[ti]solo[/ti]double vision, double trouble

The darkness creeps up on your field of vision; you blink once—

And then, everything you perceive is gone.

---

It’s a strange feeling, floating in this space between the nightmare and reality. You can hear the quiet hissing of something in your ears; the stringent stench hits your nostrils and you wake up with a jolt, suddenly realizing where you are—

How did you end up back here? Wasn’t this… no, wait, you distinctly remember this particular day.

You had to call out of work and rush over to the hospital because… because he needed you.

Wasn’t that what the point of marriage was; to be there through the best and the worst time of your lives? This… you remember this because the doctors had told you about how it had spread, about how it was eating him away from the inside out and you had no idea how much time all the medicine in the world could buy the both of you.

“Amore…” you whisper, looking over at the blonde, sleeping on the bed.

Why did it have to be him, and not you?

Why?

Why did he have to be the one to get sick like this? No known effective cure for…

For this insidious disease that was tearing him apart from the inside out. You were told that it had been found as a strange, unknown growth somewhere in his body; was it on the thigh, or had it been somewhere near the knees? The information’s all a blur.

Why did this have to happen to Evan, and not to you instead?

If there was… if there was a way you could.

If you only could take it from him.

Take every single little painful feeling he was experiencing, and carry it on your shoulders instead you gladly would, without hesitation.

450 / 600

[tangent=“It hurts me seeing you like this.”]“Mi fa male vederti così.”[/tangent]

You wonder if he can—of course he can hear you, don’t be an idiot—

One of your hands reaches out to take his into your own; and you shudder at how cold it is. Normally you know his hands to run really hot (and yours hilariously ran cold, wasn’t that an ironic little twist) but now it seemed that both your hands ran cold, all things considered.

[tangent=“Why couldn’t it have been me, Evan? Why did it have to be you?”]“Perché non potevo essere io, amore? Perché proprio tu?”[/tangent]

Why did the world have to be so fucking unfair—you’d been together for so long; and now that you were both married, this had to happen to him! You were still in shock when the doctors revealed his condition, despite him telling them not to tell you because you would then worry for days on end.

Days on end… how long had it been?

Questions had been thrown about if there were any other relatives that could take care of him; but the both of you knew the answer to that was just an equally-blank stare at each other before a united rolling shrug of your shoulders at the exact same time.

It was like… he was there; drifting alone on the sea of life, and you came along in your tiny little boat before you hauled him aboard and showed him what the world really was about.

[tangent=“Why?”]“Perché?”[/tangent]

If you only had the power to—the power to warp reality; to change just one thing—to make one incredibly selfish wish you would wish all of his pain away—and take it upon yourself instead.

‘Then why don’t you?’

“Who—who said that?!” you exclaim, looking around the quiet little hospital room. You could swear it was just the two of you in here—the doctors weren’t due to come by for another few hours; and yet, and yet…

‘Look inside of you, Laurence. You have the power to do that.’

“Where—what—”

You don’t realize you’d switched back to English; the better to talk with this strange… this strange voice offering you the sweet, sweet lull of salvation in its silken tones.

‘Close your eyes,’ the silky voice commands you to; and in such a fever dream, you follow its request—

…only for you to come face to face with a serpentine-like creature; disjointed eyes hanging from its sockets, fangs bared and dripping that same black ichor that now stained your blood and made it run a darker shade of red than most.

‘Then why don’t you?’ the voice hissed; snapping those terrifying fangs oozing with the menace, the menace you knew that existed—

The crashing realization hits you a few bewildered seconds later.

“D-d-don’t you touch him,” you growl; getting up from where you were seated(?); rising to your full height.

“Don’t you dare rip him apart in front of me.”

‘But I thought you wanted to save him?’

That would stun you into silence for a few seconds.

350 / 600

You’re too shaken to speak.

And in those few seconds, you realize that inaction would be the greatest betrayal as the disjoined eyes stared at you; freezing you where you stood.

‘Cat got your tongue, then? Why don’t you say it? Say it. Say the words you so desperately want to. You know I can make it happen for you.’

The way the words wash over you like a dangerously sweet nectar; luring you deeper and deeper into the inky blackness with the promise of the two of you meeting again—even if it was just here; a twisted, warped, sick version of—

‘I know you want to.’

The hissing noise is far too close for comfort for you to ignore; you open your mouth to argue but nothing—you can’t hear your voice; however there’s this incredibly heavy feeling pouring out of you. Like something you’ve been holding back, finally released from the deepest, darkest recesses that even you refused to take a look at.

‘Don’t be shy, now. You want to see him again, right? Even if it’s just one last time? Remember those words… those words you never got to tell him.’

The temptation’s too deep; you know in some part of your mind this shouldn’t be happening, this shouldn’t exist, and yet—and yet here you are, with the very thing you so desperately want being dangled tantalizingly in front of you.

Had the Beast really sunk its fangs so deep into you?

The thrall was too deep to escape from—unlike the first time you’d come out here, you were still able to fight back; however this time may prove to be your undoing.

‘All you have to do is to agree.’

You can only stare, helpless, at the fact that it’s just there—within your reach, so close and yet so far—

‘All you have to say is one word, and I can grant you what you so desperately seek.’

250 / 600

You thought you heard another voice through the gloom; however the serpentine presence is close, close, far too close to your skin; you can feel the ‘tongue’ tickling your cheek as you’re stuck in this interesting ‘quandary’.

How this… how this unknown presence can bring you the relief you seek; the release from the pain that had been weighing down so heavily on your shoulders ever since that day.

‘I’m surprised you’re hesitating.’

The sibilant hissing would echo through the air; any attempts from that strange ‘voice’ silenced as you laser in on their words, dripping with the promise of a reunion, even if it was brief… how much had the world taken from you, lately?

You forget.

‘Aren’t you the strong-willed one, hm? Normally, when I expose the depths of human despair and feed on their worst fears, turn them against the unsuspecting person—they crack in the very end. You’re… resilient.’

More like, you’re speechless at what’s happening. You can clearly remember that during that day you spent with him in the hospital, nothing of this sort happened—just a very troubled nap that had you waking up to the doctors that had come in to check on Evan’s condition asking if you were alright—you would quietly reassure them that you were, when you regained your sense.

But honestly?

The allure was too much…

And then, there it is again, that strange voice trying to call your attention!

‘Tell me, what’s stopping you from agreeing to my proposition?’

You hadn’t noticed how much the ‘serpent’ had already coiled themselves around your arms, your shoulders, your neck…

You also hadn’t noticed that instead of a normal ‘tail’ like most snakes have; this one ended in a needle-thin stinger that oozed even more of the insidious ichor that had infected you through that wound on your right hand.

…there it was again, that itching, burning sensation! Only, instead of being just confined to your fingers, you can feel your very blood’s on fire. Set alight by persistent interaction with the ichor that had probably coursed through your blood so many times it had already claimed and anchored itself deep within your soul.

(Deep within your heart, also, but you don’t know about this. At least, not yet anyway.)

‘Are you afraid of losing yourself? Weren’t you the one who wanted to face death head-on, to fight him and bring him back from wherever your other half had been taken? Are you terrified of what lies ahead, when we make the trip together?’

You can feel a light, tickling sensation at the back of your neck—but your fear brushed it away; too entranced by the words the ‘serpent’ was weaving for you to latch onto; the desperation of wanting to see him again, even if it was just to say goodbye was just.

It was just too much.

You’re so honed in on the serpent’s words, the other ‘voice’ that’s trying to catch your attention fades away to the pressing quiet that’s crushing down around you—you and the serpent in the crushing field of darkness.

‘Well? The longer you take to make your decision, the less time you’ll have to meet with him again.’

Tick, tick, tick—

Despite the pressing silence, you can hear a quiet pulsing noise. The pulsing noise is making your body thrum; it’s not leaping to escape from the serpent’s grip, in fact it’s resigning itself to beat alongside the ichor’s own ‘heart’…

And for some reason…

It’s also coming from deep within you.

150 / 600

You don’t feel anything.

The pain of the needle-thin stinger that was resting at the base of your neck injecting itself straight into your body; the part where the end of the brain stem and the rest of your body converges. The ichor, now free to pump itself even deeper into your long-suffering body.

The burning sensation of your blood on fire, now coupled with this new, strange, unknown experience as the previous ‘chain’ that had taken hold of your psyche splits into more, more—impossibly multiple more ‘chains’ that slither around every single inch of your body, settling deep, deep, deep within your veins, the quiet throbbing picking up pace for a few seconds—

The agonizing few seconds where it felt like death was squeezing the life out of your body; only for it to regenerate with a malicious aura now permeating and infesting your body the longer you denied the sensation.

The longer you waited, the less… the less time you would have to meet with him.

The less time you would have to say all the words that were left unsaid the day that you lost him.

You don’t feel your flesh peeling apart as the serpent, hissing its sibilant victory to the darkness as it rips your chest open; crushed the bones, and goes straight for the prize—the prize that lay there, frantically trying to repel whatever darkness had not yet taken hold.

You don’t feel the pain of your lungs being crushed as the corruption choked all the air out of you; intent on feasting on your own body.

You see—you see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing in the inky blackness as the Beast gets to work.

50 / 600