Chapter 20

Warmth wrapped its way around my neck, tightening until air couldn't make its way through my throat, I beat my leg against the floor knowing the gesture was going ignored, my blurry vision trying to recognize my attacker.

Yellow flashing in the darkness. "Y-youko, you're hurting me." I attempted coughing out as his hands tightened around my neck, pressure exerting on my chest. "Youk-, sto-" I was attempting to choke words out, words not even vibrating in my chest anymore.

My eyes ripped themselves open as I sat up, rolling out of bed onto the floor. Saliva dripping from my mouth and my heartrate moving at the point if my ribcage wasn't there it would've ripped its way out of my chest.

I coughed repeatedly trying to catch my breath. I took a deep breath wishing that it wasn't a possibility.

I shook my head. It was just a nightmare. I was attempting to blame Youko for the stress because of fighting. I ran my hand over my neck, the phantom feeling of his fingers wrapped around my neck and claws digging into my skin still lingering.

The clock read about two a.m. I took a breath glancing towards the balcony door. If Shuichi could climb down through the vines so could I. I pulled a jacket over my shoulders and threw flats over the railing.

I braced myself stepping over the balcony edge holding onto the railing, my fingers turning white as my foot searched for the vines that Shuichi used to come and go through the balcony. I knew I should've gone back for a flashlight.

We were in the city it would help as a weapon of self-defense on top of various other uses, but I was already with my feet half way off of the ledge. If I went back for that flashlight now I wouldn't be able to bring myself over the balcony ledge again. I needed to talk with Youko.

My first foot slipped as I tightened my grip on the railing. The next vine not supporting my weight. I glanced towards light flickering from my bedroom door, Aunt Anna was pacing around the house. She was likely to go to bed soon, she had just shut off her favorite programs.

I found my way onto the ground, scrutinizing the area. I could go to him, he didn't always need to come to me. I approached a shop, glancing in through the window to check the clock that quietly hung on the wall. It was about two-thirty. I had enough time to get there and get home without a problem, hopefully.

What would I do when I got there? My heart sunk. Apologizing wasn't on the list. I didn't do anything wrong. Explaining might have been though. Ridiculous. I sunk down to sitting on the sidewalk cars only passing every couple of minutes.

I had a nightmare didn't really explain the situation. Or that I was waiting for his personality to complete contradict itself so he would become something extremely dangerous and abusive. Rude. How was I supposed to explain those thoughts? I pulled my feet closer, there wasn't anyway I could explain these feelings that were passing through my chest.

The thought that I was scared of him seemed to hurt him in some way. Any logical person would be scared of him. He shows up out of nowhere from time-to-time, always seems to know what's happening, and he contains various atmospheres that send the shrill alert of dangerous to anyone with a natural born survival instinct. A person with half their brain cells left would've pivoted their foot and took off with a sight of his silhouette.

His personality contradicted his atmosphere. I stood up brushing my pants off, it was almost three in the morning and I had no idea where the part of town that displayed the parade was. My hopes weren't high, I knew it was likely to look extravagantly different without a parade illuminating its color.

Looking for him was exhausting especially when I didn't have any clue which way to go within the city, even if I had a map it wouldn't help. "What are you doing here?"

I turned around searching for the owner of voice. The girl from the dress shop. "I was looking for Youko."

Her eyebrows visibly twitched as her hand tightened around the basket she was carrying, "Don't bother, if he wants to talk to you he'll appear."

My hands curled into fists, "That's not fa-"

"When he's ready. Other than him why are you here?" She asked casting a glance around the empty alley.

"I'm not-" I followed her glance, light echoing from the next street over, "Other than-" Music blared through the buildings. My heart pulsed daring me to run far away from the dress shop owner. I knew she would insist that I returned home.

I counted the seconds waiting for her to lose her attention on her, my feet already pivoting to dart towards the area where the parade flourished. I was several sidewalk spaces away from her and she was carrying several packages in the arm that wasn't carrying the basket. I could make it, I sunk my feet into the ground darting towards that area.

Her hand hooking around my wrist, "Are you insane? This isn't a place for humans!" She snapped anger burning in her eyes. "If it wasn't for either of those two I would've already thrown you out of here long ago!" She snapped anger burning in her eyes, likely because a large majority of her packages were covered in mud.

"Humans?" I whispered as her grip loosened and she made incoherent angry mutterings as we picked up the packages.

"You'd think that Youko would explain. But no! Just assume that this girl is like all his other human friends!" She muttered as I reached a package only being swatted away. "What he doesn't understand is you aren't like his other friends! You can't defend yourself and you look damageable! I can't believe that he would hang out with someone so fragile!" Her incoherent mutterings becoming angry rants with a scratchy voice.

I held my breath in to prevent the sigh from escaping. "Have you ever heard of someone names Bellais."

The woman's shoulders lowered, "She was Youko's last lover. But their love, if that's what you call it, was a mess." She paused picking up another package from the ground, inspecting how much mud had gotten in them. It felt as though I had ruined whatever was in the package, I was the reason she had dropped the packages.

I scooped several packages into my arms, ignoring her protests, and began to walk in the direction of where her shop hopefully was.

I let her take the lead, "It was more like an obsession. What thief isn't obsessed with something he can't steal?" The woman unlocked her shop door setting the basket on the table and recollecting her packages.

She opened the packaging inspecting the cloths that remained inside. "Bellais tended to focus more on her crumbling castle, crumbling country, and crumbling family life. The only reason he had been interested in a woman that was crumbling herself was the fact that no one could obtain her interest. He was curious." She paused, "Lovers is probably too strong of a word for either of them. With both of them it was an unhealthy obsession. They just wanted the things they couldn't have, then when they could brush their fingers against it, it vanished." The woman shook her head brushing her fingers along the fabric.

"What happened after that?"

"I'm surprised he was comfortable enough to tell you about Bellais, but not the ending." She shook her head, stepping onto a stool, and placing the fabrics gently on top of a shelf well above her height level.

"She died." There wasn't too many other guesses to go with that situation.

The shop owner nodded, "What would you expect? It's common knowledge that we live longer than humans. It's not like the old times where we would go out of our way to murder them to make a point against each other. It's a lot more peaceful now, but every one of us has a pit that grows in our heart as we attempt to sink ourselves into denial. All humans die long before we do."

Pity and regret swirled in my chest. Dark circles lined her eyes and her fingers brushed the fabrics seeming to feel she would shatter them the way glass did. With a look at her I knew she must've lived through several situations that I would never even be able to fathom.

Both situations the world displayed through textbooks, pictures, patterns, anyway anyone knew how to preserve the situations in an attempt to prevent their recurrence and situations that the world would throw her into a cell if she ever attempted to exclaim how she lived her life.

Sandra reached behind her searching for her thread and designs, I pushed them closer so that her hands would be able to find them. "Lovers was likely too strong of a word for them. More like obsessed." She muttered holding the thread in her teeth as she begun working on the dress.

I glanced at the clock it was approaching four a.m. and this woman was still working. "Not all of his friends die. But the one's that survive are already cloaked in the atmosphere of blood before he met them." I glanced towards Sandra as she took the thread through another layer of the fabric. "But humans and his friends from our side usually don't make it. It's not just because he's one of us. You won't make it." She shook her head.

I glanced towards the table. That wasn't for her to decide. My mind trailed back to the minotaur that was standing within our yard then towards the person who was firing at Vincent and I. The likelihood that we were being shot out because of my social choices increasing at the moment. "How long did Bellais live after they met?"

Sandra paused as she scrutinized the fabric, "Two years?" She whispered, sounding unsure of the answers herself.

"Sandra, if being in this area is going to kill me what about Shuichi? How do you know him?" I whispered.

Sandra set her fabrics down, her eyes turning into daggers before she collected herself again, "He's different." she growled before sending the needle through the fabric again.

I glanced towards the door, slightly ajar, my eyes moving towards the clock. For how dangerous it supposedly was Sandra seemed comfortable enough with the area. I stood up heading towards the door, "If you're not human what are you?" I whispered receiving a glance from her.

"Haven't you figured that out for yourself already?" Her eyes glowing with the need to push me out of her shop. I held her gaze knowing that if I broke it even for a second I would be hurtled out of the house without my answers.

"We're demons"