Aahhhh, this my friends is where things start to get ugly.

Normally, I don't open with these, but this chapter earns it:

WARNING: Some serious angst ahead. This is the part where it starts to get really horrorish.

You are warned.

This chapter will have 2 parts because it was just too long.

Also, yes, this is a tale twisted from and inspired by the nightmarish horror stories of Poe, in case you should not have noticed it from all the quotes. :)

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CH III: The many tainted shades of ivory. Part I

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"The night, tho' clear, shall frown—

And the stars shall look not down

From their high thrones in the heaven,

With light like Hope to mortals given—

But their red orbs, without beam,

To thy weariness shall seem

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee for ever."

~ Spirits of the Dead, part III. Edgar Allan Poe

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It was the end of the second day now.

Or, so Yukio thought. One thing about this room, this prison cell, this cage, that made it even remotely bearable was the fact they dimmed the lights at night – or so Yukio could infer, for the light was not the only thing that reduced. The temperature plummeted at night, leaving everyone forced to huddle for warmth in the cold, steel walls of this hellish room, which didn't appear to have any kind of insulation at all.

Well, everyone except Mephisto.

The demon seemed to have gone into a conservative trance of sort. He wasn't asleep, but didn't behave as if awake most of the time either, or even alive at times. He was, somewhat disturbingly, more awake and active at night, when the biting cold struck everyone to one side of the room, leaving him plenty to move about. He had, last night, paced feverishly but silently back and forth across the tiny, cramped space as though he were a tiger in a cage. In a way, that analogy wasn't totally wrong.

Yukio seen it, perhaps because of his experience, his lineage, or, more grossly, because he was injured – but he could tell that beneath the still, silent figure that lied now just barely breathing against the far wall lied a demon that was severely agitated and maybe even afraid. And one thing Yukio knew far too well, having lived with a half-demon as a brother his whole life, was that demons and animals acted much the same when they felt either of those emotions.

The exorcist shifted as Rin came up to him, curling around him for the second night in a row as the lights began to dim. Yukio watched cautiously as, almost as if by cue, the trance-like, ignorant state of their demon headmaster broke away, the demon opening his cat-like eyes with an almost-invisble nictitating membrane sliding over the cornea in an equally feline-like way. As he had the previous night, Mephisto merely sat there a while, waiting patiently for his students to fall asleep. Yukio shivered as the steel against his back grew colder, though it was counteracted by the warmth of his students as they slowly surrounded him and Rin, decidedly the warmest ones here.

He looked down at Shiemi as she curled up in Rin's lap, her legs crossing his. She was shaking like a leaf even before the temperature drop, and in his medical opinion looked to be quite unwell. He hadn't addressed the matter yet, but he was almost certain that she was on a very delicate, sliding slope aimed downhill. She was, after all, one of the thinnest of them, and the smallest. Just as the thought came into his head, he felt his throat ache terribly, the dry, cottony feeling of dehydration making swallowing feel like a thousand needles were going down his throat. He needed water. They all needed water, and none more desperately than Shiemi, who's skin was becoming flushed even as he pondered the matter. An intrusive, halting thought entered his mind with enough force to make his already sugar-deprived and dizzy head spin.

What if she didn't make it until morning?

She had been acting alright – or as alright as they all could be, given the situation. She had been quiet, but then they all were, none of them really feeling like conversation would help. Rin was the only one who really tried to ease the tensions, and even got Shiemi to smile today. But he knew enough about healing and medicine to know that her condition was deteriorating, and quickly.

'I wish I could take back what I thought earlier, about not all of us surviving to the three day mark. But then, I guess it can't be helped. She's pretty healthy, right? Even though she's skinny, she's pretty well-off. Maybe she will be okay – at least until tomorrow.' A rare, razor-edged wound opened up in his heart for her. He may not have the same feelings for her as Rin, but she was still one of his best friends. His heart ached, and with everyone else not paying him much mind at the time, he decided there wasn't much sense in keeping it off his face. Rin had been right by her side all day, and Yukio had a sense he knew something was wrong, too. But in the situation they were in, he hadn't said anything of it yet.

Yukio tensed suddenly. He should have known better than to expect his emotional irritations to stay to himself.

"She is not doing well." Mephisto, wide awake and looking utterly bored, whispered. He stated his observations as simply as that, without any real emotional inflection. Yukio stayed silent, a deep, primal fear creeping slowly up his chest and into his throat, protective anger just beginning to simmer beneath his stomach.

"You do well at that, you know – concealing your weaknesses." Mephisto remarked, turning physically towards Yukio as if they were having an ordinary conversation. "However, as I am sure you are very aware, I am far too old to be fooled. You yourself are not in much better shape, are you?" Again, Yukio remained deliberately silent. "You got hurt somehow in your transport here. I don't want to presume too much, but since it's not an open wound, I can guess that it's a bone-related injury yet again." Mephisto coughed lightly. "You sure do like breaking your bones, Okumura-san."

"It's not broken." Yukio breathed back, voice not even a rising whisper. "It's only a light fracture." Despite his voice having almost no volume, it still somehow carried with it a sense of tension and distrust.

"Ah, now, Yukio." The named exorcist focused a glare at the demon, who seldom used his first name like that. "You recall what Shiro taught you?" That primal fear from before now choked the young exorcist at the subtle, warning tone in the demon's voice. He watched, as if by sheer instinct, for clues and body language he didn't have a mental description of. He didn't even know what he was looking for, precisely, but the slight turn of the demon's ears, the tiny tilt that held them pinned closer to his skull – it was enough to send his heart pounding into his head and his stomach surging up his throat with some kind of dreadful anticipation.

"When among demons, particularly when in the company of those like me, you must watch yourself very carefully." The demon warned lightly, not making direct eye contact – something which, rather than be soothing, made the exorcist more nervous. "Demons like me, carnivores, we are a predatory type. And what can you never do with a predator?" Mephisto's gaze now turned deliberately towards the exorcist, making him automatically find someplace else for his own eyes to settle. He knew the answer, and mentally berated himself for forgetting it. But he was only human after all. It just happened that right now, he was having a hard time remembering that.

"...Act like prey." Yukio's voice was gone from the statement entirely, the sound just barely audible below his haggard breathing, which he hadn't even realized he was doing.

"That's right." Mephisto went on. "Because when you act like prey, you become prey."

Yukio tried, in vain, to still the shaking in his muscles. He wasn't shivering from being cold, far from. His fight or flight had been triggered without his awareness, making his body desperate to do something, to run, to flee, to fight against this thing, this thing which he dare not name in his mind as his instincts wanted to, or else fall victim to their plight. A predator.

'There is a tiger sitting there against that wall, and we all are merely lambs. Don't be afraid! Don't act like it, at least. You flinch, you lose. You flinch, you lose. You flinch, you lose.' Yukio steeled his resolve, mentally chanting the words like a mantra. He had to stay calm. If no one else did, he had to. He had to.

"Good boy." Mephisto praised mockingly, a slightly pained smirk coming onto his face. "I can go for months or even years without food, if I eat well at least once in that span." Mephisto mused quietly as if talking to himself. "I can go longer if I drink water on occasion." He mused. He turned his attention once more to Yukio, now pretending not to listen. "I don't like the idea of eating you, for the record. I don't particularly care for human meat. It's tough and bitter, and it's far too easy to obtain. It's cheap, from my perspective, and wholly in bad taste." Mephisto whispered with a hint of disgust – which, if Yukio were being honest, made him feel a touch better. "However, if one of you should perish through this ordeal, it would become dangerous very quickly. In such a small, poorly ventilated area, a body is going to decompose quickly and foully."

"So what you're saying," Yukio responded, feeling Shura shift against his shoulder. She was awake and listening too, he surmised silently. "Is that if one of us dies, you are going to eat them. To remove the corpse."

"Yes, more or less. There isn't much else place for it to go, and my digestive system can take a while to digest a single meal if I so wish it. My body recycles waste much more efficiently than a human's, so the issue presented of bodily waste encouraging diseases is greatly diminished."

"I hadn't even thought of that problem yet." Yukio agreed with surprising ease. "There is nowhere for anything to go – and even without food, the human body still produces waste that has to be removed somehow."

"I'm afraid I can't be of much use there." Mephisto stated flatly. "Cryptozoonotic disease often goes from my direction to yours more than the other way around. Unpleasant though it is, I really can not think of a way to avoid or handle the problem, for it's never really been one for me."

The conversation drifted away into silence. After a while, Yukio began to lightly drift into slumber, the warmth of his sibling and his friends soothing him. Shura, though awake moments ago, seemed to have fallen back asleep, her face tucked into his neck, her warm, even breathing providing for the exorcist some amount of solace. Rin leaned on his other shoulder, his arms wrapped around Yukio's waist. Bon's arm was situated against his hip, having wrapped unconsciously around Rin, into whose side he was pressed. Izumo and Konekomaru were on Shura's side, tucked together like kittens, with Shima curled into a ball on the other side against Bon.

The night dragged on into morning, with Yukio being awoken now and then by the rustling of his classmates and the tapping of Mephisto against the metal walls as he looked for some way out. As the light came back on, and everyone began to stir, Mephisto once more took his place upon the far corner, once more becoming statue-esque and half-dead.

However, moments after everyone had begun to lazily stir awake, a crackling came on over the intercom. The volume and unexpected noise made even Mephisto startle, drawing confused, dreary expressions towards the source of the sound.

"Good Morning, exorcists." The cordial greeting was, unexpectedly, given by Lucifer. He waited a moment after his initial announcement for the remainder of them to stir into full consciousness. "It has come to my attention that there are some of you who are rapidly declining in health. This, though not particularly consequential, could become potentially problematic." Confused expressions were exchanged all around, until everyone noticed that Shiemi had yet to fully awaken or stir.

"Shiemi?" Shura said in alarm. Rin held onto her still, and though wide awake, was dead silent. His expression was pained, though he didn't say a word. At the other's rapt attention he pulled her closer to his chest, hugging her tightly, protectively.

"Rin?" It was Bon who spoke his name, just above a whisper. Yukio, long aware of his sibling's moods, noticed the strain in his throat as he tried desperately not to cry.

"She is alive." He whispered tersely.

"She is dying." Lucifer said, his tone strangely sympathetic. "Even from this vantage point, I can see that."

"Shut up." Rin growled lowly, baring his fangs vividly.

"If you want her to survive, I advise you keep ahold of yourself little brother." Lucifer warned lightly. "I will give you and your exorcists water, Samael – but only if you...take care of something for me."

"Again with making deals?" Said demon sighed exasperatedly. "Then again, I suppose that's what we both specialize in, isn't it?" Mephisto smiled wryly. "What is it you want me to do?"

"I want you to get rid of something for me – but first," Lucifer said, sounds stepping away from the microphone.

Just then, there was a loud hissing sound of compression springs releasing. An invisible doorway opened up, just large enough for a person of average height to fit through. A dark figure approached, more like staggered, forward through the opening, causing everyone in the room to stand or else prepare for trouble.

However, once he came within the light's reach, it became obvious that this was a person they were all fairly familiar with, though none more so than Mephisto, who rushed forward to grab him as he staggered in.

"Amaimon?" Mephisto inquired with some mixture of alarm, surprise and relief. No sooner had said demon stepped into the room than the door slid quickly shut behind him, eliminating the possibility of escape. Amaimon staggered on his feet even standing still, looking dazed and not having any sense of proper balance. He went to fall, but Mephisto managed to catch him before he hit the ground, though his weight dragged the paladin down with him.

"Uff, I forgot how heavy you were!" Mephisto complained, straining as he lowered his brother down slowly, nearly dropping him in the process. He then gave his sibling a tenative sniff – and let loose a deep, rumbling growl that began in his stomach and worked its way out with enough bass to cause his chest to visibly shudder. It was an alarming sound for the watching humans, or indeed anything that might have been listening, for in it was a sense of passionate anger. Mephisto's students watched on in varying amounts of surprise, most of which having never seen him angry. But he was definitely angry now, lips curling over his fangs as he looked up toward the camera.

"My, my, so hostile." Lucifer said, a playful yet chastising note in his voice. "I assure you it was consensual. He gave himself over to me of his own choice, likely as a means of appeasement." Mephisto let out another rumbling growl, though it wasn't as loud or intense as the first. Bon, personally, felt himself reel from the implication, and looking over to his friends and to Rin, he could tell he wasn't the only one.

"You know," Mephisto said, his voice threateningly calm after such an obvious indication of his feelings. "Seducing my baby brother is probably not the wisest choice you could have made if you want me to cooperate."

"You did not claim him for your own. That is not my problem." Mephisto heaved a deep breath, letting it whoosh from his lungs, taking with it some of his irritation.

"Why did you send him back to me, now of all times?" Mephisto asked calmly, regaining his composure.

"I have my reasons." Lucifer replied vaguely. "As for your task, if you want water, you will have to take care of a little chore for me – and perhaps you might gain from it something, since you are under the impression I stole something from you." Mephisto huffed, knowing he was talking about Amaimon. "He is under light sedation right now, but will be awake soon enough." As if on cue, Amaimon, half-conscious, let out a groan, sitting up with some effort.

"Aniki?" the younger demon mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "It's bright in here."

"I know." Mephisto responded, placing a hand on his sibling's shoulder when he went to fall over again. He looked toward the camera once more, sighing.

"Name your price."

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Next part will be MUCH longer, and have some legitimate gore.

Until then!