Inner Demons || Sting Eucliffe Love Story (Book 2)

Chapter 23: Thank You

Sting watched as Akiko's eyes became shadowed by her hair, her body stopped wobbling and stood in a still, standing position. He waited, anticipating what was to come.

Her knees bend before lunging herself towards the dragon slayer with sword in hand. Sting quickly dodged, nearly getting his head hacked off by that one attack.

Kira was not joking, she could accidentally kill you straight off the bat! Sting thought, deciding that if he wasn't careful, he really will die by the hands of his mate.

He prayed heavily that Akiko would come to him safe and sound and have this whole ordeal put aside for the rest of their lives.

---

Akiko opened her eyes, immediately consumed by the darkness around her, known as her soul.

"Welcome." a voice greeted her, it was oddly familiar to her.

The black-haired female glanced up, landing on a uncoloured version of herself. The uncoloured version only had black and white on her side. Akiko's self was filled with colour, that was what differentiated them from each other. Except for the looks on their faces.

Her voice has changed, Akiko thought, remembering last time that her dark self had wanted to kill Sting, it had a tone of maliciousness and bloodlust. However, now, it was just a monotone, dull sound of her own voice.

"Let's get this over and done with, shall we?" her dark self said, eyes filled with emotionless feeling, yet there was something behind them that Akiko could not identify.

Funny how I can't even identify my own self's feelings, Akiko thought, preparing herself for battle.

"Agreed."

Nothing more said, the clones lunged forward with their swords drawn. The fight was silent, the only sounds were swords clashing. Akiko would've used magic, but it would've done no good. In this train of mind, there was no such thing as magic. Only skill mattered.

Dark Akiko finally began to speak. "Akiko, why do you hate me?"
The question made Akiko freeze, confused for a second. Her dark self to the chance to try to kill Akiko, but she managed to dodge in time before she could be beheaded.

"Why would you ask something like that?" Akiko asks after gaining her footing.

"I want to know why," was all her other self said.

Akiko frowned.

"Is it that bad having a darker self? Everyone has one," the clone continued bluntly. "You're precious Sting has one as well."

She froze. "What do you mean?"

"When you had a hand plunged into your gut," the clone began, "he became angry, much like a beast and began to beat down every dark member in his way until he came down to the man. He beated him up senseless."

Should I be angry or happy that he did that? Akiko thought.

"You accept his dark side as easily as kissing him, yet," it paused, "yet, you can't accept me as apart of your own life."

That's when Akiko saw it, the sadness that leaked inside the clone's mind. She couldn't say anything, she didn't have the time to. The clone had already made its way towards her in a threatening attempt to kill her.

Akiko couldn't let that happen.

She ducked, swinging her sword around to try and hit her clone. She missed as it dodged. Flipping backwards.