Tom felt strange like he was free falling through an endless dark void.

There was no light, sound, all there was is complete emptiness, time felt numb with him having no idea the length of time passing.

Tom began to feel this is what his remaining existence will be, experiencing utter nothingness until the person he was eventually became extinguished from existence.

His memories were already beginning to fade, he had already forgotten his parents, childhood, friends, he even felt his own name starting to slip from his mind, only pure stubbornness to hold onto his identity kept that from going.

However, that was when he noticed it, he felt for the first time a presence, something other than him and he knew it was angry.

It was impatient, it did not expect him to last this long and it disliked that he was resisting stubbornly.

Yet the existence did not expect this to trigger something in Tom, the will to not give it the satisfaction of winning.

Thus from that moment onwards Tom felt himself constantly fighting the unknown being.

Now that he had noticed it, Tom began to feel the oddity of the numbness in his entire being, he realised whatever the existence was, it was a predator, one that had been targeting him from the beginning.

Whatever it was doing before had seemed to dull his feelings, making him far too easily let go of elements that he recognised were essential parts that made up his soul, his very being.

Elements of his being that he would have previously held onto at all costs. Nonetheless, he now felt a strange detachment of these concepts, that his family, friends, loved ones, his likes, dislikes, hobbies, that none of it mattered, that it never did mean anything to him, that he should just let it all go and give it to the existence that continues to loom all around him.

Yet this only seemed to let off a hidden spark in Tom, a deep seated anger, he wanted to feel a sense of loss for what it had stolen from him, but there was just nothing.

He felt hollow, but that was wrong, his existence just felt so empty, like he was the strange one for even thinking to care about this.

That was when he heard it for the first time.

“You cannot win.” A screech of whispers filled his mind over and over, he held little recollection of his life but  recognised this was the most disturbing chorus of noise he had ever heard.

“I know. But you won’t either…” Tom found himself responding with determination.

The existence seemed incensed by this, like it was the first time it had been defied in such a way.

And that was when the tug of war between the creature and Tom continued, with Tom playing defence and the entity continuing to take more and more away from Tom.

At first Tom tried to defend all of his remaining memories fiercely, fighting every bit of action from the entity.

Yet, he soon learned this was not viable, there was simply too much of the entity to contend against, it felt similar to being outnumbered on all sides whilst having to defend from numerous fronts.

Whenever Tom would split his attention to focus on defending against the entity in one area, the existence would launch pincher attacks towards the unguarded areas leading him to lose and more and more of himself to the entity as he struggled to hold onto what he had left.

Tom realised he did not have the means to fight the entity in an equal battle, or rather he never did, even when he was at his strongest never mind after the entity had taken so much from him.

Knowing it was hopeless to try and beat the entity at its own game, Tom instead adopted a new strategy, born out of pure stubbornness to delay and frustrate the entity as much as possible.

Tom knew to do that he had to willingly sacrifice parts of himself to the entity, he could not hold onto everything, so instead evaluated what he felt was most to least important, he would leave the least important memories less guarded to tempt the entity to focus on them.

And it did. Thus, an unknown amount of time continued as Tom was whittled down more and more but remained in a constant fight with the entity, through the constant battles against the entity Tom gained experience and a depthness to his being that wasn’t there before.

He did not know how to explain it, but he felt that he was more solid somehow, that despite having less quantity than before due to losing parts of himself to the entity through constantly tempering himself against the entity, Tom felt that the quality of his self has experienced a qualitative change.

He felt that he could do more with less of himself than before, and this ended up prolonging his struggle against the entity even more.

The entity grew more and more frustrated as time went on, it felt irritated that this time its prey was proving to be so bothersome to consume.

Tom felt satisfied from being able to detect this from the entity, finding himself a husk of the person he once was, he found he lacked a direction, a purpose, yet the day he discovered the entity that was consuming him that spark was reignited.

He had no idea where or what the entity even was.

Tom memories were beginning to grow blurry, fragmented but he had a strong precognition there was nothing like this strange entity in his world.

He had no idea how he ended up in this situation but he became even further intent on frustrating the entity.

Like this the stand off between the entity and Tom continued, with the entity consuming more and more of Tom but growing more and more dissatisfied, impatient, that was when the entity finally made a mistake and suddenly Tom found he wasn’t as alone as he had thought.

Tom was focusing on defending himself from the entity when he abruptly felt something different.

A gap, a breach, a hole that the entity had briefly left open and with it an opportunity.

Tom saw a light, he felt the presence of something, a feeling similar to himself, at that moment Tom didn’t mind sacrificing more pieces of himself, he just had to reach that light.

That was when the entity noticed where his attention was, and for the first time Tom felt an emotion he thought was foreign to the entity.

Fear.

“No… impossible… how does another remain?” The whispers grew more and more intense as the chilling voice of the entity once again made itself known, but Tom was already zoning out as he desperately focused on the light, trying to reach it.

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The entity tried to stop him, seemingly deeply distressed at the thought of him reaching the light.

However, Tom used all the tricks he had learned from fighting against the entity, he distracted, separated, sacrificed parts of himself, utilising all of his capabilities to delay the entity as he battled hard against the entity to reach that light, and just as he thought he may not make it, suddenly he found a voice in his mind.

One unfamiliar. One that was not the entity.

“Hello is anyone there?” An unfamiliar feminine voice entered his mind.

“Yes… are you real?” Tom couldn’t help but voice aloud, even now he couldn’t quite believe in meeting another existence other than the entity.

For all he knew this was another one of the schemes that the entity employed for him to lower his guard so that it can consume him.

Yet, for some reason he did not think this was the case.

Why was the entity afraid?

“Huh… so I am not imagining things? May I ask your name, my name is Zoe I think… I can’t remember much…” The voice continued, the gentle feminine voice seemed to have a calming affect on him as he felt the most relaxed he had since arriving in this dark, void of nothingness.

“My name is Tom… do you know how we got…” Tom was about to continue when he felt it again, and somehow this time it felt more, but less at the same time.

The whispers grew louder and louder, disturbing both him and Zoe, “How did you let this one disturb the consumption of this one…”

Another chorus of voices arrived in retaliation, “This one is not dealt with either, the others are digesting whilst they remain whole…”

The screeching, horrifying sounding whispers continued, despite him suspecting to not even have eardrums, or even a body anymore, Tom felt a splitting headache from the noise, or at least he felt what the feeling of one was like.

“Doesn’t matter… we share… consume together…” The entities whispers finally sounded in sync seeming to compromise.

Tom felt fear but trusting in his instincts he knew something was off, was I mistaken?

He thought the entity sounded concerned, afraid even at the thought of him going to the light…

Yet, why… unless, it was not afraid of them alone, but what if… they were together…

“Zoe listen to me… you know how that strange thing has been eating away at us? I know you must have experienced the same thing… I think we can beat it, but only together…” Tom found himself quickly voicing, worried that Zoe would not trust him as he tried to come up with a reasonable sounding explanation.

Yet it seemed Zoe was far more adaptable than he thought, or rather was forced too, probably after suffering through a similar hopeless experience like him for an unknown period of time.

“You don’t need to explain… I was ready to give up soon before hearing your voice, I have lost so much, I feel I have nothing left but my name, Tom, please just make this worthwhile, all the pain, all the emptiness of losing myself, was it worth it to stubbornly hold on so long? To not just give in…” Zoe voice grew lighter and lighter as she continued, almost sounding like sobs at the end but Tom knew it was just an illusion.

She felt just an empty as him, she just wanted to try to feel something, to know what they were doing was going to matter.

“Alright then so I think we need too…” Tom tried to explain but Zoe, him instinctively already knew what needed to be done, and before Tom could word out how they would approach this, he felt a power, energy pour into him like nothing before.

It felt foreign, strange, it was a different kind of feeling than the one he felt of his being growing more dense, stronger, if that was quality, then this was pure quantity, and for the first time he felt an abundance of energy, to the point he felt that he could tear apart the entity right now, but he knew this was merely an illusion brought about the sudden increase of power.

Tom felt emotion for the first time in a long time, excitement, that quickly turned into confusion when he felt a sudden surge of memories.

He suddenly felt different. There was more to him, to them than before.

He was Tom. She was Zoe. He quickly figured it out, Zoe has poured her very being into him, but that didn’t mean she had disappeared.

On the contrary he felt they were both alive, like they had become something more, something unique.

It was when he felt the sudden feeling of pain as he realised they were not alone.

The entity, or is now the entities, were again trying to continue devouring their beings, only now it felt far less subtle, blatant even, Tom was resisting before but not on anger or hatred but more a stubbornness in his very soul, he felt numb to negative emotions such as anger but for the first time he felt the very wrongness, invasive meaning behind the entities actions, like whatever power it used to manipulate him had become ineffective.

And it led to a foreign feeling, one he never had since arriving in this strange space of nothingness, pure abhorrence towards the entity.

Therefore for the first time in their meeting, he did not play defensive, feeling the weight of Zoe’s soul supporting him instead he did what the entity had been doing to them, he felt himself figuratively opening wide and preceding to take a big bite out of the entity, and for the first time he encountered the entity he heard a scream.

It was a horrifying, guttural sound that sent shivers through his very being, however despite him figuratively not even having a body anymore he felt himself smiling.

“So you do feel pain…” Tom muttered ignoring the threats from the entity as he found the fear he felt for it suddenly dissipating.

He continued to bask in the warm feeling that was from Zoe’s soul, she was different from him and he knew it, her soul felt bright and full of energy, power that drove him forward.

Though he knew despite the strength and power from her soul it would up to him to do the dirty work.

“Is it over? Can I go home now?” A weak soft voice suddenly emerged in his mind as he felt Zoe weakly murmur.

“It’s fine you can rest now… I will handle this.” Tom found himself replying, he did not why he felt such strong feelings to a person he just met but the sudden intimate, protective feelings he felt over Zoe seemed similar to a brothers urge to defend his little sister.

It seemed his words were all that was needed for Zoe to finally relax and drift off to a type of slumber, allowing herself to be protectively embraced by his soul.

“Now where were we…” Tom found himself voicing as the entities felt a sudden chill from his words.

Despite Zoe withdrawal into her soul, the strange connection they formed remained and with it the bursts of vitality and power that it represented.

One the entities seemed unable to match, one they seemed utterly befuddled about.

“You represent opposites… an impossibility… how can one of light and dark combine?” The entities shrieked in anger and disbelief.

“Who knows? I got to admit my curiosity of whatever it is happening but I despise the very presence of whatever you are and leaving you things alive for a second longer is taking every fibre of my being…” Tom found himself monologuing as he snapped out of it.

He was curious about whatever this light and dark nonsense was, he didn’t even know how he found himself here but what he did know was that the entities have now locked themselves in an inescapable battle.

A battle he wanted to take every bit of advantage of whilst he had the chance.

The entities continued to put up a struggle, and Tom clearly felt its superiority whether it came to both quality and how they utilised its strange energy, he found himself tricked, trapped and outwitted constantly in the way they manipulated their energy to take bites out of his soul and defend against him trying to do the same.

Yet he found this all proved utterly worthless, simply because whatever energy Zoe contributed provided a constant source of nourishment and healing that repaired the damage the entities caused and seemed to bolster his defences significantly.

He quickly discovered that the entity required far more effort to devour Zoe’s energy and the properties of her energy seemed to combine, merge with his own, covering up both of their weaknesses.

If before Zoe was able to defend well against the entities onslaught, she seemed to lack a means of taking the fight back and could only slowly be devoured, however he clearly did not lack these problems at all, he was able to do exactly what the entity did to him and with Zoe’s support replenishing his reserves he finally could take the opportunity to bring the fight to the entity.

Thus no matter how deadly, conniving, cunning the entity was, it found itself slowly devoured until nothing was left.

It continued to threaten him in the beginning, trying to strike fear into his very soul like it did previously but eventually when it found these threats ignored, with it continuing to lose more and more of itself, these threats turned into pleads of mercy and Tom found even a creature of darkness is afraid of death.

He had no idea how he suddenly knew what it was, but he felt a sudden invigoration in his being, like he grew stronger, much stronger, and then a click happened as patches of memories of the entities filled his soul and then his mind went black.