Author's Note: Yeah so I'm reading about Columbine right now and how much of a sociopath Eric Harris was... definitely giving me some ideas for Seito... *shifty eyes* He's going to be an interesting teenager. Meanwhile, I'd like to apologize for my long hiatus. -_- Between boy drama, wedding (not my own thank goodness), moving, new job, and computer crashing and being gone for a while, writing got put way on hold. Sorry guys! ^^;
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Chapter 10
The job had taken a little longer than Subaru had expected; rarely did the victims fight back at all, much less with a little magic. He sighed as he opened the door to the apartment, ready to just collapse into bed but froze when he realized the lights were on in the living room.
"Seito?" he called, his senses tingling as he recognized the feel of a recent spell.
When no answer came he cautiously crept around the corner, a spell at the ready and swore under his breath when he saw candles in the corners of the room and Seito asleep in the center, curled into a ball as if in pain. Subaru carefully pushed through the barriers, doing his best not to fray them more than they already were, knowing that if he simply ripped through them it would rip through Seito's mind.
"Seito." He called softly. He didn't expect the boy to awaken but there was always a chance that he hadn't slipped that far into the dream yet.
It came as no surprise that the boy didn't move or respond at all; if he was going to try something dangerous as this, it would have broken character for Seito to do so half-heartedly. He knelt beside the boy and rested his fingertips against his temples, feeling the cold, heavy pressure of slipping into deep dark waters.
It took effort to move at first, even once Subaru was able to orient himself better. There was the sense that gravity was stronger here somehow, pulling him more insistently toward the ground, determined to keep him on his knees. Subaru had been in a lot of minds before and seen a lot of distortions of reality until now but he was not sure he had ever entered one that had managed to alter the laws of physics this drastically before. Something damp brushed against his cheek as Subaru struggled to take a few steps forward and he dragged his gaze from the ground to see a forest of dead sakura trees, their blood-soaked blossom petals swirling through the chilly air in an eerie mockery of snow.
"Seito?" He called out, but felt his voice did not reach very far, as though the air were so thick it was muffling even sound. Subaru shivered against the cold and closed his eyes, opening up the rest of his senses for any sign of life. Somewhere far away he could just barely hear the flutter of a small, slow heartbeat and he followed it, holding his breath between every quiet pulse, terrified that it would be the last.
After several moments of wandering, he came upon a tightly-packed grove of sakura trees, covered with tangled spider webs. He shuddered and started to back away when he noticed the bundle of spider silk in the middle of one enormous web.
The frail little heartbeat skipped a beat and Subaru jerked, realizing it was coming from the bundle in the web. He pulled a slip of paper out of his coat pocket, a spell on the tip of his tongue when a voice from the trees stopped him dead in his tracks.
"You will burn him too if you do that." It called with a cold laugh.
Subaru froze as he stared at the eight gleaming eyes hanging a few feet away from the boy. He slowly lowered the paper and bowed respectfully.
"We have trespassed here. I apologize."
The spider laughed. "You have trespassed, but I shall forgive you this time as you arrived with no ill intent." The creature eased its bulbous body onto the web, the silky strands trembling at the sudden weight. Subaru hoped for one moment that it would shake Seito loose and he could catch him but luck was not on his side.
The spider seemed to recognize what he had been thinking and laughed again. "But this one. This one has come here bearing malice with the blood of my children on his hands."
"He's only a child…" Subaru protested feebly.
The spider regarded him slowly, every eye trained upon his, measuring him up.
"Children are often the cruelest. Crudest perhaps, in their cruelty, but no less evil." She perched thoughtfully over the bundle in the center of her web. "Of course this one is not an ordinary child so his evil has quite a different flavor to it. It's much more… refined, in some ways." Venom dripped from one of her fangs onto the bundle and Subaru repressed a wince as the sizzle of burning silk hissed through the sakura trees.
"He is selfish this one." The spider crooned to the bundle. "Coldly, and beautifully selfish. This young one knows how to get what he wants most of the time." She lightly tapped the side of the slowly breathing silk. "I appreciate those who value themselves. Had he not been so cruel to my children and my kind, I may have claimed him as my own anyway. And oh how he fought." She nodded to Subaru. "Are you his sire?"
"No." He replied automatically.
"Pity. You might have been proud of the way he fought. For one so young and inexperienced."
"But he posed no real threat to you." Subaru added flatly.
"Of course not." She laughed. "But he was amusing to play with. I do appreciate a participatory toy." She paused before adding, "And he did kill a few of my underlings here."
The weight of the words sank in, as Subaru was well aware that most who trespassed into the territory of spider demons did not even live long enough to realize what they had done, much less took a few demons with them. "But he…"
The spider shook her head dismissively. "Is only a child? He is young in body but not in mind or soul. And in all of these things, he is a natural born killer."
"Killing is a choice." Subaru replied firmly. "No one is born with the desire to kill."
The spider laughed. "If that were true, then many creatures, like us spiders, or the hawk, or the cat would not eat." She gave Subaru a sinister smile. "And humans are not at the top of the food chain through virtue of their pacifism."
Before Subaru could protest that humans were also some of the only animals with a concept of preservation toward other animals, the demon shook her head. "Besides, I was not talking about his wanting to kill, but of his needing to use the skills he was born with."
"No one is born being skilled with a weapon or spells or their hands."
"No, those are skills he'll have to learn." The spider acknowledged. "Well, learn more of that is. However, what he was born with was the complete lack of empathy that makes one a most efficient predator. No conscience," she crooned to the ensnared boy, "means no second thoughts".
"Enough." Subaru cut her off sharply.
"Oooh, what's wrong? Don't like the idea that you love someone who will never ever be capable of returning that kind of feeling, or any other for that matter?"
"What do you want for him."
"Hm?"
Subaru marched to the edge of the web. "You like your trade-offs. What do you want in exchange for Seito?"
"Seito? Is that his name? How appropriate."
Subaru winced. He mentally kicked himself for violating one of the very first rules he had ever learned as an onmyouji.
"But no, the debt is his to repay, not yours."
"Wait!" Subaru cried as she bared her fangs once more over the bundle. "What if I could give you something that was his once?"
"Once?"
The spider eyed him suspiciously for a long moment before breaking into a slow grin. "Yes, I think I see what you mean. And you know, I think that will do nicely."
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Seito feverishly blinked awake, and immediately began struggling with the blankets tucked around him, confused when they easily gave way, tumbling quietly to the floor in surrender. It took a few seconds for him to register that he was in his own bed. Had he gotten away from the spider demon himself? He checked himself over for injuries and found nothing. Wary for any signs of a trap, he silently slid out of bed and padded down the hallway to the kitchen, glancing over his back every few seconds, expecting to see the beast behind him again.
Subaru was standing at the kitchen counter preparing rice balls when Seito tip-toed in. He didn't say a word, even though Seito knew that no matter how quiet he had been, Subaru always knew when someone entered the room. It made it difficult to sneak around with him. He wondered if Subaru was just tired though and concluded that everything else seemed normal. Until Subaru turned around.
Seito nearly jerked at the sight of the bandage over his right eye. "What happened?" He asked bluntly.
"That's what I would like to know." Subaru gestured toward the kitchen table and took a seat across from him. One eye as it turned out was all that he needed to give Seito an uncomfortably penetrating stare that had even him almost squirming. "Why did you try that spell?"
"I just wanted to see if it worked, so I could show off to you next lesson." Seito promptly lied.
Subaru didn't say a word and his face remained expressionless.
"What happened to your eye?" Seito asked at long last.
Again Subaru did not say a word, but his remaining eye clouded with sadness.
"You lost it getting me back didn't you?"
"I traded it for you. Subaru stood up. "I've got a client I'm supposed to meet in half an hour; I really need to get going."
Seito sat at the kitchen table for a long time after he left, wondering.