This story is one of the September Writing Challenge entries chosen to be a featured story.
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They’re coming for you. You need to leave– now! Just go! There’s no time to pack anything, dammit! Just run! And don’t look ba-
You keep running. And mentally replaying that harrowing interaction, cut short courtesy of my knife acquainting itself with his carotid artery. It’s such a shame that you think running will actually get you anywhere. This forest is difficult enough to navigate during the day, let alone in the dead of night during a downpour. But my knowledge of this ground is absolute, my motive stronger than any storm.
You realise now, don’t you? Oh, you sweet, innocent little lamb; there’s no way you can avoid the slaughterhouse that is coming your way. The only difference between the two of us is a couple of trees worth of distance — and the carving knife in my hand, droplets of blood flying off of it and pelting the leaves underfoot like the rain.
You’ve brought this upon yourself, really. And, worse still, you’ve brought this upon me. You messed with something far beyond your understanding and brought dark powers out into the light. You brought me into the light. You should’ve just let things be. I was happy that way. Unfortunately, no amount of black magic can turn back the clock. It can, however, be used to send things back to where they came from. Back to where they belong.
A bolt of lightning slices through the shadows above us; a heavenly blade. I can see you now. I can see you stumble, almost tripping over the tangle of roots that cover the forest floor. I watch you dance over them, like a prima ballerina on an intricate stage, pulled taught by the intense glare of the judges and the pressure to be perfect. How long until you snap, my dear? How long before you realise you’ve made a fatal mistake? And that you really shouldn’t have come here?
Your dance is getting faster now. The panic takes hold of you, gripping your lungs and squeezing your fluttery heart — grasping my heart too. Why couldn’t you have just been happy with the way things were? Why couldn’t you have just let me be? It would’ve made it easier for the both of us. We could’ve just lived out the rest of our life in peace. We are one and the same, after all — just from different sides of the mirror.