows, the wolf stepped into view. A glitched, snow-white figure, seeming indecisive between angelic and demonic.

The demonlike form, however, I recognized. My eyes widened.

"X-Xirox?" I said, exhaling in shock.

Prismarine looked to the ground, averting her gaze. "I'm sorry, Cinder."

I was too surprised to even be mad about him calling me by my hybrid name. My expression darkened. "So. Addie was right."

He cleared his throat. "Look-"

"Pris," Crescent interrupted, "We don't have all day. Just do it."

Prismarine sighed. He summoned what looked like a small, sharp stake of light. Black shadow swirled in the point. He looked at me, apology in his gaze.

Pain shot through my chest as I screeched. The stake was driven into me, dark blood welling up in the wound. Prismarine twisted it, sending fire through my veins. I struggled to breath, blood dripped from my mouth. My heart felt like it was being shredded to pieces inside of me. The tip of my tail twitched.

I looked up at Prismarine, hatred in my gaze. "Why..."

Prismarine watched, tears welling up in his eyes. He repeated the same thing: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Crescent smiled. She placed her hand around the stake at my heart. I watched as it turned black, and disappeared. The wound closed up, but I still felt the pain.

"So," She said calmly, "How do you feel?"

I breathed heavily. My mouth moved without my consent. I grinned.

"Wonderful."

----

[Addie]

"So how's this gonna work? Do I just summon her?" I asked.

"We have to lure her out of here," Anatox explained, "From my experience, powerful people tend to be more powerful at or near their source of origin. In this case, it's the Between."

"So we should bring her to the Underground?" I questioned.

"The problem with that," Anatox sighed, "Is that then we only have a limited amount of time to kill her. Forgotten OCs, as I've picked up thus far, tend to automatically teleport back here after about half an hour outside of their dimension. And here, they can regenerate."

"What about the other forgotten OCs, then?" I asked, "I'm sure Seeker and the others could help."

"And they are," Anatox said, "They'll be here later. For now, we need to figure out our approach to this."

Zane perked his head up slightly. "Guys, shush."

Anatox and I fell silent. I looked at Zane, who was looking warily around in a circle around him.

"What is it?" I asked in a hushed tone.

"Someone's here," he said.

Now everyone looked around. We didn't see anyone. But I felt what he was talking about. It's like someone was standing here, right next to me...

A cold, metal hand slammed over my mouth, and my vision went dark.

----

frik u Xirox

1027 words