1-8; Black Friday

Before we knew it, we had emerged from a pitch black pool somewhere else.

"Damn... I thought we were going to die..." I had to say.

Lolita just stared at me, then swam ahead.

I sighed, following her. Before long, we were forced to the top of the black liquid, fully able to stand and everything. A lone woman stood in what was assumed to be the center of the pool of black liquid... but something was off about her... I looked at her closely and it was revealed to me that her dress WAS the eternal black pool. Her skin tight dress also seemed to be connected to her body. Her hair was black and flaring like a flame, wavering and spewing calmly. Her eyes were black, looking exactly as if they were eye sockets when in actuality, they were her eyeballs that were pitch black. Her arms were crossed in the shape of an X over her chest and out of her abdomen protruded 2 glowing objects floating above them; on the left, a heart, and on the right, a soul.

I looked at Lolita and she looked back at me... I figured we were thinking the same thing.

'What the hell?!'

The woman glared down at the both of us and smiled slightly. "Khrona... Girl... How are you?"

Lolita puffed out her cheeks. "My name is Lolita, okay?" She gripped her umbrella tightly.

The woman giggled a bit, "How cute... You're offended. Obviously, if I did not refer to you by name, your significance is minuscule here, wouldn't you agree?" She giggled once again.

Lolita and I were irked at that comment and we were ready to attack her. Lolita raised her umbrella to the woman. "It was a mistake to piss us off, madam."

The woman frowned and from the black liquid came skinny, but thick tentacle-like tendrils that ensnared the both of us completely, leaving only our heads to breath. "Belligerent meatbags! This place is made completely of my manifestations... Everything I have devoured here is now a manifestation of myself!" The tendrils pulled us downward into the liquid to our necks, again leaving us only our heads to breath. "Truculent little specks... Though it is quite impolite of me not to introduce myself. I am... Corruption."

I quirked my head as much as I could confined in the liquid, compelled to ask her, "Corruption of what?" I Knew I was a corrupt being but... Not to this extent.

She said to me, "I am the corruption of your heart, soul and mind, dear. I've been eating away at you for years. You remember those hidden and bottled up emotions you have? Yes well... I am the leaving, you could say, of them. Mostly Pain, Hate and Anger. Your heart is most delicious... Your heartbreak and pain are just extravagant! It was like a smorgasbord!" She licked her lips, drooling just a bit.

I was speechless... so she continued on. "I also devoured your soul... Your reminiscent thoughts of happiness that can't be achieved again turned into sadness and hate... and I devoured them. Your mind... The best of all... So many conflicts... So many aspects... Everything that encumbers your thoughts, be it the 'other sides of you' or your negative outlook on things that should be positive, like love and socialization, I've devoured those!! Ha ha ha... But unfortunately, somehow you always overcome complete corruption from me with thoughts of others... Kindness... Sweetness... Thoughtfulness... Selflessness... Always destroying my manifesting corruption! As of recently, it's been killing me off more than usual... especially since you met that... girl." Her hair flared up and she grinded her teeth. "Though... if I kill you both while you're in here... I can stop you and take total control! Wreak havoc! Cause chaos!!" The liquid around us became denser and thicker. It was starting to crush us.

I said to her, "As... much as I like havoc and chaos and the like... I don't think I will enjoy you killing me and Lolita, so... I'll have to stop you."

She was silent for a moment, but after a few seconds she exploded with laughter. "Oh... child... How amusing, you are... How do you plan to stop me when you cannot move? I could just kill you now..."

I smiled at her. "I know I can't kill my corruption, for everyone has their own corruption in some way or form, but it will not be hard to stabilize it with my own realization of what to do about it."

Her frown turned into a face of pure hate. "GAH!! Pusillanimous cur!! You shan't be suppressing what I've devoured so much of! I will not allow it!!" The liquid compressed around us, tighter and tighter, it could be felt pressing severely close to our bones... but to my expectations, it stopped. The liquid was still, lightening up on us. Corruption had a confused look on her face now, her flaming hair settling down a bit. "What? What is thi-- Why are you not writhing in pain? Why are your insides not being crushed? WHY AREN'T YOU DEAD?!"

I simply shook my head, pulled myself from the liquid along with Lolita and smiled. "You thrive on my bad vibes, right? My negativity? Well, what happens if there is none? Your power decreases, right? You shrivel into a speck, right? A minute being with no power and no control? An insignificant speck? Tell me if I'm headed the right way on this."

Lolita smiled, trying not to laugh.

Corruption's sea of blackness was gradually reverting back into a small pond of her own corruption. She was breathing heavily and her body slumped over. "We... We can do this for eternity, boy... I will always consume you! Eat you from within yourself! No matter how many 'positive thoughts' you have, you will never destroy me!"

I had to laugh at her. "It's obvious that your power is nothing more than what I make of it. No matter how much you expand, I will always put you back to this tiny puddle. Isn't that just dandy?"

She hissed at me, clawing violently in my general direction. "I'll claw your eyes out!! I'll shred your esophagus!! I will tear the flesh straight from your body, make it into a rope and use it to rip out that horrible tongue of yours!! GRAAAH!!!"

Lolita shot a missile at her, and Corruption exploded.

She lay flat on her face, burnt to a crisp. "Foul bitch..."

Lolita and I flipped her off simultaneously and began our path elsewhere into the nothingness of the light.