Lightsdeath’s chuckle was a hubristic as mine. I delighted in her.
“You think I, a light that could drown you in a flare, would be afraid of the dark?”
We both paced the edges of our platform, sharing wicked, taunting smiles, like a dare for one of us to somehow cross the distance. I remembered this was a game. A test. I didn’t know the rules yet, but I was already having so much fun I didn’t really care.
I wanted to possess this creature. To make her bend each ray to the will of my shadows.
“Come to me, then,” I coaxed.
Lightsdeath studied the bridge. “I can only see the tiles of light on your side.”
“I can only see the tiles of dark on yours.”
It was clear then. We had to trust in each other’s direction to make it to the middle. The landing of neither dark nor light. The space between us was a shifting threshold, a place where contrasts collided and refused to harmonize.
“You first,” I said. Lightsdeath faced me. “A shift to your right—there. Now forward; that is your first tile.”
She didn’t immediately take the step off her platform. Her glowing silver eyes studied me intently, so hypnotizing I wanted to crawl the distance to bask in them deeper. Only to tear out the light in them.
“To your left—yes. Then forward is your first tile,” she instructed.
“I said, you first.”
“Now who’s afraid?”
My lips curled cruelly. “Together, then.”
“I think that’s the point.”
Either one or both of us could end up plunging into the black waters below. Was there a prize for deception? One of us successfully tricking the other and making it to the middle alone?
“Ready?” she called with an edge of playfulness in her tone.
Yes I was.
My leg lifted as hers did, tension tingled from my toes to my damn head, and I couldn’t be sure if I’d be thrilled or enraged if she’d tricked me and I went plummeting.
In unison we took our first long step forward.
Both of us remained on the same level.
We shared a smile, baring teeth.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” she sang.
“Likewise.”
“Your next step is forward,” she supplied.
“Yours is to the right.”
Once again our stares locked, heating with passion every time we stood here to test each other.
We took our steps… and both remained in the game.
“Make no mistake, I only want to reach you so I can smother you,” I said darkly.
“I’ll only let you reach me so I can banish you. You think yourself my equal, Nightsdeath? I am the source; you are the absence. Without me—the light—you—the dark—are nothing but emptiness.”
