Shadows always existed. They lived alongside us since the dawn of mankind. Their world is always open to us, their gates always ready to receive guests.
We just need to know where they are.
They can be something physical, like a door or a TV…
Or the gates may be within us, just waiting to be discovered.
"It requires great courage to look at oneself honestly and forge one's own path." - Nyx Avatar, The Hermit Arcana
Chapter 1: The Damsel In Distress
A young man awoke in a world filled with decay. The land was barren, the trees were lifeless, and the air was dry.
"Where am I?" he said to no one in particular, dusting himself from the dirt. Looking around, he saw that it was, for a lack of a better term, a wasteland. Nothing particularly alive was around for miles.
"What an asshole."
"Huh?" A voice echoed in the nothingness.
"Yeah, heard he cried a lot in grade school. What a loser!" said another voice.
"Who're you calling a loser!" he shouted. "Show yourself!"
"Hmph. What a dumbass, acting all aloof and ignorant. He's obviously neglected at home."Another voice echoed through the wind.
"What? No I'm not!" he shouted out loud, trying to block out the voices.
"B-But it's not my fault! It's not my fault no one likes me for who I am!" said a voice, sounding like his own. But it was different. It was more… weak. More hollow.
"Y-yeah! Not my fault no one likes me for what I am!" he lied. He knew it was false, but his mind was breaking down quickly. Too quickly, in fact.
"Ha! No it's not," the voices shouted. "It's totally your fault. If it weren't for us, your entire social life won't exist. You NEED us. You CRAVE us."
The voices emphasized the words, making it sound condescending and hateful.
"It's so obvious that if we didn't already know that you were so fucking stupid we would've guessed so."
"Fuck you! I can change!"
"But I don't WANT to change!" shouted another voice behind him. He turned around and saw its origin.
It was him. It was him, yet not him, if the glowing yellow eyes were a give away.
"What? Who the fuck are you?" he panicked. He needed to get out of here.
"I'm just a poor bastard looking for a little fun. Doesn't matter who I trample along the way," the doppelganger cried. "Fuck them and their needs, 'cos it's all about me!"
The original man stopped and stared at his copy. It was impossible. He didn't think this way, he wasn't like this.
"No it's not. It's never about me."
"Au contraire, my little bitch. It's always you. It's never NOT you. And do you know how I know that? Because I am you."
He couldn't believe it. He wasn't this... this thing. Not now, not ever.
"No."
"Hmm? What dost the bitch say?"
The young man said with confidence, "You heard me bitch. You're not me. You're nothing like me."
"Oh really?"
The other him stepped closer.
"Well then, I guess you're right."
It took another step.
"I'm..."
Another.
"NOT"
It reached out to him.
"YOU!"
The other man put its hands on his neck, pushing him down on the ground.
"G-g-get off me!"
The young man resisted his doppelganger's grip. It responded by punching him in the face.
"I could... but I won't. You see, I WOULD let you live, let you go to survive in your own delusional world, but I won't. Because you're just too much of a fucking jackass to man up. Now DIE!"
He tried to resist more as it continued to strangle him. Slowly, his vision faded and faded until all he could hear was the other him laughing maniacally.
"Get away from him!"
What? A woman? he thought. Is this what death felt like? An angel coming to get him?
"Get away!"
The young man felt the body on top of him get forcefully pushed aside, followed by sounds of beatings and shovings. He opened his eyes just a bit to see what was happening.
A... girl? Beating me up... that's a bit... sad...
His other self was being brutalized by the woman. She was winning, however. Suddenly, his other self became covered in black pitch. It blasted dark energy from itself, and teleported a few feet away. He stood there with a sickening smirk.
"Hmph. Fine. You win this round. But mark my words, I'm gonna kill you once I kill him."
The other man vanished. The girl ran up towards the young man and tried to wake him up.
"Wake up. Animus, get over here!"
"W-Wha...?"
"WAKE UP!"
The young man said nothing, instead passing out in the arms of the girl.
"Dammit," the woman said. "We need to take him back to the Room."
Another man stepped in close. "We need to hurry. Else..."
The woman looked around. The wasteland was beginning to fill with fog.
"Yeah. We need to bring him back."
AN: Welcome to the first chapter of Archetype, part of Urter's #ProjectShadowStory. Thought I'd try my hand in the actual, wordy-thinky part of fanfics.
AN2: Edited for fun.