Minutes became hours, hours became an eternity. She skipped a day at the academy - an action she swore she'd never carry out - just for this single moment. Endlessly, earnestly, Charna shifted in her spot, her entire body itching and quivering in anticipation. Seconds, minutes, moments, hours, memories. She clenched her toes. Tonight had crisp, cool winds that made the girl's entire body shudder in pleasure. She enjoyed the sentiment of being outdoors past her curfew without her caretaker's sanction, and was beginning to consider disobeying her 'stay indoors after 9:30pm' rule. A sleek grin betrayed her impatient, pursed lips. Charna never expected waiting to be so fun.
The breeze became a frosty gust that ravenously combed its fingers through her hair and tickled her supple skin. She embraced it. Scents from all around were invited to the pup's nostrils; odors and perfumes that Charna often disregarded. Impatience began to well up inside her again, until a particular fragrance assailed her nose and spirit entirely. Apple pie. The hound's orange eyes lightened in jovial satisfaction. It wasn't just any typical pastry brought into the world through an oven after being prepared by skilled hands or waiting forever to be consumed at the store. This was a tantalizing aroma that stuck to the flesh. Charna licked the air hungrily, almost tasting the ever approaching holder of the smell. Her nose she followed, around and around the park light she circled. Soon, her nose found; her eyes met.
"R-Ryan!" She could hardly contain her excitement. Her body tingled with goosebumps. He was here, he really was here! Charna could feel her limbs give way by just gazing upon the youth's posture, his lovely blond hair. She could see the shimmering cerulean ocean within his blue eyes. She blinked over and over at him before realizing her potentially lethal fault. Quickly, the pup recomposed herself and allowed her eyes to scamper from object to object like a charging wildebeest. Her face flushed a beet red. "Y-You really arrived like I said!"
"I was on time?" Ryan questioned confusedly, taking a brisk glance at his black leather watch; a hand-me-down from his dear elder brother. "It's almost midnight, Charna." Charna furrowed her brow in annoyance.
"Time should be the last thing you should be worrying about." she said silently. "But if you're that worried about class tomorrow then I suppose I'll cut to the chase." With those harrowing words, the hellhound leapt from the streetlight headlong to the ground. She landed with her fingernails catching her weight upon hitting the concrete, allowing her to use the little momentum she had at her disposal to somersault herself over onto her feet. Ryan bat his eyelids in flabbergast, observing his companion's graceful landing from such a high fall. From that display he instantly received the impression that this girl was certainly not a human being he desired to live amongst. Charna licked her parched lips. "I invited you here to discuss what I am, Alemir." Her voice was low, stoic. Ryan's heart began to pound at this person who was all too different from the timid Charna he knew.
"So," he began with a lump in his throat. "What are you?" The hound became the normal Charna again. She rhythmically twiddled her clawed thumbs with that same old disdainful look on her face.
"Promise not to meet my eyes, would you?" she said sternly.
"Why?"
"Because you'll die." Charna glared evilly at her toes, pretending it was him. "You'll combust into flames you can't extinguish with water; or any kind of liquid. Your lucky charm will also be considered useless in that situation." She pointed her sanguine painted claw at Ryan's chest, his dark jacket that was tad too large for his body couldn't conceal his mother's amulet from her eyes. Unable to comprehend, Ryan dipped his head. His palms began to sweat. "Are you ready?" Charna tilted her head to the side, savoring his aroma once more. "Please try not to run away." Her body itched again. Ryan nodded once more.
"Show me what you really are, Charna." Charna wanted to melt in gratification, hearing those words from her dear crush. That feeling of satisfaction swirled into fear, angst, and hatred. She feared the world would turn on her upon seeing her monstrous prowesses come into view. Anguish filled every cranny of her psyche. She hated her matriarch for passing such a disgusted power into her blood. It builded like magma over eons, and it erupted from her body through the end of her spine and at the top of her head. Crimson-orange flames of horrid, immoral beasts. Ryan collapsed to his posterior in terror. He couldn't place a being such as the one before him; a familiar? No, something worse. His aqua eyes widened and his jaw fell open, but no words came through.
"Do you see what I have become, Ryan Alemir?" Charna asked silently in contempt with a dark smirk. "Yes; I am, too, a human like you and your brother are." She swallowed. "But I have another kind of blood in my veins. Do you know what that is?"
"No, I don't." Ryan said, hauling himself to his feet. "I don't know what you are." The beast in a human girl's body took a single step closer, her gaze directed upwards into the sky. "Just tell me! What are you really, Charna?!"
"I am a Hellhound." Charna bat her long eyelashes with haste in unison with the youth before her. She took another stride, and sped up her pace until she was sprinting. The wind chopped through her tungsten lingerie as she spread her arms out in a welcome that she couldn't yet give. Ryan opened his eyes, meeting with the abyssal girl's own. His heart skipped a beat. Charna shut her terrifying eyes once more. Her arms were still outstretched and her fiery inferno of a tail increased in size. Her face drew closer and closer to his neck. The hound's breath was scorching. Despite his degree of comfort, however, Ryan still couldn't pull away from her, and he didn't know why. Their chests touched.
"I love you." Charna wringed her arms around the youth. She dug her face into his shoulder, embracing his fruitful perfume. He was so cozy, and his hair so silky and clean. This was as close as she had gotten to him. "I have been loving you for a very long time." Ryan's mouth slipped open again. "Ever since you transferred to Brinistair with your brother, I admired you." The selfless hellhound began. "I guess you could say I thought of you a little too much; the fireflies would know." The boy's eyes shimmered. He could remember it now, that odd feeling he had at home. The sensation of being watched, and the miniscule flickering lights outside his closed windows at night. Charna had been with him this entire time because of those fireflies he enjoyed capturing and observing their magnificence upon their release. Those glowing insects had led him and his sibling to safety in the midst of danger, too. All the while he thought he was in debt to those little things, when it really was her. This monster before him was his benefactor.
"Those fireflies…" Ryan whispered under his breath. "That was you?"
"In a way." Charna smiled in his shoulder, basking in his praise. "I sent them to watch over you and your family, and they would report back to me at twilight." She took a whiff. "It was the best I could do. You were always preyed on by many suitors from many grade levels, and I was afraid that an introvert like me had no chance against them. I loved you so much, Ryan, but I was too scared to approach you because of what I was, too." she paused. "I...I-I thought you would kill me, thinking I was a demon out to hurt you." Tears began to bead in her irises. "I'm so sorry, for leaving you in the dark for so long!" Charna held him tighter, almost squeezing him. Ryan could only react by gripping her shoulders as well, embracing her warmly for comfort.
"Please don't hate me, Ryan!" Her legs buckled beneath her and the pup crashed to the ground, consumed by melancholy. "I'm begging you, don't hate me!" She hid her face in her hands. "I still want us to be friends like we always have, closer than that, even!" Charna's voice was hysteric, and that hysteria was being passed to the child who stood. He could feel himself being choked with feeling. A chill slithered down his spine, and he shut his eyes in pity.
"Stop crying." He mumbled under tears. "You'll make me cry, and I don't want that." Charna defied her dearest, her nose filling with snot. "I'll accept you, no matter what you are." Ryan bent over, clasping his warmed hands around the girl's, sopping wet from her salty sobs. He pulled her to her feet, and then into his arms. "I like you too, Charna." he grinned sweetly. "But you know those girls at school were always so envious and easily provoked; I didn't want you - my close friend - to be caught up in that fiasco." he made a worried expression, evoking the thought of all those females breaking eachothers backs just to put love letters in his locker in hopes of a successful courtship, and how disrespectful they were to other young lassies who approached him. She-devils they all were. "And I'm glad you decided to be honest with me, with what you are." Charna stopped weeping, her flames distinguishing under rising affection.
"Really?" She questioned in wonder. "You liked me, out of all those other suitors at the academy?" Ryan nodded in earnest.
"They aren't my type, honestly." he said with a scoff. "I wouldn't call them suitors either; more like pests to me."
"So, you don't care that I'm a Hellhound, a monster living amongst demons somewhere in Hell?" Charna asked, gently pushing away from the cat. "You don't care that I could possibly hurt you?" Ryan shook his head.
"Nope!" He grinned his infamous, jovial grin that nobody could beat, exposing his mother's golden, heart-shaped pendant to the hound. "With this, you could never hurt me physically." He waved it to and fro between his fingers. "Besides, I'm a demon too, you know; if anything, we're meant for eachother!" Charna flushed red again.
"M-Meant for eachother?!" She repeated in shock and gratitude. "What are you implying, Ryan? That we should date or something?" She wished his answer to be a yes, deep in the back of her head. Ryan made a mischievous smile in response, putting his necklace back into his jacket and resting his hands behind his head.
"May-be." He watched her face flush a darker red, a chuckle emanating from his mouth. "In actuality," He began. "I really don't mind dating you; you're a nice person, Charna." The hellhound felt her core warm up. "You're intelligent as well, and your powers are pretty awesome, you know!" Ryan laughed a little louder, seeing his friend turn away in embarrassment from his words. She covered her reddened face in her hands again, letting a not so silent squeal escape.
"So, Charna Odesza." Ryan started with her full name, stepping into her line of sight and yanking her hands away. He knew the little vixen couldn't meet eyes with him, yet another hug seemed to suffice. "Will you go out with me?" he whispered in her ear. The finally loved girl with impure blood in her veins buried her face in his neck, cuddling him like she did in her dreams.
"Yes." She giggled, her heart pounding in suspense. "I'd love to."