Taking Control. (a Ninjago fanfic)

Chapter 21- Breaking point

J A Y

The whispers had been going on for a while now.

Ever since I'd told Cole to run, at least.

I guess it was my punishment for helping him.

It wasn't what the Overlord wanted.

Time didn't seem to be a thing.

It felt like such a long time

But I really had no clue.

Seconds felt like hours.

Or maybe hours felt like seconds.

I couldn't tell.

And they didn't stop.

"Worthless."

"Weak."

"Useless."

They started off as just one word.

A single word, like faint scratches at the edges of my mind.

But then they started getting louder

Angrier.

Longer.

"You're weak. Useless. The team never loved you."

"Your brothers hate you."

"You'll never be the lightning ninja Ninjago needs. You're a mistake, and everyone knows it."

"Nya never loved you, not even for a moment. And no matter what you do, she never will."

I knew he was just trying to get into my head.

I wasn't stupid. This was his way of "breaking me."

Worming into my thoughts, twisting everything I'd ever doubted about myself.

But knowing didn't help.

Because it was working.

I'd fought so hard for years to bury those thoughts, to tell myself they weren't true. But all he had to do was whisper them, and they came crawling back like old wounds reopening.

My self-confidence had always been bad. I knew that.

But now? Now it was like he was taking the pieces of me I'd barely managed to glue together and smashing them again, over and over.

They just wouldn't stop.

I couldn't escape them.

They were everywhere.

The incessant mumbling, whispering

It just seemed to seep into my body, an icy, incessant feeling I couldn't shake.

I was going to crack.

I was cracking.

I couldn't take it anymore.