Taipan // Doctor Strange

Chapter 11

My eyes narrowed, snapping onto Kaecilius' with such determination that I could almost feel something branching from me to him. Could I-?

Maybe.

I tensed my jaw, imagining again the effects of the Taipan's venom.

The man shifted his weight for a moment before his glaring eyes turned to me, a tilt in his head giving off a creepy, inhuman appearance. "What are you doing?" he asked calmly, rolling his shoulders as though trying to loosen up.

Wait.. Hadn't we just gone over this? Hadn't I just killed him?

I envisioned minor arteries rejecting all blood that flowed to them.

"Don't attempt to use Death against her son," he ordered haughtily, drawing a mirror shard and rushing at me. His words lacked meaning to me. What did he mean by this? Why was he repeating himself?

Or better- why was he alive? Again?

Use your instincts.

I ducked to the left, refusing to break my stare as his leap of fury soared over me and behind to reset. My imagination became something of power- and I felt it in the way my body remained steady- even when I felt my conjured sword appear within my hands and block his impending weapon.

My teeth gritted together as Kaecilius pushed downward on his blade, dropping mine closer- too close to my face as I focused on the pupils of his eyes. "I said-" his tense vocals were riddled with enrage.

I imagined the spinal chord of the nervous system shriveling from the lack of its energy, snapping off from the base of the brain. The etching began on his forehead.

A moment passed. Then two.

And then we were facing each other again.

Kaecilius seemed just as confused as the three of us, we were all looking at each other with expectant glares. The sorcerer lunged at me again, and we repeated the same moves over and over again. I knew what it was; Stephen had somehow set up a time loop, just as he had stopped time for me.

I wondered why he would need such an odd thing.

With each downfall of Kaecilius, my attempt to stop his blade during his strike grew weaker and weaker. My body began to betray me and feel sluggish- and my mind was slurring the details of what would happen within the next seconds.

Why, if time was repeating, was my energy not also being restored?

I felt fear reach around and strangle my throat as I saw my arms shaking in a last effort to keep his mirror shard from piercing me. I knew that in a moment, or within the past moments if he attacked this way again, I would not be able to block it. But- would I remain dead?

We were standing before one another again; I felt my teeth clench together as I cursed the two other sorcerers for standing there while I met my near-demise. I looked over at the two of them with an instigating glance.

Suddenly, my rasped breath was cut short as my body jolted backward, a sound I had never heard before dragging my eyes downward to my own body. A smaller piece of the mirror dimension had embedded itself into my chest.

The erupting pain that ran up and down my spine was second hand to my frantic thoughts. Would I get a second chance? Was this game over?

I tried to swallow. I wanted to gasp for air.

Shock kept me quiet as I watched the blood begin to stain the uniform I had only just gotten; I could feel my heart beneath the burning, pulsating so hard that I thought it was going to fly out of my chest and follow the way Stephen had gone. Horror ruptured my calm as I tried to swallow again, unable to draw any new air into my lungs. Where the shard stuck out- it felt the same as when I had felt Kaecilius' hand on my shoulder.