Catharsis II: An Army of Words (AUDITIONS)

Applicant #58: Slaughtering Phantom

The smell of burning woods and other materials has invaded our senses as we struggle to survive.

"Stop this," I beg him.

He just stares back at me. Those glowing green eyes; difficult to fathom, bore into my very soul. This is what he usually does every time we see each other, eye-to-eye. And whenever we do, it's either he killed someone or I'm about to stop him from doing so.

"Don't burn this house to the very ground. I know your plans. Stop. Please."

My whole family has stopped their cries for help. This has been our home for a good long while. And now, the fire is taking it away from us.

"I know you hated the whole world," I say. "They didn't understand you. They didn't consider you were sick so they had to keep you hidden. But I'll set you free. All I ask is for you to stop this."

But he drops the last piece of wood that fills what the fire needs to burn everything else. I never won any battle with him. He always has his ways of getting out no matter how much I try imprisoning him.

"Die," he says in that gruesome voice, for the first and last time, giving me a sinister grin.

Slowly, the surrounding turns into ashes. An uncanny feeling of soul suffocation consumes me together with the choking poisonous smoke of the fire. Everyone has completely stopped their struggle. Perhaps they have figured it's pointless. The thought of everyone I have ever loved and loved me back dying in the same house on the same day in the same way kills that little hope I have left for chances of survival.

"No," I breathe out, gasping for air.

My eyes are about to close to the sound of my hopeless cries for mercy. This is the last battle I'll have with him; I know. This is the last time I'll look at him in the eyes and ask him to stop. Now, I can't do anymore than just stare back. I can't fight him. He's strong enough to have killed a hundred lives.

Though this time, he's gone weak. I watch it, with half-conscious eyes, as the fire breaks the place where I always talk to the stranger who just killed my family and took other innocent lives. The fire is burning the place where I used to see someone who looks exactly like me.

The fire has burnt and slaughtered the man in the mirror.