Dina stared unflinchingly at the thing before her. It was unnerving, watching that thing donning her face and smiling directly at her.
It was like a distorted version of her reflection had crawled out of a mirror and stood wordlessly while smiling creepily at her. And knowing how much trauma it had caused her the discomfort intensified.
However, this time, it was different; before, she'd hesitate to stare right at it in confrontation due to her helplessness, but now… she could.
This thought tore through the composure within her, nearly ripping it to shreds. The idea that she could finally confront this devil that had ruined her life was like a crack that appeared within the dam, holding her avalanche of emotions and threatening to topple it over.
The desire to reach out to this devil, charge at it with every rage she could muster, bite it, crush it, even torture it if possible, weighed on her mind, constantly tempting her. So much so that for a brief moment she considered deserting the mission just to brutalize this creature before her.
But she had to keep calm; this was what the trials wanted, whether it be rage or despair; whatever silver of reaction given to the participant's trauma would be more than enough to ruin the participant. Right now, all she needed was intense calmness; she had to swallow down all her emotions to the pit of her stomach, no matter how difficult.
“You don't look so good, anything you want to talk to me about?” it spoke sadistically while pulling a chair to sit next to Dina.
It sat right before her, making them come face-to-face with each other. Dina drew a sharp breath silently in a bid to hold back herself; this thing was testing her; it wanted her to act, to act recklessly on her rage.
“You…” Dina began, “You want to be me so bad it's honestly pitiful.”
Dina stared at it directly, noticing every tiny detail it showed, from the small, almost unnoticeable crack of its smile to the hidden malice hidden within its eyes as it cackled.
“And why would you think that?” it asked gloatingly, its face morphing into a mocking look. It no longer hid its loathing; it was clear as day for all to see, especially Dina.
Dina smiled calmly.
“I've always wondered why you'd act so outlandishly when in control. When in control, you pretend to be obsessed with Jackson, to love him truly with all your being at my very expense,” Dina paused, watching it listen to her attentively.
It was like it truly cared to learn of her thoughts, but Dina could tell with derision in its eyes that it was simply waiting for her to conclude to destroy all her points.
“That's when I realized that you've never loved him as much as you hate me,” Dina stood up with a chuckle, leaning in very closely to its face as it stared up at her while seated.
She grasped its face, feeling the texture of her skin within her hands, so smooth, so soft, so… frangible.
She squinted her eyes, “Your love for Jackson exists, but your hate for me is so strong it overpowers and controls your so-called love. You'd rather have me cry than Jackson laugh; you'd rather have my despair than Jackson glad; you'd rather have me in pain than Jackson in comfort; you'd rather have my misery than Jackson's love anytime. You don't love Jackson, you just love how much pain you can cause me with him.”
It squinted back at Dina before shoving her roughly causing her to fall on the bed. With a creaking of chains, it hovered over Dina, cornering her on the bed with both hands.
“I do love Jackson, more than you can ever tell. You're incapable of knowing this because your idea of love is limited to the goodness of it. I'm the very representation of twisted love and deny and despise me as you may, but the truth remains,” leaning close to Dina's ears, it whispered, “I love Jackson.”
Retreating, it was met with Dina's apathetic stare. A blank gaze yet filled with contempt and mockery like a lion watching a monkey prance about as the king of the jungle.
It frowned in annoyance when Dina suddenly smiled at it oddly.
She was caught off guard when Dina gripped it by its hair and pulled it downwards, and with little to no gap between their faces, she whispered, “Your love for him can never succeed your hate for me. I can tell you're in misery, not because you can no longer confess your love to Jackson but because all you can do is watch me live happily while you rot in hate.”
Feeling its struggle, Dina tightened her grip on its hair, “Your hate for me is so strong that while you indulged in gleefully taking it out on me, you soon forgot the concept of love. You forgot you were meant to have Jackson as your number one, you misplaced your priorities. You misdirected your passion and now all that's left is lies you use to delude yourself!”
“You!” it exclaimed as it stood up after managing to struggle out of Dina's grip.
Dina stood up after it, approaching it step by step as it retreated helplessly, “You hate me so much you forgot you were meant to love. There is no love in you, only malice and hate. There was never love in you, only a superficial desire of pursuit for Jackson, nothing but a mere fallacy to hide your true love—your malice for me.”
While talking they had managed to reach the edge of the room and with a dominant stance, Dina pressed it against the wall
Leaning closely, she said coldly, “You do not love, you cannot love, you can only hate me because your very existence is tied to me. Without me, there is no you, but without you, there is always me, and this fact infuriates your very being that the person you regard with contempt is the only thread that recognizes your existence. There is no love, all obsession you have is for me and only me. You're not obsessed with Jackson, you're obsessed with ruining my life with him because that's all you can do. After all,” Dina smiled mockingly, “There is no you without me.”
“ You!” it screamed with rage as its features distorted with malice. It was so disgusting watching her face do that, that Dina fell into a daze for a while, only to be awakened by it shoving her to the ground.
“For someone so helplessly under me aren't you quite shameless? So what if? What if all I have to my existence is my hate for you? You got that right. I abhor you; hate and malice are an understatement. If there is something more consuming, more infuriating, and more frustrating than hate, then that's what I hold for you. Aren't you curious? Why, of all, the person I chose to destroy you with it was Jackson? How, somehow, he perfectly looped you into it all? The grand scheme of things you're being left out of, even your friends? Didn't they leave too easily?” it gloated with delight as Dina stared dazedly.
“Poor little Dina, the only fool being left out of everything; you don't even know who you truly are, do you? You're just a fool going along with the wimps of everyone because you have no choice, do you not wonder why everything led strategically to your present condition? Or why people in your life are somehow turning out to be related to this whole transmigration stuff?”
Leaning closely to Dina, who was on the floor, it spoke frostily, “You've been played Dina, and I'm just one of the many players.”
Silence.
There was pin-drop silence between the two, and then Dina chuckled; her chuckle turned into giggles before blowing up into full hysterical laughter.
“Ahhh, you pest,” she scoffed amidst laughter, her eyes filled with scorn, “Did you really think your presence was enough of a catalyst to sell my soul? You're just a pest. You have always been and will always be; you're just another little dot on my agenda. Remember this as the bureau holds you restricted with its powers. You were just a tiny part of my plan, an irrelevant pawn destined to never reach the stars. A dud and a failure.”
It stared with widened eyes as Dina's laughs bloomed into a full-on cackling as she laughed heartily as one would when an idiot made a fool out of itself.
“What are you—”
“Do you know why I call you a pest?” she questioned rhetorically, “Because you're nothing but an existence leaching off of mine. No matter how much you run rampant I will always have you within the thumb of my fingers. You're beneath me, a simple pest who I just needed to crush at the right time. You were never my true misery; you were just a tiny dot of it and even, quite ironically, the link that led me to all the answers to my question.”
It stared at Dina in bewilderment as its mouth opened and closed wordlessly. Oh, how pitiful it must be to believe you were the player only to be the one played.
The young lady leaned languidly before it with a smirk, within her eyes were hints of sophistication it had never caught on. There were no lies in what she had said; at the end of the day, it had merely been a pawn.
It was a uniquely bitter pill to swallow, defeat with a side of ridicule from your worst enemy. It slumped to its knees as it laughed in self-pity, its body quivering from the exaggerated laughter.
Dina crawled to it with the languid grace of a fox, softly parting its bangs that had masked its face and was met with a beautiful sight.
Years rolled down her eyes as she laughed, her multicolored eyes sparkling with pools of gold and sapphire. For the first time, Dina could refer to her as a person. It finally looked humane enough to be called one despite not being one.
She leaned in slowly, softly kissing her tear-filled eyes almost adoringly. Her face flushed red, as her eyes sparkled with adoration.
Staring at her other self, who was crying helplessly, she muttered softly while lovingly caressing her cheeks, “I guess… you lost then.”
Crack… Crack…. Boom!
Instantly the mirror world shattered. The trial… was completed.
On recovering herself, she noticed she was directly transported to the location of the next trial—the Castle Of The Erased.
She had turned back to Emlyn once more.
Her mind wandered to what had just transpired with her other self, had she revealed herself too early? She pondered.
After all, despite not being able to directly interfere with the trials, Zero was still there and knew everything that transpired between her and her other self.
“Zero?” she called out softly.
“Yes?” he replied indifferently.
“Can you keep a secret?”
“No. It's against the bureau's code of conduct.”
Dina chuckled, “Very well then, by all means, please deliver to Jackson my message. Tell him this: the one who troubles you is no more and that I'm now more than capable of flawlessly completing this job.”
“I will do as you say, Dina.”
“Very good.”
She smiled mysteriously, things were going just as planned.