~~
Trinity
~~
I was reeling now. I didn't know what to think. I went to hug the other me back after she put her arms around me and, all of a sudden, she just turned to dust and disappeared.
"What the hell?! Where did she go?" I asked the emptiness that stretched out before me.
'I am still here. I am just inside your head once again.' There was a slight amount of laughter that came with that voice.
"Are you going to be in there forever? Are you going to start those whispers again that drove me crazy?" I was a little upset that I was going to deal with the voice in my head once again.
'I only started to talk to you once you got here in the self reflection realm. Prior to that, I never spoke to you. Not like this anyway. And I will only continue to speak to you while you are in the underworld. It is part of the magic that brought me to life. I can only speak to you here. The rest of the time, I will be part of your intuition. That will be me subtly speaking to you by guiding you in the right path.'
"What do you mean? Wasn't that you that had been talking to me the entire time? If it wasn't you that was driving me insane, who was it?"
I was starting to hyperventilate now. I didn't like the idea that someone else had been inside of my head. I mean, how many visitors did I have?
'I was not a visitor. I was always one of your permanent residents. I was just a mute one until you came here.'
"OK, but who was the other person? Since you seem to know so much about this place, can you tell me who that person was?"
'I would think that it would be obvious. The voice was telling you to stop someone from escaping and causing a calamity. Yet, those voices were also blaming you for everything. My guess is that the voice and the someone trying to escape are one and the same.' The other me, or should I say that part of me, sounded so matter of fact when she answered me just now.
"What? How is that even possible? How does that even make sense?" I was trying to wrap my head around the things that I had just heard. "Why would the voice warn me against itself?"
I tried to think about that for a minute. If I was someone that was trapped in hell and wanted to get out, namely Hekate, then, wouldn't it make sense to lure someone to their location as a means of getting out? OK, if that is true, then that would mean that the voice that was saying all those things to me, was Hekate.
Now, if that was right, assuming I was moving in the right direction at all, then how was it that she planned to use me to escape? And, how was she even able to reach me in the first place? Those were the big issues that I needed to answer.
'Might I interject for a moment?' The other me spoke up again. 'You were not the first person that Hekate has communicated with while inside the underworld. Do you not remember your father's childhood and his invisible companion? That was him talking with Hekate's voice. She has reached out several times to powerful people over time. Most of the time, she tries to get them on her side, but that usually does not work out for her. I think that she has changed her tactic now. She needs to be reaching out to you in hopes that you will attempt to stop her and inadvertently let her out.'
"That is quite the theory that you have there." I crossed my arms at the way the other me was taking this train of thought.
'I am simply a part of you, Trinity. I am not thinking about something that you haven't already thought about. It is just that those thoughts were dwelling at the back of your mind where they were trying to stay buried. That is where the darker and more morbid of your thoughts usually stay, and that is also where I usually stay.'
"OK, you're probably right. So then, I should do my best to leave the underworld without coming into contact with Hekate. Is that what you are saying?"
'Well, if you can, yes. But then again, would that not just lead to her invading your mind even more? I think that we need to destroy her. That would be the best option in my, or rather our, opinion.'
"Hahh." I sighed loudly, it wasn't like anyone other than me, or me, was going to hear it.
'Stop your bellyaching. We have work to do Trinity.'
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I just wanted to get home now rather than to go after the fucking Goddess of dark magic. I can't even use my magic here, so I don't even know how I am going to destroy her."
'We will figure that out. For now, we need to find a way out of this place. I say we move out.'
"What are you, my commanding officer?" I laughed at myself for having just made a joke with myself. Damn, if anyone else saw me talking to myself like this, I would be the talk of the town. And they would reward me with a nice new jacket, one that buckled in the back and gave the best self hugs ever.
'Just start walking. I do not have that ability anymore.' The other me laughed at me again. Dammit, this was weird, but somehow comforting.
I did as the other me told me to do. She was me after all, so I wasn't listening to someone else's orders, I was listening to myself and what I wanted. Don't think too much about it, it will just confuse you. Just know that I was doing what I wanted to do and nothing else.
The moment that I left the circle with the fire in it, the barrier finally gone, the blaze extinguished itself. It went from blazing high and hot, to being nothing there at all. I was hoping that I was moving in the right direction, whatever the right direction was right now. And I was once again moving slowly and dragging my feet to make sure that I didn't trip over anything.
"Hey, other me, I wanted to ask you something."
'Yes, Trinity?'
"If you are me, from the inside of me, then why did you burn me, twice?"
'You were not physically harmed. It was more of you just feeling the effects of it. And I am you, Trinity. You would not have liked someone talking to you like that. I did not like it either.'
"I think you're just making excuses, but I will listen to it for now. Just don't ever do it again."
'I make no promises for when you die. But that will be many, many, many years from now.'
"Great. I get to come back here again." I truly sounded enthusiastic about that. Yup. And I was the Queen of the universe and not just the shifters and magic users. That's how true that was. You know, sarcasm. Yeah, I know, I am being overly obvious right now.. Can you blame me, though? I am trapped in this dark prison.
