Mephistopheles

"As I said, you're fucking amazing!" the shadow clapped his hands in amusement.

"Is that me?!" Eric stared with open mouth, as his counterpart picked up a sword and jumped to fight a gang of intruders, but was stabbed into the chest after killing a few of masked men.

Eric looked down, but because of the transformation table, the scar disappeared.

"How am I still alive?" Eric wondered.

"That's a good question." the shadow muttered.

The venue disappeared as Eric's past version passed out. The only things left were darkness and voices.

"He's healing!"

"What kind of monster is this?!"

"Shit. Let's find the box and get out of here before authorities show up."

They heard the voices. However, neither shadow nor Eric knew who was talking. They could only assume that it was the intruders. True culprits of wedding massacre.

"Those bastards." Eric muttered.

Eric was trying hard to hold himself together. However, the tears formed in his eyes and his chest felt heavy. His small body was slowly trembling in grief and rage.

"This was all I could find in your memories." the shadow said with a small grin on its childish face.

The shadow stood right beside Eric. He transformed into his demonic self and placed its hand on Eric's trembling shoulder.

"How about we make a deal?" The shadow suggested. Its eyes were burning in anticipation.

They were standing in a void when a strange sound suddenly came. It sounded like old doors creaking.

"Who's there?" The shadow's eyes were glowing bright red.

Eric was still standing there, silently weeping.

"Those bastards…" Eric repeated.

The shadow glanced at Eric.

'If this Eric is here, who else came into my domain?' the shadow wondered.

"Where the hell am I?" a loud voice in the middle of nowhere shouted.

The shadow started to think, maybe one of the kids regained consciousness. So he quickly rushed towards the source of the sound. However, to his surprise, he did not find a kid. Instead, he found an object.

"A box?" a shadow was so shocked, that he said outloud.

There was an open box, the same one from Eric's memories. It was about 2 meters tall and two meters wide. Despite the box showing up in the memories for a moment, the shadow clearly remembered it.

"How did it get here?" The shadow asked as he walked toward the box to investigate..

From the outside, the box itself seemed empty. Just another void in the world of shadows. However, when the shadow monster came close to it, it felt a weird sense of danger.

"Interesting." The shadow muttered.

The shadow decided, that there was no way something could harm him, not in his world. So it leaned to check if the box was really empty.

The moment its face got closer to the box, the shadow heard another noise. A sound of chains from within the box. It made the shadow feel uncomfortable.

"Alright, what the hell is going on?" The shadow asked enraged that whatever this thing was, was making the creature feel uncomfortable in its own domain.

The shadow completely disregarded all the danger signs that came from the box. Once more, it leaned into the box despite all signals to stop. The hand suddenly emerged from the box and grabbed the shadow by the neck.

"Where is Eric?" the person left the box, and showed himself.

The man looked exactly like Eric. Wearing a red prison uniform, with a number 68 on his shoulder. The hair was messy, and his eyes were fierce.

"W-what?" the shadow muttered in disbelief. The pain was intense, as he felt the grip on his throat tighten.

"Where the hell is Eric?" a man repeated himself while gritting his teeth.

How was this man hurting him? After all, the shadow creature was supposed to be untouchable for the human hands. However, this person could clearly touch him. Not only touch. This person could hurt him.

Suddenly, the shadow realized who this person was. The shadow had already seen this man in Eric's memories.

"M-Mephistopheles?" the shadow asked, while grabbing man's arm. Trying to make the man release his grip.

"You haven't answered my question yet." Mephistopheles suddenly punched the shadow in its face with his free hand.

The moment the shadow received a punch, he realized bringing in Eric was a mistake. While Eric himself was a seemingly normal person, Mephistopheles, Eric's second personality was abnormality.

"W-Wait!" the shadow yelled out, while holding its hurting face. It was an immense pain that it had never felt before.

"Where is Eric?!" Mephistopheles punched the shadow again. Harder this time.

This time, Mephistopheles released his grip on the shadow's neck, making the shadow fall backwards a couple of meters.

'A c-chance!' a shadow stuttered, and quickly disappearing into the floor.

"What?" Mephistopheles jaws dropped. The person he just punched vanished from his sights.

Mephistopheles walked to the spot where the shadow disappeared and after looking around, he realized that the shadow had escaped.

"My bad… I should not have released him." Mephistopheles sighed.

Mephistopheles realized he made the mistake by letting the shadow go, but decided not to dwell on it. He had a goal in mind. He needed Eric.

"Now then…" Mephistopheles stretched his neck, making cracking sounds.

"Where is Eric?" he wondered out loud as he started walking forward. Even though he was not aware of it himself, he sensed Eric. He subconsciously knew where Eric was.

*****************

"I need to get that man out of here!" the shadow said in a panicked tone as he rushed towards Eric.

Humiliation and pain. Two things the shadow never believed he could ever feel. However, somehow Mephistopheles could harm him.

"I need to get Eric out of here. No more deals!" It said.

He knew that if Eric would disappear from the shadow realm, Mephistopheles would be gone as well. After all, Mephistopheles was a part of Eric. Eric's second personality.

"B-But how did he manifest himself?" Suddenly, a thought crossed the shadow's mind.

"Could this happen again? Can I be hurt?" he asked himself, no longer feeling invincible.

The shadow had so many questions right now, but the most important was how did Mephistopheles hurt him. After all, there were many spirits of adults, the teachers who stepped into the shadow world looking for children. Of course, none of them could touch him.

"How is he different?" He muttered the moment he saw Eric in the distance. The shadow stopped moving and simply stared at Eric, who was no longer moving. Simply frozen in the same position he was before shadow leaving him.

"So if Mephistopheles is active… Eric's mind is asleep?"

Was it because of that box? The weird-looking box, where Mephistopheles manifested himself.

"What the hell was that box?" the shadow suddenly stopped moving and looked back.

The shadow thought over the reason he brought Eric into this world. The same reason, he needed to gather the children into this world.

"Maybe… It is exactly what I was looking for?" The shadow asked itself.

"Maybe… Mephistopheles is the one who can help me find my origin?!"