Frenzy & Torch

Chapter 52: Fission

The sound of muffled singing entered Elizabeth's ears.

She blinked a couple times and saw a void of warm cyan blue staring back at her. She sat up on the marble floor and looked around; it was an endless expanse, save for the door right in front of her.

"The fuck is this?" Elizabeth wondered aloud. Her voice reverberated like she was in a cave.

She stood up, barely able to steady herself.

"No, seriously, what the fuck is goin' on here? Am I dead?" she asked nobody in particular. She pointed at the door. "Is that the fuckin' afterlife? Because if it is, I got some shit to settle first."

Her voice echoed back at her, distorted and warped. It made her feel even smaller.

There was no response.

She sighed and walked toward the door. "If you fuckin' insist."

Behind the door was a grand hall, and it was gargantuan. The singing was now crystal clear and beautiful.

She stepped inside, surprised at how smooth the red carpet felt under her boots. She was suddenly self conscious of how dirty she felt in such a clean space.

White plasterwork formed the ornate ceiling that loomed over her. She could make out gorgeous, hyper-realistic illustrations of religious figures.

Something bumped into her foot. She looked down. "What the—"

It was a little vacuum bot. It beeped and chirped, then moved away.

"Oh, my bad," Elizabeth muttered as she watched it diligently work. She walked down the hall, studying the pillars that extended toward the ceiling with illustrations carved into their sides.

As she kept walking, she noticed the hall stretched for an eternity. She walked past a few more pillars, then turned around to see the door was no longer there.

"The fuck?"

She turned back around and saw a tall, pale figure with elongated limbs and a stretched face staring back at her. Its eyes were black hollow pits that eerily complemented its disjointed jaw.

Elizabeth reached for her sword and felt nothing there, despite feeling the weight and the handle against her hip until now. She clenched her fist and advanced toward the figure, despite the primal fear telling her to keep her distance.

"The fuck you want, you ugly bitch?" Elizabeth asked.

The creature disappeared behind the pillar. Elizabeth peered around it and saw empty space. "That's what I fuckin' thought."

She didn't realize how much her hands were trembling until the adrenaline waned.

There was a flicker. Reality tore apart for one millisecond, which was still enough to overwhelm Elizabeth's senses. She flinched from the overlapping screams and explosions.

A carbon copy of herself was suddenly standing no more than a foot away. She looked the same, except something was wrong with her features: her eyes were black with laser-point red pupils, and her lips stretched into a crooked, demented grin.

"What the fuck is this?" Elizabeth asked, her hair standing on end.

"I'm you," said Red Elizabeth.

"No the fuck you're not!" Elizabeth snapped.

"That so-called awakening? It was a coin toss. If Annabelle wasn't there, you'd be me." Red Elizabeth tilted her head. Her smile somehow grew wider.

"I'm my own goddamned person, I don't need nobody to be my fuckin' anchor!"