As their consciousness, the once one turned to face their halves. One seemed to blossom with color, radiating a aura of colors undescribale nor tangible. The other was a twisted kaleidoscope of greys, his twisted smile seeming to melt further as the halves drifted apart.
Broken.
Shattered.
Irreparable.
Left to die.
The world had been cruel to them, every person they had encountered only accepting the cold shell that they had formed to protect themselves. Abandoned by their father, watching their only family be pushed away by their own hands. Slowly, they had began to divide, the parts of their complicated personality ripping apart their very soul.
All it took was a bit of prying to reveal who the coward was.
The stronger one escaped damnation, lurking in the shadows as a broken soul.
The other became a monster, consuming the souls of others, forgetting what it used to be.
They only remembered each other, both desiring to once again become one, but now they were two different people.
Manipulative, cunning, twisted, psychopathic, cowardly, monstrous.
Strong, intelligent, broken, brave, emotional, tainted.
Neither could ever move on as individuals, and cursed themselves by choosing to remain seperate. Their divide was now so great that they despised each other yet wished to be with each other.
The science of souls is mysterious and mostly unknown, as humans don't tend to become interested by something until it's too late for them to scream for help. Yet, there was one who had devoted himself to learning soultology.
Where is he now, you might ask?
Six feet under.
The only thing he had discovered was that ghosts were real, and were souls that clung to the mortal plane either out of fear, a sense of incompleteness, or having suffered damage to their soul that rendered them unable to pass on.
Michael Afton had been the latter. He was terrified of moving on, as he feared leaving his father behind. He felt like he needed to make things right with the world and rid himself of the guilt that consumed him to the point of suicide. His soul ripped itself apart after death, leaving him incomplete.
All they wanted now was to rest, even if the other half didn't realize what moving on truly meant.
They wanted to rest.
Why couldn't they rest?
Why couldn't they fix what was wrong with them?
Why couldn't they be happy for once?
Because Author-san is too edgy to give any character a happy resolution? No, that can't be it.
They were still broken, as they stared their half in the eyes. They wanted to feel, yet they were afraid of what would happen as a result.
Were they weak? They didn't think so.
Was it painful to live as a half-soul? Of course it was.
But they desperately didn't want to fade away and never be remembered.