“Are you stupid?” The voice of Cedric’s shadow came from behind Dyllan, accompanied with a derisive scoff. He spoke with a sweetened tone, but a rhythmic and cutting cadence. “No, wait. I take that back. Trusting a pathological liar because they’re a pathological liar isn’t stupid, it’s clinically insane.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Dyllan stood up and turned around to face Cedric’s shadow. “And I think you know that.”
“Then what, pray tell, did you mean?”
“I meant…” Dyllan walked up to Cedric’s shadow, placing himself directly in front of him - his body language confrontational, but devoid of hostility. “…that I don’t believe your Cunning is the selfish thing you make it out to be.”
“Of course you don’t.” Cedric’s shadow sneered and leaned forward, looking Dyllan directly in the eye. Dyllan would never hurt any part of Cedric, and Cedric’s shadow knew it. “Because you - are a naive fool, and taking advantage of people like you, is what people like me do. We trick you into thinking we’re good people, and then we use that to manipulate you. That’s why we’re called manipulators.”
“Well, if you’re so manipulative, then why even have this argument?” Dyllan took a few steps back. Confrontation had led to escalation, and Dyllan found that escalation never went anywhere good. “Why not just quietly let me continue believing you to be innocent?”
“Because you’re stubborn.” Dyllan was backing off, physically and emotionally. Cedric’s shadow could have used this to push forward, to take control of the flow of the conversation. But he didn’t. He just settled back down, and returned to leaning against the same thing he’d been leaning against since Dyllan entered this Nightmare. “If I let this go, you’ll eventually start asking questions - which will lead to you realizing I’m actually a horrible person. But as long as I argue back, you’ll just dig your heels in and double down - no matter how much contradictory evidence piles up.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“But to what end? How do you benefit? You can only really capitalize on the groundwork you lay here when you’re awake, and when you’re awake you’re held back by Cedric’s moral compass.” Dyllan paused, briefly. “It can’t be because you just find it funny, your ego holds too much of Cedric’s love of mischief for any to be left over in you.”
“Easy. When I wake up, my ego’s problems become my problems, and I’d rather not deal with emotional trauma born from dumb, dumber, and dumbest making poor life choices.” Cedric’s shadow rolled his eyes. “Are you done?”
“Not yet.” Dyllan smiled. “Once we’d realized you were there, we decided to call a truce. So why stick around? Cedric is risk averse, and prefers to hang back and observe. So if our company is risky or unpleasant, why not just disappear back into the darkness? You could easily just watch over us from the shadows, couldn’t you?”
“Because you’re morons that can’t be left unsupervised for a single picosecond!” Cedric’s shadow threw his hands up in the air. “Are you happy now!? Is that what you wanted to hear? That Cedric secretly thinks you’re an idiot?” He shot a glare at his ego, who was now standing upright and facing him. “And what the hell are you looking at?”
“I’m… not scared.” Cedric’s ego spoke hesitantly, and with a twinge of shock in his voice.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah… You aren’t afraid of me. I know. Nobody believes you though.” Cedric’s shadow seemed to almost relax, in response to what he perceived as hostility from his ego. “You’re obviously terrified of your shadow.”
“No, not ‘of you’… I’m just… not scared.” Cedric’s ego looked down at his own hands, and his own heart. “This whole situation is horrifying, and I’ve been running through a lot of unpleasant emotions. Many of which were relatives of fear, like anxiety… but…” He looked back up at his shadow, an almost pitying look on his face.
For a second Cedric’s shadow froze stiff, speaking with a hiss in his voice as the tension settled down into aggression. “Shut up.”
“No fear. I haven’t felt any fear. I should be scared, but I’m not.” Cedric’s ego’s voice started to waver. “Is that because -”
“I said -” Cedric’s shadow bolted towards his ego. “- shut up!” He grabbed his ego by the collar and lifted him off the ground, his voice trembling with a trembling, insecure hostility. “Just… shut up! Stop talking!”
“It’s because you’re scared, isn’t it?”