DDP - Exit Journey Part 02

I reach a deep plateau. I set down my backpack to rest.
The cavern is huge. 

The cave is empty. The ground is dusty. No footprints except mine.

I think to myself, I don't remember having ever gone this deep before, yet it seems familiar.

Then, I see something: an object.
I move closer. The object becomes clear.

A full-length mirror.

The mirror is covered in soot and dust.

I look into the mirror. What I see sends shivers up my spine.

Staring back at me is a dark reflection of myself.
The reflection scowls at me, as if to taunt me into a fight.

Despising what I see, I lower my eyes and look away.

I turn and walk back to grab my backpack so that I can leave this dark mirror and this part of my cave.

Then, the dark reflection steps out of the mirror and sets foot into the cavern, his shadowy footprints now joining mine on the dusty floor.

He moves, stealth-like, toward me. I don't notice it until he is right beside me. I turn to face him just as his shadowy fist connects with my left eye. I stumble backward. My eye immediately begins to swell.

However, I refuse to fight him. I cannot engage my darker self in some, Jekyll-and-Hyde-type struggle of wills. This is not a battle of force and might.

Before I can gain my footing, his dark fist flies toward my other eye.

I fall to my knees in pain.

Both eyes are swollen. My vision is impaired. I cannot see.

No. I will not fight you.

I lift my head, ready to let out a scream, a cry, a prayer --- anything.
However, before I can speak, this darker self pummels my jaw.
Blood flies from my mouth. I cannot speak.

As I spit blood onto the cavern floor, he drives a knee into the side of my head.

I crumple to my elbows and knees. My head is throbbing. I cannot think.

Suddenly, a boot connects with my mid-section. I fall to the floor, the wind knocked out of me. I cannot breathe.

I cannot... I will not... fight you with force.

He picks me up and throws me into the cave wall. I collapse to the ground, rocks and debris falling on top of me.

His attack has been strategic:
I cannot see.
I cannot speak.
I cannot think.
I cannot breathe.

Covered in dust and rubble, a panicked thought invades my mind: Have I descended this far only to lose a battle with my darker self?

A cough. More blood spits out.

My darker self paces back and forth, fists clenched.

I cannot overcome him.
Then, a moment of clarity...

Through my swollen eyes, I spot the dark mirror. My hand feels a large rock. My fingers wrap around the stone.
If...I...can...only...destroy...the dark mirror.

In a last ditch effort of strength and will, I grab the rock, pull myself to my feet and sprint past my dark shadow.

With all my might, I hurl the rock into the mirror and it shatters into pieces.
The shards crumble to the ground.

Silence.

I look around. I am alone. My dark shadow is gone.

Thank God.

Then, I hear a rattling. The mirror shards are shaking. I look down at the scattered, broken pieces.

What I see terrifies me: within the fragments of the mirror are countless dark reflections staring back at me, each shadow a different aspect of my unredeemed soul.

Each dark characteristic arises out of the broken pieces.
This dark army of my soul encircles me.

Terror overwhelms me.
If I was unable to fight one dark reflection, how will I now defeat all of these ghostly aspects of my soul?

(TO BE CONTINUED...)