Chapter 26:" Will I regret this?"
WEDNESDAY'S POV
The vision slammed into my spectral form not as a physical blow, but as a violent shift in the very energy of the world. One moment, the atmosphere of the room was a calm, silent hum; the next, it was torn by a ripple of pure, undiluted terror that resonated with the bond we shared.
The more- like psychic echo of a hotel's rooftop. The biting, spiritual void of a great height. The glittering, indifferent life-force of the city far below. And Spencer—his aura flaring with panic, his essence trapped and compressed by an invisible, crushing force that I could feel distorting the space around my own non-corporeal form.
I didn't gasp; I condensed, my ethereal form pulling inward as the connection between us—that indelible chain forged in the chaotic energy of our Halloween kiss,I was granted this ability—screaming a silent alarm through my very being. It was more than a feeling; it was a bond that had tied his life-force to my afterlife. I didn't just sense his trouble; I experienced it—a cold, discordant frequency of desperation cutting through the stable silence of my existence.
And beneath his terror, thrumming with a vile, surgical precision, was the source. An energy so vast and corrupt it felt like a stain on reality itself, a gravitational pull that threatened to unravel my very essence. My own ghostly abilities, the subtle manipulations of energy I'd mastered, were a faint whisper against this roaring void. Confronting the entity directly wouldn't be bravery; it would be erasure.
My form flickered with the urge to phase, to stream through walls and race to that rooftop, consequences be damned. But I was held fast, anchored by a chilling recognition. This corrupt signature… it was familiar. A demonic resonance I'd felt poisoning the edges of the spiritual plane. The Static,the demon entity, It was here.
My head turned, my luminous eyes locking with the gaze of my reflection in the silver-backed mirror. As a ghost, I had no true reflection, but the mirror showed what I was—a shimmering outline, a collection of dim spectra lights and memory,my inner mind itself.
The figure in the glass, however, was different. It was solid. It was me. Its arms were crossed, and its expression was one of cold, calculated assessment, as if observing a failing system.
"The Static," I whispered, the words a disturbance in the air, not a sound.
The demon entity. The corrupter. It wasn't just a rumor in the shadows anymore. It was here, it will start bending reality, holding Spencer's life in a metaphysical vise. This was a being that twisted science and soul alike, that could unravel a mind or a ghost with equal ease. I was a wisp of forgotten energy; it was the abyss.
"How can I save him?" The thought was a desperate, psychic plea, a ripple of despair in the silence. "I am no match for it. I can't even move it's gaze without straining."
Every moment was a theft of Spencer's time. The pressure was a static building in my core, a frantic vibration that threatened to disperse me.
"Let me out."
The voice didn't come from the room. It erupted from the core of my own consciousness, a resonant, layered command that vibrated through my essence.My reflection's lips did move, and the words were clear, ancient, and terrifying.
"I can save him. I am the power you refuse to claim, Wednesday. The rage of the wronged, the vengeance of the departed. I am what remains when the fear is gone. I wield the storms you will not weather."
"No," I spoke, my form flickering weakly. "I was warned. To let you take form is to risk losing myself entirely. I can't."
My reflection didn't sigh; the air around it grew colder, more still.
Think. Use the logic that remains. You are a memory facing a god. You cannot win. You will be unmade. Spencer will be killed. Your purpose will die with him. Is your fragile peace worth his eternal silence?
It was weaponizing my love, sharpening it into a blade to cut down my resolve. I focused on the reflection. It wore my face, but it was a monument to all my pain and anger, every human after all must suffer the fate having a conscience,an inner mind.
"Just this once, it coaxed, its mental voice shifting to a deceptive, soothing tone. I want to save him, too. Do you think I am devoid of your attachments? I am your attachment. The part that would burn the world for him. Let me do this. For us" It said.
It was a siren's call to the darkest part of my soul. The truth was inescapable. My conscious self, the ghost who clung to echoes of humanity, was powerless. But the concentrated fury of my death, the unleashed potential of my spirit… that was a force of nature. And it was that nature.
You know what must be done, it pressed, the dark reflection leaning forward, its image becoming more solid, more real than I was. The mirror's surface began to swirl like a portal of black smoke. "There. Is. No. Time".
It was right. The Static was a consumer, not a savorer. Spencer's time was measured in heartbeats I no longer had.
I let my resistance dissolve, replaced by a grim, spectral resolve that felt like a final surrender.
"Promise me,"I thought, the projection flat and final. "When he is safe, you recede. You return to the silence,to being my conscience,my inner mind. I return to what I was,I return to being me.."
The dark reflection smiled looking excited.but it was a terrible, hungry expression.
"Pinky promise".
The childish phrase was a blasphemy, a mockery that made my essence recoil. This was a bargain with the shadow I cast, and the cost would be a piece of my soul.
I hoped my sacrifice would be worth it.
I drifted forward until the shimmering outline of my form touched the cold glass. The dark reflection did the same. I could feel its pull, a vortex of raw power threatening to consume me instantly. I focused my entire being on a single, stable memory: Spencer's hand, warm and solid, briefly passing through my own. It was my anchor.
Then, I let my lips press on the mirror,it was like I kissed a real lips
It was cold glass. But also it was a gateway of pure potential,of my transmutation,I could do this with any mirror. It erupted a shockwave of energy— cold, and devastating— from the point of contact. My awareness didn't fade; it was overwhelmed, flooded, and then systematically silenced. My memories, my fears, my love—it was all swallowed by a rising, silent tide of absolute power. I was a single, fading star being blotted out by a galaxy of darkness,and slowly my world turned blank,void of anything.
Little did I know, as the last flicker of my self was consumed and the chains on my power shattered, that I had just made the most catastrophic mistake of my life and death.
I had not just opened a cage.
I had invited the predator to wear my skin.
i had one question and it was up to me to answer it myself.
Will I regret this?
To be continued....