190 Am I prey?

"Did you really think that I wouldn't guess?" I asked as I continued to walk toward the red river, something inside of me needing to see it. "The hissing voice every time I got mad. The ice voice when I was overwhelmed and wanted to shut down. The gentle voice… well, I have no idea where that one came from."

"Because you want to be gentle and kind. You wanted to make the people stop hating you," said the gentle voice.

"That was then, this is now," I said as I finally reached the rocky banks of the river. I crouched down and stuck my hand in the water. A shadow darted away from my touch. I stared into the water, unable to look away as more and more shadows joined the first one and seemed to be swimming downstream.

"Beware when fighting monsters that you don't become a monster yourself, because when you stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss also stares into you," hissed the first voice.