"Slack souled, Sloth told. Slack mold, Sloth told. Slipping kind, Sloth mind. For there is sloth grind and Sloth mind, We are the Sloth kind. "

John turned his head in the direction of the sound. Only for him to find that the sound was coming from nowhere.

No. That wasn't entirely accurate. The sound was coming from the shadows that surrounded John.

"The hopeless never speak a peep. For they do not leave the deep."

And then John was falling. He was bulleting towards a bottom that he didn't even know existed.

THUNK!

The ground was pitch black and spongy. John looked around himself as she touched the ground.

Where am I?

There was only darkness. In every direction John looked, he saw nothing but an all-consuming shadow.

Shit. I'm going insane, aren't I?

These hallucinations. Sloth. It was madness. ________ death had driven him to madness.

A dark light shined upon the darkness. It cut through the lightlessness that had covered everything and outlined the shape of the world.

John lay at a crossroads. There were two paths. One was thorny and bright. And the other was gloomy and clear. John pulled himself to his feet. John didn't know why. But for some reason, he felt the urge to go down the thorny path.

That was where he was supposed to go. That's where he should go. That's what John felt in his soul.

John pulled himself to his feet. He walked in the direction of the thorny path.

I'm tough. The thorns won't even pierce me.

John's foot landed.

Lightning bolts of pain shocked John's nerves. The pain was so bad that it covered his whole body. It was like a thousand nails scratching at every bit of his skin.

FUCK!

John ripped his foot off the thorny path. Blood was dripping from it. This time, there was no ________ to heal him.

John turned his head in the other direction. The gloomy path. The clear path.

The easy path.

I'll go that way.

John walked towards that path with a slight limp. The walk was easy and the walk was quick. Nothing came in the way of John walking that Path. The worst that John would encounter would be an occasional long branch from a tall tree. It would reach out to John and try its hardest to touch him, but John would push the Branch to the side and Keep on moving.

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The gloomy path had a slight incline to it. So, as he walked this path, he would get higher and higher into the sky.

John walked this path for a couple of hours. Until finally, after all that time, he found himself at the edge of a cliff.

Sitting on this cliff with her legs dangling off the side and a slight smile on her face was a small girl. She had brown hair that was tied into two balls at her head. She wore a long black dress. Shadows seemed to flicker and bend around her.

"I guessed you'd walk this way. The thorny path hurts. But this. This Slothful road. That's the best way to go."

John just looked at her.

"Are you a hallucination?"

Sloths head snapped back to John.

"Whatdidyousay?" She spoke with the cadence of a jet engine.

"Are you a hallucination?" John asked with a slightly accusatory tone.

For a moment, Sloth paused. Her eyes were misty as if she was in contemplation.

Sloths shook her head.

"No. I'm not a hallucination. But I'm also not completely real. But I am just a little bit real."

John narrowed his eyes.

"Then what are you?"

Sloth smile widened.

"I'm Sloth."

"But that doesn't matter. Let's focus on you not me. Do you know where you are? Do you truly know what this place means?" Sloth asked

John furrowed his brows.

"It's a cliff," John said

Sloth shook her head.

"No. It's not a cliff. It's a choice."

She gestured to the cliff.

"You can leap down that cliff right now. And then you won't have to face it. All that terror. All those memories. The construct of pain that you've built for yourself." She then gestured to the hill. "Or you can fall back and roll down the hill. You might be rolling for hours. And chances are you'll get bruised up on the way down. And once you finish rolling. You'll fall into the bright land of thorns. They'll pierce you. And the memories. The old pain...."

Sloth turned back to look at the horizon. Just peaking over the edge of the world was a pitch-black sun.

"The pain will immerse you. And you'll have to either drown or grow gills. But if you take the cliff. You can escape all that. You can leave all this pain behind."

John looked at Sloth. The heroes weren't supposed to help the villains. But there was a good beyond a hero. A good greater than all. A saint...

John had killed a Saint once.

________ was dead. John couldn't take it. He just couldn't. ________ wasn't supposed to die. John turned his head away from the pain.

"I don't want to suffer. I don't want to drown."

John stepped towards the cliff.

Sloth's smile widened to absurd proportions.

"You know. I really do love hugs." Sloth said

"So do it. Fall. Embrace me."

John looked at Sloth. Something about what she was saying made him want to go the other way. But... _______ was dead. ________ was dead. John couldn't accept that.

He needed a way out.

"I will." John stepped off the edge.

He spun through the air as he fell. He turned to look up at Sloth. Her eyes were misty.

It was almost like she was crying.

Doesn't matter. This'll all be over soon.

.

…

...

...…

Joe had his fists clenched. His eyes were sharp with focus as he fought with a creature that could almost be compared to a living mountain.

But even with such a focused gaze he still captured something horrible that was in the background.

A small dot falling from a large building. Joe turned his head in the direction of the dot. There were no figures on the top of the building. So Joe knew that he wasn't pushed.

That meant...

That meant...

"Honey. Could you handle the dragon? I've got to go deal with something." John said

A devious smile appeared on Cassandra's face.

"Sure thing honey-sugar-munchkins." She said

"If it were any other time, I would chide you for that," Joe said.

And then he was gone.

.

…

....

...….

As John fell, things warbled and shifted. They bent, and then the world around John shattered.

He was falling down a skyscraper. He was plummeting head first.

This was the real world. It wasn't a hallucination.

John saw something.

A familiar face.

What did I do?

Horror stabbed into John's gut like a knife.