The Shadows
Welcome to the second part if you're here. I'd like to say this now there's a small part with decently graphic details of injuries. I'll put a warning before it if you wish to skip it. Enjoy the darker side of the fanfic!
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Around him the world seems to shift. Explosion holes form into the ground, bright burst of flames appear in front of him, causing him to dodge and weave around them. The sky is impossibly dark, like the void had swallowed the sky above.
In a panic he runs towards the mounds. A single loud yell pierces the air as a a smoky figure hits the ground. Though it appears to be made of smoke or some from of mist a few colours can be made out. A blue jacket and yellow hair. The Canary. It yells ones again as a loud shriek fills the air and a swirling blue vortex hits him and lightning strikes. Gone.
He takes a staggering step. He wasn't able to help. How could he?
And as that thought crossed his mind another vortex hit a man. A recognisable moustache man trying to run but getting caught on a fence. Lightning once again.
He goes to yell out, to help. But he stays frozen. Looking towards the base the globe, burning. A man lighting it on fire and as the scarred man below watched he recognised someone. A familiar someone walking up behind the man burning the globe- something he had put so much love and time into. The man behind him flung his arm out, pushing the latter off.
He laughed and said something casually- cheerfully.
"Goodbye Tango!"
Lightning. Gone.
The man had betrayed the other.
"You betrayed him."
He swivelled around to see a shadow that he regularly saw. One that visited him in the dead of night. He went by the name of Martyn.
"Be honest to yourself. You know you betrayed him. And you enjoyed it. If you look right up to the globe, watch yourself push him and laugh. Hear the casual tone of voice. That was you. And this isn't the first time you've betrayed someone is it?" Martyn grinned, pacing around the other as he watched the globe continue to burn, taking deep breaths.
"Hmm how about that time in the last world. You shot your own "mother". I'm surprised she ever took you back!" The shadow chuckled. "You've betrayed many and will betray many more. You're a monster. You're untrustworthy-"
He cut Martyn off, pushing past him and running through the chaos of smoke and fire, continuing on his way to attempt to escape this nightmare.
Breathing heavily and coughing from the smoke he runs up towards the cherry blossom mountain. He tried to ignore the fact he spotted a smoke version of himself once again, mercilessly plunging his sword into his chest.
"That's not who I am." he thought to himself only to be immediately met with the Shadow's voice.
"Yes that is."
As he ran towards the mountain a sight stopped him. Someone he recognised well as an old friend, an allie, his "mother". They frantically run away, not realising they've hit a corner. Despite being a smoke figure the expression of pure terror is clear across her face.
A maniac laugh fills the air.
"Hello Mum! All good thing's come to an end don't they?!"
Frozen once again to the spot, he watched as she begged and pleaded with him to let her go, to spare her yet his smoke figure laughs again, strolling almost unnaturally over to her.
"Goodbye Mum!" He said in such a cheerful manor before plunging a the same sword into her gut and then letting out yet another insane laugh and stabbing her again, and again, and again.
"Madness is overwhelming isn't it?" This time it isn't Martyn talking. It's someone he's seen switch between craziness and calmness- Pearl. "It's amazing to let consume you. You of all people love it so much."
He shook his head as lightning struck the spot his victim had once been. "No. I- I've never liked madness. Why would you accuse me of such!" He said defiantly, crossing his shaking arms and looking away.
Pearl laughed, "Aw poor, lonely man. You've changed. Do you not remember the smirk you bared whilst hunting me down at the end. The way in which you laughed after you won." She skipped around him, her laugh having turned to a soft, haunting giggle.
He stood there, memories of him hunting his fellow friends down, feeling empowered after a scam... losing himself. "Pearl. Shut. Up."
"You losing yourself again?" Looking at her, he can't see her laughing anymore and yet he can hear soft laughing. "Oh can you hear them? That laughter?" It was getting louder. "That's them. Evvvveryone you've killed to get here. Not just in this world but in every other. You're mad."
He gasped as the laughs began drowning out Pearl. He pushed the palms of his hands over his ears to try and block them but in a moment of pure stubbornness they amped up.
The last thing he hears from Pearl is a repeated line. "You're mad."
Within the laughs he hears another familiar line. "You're untrustworthy."
The manic laughing is almost contagious. He wants to laugh, to join them. But in a moment of good conscious he runs, a fast as his legs can take him.
He hops over small flames and fallen logs when a burning sensation flares up in his left leg. With a scream of pain he keeps running, spotting water. Close to collapsing in pain he drives into the water which is surprisingly clean and cool. He looks up to the pink island, starting to swim over. He collapses on the shore, taking deep breathes.
He hasn't been in a situation this stressful since he last saw Gem...
"You've always struggled to be enough haven't you?" Seriously? Another. When would this nightmare end? Pushing himself into a sitting position he looked out in front of him. He faced out into the water which had now turned a dirty, almost red colour. He didn't see where the voice was coming from. "You can't even find me."
The voice came from directly above him. Sitting atop the burning heart of the Heart Foundation, swinging his legs back and forth on the edge was Scott, by far one of the nicest of the Shadows. He let out a calm laugh and jumped off, landing gracefully on the ground and strolled over to the man who was now up on his feet, hands almost defensive though at his sides.
"Scott look," he began. "It's been a long day right? Maybe we could talk over this at Trader Scars with a cup of uh- uh sunflower tea?" His mind scrambled, trying to find a way out of what he felt would end badly.
"Oh it sure has been a long day," Scott smiled, a glint of menace in his dark eyes. "And what have you achieved in this 'long day'? Crying?" He became aware of the hot liquid streaming down his face, and the weakness in his legs. "Being scared? Not facing what you know was wrong."
Scott shook his head. "Aw are you scared? Scared that you won't be able to escape this time? Like you'll be dragged back by Pearl into the madness? Don't worry, you aren't worth the trouble."
As relieved as this made him he felt a sting. He wasn't enough was he? He had lost everything he had tried to keep. If he was better, faster, stronger, smarter or honestly someone else entirely, life would've gone his way.
"See I don't have to do a thing because you already know what's wrong with you."
"Everything."
He shook his head frantically, "Get out of my head!"
"You know everything you're thinking is true. You are not enough."
At that moment, manic laughing started up in the distance and he panicked, running for the bridge that would let him off the island, when once again a smoke version of him appeared, blocking the way. He stood still, watching.
'He' was holding a flint and steel, running silently over to the base of the ladder. Without a word he watched as he lit the bottom on fire. Though Cleo ran past him, seeing the rapidly spreading fire he remained as quiet as possible, snickering as he ran back across the bridge.
From inside the heart he could hear yells of panic as they smelt and saw the rising smoke and flames.
He was brought back to reality when he saw shadow Scott in front of him.
"OH UH BYE!" He ran, more explosions going off than ever before, the air now thick with smoke. He heard screams and yells.
"JIMMY NO!"
"HE"S GONE!
"NO MUMBO!"
The 3rd voice sounded heartbroken but he had no time to stop and think about it, he had to keep moving.
As he went to jump over a rock an explosion went off, knocking him straight into a tree head first with an audible crack.
He blacked out.
He woke up in intense pain all over- he had died, again. He sat up a bit to quickly to check and to his dismay he was still here. What was he thinking? Of course he was still here.
It was a hopeless battle. Like swimming against a tsunami. You could try but you would drown anyway. He was drowning and the whole world was watching as if it were a sport you could bet on.
Looking around he spotted him. The one he knew he could trust. He smiled weakly.
"Grian thankgod you-" he was cut off.
"Awww poor you. All alone aren't you. You know, I never thought you'd have friends and I was right. You're the loneliest of them all. Though the rest may have died, they at least have peace. You? You don't deserve that privilege." Shadow Grian tilted his head at him, smiling like he had just given him the sweetest compliment ever.
"What-" he froze, his heart sinking. "Please not you too. Why can't you go back to before where you and the... others kept me company. Why are you doing this to me?" His voice cracked as he spoke. "I've tried so hard. What do I do."
Grian walked towards him from where he had stood at the "Succeed" button. "Scar. You know you deserve the loneliness. You lied, killed, betrayed, went insane and yet you still weren't good enough. For us," he gestured to his left and right an out of thin air others appeared. "we deserved our wins. Winning for us was a prize, a gift of glory and freedom. This is a punishment for you. You have upset the Watchers so while the rest recover in the Void, you must stay, keeping your memories of the pain and suffering."
He shook, his legs weak. "No. No. No. I didn't do anything wrong! I tried so hard to do the right thing. That- that THING-" He pointed accusingly at the Secret Keeper. "Made me do it."
"No one made you do it." Pearl tilted her head at him. "Everything you did and ever have done was you and only you. Don't even think of making excuses you mad dog."
"'How did the guy with no friends win'," Grian quoted with an inhumane chuckle. "You didn't win. You never did. You only failed in your attempt."
He flinched. Martyn stepped forward. "We think to make this punishment more fair we will give you memories of each series, every betrayal, show of madness, failure and loneliness."
With that he walked up to the shaking man and touched his head.
Limited Life flashed through his mind. The Family, TIES, Neighbours, Bad Boys, Mean Gills. The timer, a constant reminder that no one would live forever. Throw and catch with Bdubs and the TNT minecart. Skynet. Mum. The awkward dinner. Grian backstabbing him.
Next Double Life. Grian's cry of no as he found out he was soul bound to him. His pandas. The Boat Boys and Ranchers. The other teams and the divorce drama. Grian stopping him from going to the deep dark and him being stubborn and going anyway. Being cheated on with BigB. A pain in his chest as he collapsed off his horse.
Last Life came next. Getting lucky and starting on 6 lives. Not finding a group. AHA! (Will I elaborate? No.), Magic Mountain and being a wizard. The Boogeyman chaos. Trying desperately to get the enchanter. Trading lives and crystals of varying worths. Trying to work out what to do next when an arrow pierced his heart.
And finally 3rd Life. The first of them all. His first heartbreak. 3 lives. An explosion. The desert and castle. Pizza. Science and discovery. Ren and Red Winter. A tough fight in the desert which no side had really won. Less and less people. A clock. No kill pass. And then that circle. A ring of cactuses atop a warm sandy cliff. A warm setting sun and he and Grian punched at one another. Yelling sorry amidst the fight. And then darkness.
His vision slowly returned and he found himself surrounded by not only the Shadows but other figures. Old allies, enemies, traders and acquaintances. But something was off. They still seemed like smoke figures but more... real.
Everyone who had died- excluding one, Lizzie who he remembered had died to the void.
[Start of injury description]
Tango had scorch marks on him and blood oozing out of random places where he had hit the ground. His face looking as shocked as it had when he had been pushed.
Etho with a hole straight through his stomach, blood stained the area around it and he clutched at the hole, a pained expression covering his face.
Cleo had multiple stab markings, tainting her clothes with red splotchy markings. They appeared more like a zombie than ever before, it was unsettling. though she looked more upset, more betrayed.
Impulse had arrows through many parts of his body, his arms hugging his body tightly.
And Gem, though she was hard to recognise, her blazing orange hair is dark and almost maroon in colour. Slashes covered her entire body from her feet to her face, where blood was visibly dripping down to her feet.
[End of description]
Those are the ones that stood out to him. The ones he killed. The sudden sight of so many bloody Smokey figures cause him to scream, trying to back away only to see most familiar yet haunting faces.
Insults and personal thoughts started getting yelled throughout the crowd.
"PATHETIC!"
"BETRAYER!"
"GOOD FOR NOTHING WIZARD!" Okay that stung.
"SAD!"
"ALONE!"
"OUTCAST!"
"YOU NEVER GET ANYTHING RIGHT!"
"SELFISH!"
"OBNOXIOUS!"
"AROGANT!"
"YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SH**!"
"MURDERER!"
"KILLER!"
They just kept coming. When would it end.
"You deserve this pain." Martyn laughed.
"This suffering," continued Scott.
"You never deserved even half the mercy shown to you."
"You'll never have friends, never be loved."
The laughing from earlier started louder than ever. He sobbed, rocking back and forth. Yelling for mercy, to find peace. His year alone had been torture. He had voices in his head, some good, some bad. But this was a worse version of it. A never ending hell of torment.
All because he won.
Because he failed.
Soon things because too much. The words began to feel like punches and kicks. Perhaps they were. He felt as he were drowning, gasping for air yet only making it worse.
He started floating away.
Into some weird sun space of peace but not.
N
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i
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.
.
.
And then a bright light. A blue sky. A gentle breeze. His sight slowly returned to him. Then his touch. He felt grass under his hands and then someone shaking him. His eyes still slightly blurry couldn't work out who it was.
He could hear talking but not words and slowly it became clearer and clearer.
"Hey? S̷̡̬̲̺͔̪͇̩̠̒͊̉̓̒̒̐̒̆͝c̸̡̢̮̺̜̲̩̬̝͇̹͔̆͌̌̓͆ã̴̢̭̮͖̮r̷̡͔̠̪̙̚? You okay?" A familiar concerned voice asked.
He didn't respond. He knew this guy.
"Where am I?" He realised he wasn't in front of the Secret keeper anymore.
"Huh?" The blonde sounded confused.
"I mean why aren't I in Secret Life anymore?" Hope pricked at him. "Did I escape the games? Am I free?"
"No Scar," the use of his name made him shudder. No one had used it in a year- not even the Shadows.
"Welcome to Wild Life."
So he hadn't escaped, he had no time to recover. He was just thrown head first into another game of repetitive pain and agony.
Holding back a scream and tears he looks towards the trees in the distance and there he sees 4 shadowy figures.
Grian.
Scott.
Pearl.
Martyn.
And one more.
One he recognised.
Him.
Scar.
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