Chapter 42

The woman with the black hood stepped out wearing a strange strap-on with two black attachments of massive size. Even from the distance, she could make out the features of the heads and veins that ran through. Donna didn’t know where she’d heard the word, but must’ve known. There was no need to guess from the leather she could see that her attacker was definitely wearing one.

She stopped several feet away as Donna looked at the hood and heard the voice come from all around. “Fine, bitch. I’m no longer playing nice with you.”

Donna was tempted to ask how anyone could call what she did nice, but instead chose to speak her words carefully. “Show your face, or are you afraid?”

Laughter erupted as fingers pulled the edges of the hood to reveal Donna’s face. Her attacker was herself, but that didn’t make any sense. She had already dealt with everything that could do with herself.

It had to be a trick as she stared at the perfect image of her own face and eyes. “Might as well show me who you really are.”

The distance was closed rapidly as hands dug into shoulders and knee brought up between legs and connected with her lips. She cried out as pain coursed through her body and felt the impact as she was thrown to the ground. Laughter came as the woman kicked her side hard enough to cause a scream from fresh pain that tore through her body.

Hands grabbed hair as she pulled her head to look into their shared eyes. “No tricks, Donna. I’m you.” She grinned as her voice took on a taunting nature. “That’s not quite true. I’m the better parts of yourself.”

Donna’s eyes widened as hands flung out wildly to break the grip. “Why are you doing this?”

A harsh laugh as one hand released to slap her hard in the face and cried out over the echo of flesh colliding with flesh. “I’m punishing you.” Her hands moved out to stop the impact, but another hard slap came. “You’ve stolen them all away. Who do you think you are to steal from me?”

Donna saw stars as another slap came harder and understood who her attacker was. It was the dark thing, and the jungle come for her at last. What she saw was the darkest parts of herself, those capable of doing anything.

Another slap was coming and wasn’t going to stop it. Her fingers clenched to fist as more stars appeared before her eyes. Donna’s vision blurred as both fists came up to connect with the soft tissue of the neck. A muffled groan cried out as her darker self pulled away to cover her throat, and she stared with hatred through eyes beginning to tear.

Fist sought the hard impact of nose and made contact as something warm fell onto her hands. Blood flowed down along with the tears as she backed away. Donna rose with no sense of the pain fading, but she bore it all.