Continuation of the orange belt entry. 

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She releases the arrow at the same moment as me. I duck the oncoming weapon, hurling myself to the floor in a sprawl of limbs. She does the same; her eyes alight with malice. I lurch to my feet, meeting her in the center of the room with my fists clenched and ready for action. 

Her lips twist into a grin as she bears down on me. She swings out with a battle cry, and I bring up my forearm to block the blow, clenching my teeth against the jarring impact. Lashing out with my free arm, I land a punch to her side. She hisses, digging her elbow into my shoulder and shoving me away. 

A sharp shriek and a flash of metal before her arm, swift and precise, stabs out at my throat. I lurch backward as the dagger whizzes past, brushing my skin and drawing a thin line of blood. I gasp in shock, raising my hand to my throat and gaping as it comes away red. Fury lights up somewhere in my gut, and a screech of anger rumbles in my throat. 

She leers at me, her face dark and ugly as we circle one another. I lurch forward and kick out with the tip of my boot, slamming into her wrist and knocking the offending blade from her grasp. She growls, and the weight of her body presses into my back, one arm curling around my neck while the other digs a sharp elbow between my shoulder blades. I cry out and throw back my head, fighting a wave of nausea as my skull collides with her face. 

A sickening crunch and an ear-splitting shriek as I pull hard on the arm at my throat and curl forward, feeling her body roll against mine and come crashing down in front of me. She hits the grey metal floor with a hard thump and lets out a groan, blood pouring down her lips as she glares up at me. 

I don't see the hand whip out and latch onto my ankle until it's too late, and suddenly I'm hurtling backward against the floor, my head smacking hard and clouds of black tinging my vision. My eyes slip closed for only a second, but it's enough time for her to straddle my waist and wrap tight, unforgiving fingers around my throat. I choke, wheezing in frenzied breaths and clawing at her forearms, my legs thrusting upward in desperate attempts to free myself. 

Her laugh, loud and guttural, fills my ears, and the sound sends a jolt of determination through my body. I bring up both arms, slamming them into her abdomen with all my might, and feel her grip loosen as she twists in pain. Air fills my lungs, chasing away the darkness hovering at the edge of my consciousness. I buck upward, using her weight to roll us over and trap her beneath me. She snaps to attention, her eyes wild as I bring my fist down against her cheek. Her head jerks to the left, blood erupting from her parted lips, but she doesn't give up. 

A few feet away, glinting in the bright overhead lights, lies an abandoned dagger with its hilt pointed this way as if daring me to use it. There's a painful yank on my hair as my head comes crashing down toward the floor. I gasp, barely managing to avoid the full brunt of the blow by thrusting my arm between the metal surface and my forehead. She cackles, wriggling free as I shake off the dizziness. 

I sag into the ground, gritting my teeth as a headache blossoms behind my eyelids and sends darts of agony through my body. Pain erupts in my chest, and I'm thrown to the side, skidding across the floor and left panting for air in the wake of her punt. 

"I warned you," she growls, her face hovering over me. I blink several times, fighting to see clearly through the fuzziness cloaking my mind. Something sharp brushes my fingertips, followed by a stinging pain and warm, stickiness. I cringe, curling my hand around the blade and gripping it tightly between blood-soaked fingers. "I won't let you-" 

She doesn't get any farther as I roll onto my stomach and thrust the dagger into her calf, feeling it rip through flesh and muscle, scrape against bone, and then come away coated in her blood. She bellows, sinking to her knees, and grasping at the wound with shaking fingers. Without giving her time to react, I stumble onto my knees and throw myself at her form. She shrieks, raising one arm in a feeble attempt to block me. 

Again, the dagger comes down, this time ripping a savage hole through her arm. Her cries fill the air, clashing with the pounding in my head as I collide with her. We both go sprawling against the floor, leaving streaks of red in our wake. "I warned you!" I yell, burying the dagger into her chest up to the hilt. "I warned you!" I repeat, cupping her face with my hands as she sputters, the life slowly seeping from her mangled body. 

Her sharp, grey eyes meet mine, and she smiles slightly, a trail of blood leaking down the corner of her lips. "You win, but you should know," she whispers, pausing to breathe in another ragged breath. "Life is never perfect. Not even mine..." her voice falls away as the light drains from her eyes, and she goes completely still. 

I scowl at her blank expression and stagger to my feet, bracing myself as the world tilts, and my vision blurs slightly. The lone mirror catches me as I stumble into it and peer down at the lifeless body of my alter in its reflection. Then my gaze flits over my own appearance, no longer neat and clean as it was when I'd first stepped out to face her. 

Now, my blonde hair frames a tired, bloodied face and grey eyes stare back at me, empty and troubled with the darkness of a broken past. The white suit is streaked with red and torn through in some places. I knock my forehead against the smooth surface and breathe in several times as my victory washes over me. 

No longer was I the unfortunate alter stuck to suffer a life worse than death, able to watch as my counterpart grew up in a loving environment filled with joy yet unable to experience such things myself. Now she was dead, and I would become her, stepping into what was her life with hardly a ripple. 

No, not her life. Not anymore. 

My life. A perfect life.