Page 21 of The Other Side

My hand swatted the glimpse away in anger, this time dissolving it as blue lightning cracked from my body. I began to snarl, my true form bubbling into shape. I lunged my large, shadow-like arm out, clawing the walls of the cave as it began to tremble and shake from my aggression. My body stretched and grew as I transformed into the despicable demon I truly was. I tried to control it, to breathe through my anger, but it was too much. Centuries worth of waiting, anticipation, and rage consumed me. I became the very embodiment of the hatred I possessed.

“No! I have waited far too long for this very moment to waste such an opportunity!” I growled in my deep, distorted monstrous voice. “My patience has grown thin, witch.” I stumbled through the hellfire as it splashed in all directions. “Look what you have done to me! All of you! Look at what I have become!”

My unnaturally large mouth opened as I released the most unbearable, spine chilling shriek, the entire Underworld trembling, every soul lost in the Abyss crying out in fear of me. Fire flickered along my shadow body, engulfing me as I began to burn like a pyre, reaching the ceiling of the cave.

“It’s time I remind you all what happens to those who disobey me! Of who I am!”

IRIS-MARIE

The shop began to tremble and quake as Tuft and I stared at one another in horror, gripping the wooden counter forstability. Bastien hissed, tucking beneath a table as the contents of the display cases and shelves rained around us. Glass and vials shattered as the floorboard began to crack and separate, hellfire reaching through the splintering edges. Shadows and darkness snuffed out the lights of the shop as a deep, vibrating, animalistic sound echoed, reaching into our hearts. We trembled in fear, knowing exactly what was coming.

“Tuft!” I cried out, our hands locking as we struggled to stay balanced and on our feet. “What is she doing? Why is she here?”

Before he could answer, all the light within the shop vanished, as if it had fallen into a pitch-black despair, everything halting in a deafening silence all at once. Cold fear soaked our bodies as we quivered, listening to the unnatural absence of sound, hearing only our quickened breathing and hearts.

“You have failed me.” A low, menacing, altered voice hissed through the darkness, causing the hair on the back of my neck to raise. Despite the unfamiliar tone, I knew exactly who was speaking to us.

Cypress.

Blue lightning cracked within the dark room, striking close. The way it moved reminded me of that glimpse into her true demonic form, the very form that haunted my dreams.

“Please!” Tuft shot out. “We have been doing exactly as you asked! Iris has been—”

“Silence, Pegasus!” Cypress snarled, hellfire and shadows striking his face like a whip, igniting the air between us. He grunted, blood seeping from the gaping cut on his cheek. “You have been nothing but a pain in my side since the moment I saved your precious demi-god!” My hand reached out, pressing against Tuft’s bloodied cheek as I tried to help him.

“It’s okay, Tuft. I’m here. I’m here!”

“Andyou!” Something wrapped tightly around my waist, constricting as it ripped me back. Tuft clutched my hand, the two of us fighting the shadows, our fingers latched as I groaned.

“Don’t let go!” I cried out, unable to see his face. “Please! Don’t—” Her power was too much. It unlatched me from his grasp, ripping me away. “Tuft!” I screamed, dissolving into the endless darkness.

“Iris!” Tuft called after me, his voice dissolving in the distance, growing silent within seconds.

My body fell for a good minute before she released me. I landed in a thin puddle of hellfire, the flames flickering down my skin as I groaned in pain. It was as though I had landed in a pocket of hell itself—a cold, barren wasteland of death made big enough just for me. My body shivered, the freezing temperature immediately taking hold as an odd frost coated my skin.

“C-Cypress,” I breathed as the air fogged around my face. “P-p--please.” I shivered, standing as my legs wobbled. “W-we—”

“Enough!” The arm of her true form slammed into me, knocking me back into the puddle of hellfire. My magic sputtered from my hands, the cold snuffing out any power I held. “I have given you everything you desire!” The darkness rumbling as her blue lightning cracked above. “Everything!And yet you and that Pegasus have done nothing but frolic in the very power I have bestowed upon you, forgetting your end of the deal!”

Shadows stretched from nowhere, gripping my torso and limbs as they pinned me into the hellfire, forcing my face into the fiery liquid. She was attempting to drown me, pushing my face beneath the surface.

“P-please!” I choked on my begs, coughing on the flames as they filled my mouth. “Let- m-me explain,” I gasped.

“Explain? Oh, my dear witch.” A long, black tongue of darkness, wrapped in blue electricity, reached from the emptiness above and crawled to my face, licking my cheek as Itried to keep my head afloat. “The only explanation I wish to hear from your pretty, poisonous lips is how you wish to meet your death.” The beastly tongue slithered to the other side of my face, pulling it from the hellfire as I looked up and saw her hovering over me. My eyes welled with tears as I stared back at the darkness hiding true form, her eyes burning as they glared back and absolutely shook me to my core.

“Please,” I begged, a tear falling down my face. “I-I can explain.”

“Iris-Marie,” she hissed my name as the tongue traced my lips. “Look what you have done to me. You have forced me to become a monster—the very one who haunts you in your nightmares. I do not want to hurt you, just as I do not need to hear your words to know your truth. But you are too stubborn, and the only way to know the truth is to feast upon it. You say you want to explain, but I do not want to listen.”

“W-what are y-you going to do t-to me?”

“Why, I am going to taste the lies from your soul. Let me see what the truth is.”

“Please,” I cried. “Don’t do this.”

“You have given me no choice.” Her tongue forced itself into my mouth as I gagged. It moved down my esophagus deep into my body, branching off as her essence stretched into my veins and filled my blood. She completely overcame me, consuming my entire being as hers took control. I was completely helpless, a limp shell of myself in her grasps, feeling the excruciating painful shadow of herself as it branded into me, unable to do anything but feel every bit of her darkness inside me. Before long, even my vision was taken from me, leaving only pain as she moved beneath my skin, overtaking me as her shadows released their hold.

I was absolutely powerless.

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