In retrospect, you were lucky.
Very lucky.
You could have spent days, weeks, however long you'd been held captive, with only yourself in that miserable prison cell, terrified and alone. You could have spent your days wallowing in despair and your nights crying yourself to a sleep that would only bring more nightmares. You could have lived and died in complete and utter misery.
But you'd been given one small blessing. Someone who treated you kindly, who made the short remainder of life happy and pleasant instead of painful…someone in this place who would care that you died, would mourn your death. Someone in this place who would remember you.
And now, in your final moments, that blessing meant everything to you.
"Naki…I'm truly glad I met you.
Thank you for everything you've done for me.
I don't know what the next world holds…but I promise, I will never forget you."
When you regain consciousness, you're in a bag. You can tell because it smells like burlap and scratches at your skin unmercifully. Outside, you can hear voices, people talking, but you can't make it out…your head is still spinning, your thoughts still scrambled as you try to make sense of what is happening.
Where…am I…?
Then, there's yelling, screaming. Angry cries. Shrieks of anguish. You feel your body move through the air, feeling weightless for a few fleeting moments, and then you hit the ground, the pain of impact on your shoulder quickly bringing you to your senses. A strangled cry escapes your lips, but when you try to move, your body still feels like lead.
Chaos sounds all around you. You try to call out, but your scream sticks in your throat. Your heart beats wildly, as you pant through your open mouth. Your fingers shake as you struggle to raise your hand, desperately hoping to claw open the bag.
You don't know what's happening out there, but it has to be better than whatever fate staying in this bag holds for you.
Suddenly, a small ray of light pierces the darkness of the bag. It slowly expands, moving from above your head towards your feet, and you realise someone is cutting open the bag.
The edges of the cut splits the bag in two, and then the fabric is roughly pulled back.
You look up hopefully. It could be him, if he came in time…
You face falls, as you stare in horror up to an unfamiliar face. It twists into a dark grin which screams 'unstable and violent'. The eyes are black and red, and when he tilts his head, his large ears stick out.
The bladed tip of the dark red tail he'd used to open your bag flicks slightly.
You remember this face, if only slightly. You'd seen him occasionally, before you'd' been imprisoned, as you went about your days…you hadn't thought anything of it, except that he might have been staring at you. You had thought he was just a lonely middle-aged man who liked to check out young girls.
He had been stalking you.
You knew. This was him. The ghoul they were trading you to.
The one who started all this.
The one who wanted to eat you.
"You!" He breaths deeply. His grin widens even further, and you feel your stomach churn in disgust. He leans down, slowly, as if he's savouring this. His hands reach out for you, and you're so paralysed with terror you can't move. You wanted to fight, you wanted to run, but the drug still coursing through your veins made it impossible. You were a puppet with its strings cut, and all you could you was lay there, powerless.
It's him. This is it. You're going to die.
His hands reach you.
"Now little mouse, just stay qui—"
At that point in his speech, his hands grip your sides. His fingers, tightly digging into the skin of your bruise, pulling as he starts to lift you up.
Stars explode before your eyes.
You scream, as loudly and piercingly as you can, your back arching as you writhe in pain. Suddenly, nothing else matters. The instinctual desire to survive is all that drives you. You desperately try to claw at the arms grasping you, making a long, low wail of agony.
His eyes open wide.
"Stop! They're going to—"
This time, he's interrupted by a spear cleanly piercing through his head, with all the grace and precision of a surgeon.
His eyes open wide, before blood begins to leak from the corners of them. His hands let you go, and tremble as they raise to the sides of his head, as if he's trying to put the shattered remnants of blood, bone, and brain back together.
The spear pulls back, and the ghoul crumples to the ground.
You make a sound, but you can barely hear it. Your mind struggles to comprehend this, and for a minute you wonder if you've already died, and this is your mind's desperate attempt to make your last moments happy for you.
You don't know if you dare to hope again.
A tall man in glasses steps in front of your vision. Cold and beautiful, you can only marvel at the sight before you. This man…not a ghoul, but something more than human.
He holds out his hand.
Your fingers tremble, your arm heavy as lead as you slowly raise it. Then, as everything comes crashing down, you grab that outstretched hand with all your might, digging your nails into his skin to make sure he wouldn't be able to let you go.
You can't stop yourself from sobbing with joy.
"THE CCG?! HOW THE FUCK DID THEY KNOW ABOUT THIS?!"
The enraged voice is loud, and Naki pouts as he covers his ears. It doesn't hide the sound of a chair being thrown, and shattered, against a brick wall. The yelling had been going on ever since the team charged with carrying out the deal had returned, and the news of the CCG ambush had come to light. Half of the team, as well as the ghoul they had been going to meet, had been killed, others captured. It had been a complete and utter disaster, and many of the higher-ups, especially the ones in charge of the operation, were furious.
Normally, such a thing would enrage Naki himself to no end, making him swear to get vengeance on the bastards who dared to attack them. But his fury at the CCG interfering in their affairs had been slightly tempered by one other fact.
They had rescued you.
Naki hated beyond all reason that you had been rescued by the CCG of all people, that it had been them who saved you and not him, but he had nearly fallen over from relief when he'd learned the deal hadn't gone through.
That just about as he was going to lose you, lose you because he hadn't been there…you'd survived. You were okay. You were still alive.
Now, all he had to do was—
"No."
Naki spins around, looking down in surprise, and sees a familiar face staring back at him coldly.
"Whatever you're thinking, whatever weird relationship you had with the human: no."
The voice holds no emotion but annoyance. Naki glowers down at him, but says nothing.
"You're pretty damn lucky we didn't find anything in that cell." The man intones, running a hand through his dark hair before he glares sharply at Naki, eyes narrowing in disgust.
"The CCG is watching that girl now. We're done with her. Completely fucking done. We can't get the information we took her for in the first place, and any attack risks him getting involved." He growls, his hands balling up into fists.
Naki scowls at him, but still says nothing in return. There's not much he can say, not without revealing everything, and he knows that would be bad. So be bites his tongue, bites back the overwhelming desire to say that true love couldn't be stopped by stupid shit like that.
Instead, Naki lets out a loud 'Hmph!', and crosses his arms over his chest, looking away and ignoring the other man childishly.
The other ghoul rolls his eyes, but decides he has better things to do. He spins on his heels, and walks out, leaving one last parting piece of wisdom:
"Leave the girl alone."