Re: Life-Like

[Demise]

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"Look at those eyes. Look at how far you've fallen. That spark they had- It's gone now."

"This is who you made me."

"How can you be so sure about that? How can you be sure it wasn't you that made yourself? After all, I wasn't the one forcing you to make the decisions you did. I wasn't the one choking the life out of those people. That was all you. You were the one who robbed yourself of your humanity. You began taking the easier roads to your destination."

I looked down at my body. Scars littered every inch of bare skin.

"You think I'm the reason I have these scars? Was I the one cutting my insides out and playing with them? Was I the one slashing myself up in a blind rage?"

The pink-haired man shook his head, flicking his finger at a small shard of mirror laying among the rubble of grey bricks I stood in. It rose up, floating up to my face. I stared into the reflection, unsure of what was staring back.

"I'm not talking about the scars on your body. I'm talking about the scars on your mind. You were never strong enough to hold on. You gave up on your friends. You gave up on the woman you loved. You gave up on your son. You gave up on yourself. You let yourself degrade into a hollow shell. You're a shadow of the monster you once were. You're not Oda. You're not what I wanted."

A gaunt face stared back at me. Disheveled white hair stood in random directions on my head, and a short, white beard clung to my hollow cheeks. There was no exhaustion in the broken man's eyes as they stared back at me. They held an endless ocean of emptiness within them.

"I'm not what you wanted?" I felt a strange pressure in my chest.

He shook his head once more as he sat perched on his throne of roses, "No. What I wanted was a broken man. I wanted a man who could know my pain. I wanted a man who could understand my pain. I wanted someone that I could finally connect with after all this time. I wanted to die by the hands of that man, so that I could finally put a stop to this loneliness. But you...You're not him. You're another failed attempt at making that man. In all of your arrogance and protective instincts, you got yourself sucked into things that went far beyond breaking you. You fucked up all of the work I poured into you."

I took a step toward him. The pressure in my chest was stronger, tugging on my heart from the inside.

Stop. Stop fucking with my organs.

I'm not...

"After all this...That's it? I'm not what you wanted? So you're just going to reset the system again, start fresh? Everything gets erased?" A raindrop hit my cheek, streaming down it warmly.

He raised an eyebrow as he watched me. I took another step toward him, my throat trying to close in on itself.

"My son, my wife, my friends. They're all getting taken away from me again? I die, and the whole story starts over, is that it?" More warm raindrops.

"What are you...?" He trailed off.

"It's happened a million times before, hasn't it? I've been through this a million times. They've been through this a million times. You've enjoyed this endless playground of torture. We just spend every second in this endless cycle, don't we?" My lips started quivering.

"What is happening? You're supposed to be empty. Hollow. You can't be doing this right now. This doesn't make sense."

I sank to my knees at his feet, pressing my face to the ground and resting on my elbows. I cried out as loudly as I could, launching a mixture of saliva and tears into the cracked bricks beneath me. It felt like my insides were pouring out of my mouth as I cried, despair gripping my heart with every ounce of its strength.

"It was all for nothing. I did all of this for nothing. I gave up everything. I suffered for two years. I died and I died and I died. I broke the hearts of everyone I love. I lost everything. I took things from people. I killed their loved ones. I beat people to death. I destroyed so many lives. I tried. I tried so damn hard to do the right thing! I tried so damn hard not to hurt people! I just wanted to protect my family, my friends! I was NEVER STRONG ENOUGH! NO MATTER WHAT I DID, YOU MADE SURE TO REMIND ME EVERY STEP OF THE WAY THAT I WAS NOTHING! YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!"

I slammed my fists onto the ground next to his feet, screaming in despair.

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Life-Like

[Demise]

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Re: Life-Like

[Creation]