Demon Disease
Author's Note- This is sort of a continuation of my previous laziness, since I did the first chapter and half of this one all in one sitting, I might as well keep going with it, at least until the writer's block for Mother Malice clears up.
Chapter 2: Executioner's Pardon
For 2 hours we walked in almost total silence, and the part of me that was ogling her over her beauty died long ago and the part of me that was scared of her grew to take its place. I was scared again, so scared that I didn't even notice that she was leading me back to Rosalina. Eventually I grew so curious about her, I had to start asking questions, and I figured the logical place to start would be to ask her name.
"So... My name's Patrick, what's yours?" I believe I phrased the question this way, but I probably made it sound a bit more foolish than that; nevertheless as if she expected that question, she smiled and immediately answered with a perfectly demure voice- "My name is Serene, and as my prisoner, I would appreciate it if you kept your mouth shut for the duration of your captivity."
I was more than a little surprised at her impressive use of vocabulary at the end (impressive to me, I'm not too smart when it comes to most words with more than 2 syllables, at least I wasn't, now I'm much better) and her control against using profanity towards me who caused her pain; but nevertheless I could not honor her request, there were simply too many questions buzzing around in my head for me to stop at just one question, but my fear of her cautioned me to seriously think about my next question and my choice of words.
"Are you and arc, Serene?" I said bluntly, not quite as I expected it to come out.
"You don't listen too well, do you? Very well, this is the last question I will answer of yours; yes I am an arc, now shut up." Serene said, a bit more brusquely than before but still with a smile on her face. Still I couldn't resist, my caution was waning and my curiosity was growing in its place- I have never seen a living arc before tonight, and one so beautiful, I simply couldn't resist temptation.
"Do you live in Rosalina?" I again blurted, still not quite as I pictured myself saying it in my mind. This was an odd situation, normally I am a very charismatic speaker, but now I'm just blurting the first thing that comes to my mind with no thought of the consequences, which I was about to receive.
Serene spun around and swung her scythe as me faster than I could follow her with my eyes, the blade of the scythe ending up just behind my neck; I didn't dare breathe much less move lest I risk losing my head with just a simple stroke on her part.
"I asked you quite nicely- twice- to stop asking questions and just shut up, now out comes a bit more motivation: shut up or die." Serene said, deadly serious, her smile now gone and replaced by a straight face with a bit of fury evidently present. I nodded since that's all I could think of to do at the time. Serene carefully brought her scythe back to her side without decapitating me, then she continued walking as I followed, shaking slightly at what just transpired.
The rest of the walk was in silence as I contemplated my escape. I figured I could run faster than her, but chances are that she'd catch me since she can fly and I can't, and if she were to catch me she probably would just kill me on the spot instead of kindly leading me back to the village- I assumed that's where we were going, and for once in this eventful night, I was right.
Wait... why is she doing this anyways? I wondered, I hoped it she was leading me to somewhere to do something not involving her extra large and sharp scythe puncturing my skull, but by now I could only hope.
Wondering to myself for the remainder of the walk, we finally reached the lovely town of Rosalina surprisingly quickly. As we came out of the forest, I noticed a man- probably the one who was chasing me earlier- leaning on my former house very casually, as if he'd been there this whole time.
This man... Ein (understand it took me some time to recall his name at the time) was hardly an inch shorter than myself, and was not a pound lighter than me of muscle (my own build was somewhere between good and great by human standards, translating to demon standards is somewhere between average and acceptable, or just not good) his short, neat hair was chestnut brown while mine was long, messy and jet-black; Ein's light summer clothes were semi-clean while my light leather armor was somewhere between disgusting and infectious; his skin was fair but not quite pale while mine was a very light brown but not quite tanned- at that time it was just a bit darker than it would be if my skin was clean; in short, he looked a lot less sloppy than me, but I was a bit more outdoorsy-type looking than him; I could live with that semi-biased comparison between us.
What insulted me the most was that on the ground in front of him lay all my legally-owned worldly possesions- my spear and a hunting knife- just casually tossed on the ground as if it were garbage (it was garbage... my garbage that is, and legal being defined loosely)
"Finally caught him huh?" Ein said, clapping his hands to feign congratulations to Serene as we approached.
"Oh, and did you catch him? No; you were too slow, you need to work out more, Ein." Serene retorted with a smile. I snickered, and both of them shot a furious look at me as if to non-vocally tell me to shut up, I did so.
"Now the only question is what to do with him." Ein said plainly, like he'd decided the fates of many like myself before.
Letting me go would be nice, you know, since I did nothing wrong. I mentally hoped, if only I'd gotten my wish.
"Let's just kill him, that's what demon hunters are supposed to do." Serene said nonchalantly, as if she just decided what to eat at a restaurant- Salad or Soup? Life or Death? What difference was either choice in the end?
Demon Hunters!? Well, best start praying now since I'm pretty much certain to die!
Ein looked like he was going to say something to argue against that verdict, then he didn't; he instead gave a slight nod- to me it seemed apparant that Serene was the kind of girl whom it was just best to let her have her way as opposed to arguing, which probably led to her getting her way anyways.
Serene flashed a deadly grin and brandished her scythe, I backed away and looked at Ein with a panicked expression, he looked like he was a bit regretful of letting her kill me, but still he didn't look like he was about to stop her, so it was up to me to beg for my life- what did I have to lose? Dignity is so overrated.
"What did I do to warrant such a punishment? Remember, it was you who attacked me in my house." I pleaded, the way I said it quite simply set Serene's fury fuse off.
"EXCUSE ME? YOUR HOUSE!?" Serene screamed at me; she paused with great effort to give me a moment to think of why that insulted her so.
It took me a few seconds, but I finally put 2 and 2 together: the house I was living in was Serene's former home before the genocide of the arcs, and she probably wanted to show it to Ein, and in her home she found a demon living in it like a snail in someone else's shell. Said demon not only disgraced her dead family, but on several occasions probably searched through her... undergarment drawers (which I had, and I thank god that she didn't realize that or I wouldn't have hands to write this, if by some miracle she let me live).
Serene advanced toward me, scythe in hand, ready to kill me in the most barbaric and horrible manner her mind could conceive, and she would have if not for Ein's intervention.
"Serene, don't!" Ein said in a very resolute voice as he stepped between us, facing Serene while keeping a bit of attention to me to make sure I didn't run away. Evidently the thought of her just killing me was ok, but her killing me in anger made all the difference to him, so he stepped in.
Serene stood still for a moment, just staring Ein down with a cold fury that would have made me retreat to a dark corner far away, but Ein remained in place; Serene eventually broke down and went into her home, her sobbing clearly audible. Neither me or Ein dared to follow her, instead we stayed outside and exchanged pleasantries.
"So... I'm Ein, what's your name?" Ein asked pleasantly, surprising me after all this drama. Vaguely I could recall someone asking a question like that today, but they sounded far more foolish when they said it (me).
"I know your name, Serene said it when she commanded you to chase me like a hound; I'm Patrick." I said, which I immediately regretted how insulting that must've sounded to someone who just saved my life; nevertheless Ein laughed, again surprising me.
"So how did you get caught by her anyways? Something tells me you would've been able to outrun her." Ein asked, once again surprising me, he evidently didn't follow me as far as the lake, or probably even the tree. I told him the story from when I knew he was chasing me to when Serene was standing on the shore, motioning for me to come closer (I elected to omit the part where I was staring at Serene, for obvious reasons); Ein listened to it carefully for the duration, when I finished he sat silently for a moment, then he again laughed.
"Honestly, you were running so much faster than me, I lost sight of you within the first 30 seconds. I reached the lakeside, probably long after you did, then Serene caught up and told me to go back, and she started to fly over the lake to look for you, evidently she found you." Ein said, and I laughed since I was expected to. With not much else to say, we spent a long moment listening to Serene continue to cry inside, Ein eventually broke the semi-silence with an apology.
"I'm sorry for everything that's happened, no hard feelings?" Ein said, offering me his hand. I simply stared at his hand gloved with a fingerless glove for a long, pensive moment- this time I wasn't quite surprised, more like confused- Ein didn't do anything wrong, and neither did Serene; I was the one who decided it was ok to live in a deceased family's home and claim it as my own, I was at fault, not they.
"You've got nothing to apologize for, you've done nothing wrong." I said, voicing my thoughts and ignoring his hand; Ein struck me as the persistent type, and as I expected he refused to leave it at that.
"We shouldn't have acted so aggressively, if we didn't unsheathe our weapons, you wouldn't have panicked and ran." Ein confessed immediately, as if he expected me to say that. Still his hand was outstretched, and finally I took and and we shook.
Finally Serene finished crying, she came out to us, eyes reddened as I expected; she gestured for both of us to come in and she gave us both a brief tour of the house, which was at first useless for me- I'd lived in this house long enough to know it, that being 2 weeks.
The first upstairs room Serene showed us was the one I'd been living in- her widowed mother's room. Upon hearing whose room it was, I was shocked, or perhaps revolted since this was the room I'd... searched for various... articles of clothing that turned out to be Serene's mother's!
"Can I use the bathroom?" I asked, Serene gave me a suspicious look that asked why; when I didn't immediately give her an answer, she gave me an irritated look that told me to wait, so I simply avoided touching anything until I could wash my hands.
The next room we were forcibly shown was Serene's own, which was previously locked and I had never made an effort to break in during my stay.
"This is my room, I'll let you boys look around on your own; but if I catch you searching through things that should not be searched, I will personally kill you by slow castration!" Serene said cheerfully as she exited the room.
Still she threatens me; but on the bright side, she isn't crying or screaming anymore and Ein is included in the threat! Progress! I remember thinking joyfully at the time. Though I wonder why she doesn't want to go into her own room; too many memories of her family?
As I was looking around her room, I noticed a picture on the nightstand next to Serene's bed; it was a picture of Serene holding a baby in her arms and smiling brightly.
Did Serene already have a baby before the genocide? Can't be, this picture is old- very old at that, like it was taken a decade or two ago! But why does Serene look the same if this picture was taken so long ago?
For several minutes I closely observed the picture, Ein noticed my interest in the picture and looked over my shoulder to see it himself, and he was equally confused by it as I was for the same reasons. Eventually Serene came in to check on us, and she quickly swiped the picture from my hands.
"What's so interesting about my mother to you two anyways?" Serene asked with a light demand added to it.
Her mother..? That's Serene's mother!? Comparing her to the picture, they look more like twins! I nearly blurted, Evidently Ein thought the same as me, as his face held the same shocked expression as I pictured myself having when I looked at him.
After much thought, now I think my... privacy invasion is a bit less revolting since her mother looks so much like her; I just pray she doesn't read this; death by slow castration can't be pleasant, I imagine.
A.N- HA! how's that for a temporary ending? (emphasis on temporary...) I say that because of what I mentioned last chapter in that this story isn't going to be updated for a while, at least not when I'm working on Mother Malice; so enjoy what you've read so far and be patient, or even better, read Mother Malice while you wait!
