Scissors: Two Separate Parts, and a Single Connection in Time

My pupils contracted and I was sent back into the present, away from these traumatic memories of the past. I was back, where my knees were deep in the snow, and I had a familiar pair of scissors gripped tightly in hand.

"AGH—!" I instinctively dropped the scissors into the snow, which the man across me picked back up. He looked into my eyes with his, the usual cold glare freezing me in place.

"No…" The memories I'd been keeping from myself had all just been revealed to me. "I didn't do that to Julia… I didn't do it. I DIDN'T DO IT!"

I looked back up at the man. He only stared at me silently.

"Why did you show me those things…? Why are you trying to deceive me?"

The masked man kept his static gaze. "I have shown you only the truth. You only deceive yourself."

I was ignited with a rejecting feeling of rage. "No, no, no, no, I didn't do that to Julia, I DIDN'T DO ANY OF THAT!"

"You're right, you didn't." The masked man took a step closer to me. "We did, together."

"What…?" I was utterly disturbed and confused. "What are you talking about…?"

To this, the man answered without speaking. Lifting his hands, the anonymous man in black that'd been torturing me for a hundred days straight decided to finally remove his mask, unveiling the face beneath.

It was my face. He looked exactly like me.

"I am you."

I was bewildered beyond comprehension. My eyes could only stare, and my voice could only stutter without speaking any words.

"You are me."

The panic ensued, ensuring that my breathing shallowed as I felt the world shrink around me. I was frightened and frozen in place. He with the one who bore my face looked down at me with my own two eyes.

"We are one, Venus. Together, we are Venus Van Hattum."

"No, stop… This isn't real right now… W-Why do you look j-just like me…?"

"I've told you already, I am you."

I aggressively tore my way into the snow and flailed some in his direction, hoping that it would wipe off what I thought was a mirage on his face. But my face still remained, and I could only see myself looking at me with nothing but serious intent.

I wasn't imagining things.

"This isn't lining up. None of this makes sense… Why do you look like me? Why ARE YOU ME? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!"

He looked at me as I descended into madness. I looked at me while I descended into madness.

"None of this is real… I've died again and again and again and again in the last 100 days straight, and after all this time, the hands I've died to have been nothing but my own!?? THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! THIS CAN'T BE REAL! THIS ISN'T REAL! NONE OF IT IS! THIS IS JUST ALL ONE BIG USELESS NIGHTMARE!!!"

The winter wind blew by, instigating a sound of silence.

"You're right. This isn't real. I'm nothing more than a figment of your own imagination."

The wind picked up in speed.

"I am your split personality."

My heart picked up in speed.

"I was born from the guilt you harbored in murdering Julia."

"Stop… Stop it…" My efforts to contain my sanity were slowly drifting away with the wind.

"I am the fruit of your labor."

"Stop it… I said STOP!"

"I am your sin."

"STOP! STOP TALKING!!!"

"I am your creation."

I finally broke down in tears, unable to handle the truth that began to weigh back down on me.

"And now… I am your ruination."

He raised the infamous pair of scissors high into the air, and fell down onto me, with the scissors' sharp end leading the way.

I fell back, accepting this everlasting desired fate to rid me of this eternal guilt I'd been cursed with.

SHANK—!

Our scissors landed directly into my jugular notch, just as it did to Julia, and impaled all the way through, completely severing my eusophageous into two separate paths. Blood came rushing forth and gushed out of the wound like a geyser, while I felt viscosity enter my respiratory system, imbuing my lungs with red. I coughed and regurgitated and choked and gagged. My blood flew everywhere, its heat melting the snow it mixed with. My body shook uncontrollably and my eyes slowly turned towards the sky, resisting to roll back and call it my end. But the pain was too immense, and too unbearable. I wanted to die. I wanted it all to end.

"You understand now why you never tried hiding in the basement, right?"

His last words as he stood over me brought me to the thoughts in my mind once more. In all the 100 days of death I'd encumbered, not once did I ever attempt to hide in the basement of the manor.

Now I understood why.

THUMP! THUMP! CRACK—!!! THUMP!

The sounds of Julia's body breaking as it tumbled down the stairs. Her body was laid to rest in there. My subconscious guilt would never allow me to re-enter that area, even if I'd forced myself to forget.

"How strong the mind is at defending its host…" I thought to myself. With that final thought, my eyes finally rolled back, as I let out a final cough of blood.

The 100 days of purgatory ended here. I was finally leaving this world.