//------------------------------// // (16) Chasing Shadows // Story: Rorschach in Equestria // by Ex-Nihilos //------------------------------// Chapter 16: Chasing Shadows My blood chilled and my heart quickened. This thing had spoken my name, it knew my identity. I moved again to get up but the weight on my chest pressed me back down so all I could do was barely lift my chin up towards the dark figure that looked down upon me. My sight still remained blurred and my mask felt heavy and cumbersome. I was having difficulty breathing through my face, and this seemed to please the figure as I could barely make out the twitch of his lips as it formed a cruel smile. I couldn’t understand what was happening, I was panicking but my body didn’t react to my commands to move, to get up and face this thing. No not a thing, this was a man, I knew it was yet I could not see his face. I knew his voice though; I have heard it before, so many times in my former life. Why couldn’t I remember whose voice it was? I knew it but couldn’t place a name. I knew the voice but when I tried to see a face, all I received was a blur. The figure chuckled, a cruel laugh that took delight in my struggling. The familiar voice spoke then but it sounded distorted and uneven, syllables too stressed to be normal for human speech, “Walter, Walter, Walter. You disapPoint me; here I thought for sUrE that it would be so much hArdEr to gET your at-tention.” He hefted up the branch that he had bludgeoned me with and smirked, “But…. I supPOse it’s like thEy say. Sometimes all you nEeD is a really big stick.” He looked down upon me, the glint in his eyes showing his disappointment, “To get… the point…. aCross.” The shadow thing disdainfully tossed the branch back onto the soft ground, and pointed a blunt finger at me, only inches away from my face. “You… Have been IGnoring me, Mr. Kovacs. I do not like being ignored.” My confusion quickly turned to dread as what he meant sunk in. This voice was from my past, I was sure of it, but now, I realize how recent this voice has spoken to me. This dark figure was the strange voice that has plagued my mind. He was the one speaking to me from beyond that dreaded sound that crippled my thoughts. This man was the voice coercing my thoughts and influencing my actions. He was the one that has been tormenting me. Somehow the dark figure sensed my insight and smiled, “ThEre we are, that rEcoGnition I was hoping for. You have been bOtherSome as of lAte, reFusing to listen to rEason, and preTending to be someThing you are not.” “What?” I managed to weakly rasp out to the taunting thing. It laughed in my face in responce, “You’Ve been lYing to yourSelf, Mr. Kovacs. I have seen you with those…. colorFul thIngs. You, acting like a pErson, and here I thought you didn’t lie. Did you hope to fOol yourSelf, thinkIng you can fit in to this plAce?” He smirked then and went on with his biting tone, “You’re just a mad dog, Rorschach. A raBid animal begGing to be put down.” I try again to move myself, struggling against the invisible force keeping me down, and the mocking voice continued, “That makes you anGry doesn’t it? To be coMpared to a dog, but we both know it to be truE. A flEa ridDen mutt born in a cessPool who finds himself in someone eLse’s yard, it makes me wonder why the owNer has noT come out to put you out of your mIseRy yEt.” “Who are you?” I scowled back, trying my best to ignore the petty insults he spat. This man had a motive but it seemed he’d rather watch me squirm first. The reasons of why or how he was here were pressed into the back of my mind, however, by a single question: what did he want? “I?” The dark figure asks this question with some apprehension, as if it was something so obvious that I should already know about it, “I thought for sure you’d reCogNize me, but then agAin your mind has been going soft, that being the reason why you and I became at odds in oPinion on those colorFul thIngs.” “They’re… not things.” I tell him. “Oh?” Again the question seems foreign and strange to the dark figure, “Then what are they Mr. Kovacs? Certainly not human, no, you said so yourSelf that they were fAr too innoCent to be human. Without sin is what you think they are, am I right? And because of that, you grasp at straws, trying to find their faults, being blind to the oBvious.” The obvious? “Why are you here?” I ask him harshly. “Hm? I’ve always been there, Walter. I never left, but was foRced to bide my time watChing you make a mocKery of yourSelf.” He sees my hand get closer to his leg and promptly steps on it. I cringe as his boot digs into my hand. “You think that you can make a life for yourSelf here? You’re a broKen thing, Mr. Kovacs. A twiSted and gnarled old muRderer is what you are. How often have you looked upon these thIngs you call inNocent and thought of ways to kill them? StaRed at the most miNiscUle of objects and imagine what damAge you could do with them. Yes,” he hissed, “you think about it all the time and yet the man who never compromises refUses to act.” He moved his boot off my hand and sighed, “Well then, I guess I have to correct it for you.” “No!” I shouted as I felt his hand grab at my mask and rip from its place. With my mask gone my vision is clear and I can see my attacker in the full moonlight. My eyes widened. The dark figure, he looked just like me.         His jacket, the scarf, and his pants, they were exactly like my own. I was staring back at a reflection of Rorschach down to matching blots of grime that marred my coat, and now he was finishing the mockery. The dark figure placed the mask over his face and found that it fit perfectly for his face. Reaching down next to me he took my hat and mockingly set it upon his head like a crown.         “I’m here to put things bAck in order, to corRect your mistakes. UnderStand that I’m doIng this for your own good, Walter. Those colorFul thIngs, those small hOrses, they’ve seen your face and they know you too well. They have to be deaLt with, we both know iT, and if you won’t do it, I will.”         He smirked, “I’m going to ruin your shalLow little life, Mr. Kovacs, and you’re going to lie here and let me do it.”         He stood up and regarded me once more from his higher vantage point. The inkblot within the mask formed a cruel smile to show what lay beneath the guise. I heard him smirk again and I listened as his soft footsteps disappeared into the night. I continued to struggle, my heart racing at the thought of the danger that was approaching those that I’ve befriended. I chastise myself for allowing them to do so; no good could come of it and now they were in danger. From afar I hear the footsteps quicken to a run and the weight is lifted off my chest.         I shoot up and feel at my face, flesh and sweat. My face was gone, the identity of Rorschach had been taken from me and I was left as Walter Kovacs. I couldn’t dwell on the terrifying thought. I stood up shakily, still under the effects of whatever hex the other man used to keep me still. Wouldn’t do as he predicted, won’t lie here while he endangered the innocent, masquerading as me by stealing my face.         I follow the side of the building that I was behind, hugging the wall for support to get away from the cove that was no longer any sanctuary to me. The world spun around me and comforting shadows turned menacing to me. Clutching the corner of the wall I scanned the road in search of my enemy. There he was, turning the corner towards Carousel Boutique, he was walking again in the same way I did, with hands in his pockets. I sprinted after him, turning the corner sharply down the road he had taken. He was running again, I could hear his laughter against the howl of the wind as I ran after him. Down the road I nearly stumble and for a moment take my eyes off him. It was only for a second I turned away from him yet he was already at the boutique’s door. He turned slightly see me, the inkblot smile still on the mask as he took a hold of the door’s handle and opened it. I cursed these ponies and their trust to leave their doors open.         I start to run again after him as the door closes without a sound. I wasted no time following his example and instead broke the door’s lock as I forced it open with my shoulder. The door splintered and crashed as it swung inward. I scan around the boutique’s familiar downstairs but see no sign of the doppelganger. A shadows moves up the stairs and I’m already after it. He was upstairs, I knew it. He was going to kill Rarity.         I open the door to the drawing room, the same drawing room where I made the grisly killings of the diamond dogs. I step inside, my eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. A sound from further in the house catches my attention, and the distraction cost me. The door behind me slams on its own and I turn just in time see the dark figure’s fist meet my vision. I reel back from the strike and the intruder pressed with the attack. I feel a gloved hand tighten against my throat and I was pushed backwards, colliding with the array of mannequins and knocking the contents off the far shelf. For a moment my vision turns black but I will myself to keep awake and slowly I recover. I look up and see the fake Rorschach with a foot upon a chest that had been pulled forward to the center of the workshop. I recognize the trunk quickly. The doppelganger gestures to the trunk and speaks again in that taunting and strange tone of his, “She cleaNed it you know. Found the stAin and simply couldn’t let it sTay, but we both know it’s still thEre, the stAin left here will never waSh out.” He removes his foot from the chest and approaches me, “We both know what kind of thIng the one that liVes here is. PomPous, shAllow. She hasn’t experienced the burden of the world or understands the meaning of sufFering. Worst of all she thinks of herself as a ‘good person’, as someone worthY of aDmiration or resPect, how utTerly arRoGant.” I got back to my feet and felt the shelf behind me slightly rock, giving me an idea. I move to the shelf’s side and pull it towards me, bringing the great wooden shelf down with a crash. The dark figure reacts by jumping back out of the falling furniture’s path just as it came crashing down. A light was turned on from a nearby closed door but there was no time for another distraction. Taking my new advantage I lunge at the figure and he ducks out of the way, making me collide with the workbench.  In the darkness I saw a glint of light, a pair of shears lay near my hand. Picking it up I turn around and slash at the figure, he dodges quickly and smoothly, like a shadow. Each punch or slash I made met nothing and always he disappeared before I could fully grab him. Not once did he make a move to attack me, he merely grinned as I lunged at him, accidentally ripping up dresses and fabrics as I went.         “Too slow, Mr. Kovacs.” He mocks me as I miss again. Grabbing my arm the doppelganger forces me to lose my balance and collide with a large mirror. The cracks in the mirror made a spider’s web but through the blurry reflection I could see the shadow opening the window. I turned just in time to see him wave at me as he jumped out. I got out from under the mess and the door to the workshop opens.         A dishevel and shaking Rarity stands in the lit door frame. Her fearful eyes turn to horror as she saw the damage to the workshop, “What in the world!” she shouted with dismay, I didn’t care, that thing was still free. Ignoring the damage to the workshop I move to the window and force it open. Doing just as the shadow did I jump out, leaving behind the dismayed and shouting mare that was left with a destroyed livelihood and home. I had to stop that fake Rorschach before he did any more damage, before he could hurt someone.         I tumbled into the bins of garbage and land upon the unforgiving ground on my hands and knees. I jerk my head up just in time to see the shadow sliver away into another road. All the lights of the boutique were on now, making it easier for me to see the figure move. I give chase, ignoring the pain in my leg taken from the bad fall. There wasn’t time to slow down, not while he lay just out of my reach.         He ducks into Sugarcube corner, silently opening the door and closing it like a thief in the night, and I follow soon after, uncaring for the damage I’ve done to the door. A pair of alarmed cries immediately gives the alarm of my intrusion in the night. Good, let them be awake, less chance this stalker could do them harm. A sound in the kitchen catches my attention. Cautiously I enter, my hands already formed into fists.         I find the figure leaning on the counter, next to him was an old cast iron furnace. The grating was open to show the old ash still in it, it looked more for novelty than for use. The figure smirks and gestures lazily to the furnace, “This brings back meMories doesn’t it, Walter? I’d say... you could fit a small child in here, don’t you think?”         His voice set me off. That condescending tone he used to refer to the girl that haunted my conscious. I struck at him and again he fluidly moved around my strike and slammed me against the counter. “There’s that aNger again! See how little it takes to set you off?” I hear a drawer open, “ShAme they don’t have cleavers, it’d be appropriate wouldn’t you think? To feel that faMiliar weight in your hand again, the setting is a bit colorful but a little blood would add a more… contrasting color, make it more comfortable for you to see.”         I viciously turn around, pure hatred in my eyes as I watched him slowly and casually back up. The inkblot of my mask upon his face still formed that crooked grin. I charged him and again he steps out of the way and sends me crashing into an assortment of pastries and cakes. “Now this thing that liVes here is interesting.” he spoke, “So strangely happy and emPathetic, it makes me sick. Though I’m sure we’ve both felt that familiar glint in the back of her mind. In the way she acts, the rare times she’s silent, it’s hard to miss with eyes that big and knowing what you’re searching for. She has a certain madness, an insecurity, very similar to… well to you I suppose. How interesting. You think it’s possible that she would crack too just as you did? I’m curious if you push her far enough how far she’ll cling to that little crevice of insanity, and I wonder what you would do if you were there to see it.”         “Would it be so easy, Mr. Kovacs?” he asks me as his grip clamps down on my throat, “Just like any other huMan who’s gone mad, hm? A slip of a knife through the ribCage, a vioLent twist of the neCk, or perhaps that cleaver if you feel nosTalgic, would you be able to do it or would that growing paraSitic conscious of yours get in the way?” His words make me sick but with the lack of air I could only clumsily grasp at the arm that was suffocating me. Strange, his coat didn’t have a familiar texture to it. It didn’t even feel solid...         The shadow lets go and moves out of the way as I lash out, gasping for air. He slips out of the kitchen, blending into the darkened shadows, and leaving me to stumble into a chase while still grasping at my neck from where he had clamped down against my windpipe. The lights go on then and blind me, I have to put a hand up to shield the burning light from my hazed eyes. There’s a gasp and some stuttering as my eyes adjust and I open them. I find my way barred by a shadowed quadruped. I stumble back out of surprise and the other does the same out of fear. He was a stallion with a yellow coat and orange mane,  unfamiliar to me and yet I can recall vaguely the description mentioned to me.  “Wh-what are you doing here? Get out!” He shouts in terror, and anger, trying his best to glare at me for the sake of his family. I can see a mare upstairs, the look she gave.... He was in my way though, had to give chase, nothing else mattered but getting rid of that impostor before he harmed anyone. I shove him out of the way  and he stumbles to the ground the mare at the top of the stairs cries out, “Carrot Cake!” I run for the door, the lights from Sugarcube corner flooding out to the square outside.         The town is awake now. Lights in every building flooded into the darkened streets to give light to myself, like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding car. Awestruck and fearful citizens look on from windows and from doorways as I run past. I caught sight of several fearful glances and terrorized eyes but I don’t care. What mattered was getting the doppelganger before he could hurt someone.         The dark figure leads the way, just out of my reach but within my sight. He was mocking me it seemed, goading me into following. The thought of a trap crossed my frantic mind, there was little doubt who was in control of the situation. The dark figure barely needed to strain himself to keep met at a distance, and the places he’s taken, the things he’s saying to me. Was this all a taunt, or was he making a point in all of this chasing? He did not seem set on killing anyone this night, but rather showing that he could. Our chase leads us out of town and towards the Everfree forest again. Using the moonlight to light my way I stumble after him. He stops on the bridge, turns toward me, and gestures past further up the path as I start to reach him, “look faMiliar?”         I didn’t need to look to see what he was talking back. I knew the cottage he was gesturing to, Fluttershy’s home. Smoke billowed up to the darkened sky, reflecting off the moonlight, I didn’t like the dark feeling it gave me.         “You diSlike this one.” He didn’t even need to run to quickly reach the front of the cottage, by the time I got to the bridge he was already going past her door, looking inside at the darkened cottage, “being around her makes your skin crawl, you feel like your soul shifts uneasily being around her.” He reached out to grab the handle but stopped short of touching it. Slowly his hand descended away from the offending object and he backed away from the door’s handle. The grin his face twitched and faded for a moment before returning, but it was quickly faltering. Despite myself... something slows me down. Images of a murdered girl, fed to dogs crosses my mind. A red swing set in the purest of lights. The dark figure speaks angrily to me, to talk about Fluttershy was like tasting acid it seemed, “Is it beCause of how she acts? Remind you too much of the uGly little slum child you once were?” He pauses and glares at me, the grin on his face has shifted into a chaotic blur of ink, “No...no I think it goes deePer than that, deePer than you’re letTing me go but I see the afFects of her influence on you. She reeks of innocence, being around her is sufFocating to you.”         Some hidden insight seems to strike him and the grin returns as he turns back to me. He chuckles and points to me in a chastising manner, “Being around her makes you queStion your own resoLve, doesn’t it? How odd, I wonder why that it is. What goes on in that skull of yours, Walter.” I cross the bridge and  ascend the hill with long strides. The figure makes no move to run anymore.         Instead he was clapping, waiting for me to catch up.         “BraVo, Mr. Kovacs! I didn’t have to do much did I?” He takes delight at my look of confusion and gestures behind me, “Can you hEar them? I sure can.”         It was dull sound to me before when I was running but now that I could hear clearly. The sounds of scared and dismayed people in the distance, the town was in a confused uproar over the rampage I’d taken in pursuit of my doppelganger. I suddenly realize now what he meant, what his true purpose was. I turned around to see the glow of the town in the distance, a usually quiet little place now left in turmoil thanks to me.         A sound caught my attention and I turn around in time to see my mask on the ground before my feet. The figure was retreating into the forest, his face still obscured by the shadows of the trees. “I really should thank that groTesque and sniVeling demi-god for giving me the chance to taLk to you, Walter, though knowing you... there won’t be much left to thank when you meet him.”         “You’ll be haTed now", he spoke with a hint of sadness, “you’ll alWays be hated, it’s just how things are suppose to be, Walter. You won’t believe me now but you’ll see it will be better this way. You can’t deny your nature, you’re just a mad dog waiting for an unmarked grave. All you need is... a push... in the right direction.” With those final words the figure backed further into the shadows and disappeared.         I rushed forward to try and catch him but it was too late, the figure was gone. Glaring into the shadows I see no sign of him, no prints in which to follow. I return back to my mask, blankly staring back at me. Gingerly I pick it up and feel it. It felt cold in my hands, even through the gloves I can feel the chill that my mask brought me. I look back at the town, my mask and identity back in my rightful hands, yet it isn’t relief that fills me.         A strange feeling overcomes me. An emotion I haven’t felt in a long time, I’m not sure what to think of it. Watching the glow of the town, rudely awakened from their happy dreams, I’m left with a feeling of anxiety. I’m left with regret for my mistake, like a dog I took the bait dangled in front of me.  ---------- What now MOM! Come at me!