I can't win...

Taken right out of chapter 22 of "Teaching Darkness: Relapse".

Excerpt:

With a busted ankle, he knew he wasn’t able to get away fast enough. This worried him. So much… that his heart went into overtime, sending a spike of pain through it as it beated faster.

Not now… He moaned inwardly, inhaling sharply and tensing his fingers in his chest fluff. Please… any time but now…

Dark faltered. He clenched his teeth together, and tensed his hands as the glow around them dimmed.

Mephiles stared up as his heartbeat slowed down.

Dark cursed under his breath, and let the glow disappear completely.

“I thought the Emerald split us completely…” He growled, breathing through his teeth as he narrowed his eyes at Mephiles. “But it seems that our hearts are still connected… I just felt that… That means I still can’t kill you…”

He cursed again, angered that he now had to change tactics.

Mephiles felt his heart sink. That also meant that he couldn’t kill Dark without killing himself. It was either both or neither… and too hard to choose.

Mephiles wanted to live, as he had so much to do so for. His friends had even helped him fight for that right, even when he had reached to point of nearly losing it altogether.

On the other hand, he also wanted to get rid of Dark, because this entire nightmare would stop once the rid the world of the demon.

It was a loss either way…

When the full realization hit him, it hit him hard, stunning Mephiles into absolute silence. He seemed almost frozen as he stared at the ground, his mouth half open, his eyes wide and beginning to shimmer.

Then he moved and his hand left his head, touched the ground with the other, curling in as he dug his fingers into the grass, clenching it tightly, half ready to rip a handful out of the ground.

“I… hate… you…” He whispered under his breath, shaking his lowered head slowly. “I can’t win either way…”

“Meph, what are you talking about?” Shadow asked, having not understood what had happened.

“I CAN’T WIN, SHADOW!” Mephiles snapped his head up; his quills and fur on end again, chest fluff puffing out as he breathed in and out quickly and deeply. Tears standing in his eyes, he shut them and turned his head away swiftly, as if trying to hide the breakdown he was about to have. “I can’t! Either we both die, or neither of us! There’s no halfway, or only one standing! It’s double or nothing! If we kill him now, we kill me too!”
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Well... Don't own Shadow and Mephiles...

Do own this version of Mephiles, Dark and my version of Shadow, as well as the stories.