The shadow stared at the black beast, it's hollow eyes widening beneath the mask.
There was something wrong about it, whether it was the misplaced arms or the slightly longer legs or it's gigantic maw.
Nothing about the beast was right as if it was a mistake.
No that wasn't it.
The shadow's hollow eyes trailed downwards with a glint of curiosity but that soon vanished, replaced by a dark flame of pain.
The beast body was riddled with broken mask sewn unto it's black fur by the the vile silver threads.
The masks were broken barely holding together, each fixture a tale of pain and scars.
An eerie feeling protrude from between the cracks like a black miasma poisoning the world around it with despair and hate so powerful that it made the shadows pristine mask darker.
Each of those shadow's must have been like itself.
Strong enough to create their own will.
Strong enough to choose to live with a consciousness in a world as hellish as this.
Each having a dream that drove them to change their very being.
And yet each meeting the same fate.
Why did it think, it's fate would be any different.
It wasn't special nor was it even as strong as them.
If it wasn't for the reflection, it would still be willingly dieing in the black sea.
At first it was even willing to stay on that little rock forever, contempt with the illusions.
Only after they too slipped away did his dreams grow bigger.
What right did it have to.....
An image crawled into it's mind.
A man sat on a wooden chair, staring at the descending sun that painted the world a fiery red.
His body was riddled with scars a testament to the blood he had shed and to the life he had lived.
The man then spoke, his voice husk and with a bit of humour.
"I too once thought, why I was the only one who survived that day...I was neither the strongest nor the smartest but still yet I was the one who lived....the one who survived that god forsakened battlefield and accomplished everything I ever wanted"
"A life of peace and solitude far away from war"
"To think that maybe I was special or fated to live would be hubris"
"Maybe I was just too small or too weak to ever be seen as threat by the enemy....well whatever the case maybe, this is what I do know, it is not our choice to make if we deserve to live or die".
"The world will make that choice for us"
"We don't get to determine our worth"
"But as long has we don't give up, we will never be worthless and there will always be a chance".
The shadow may not have been the most deserving and maybe it's future was already decided but that still didn't change the fact that right now it was the one living the moment, It was still alive and it still had a choice.
Beams of furious light burst through the web of cracks on it's mask lifting up the veil of darkness and burning away the miasma that seeth into the air and black sea leaving behind hollow whimpers.
Just like that man, it wasn't going to give up.
The shadow stared into the abyss above and saw numerous threads decending from its vast darkness.
It was time to awaken their puppet.
Not wishing to become like the unfortunate shadow's, it spun around and ran.
It ran as fast as it could, swiftly evading the silver threads that strewn across the lifeless sea.
Suddenly it felt a the water beneath it's feet tremble and then a thunderous roar that made it's onyx skin shivering terribly.
It could feel it, the beast awakening.
The shadow quickly focused it senses forward, searching for a place to hide.
But there was nowhere, the beast was getting closer, the shadow could tell from the tremblings of the sea surface.
The beast was inescapable, this was it's hunting ground no matter how far the shadow ran, there was no escape.
This hell was never designed that way in the first place.
If there was no way to escape then it was going to fight.
The shadows feet glided on the surface of the water coming to a halt, in an instant the shadow spun around and charged at the beast filled with grim determination.
A low gluttonous growl ripped through the air and suddenly the black sea, the vile threads and even the abyss above vanished.
The gigantic maw split open revealing rows upon rows of teeth accomplished by a hundred screams, the shadow felt as if it was already it the maw of the beast waiting to be devoured.
But then suddenly the shadow sunk deep into the dark sea.
.....
The shadow sunk deep into the black waters, it very being being dragged towards the centre by an unseen force.
The beast and vile threads gave chase, diving into the sea with it's maw wide open devouring both shadow and threads alike.
But still the distance between the shadow and the beast only grew.
Soon the shadow had sunk far beyond even were the beast and threads could reach, countless shadows which were strung up by silver threads formed a ceiling above it, a boundary separating the dark depths from the surface.
The shadow could feel it's consciousness slipping away yet It was too powerless to do anything....
and before long it fell asleep.