Black and Blue

25 - Duality

Jack's thumb twitched over mine after a moment. From that tiny, involuntary movement, he seemed to realize something. Something horrible—a sharp jolt to his brain that instantly filled him with regret.

Something that suggested he wasn't in control of his body anymore.

He lurched forward, my hand being pulled along with him, and made an odd noise like holding in vomit or being force-fed. He reached up and dug a hand of claws into my upper arm, latching on tight as he was dragged down by some unseen force.

"Wh-what are you—god! What are you doing?! What is...!"

He was struggling to keep his voice above an empty rasp, and it sounded like something was caught in his throat. Chernobog spoke over his continual gasps and questions.

"You must be released," he said, practically whispering. "You, boy...you are not only of no use to us, but a burden. Protecting a human you've fallen in love with..."

Each sentence seemed to weaken Jack further, as if another knife to the heart.

"Disobeying direct orders from your true father, your owner..."

He clung to my arm as Chernobog continued, wincing, his breathing choppy as if he was holding himself back from doing something horrible.

"Not bothering to improve yourself for our sake...your most recent combat supervisor, Edith, informed me of something quite interesting." I could hear the smugness in the demon's voice, cold and sleazy like he had some ripe blackmail material at the ready. "Up until the tenth round of your training, you were successful, if not by a slim margin. But as soon as you were defeated by the human, just once...you left."

Jack sounded like he was choking on nothing, desperately holding onto the last bits of his sanity. He let go of me—I heard a shuffle and knew he'd fallen to his knees. I reached out to comfort him, unsure of exactly what was happening, but he shoved me away.

"You gave up."

"Sawyer, you need to get away from me—"

Chernobog laughed. "And now that you see what is happening, you realize what is best. You still only act for the sake of—"

"Shut up, old man," Jack hissed. His voice was getting worse by the minute, he sounded as if getting each word out was its own individual battle. He started coughing, gasping, hacking up something thick and awful onto the ground.

"There is a beast inside of you, sonur minn, waiting to be released. Perhaps now is the time to let you run loose."

I almost tripped over myself running forward and was met with a cold, hard surface akin to glass. My increasing heartbeat and stream of panicked, irrational thoughts told me he was keeping Jack behind this wall.

"Stop it!" I curled my hands into fists and started punching, trying to break through. When I failed to do so, Chernobog seemed to realize how little of a threat I was, because the wall shattered audibly without me even touching it and I fell to my knees. Tiny shards dug into my skin through the fabric, and I barely noticed. I yelled into the air,

"He hasn't done anything to you! You've used him, abused him for the last five years of his life, just let him go!"

"Oh, that is exactly what I intend to do, young human." I knew for a fact the bastard wanted to laugh again. "Jack, dear, what is that curious word you call me by...? 'Boss'?" He let out a chuckle. "If I were to sink so low as to use that sort of language, I might say that you're being fired."