Darkness. [Part 7]

[Lose 881]

At that moment, I realized I hated another thing -- decisions. I was put on the spot, against a literal GOD, to choose which of my two best friends I want to kill. It wasn't exactly an easy decision to make. On one hand, Ethan had already gone through mental and physical torment. He was probably weak even before being possessed and scared out of his mind if he even knew what was going on. But on the other hand, James might not be able to handle all the information he would see when he comes back around, unlike Ethan, who had been exposed to it before. It was an impossible choice; one knew too much, and the other knew too little. I couldn't choose to kill one over the other. So I went with the only option I had left.

"I can't pick one. I'm not doing it," I said with the small amount of confidence I had left, "I'd rather fight you than them."

Ethan merely chuckled, which put me off-guard. "You are easier to manipulate than I thought, young one," he said with a smile on his face, "Since you failed to choose one of the two to kill, you have decided to go down the third route. This will be much more painful than the other two, for all three of you, mentally and physically. You could've prevented this, but instead you were blinded by your own stubbornness. I'm sorry it had to be this way; this could have been prevented."

Not two seconds after the last word was spoken, Ethan crumpled to the ground as blackness shot out of every hole in his body -- the blackness which instantly went and enveloped me. I tried to control it; maybe I was tired, maybe this was a different kind of power, but for some reason, I couldn't control it no matter how hard I tried. Suddenly, I was weightless -- flying through the air, and then a second later, I landed on the ground with a hard CRACK echoing throughout the empty woods. I looked down and saw my ankle bending a way it certainly shouldn't be bending. My ankle was broken. Moments later, I saw Ethan flying out of the blackness. He landed hard right on my ankle, which I didn't feel yet, thanks to shock and adrenaline. 

I assessed the situation at hand: Me, an exhausted, sore teenager with a broken ankle and two unconscious friends to protect, against a literal god. The odds were not in my favor. But that doesn't mean I was gonna die trying. The black dissipated, leaving nothing but an empty forest around us, but then I heard him speak.

"You can change your mind at any point, choose to sacrifice one of your friends. You don't have to keep on going down this route -- the choice is yours. But if you don't, the punishments will get worse and worse exponentially until you all ultimately die. I'd suggest you choose a friend, or else I may have to step in."

I thought about this for a moment, then re-thought my decision. Was it worth it to kill someone to save myself and someone else, or is it worth it to have us all die fighting valiantly? Which is the greater good? A dilemma started forming in my mind. And the longer I thought about it, the more appealing his option became. I started subconsciously debating who I would sacrifice and why. And it didn't help that the pain from my ankle had started to set in a good while ago -- I was in a lot of pain.  

After a couple minutes, Mr. Lord-of-the-Darkness became impatient. 

"I do not have time to let you sit around and play mind games with yourself, young one. I'm going to up the stakes. Choose one of them to sacrifice within the next 5 minutes, or I sacrifice one of them and the other two of you will die painfully. You can't win this, Jack, so you might as well comply."

I started to panic -- I didn't want one of my friends to die. But at the same time, having one instead of three die is a good thing, right? One is less than three last I had checked. I couldn't stand to watch both of my friends die, I had to choose one. Now it was a question of who do I sacrifice? I thought I would take a long time to think of who to sacrifice, but pretty soon, the answer became clear.

"I have made my decision," I called out to the god, "Of who to kill."

"Who did you decide, young one?"

"Ethan."

"Why?"

"He knows too much."

The god started to laugh. At first, it was a chuckle, then it became a hearty, booming laugh that echoed through the forest.

"When I said you were easy to manipulate, that was clearly an understatement. But now it is too late to change your mind. You have locked your decision, and your decision has been granted."

I looked over to see Ethan being enveloped in darkness. Right before he was fully covered -- only his head was left, he woke. He looked at me, looked at what was happening, and started to scream -- a scream that was quickly cut off by the shadows covering his face. Slowly, the shadows vanished to see nothing left. Ethan was gone. Then the voice started speaking again.

"Now, time to deal with you two. I know I said that you would be saved from horrible punishments if you chose to sacrifice someone, and I was right. I won't torture you as much as I would have. But I never said you weren't saved from punishment. You're very easy to manipulate, and you've done exactly what I expected you to do. You're still going to die, Jack. So is James, and everybody else you know and love. And yes, you won't be horribly punished until you die a painful death. You will die, but it will be quick. 

"Like earlier, I will give you a choice. Do you want to succumb to your fate -- give up, and let me win with no effort? Or do you want to die trying to fight me in combat? Yet again, you have to make a choice -- now the entire world is in your hands."

 

~Lose

_{I'm still trying to get back into the groove of things; hopefully, this isn't too bad. Next part should be the finale, but remember -- not all stories have happy endings.}

[Person_Random 4,991]

Approved.

It's back - we've all been waiting for the next part of this series, and of course, the plot is amazingly developed as always. Though there isn't much description, the dialogue and the plot development makes the story pop. Oh, and I can't ignore the buildup before the final installment - wow, it's going to be hard to wait for all these stories to conclude. I can't wait for more!

Edits: tense changes, a few grammar fixes.

Spoiler

Just a reminder to check for tenses - I saw a few present and a few past tenses, so I changed it all to past tense. Other than that, it's just a few missing commas in the text. Great work; just remember to read it through once more to make it more grammatically accurate!

 

[Lose 881]

4 minutes ago, Person_Random said:

Approved.

It's back - we've all been waiting for the next part of this series, and of course, the plot is amazingly developed as always. Though there isn't much description, the dialogue and the plot development makes the story pop. Oh, and I can't ignore the buildup before the final installment - wow, it's going to be hard to wait for all these stories to conclude. I can't wait for more!

Edits: tense changes, a few grammar fixes.

  Hide contents

Just a reminder to check for tenses - I saw a few present and a few past tenses, so I changed it all to past tense. Other than that, it's just a few missing commas in the text. Great work; just remember to read it through once more to make it more grammatically accurate!

 

Thanks for approving this! Hopefully the finale will be better, and I'll look out for the tenses!