(5/24 - Edited chapter just slightly)

Wheeeeee an update that didn't take two years! YAY FOR ZOEY!

::Is pelted with tomatoes::

…..

Oh well, here's chapter eight!

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Chapter 8

Desperation

An abrupt hollow knocking urged Rosette awake, mid-morning rays filtering in through the window above her bed. Yawning, she brushed her blond bangs out of her face and sat up, stretching slightly as she heard her door creak open timidly.

"Neesan, it's almost noon." Joshua's voice carried smoothly across the room, lazy cerulean eyes meeting his as he stepped up to her bed with a somewhat stubborn look. "I know its Saturday, but get your butt out of bed before you mess up your internal time clock."

"But I don't have work until six…" His sister groaned, resting her head against the wall as she did her best to stay upright. She felt rested enough, but her breaks between school and work were oh so few and far apart. "And Gary said I'd have tomorrow off. Let me relish sleep a bit before I have to work on that damned essay."

Joshua breathed in a slow sigh, sitting down beside her with a worried look. "Alright…. I just wish you'd tell me why you've been so tired lately. You're not really paying much attention in school either…"

"Yeah, well…. I've got a lot going on right now." She shrank back and used her worn-out excuse he's heard way too many times as of late. "Don't worry about it. You just keeping doing what you need to do."

"You're a broken record." He remarked with a pointed stare. "That's all I ever get out of you. There's something you're not telling me, and I'm gonna find out what sooner or later."

"None of your business." Her words were harsh, but Joshua knew better that she was simply being overly defensive – and nervous too, by the way she was clenching and unclenching her bed sheet. "For all you know I could be having PMS problems. You wanna hear about that? Besides, I-"

Rosette's voice was immediately cut off as her hand quickly moved up and slapped over the juncture between her neck and shoulder, a blush creeping over her cheeks. Oh dear lord in heaven he didn't do it again…

"…..?" Joshua slowly raised an eyebrow, watching her carefully as she suddenly became frozen, hand latched to her neck. "Uh….you…okay?"

"Yes, I'm up!" She blurted out in a rush, voice squeaking at a higher pitch as it was forced out. "I-I'll be out for breakfast in just a minu-"

"Lunch. It would be lunch now, Neesan."

"Right, right – lunch. Now leave an lemme get dressed!" She reached over and grabbed a pillow with her spare hand, shoving it at her brother who let out a protesting whimper as he was scoot off the bed.

"Wahh fine, fine… don't need to see you in your underwear… I just ate." He turned around and stuck his tongue out childishly at her – which earned him the same pillow chucked in his direction; thankfully it was easily dodged as he slid out the door hastily, closing it behind him.

Huffing slightly, Rosette waited a few moments to hear his footsteps go back down the hall, and into the living area before she let her guard down. Sliding out of bed, she walked over to her dresser, looking into an old-fashioned mirror that stood atop it. She cringed as she removed her hand from her neck, seeing a faded mark adorned with hints of dried blood.

"You bastard!" She hissed under her breath, fingering the mark lightly as if to make sure it didn't hurt or keep bleeding. "What are you, a fucking vampire?"

"Blood exchange strengthens the contract. Quit overreacting." Chrno's voice replied with indifference, as if simply stating the facts like they were nothing new. Well, to him it wasn't.

"Did you have to do it from my neck?! God I feel violated…" She grimaced as she inspected the nearly completely faded wound once again in the mirror, looking more and more disgusted as her mind began to wander. If he could break skin without waking her, what else could he do while she sleeps? Oh merciful god…

"The neck is the only point where blood attracts a small quantity of renewable Astral… I'm sure you'll appreciate me not drawing from any of the other sources. You'd probably die. Experience excruciating pain, flirt with a coma, then die."

"You sure know how to sugar coat your excuses." Rosette grit her teeth, feeling more and more infuriated with him. Can't he see this isn't exactly a normal occurrence for her?

"Your welcome."

"That was sarcasm, asshole." She groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. 'He does this on purpose… don't let it get to you…' The thought to herself, before calming down just slightly. "Look, just leave me alone, okay? I want to relax every once and a while without your smart remarks."

"As you wish." His voice was thick with fake endearment, but it was obvious he would comply – simply because he had better things to do than playing war with a teenager whose thousands of years out of her league.

Rosette sighed and grabbed her hairbrush, leisurely combing out the tangles of her golden locks. She stared at the mark on her neck once more, cheeks turning slightly pink as her mind wandered again, wondering if Chrno had ever done anything indecent to her other than this while she slept. She knew there probably wasn't any reason he'd too anything too bad, but she really wondered if there were any other demonic rituals he's yet to tell her about that may or may not involve indecent touching. He doesn't really seem the type… but then again, he's constantly surprising her with more than enough situations that make her feel uncomfortable…

"Lay off. You're still a virgin."

Needless to say, Joshua about wet himself at the screams of fury that proceeded Chrno's less than careful comment – and sulked with realization that he's going to have to be the one to repair the wall where her hairbrush had lodged itself in the plaster.

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The hours following the incident that had left the two siblings of apartment 5C bickering for thirty minutes were generally uneventful; though those thirty minutes did not include the time it took to find a repairman to fix the wall – which they couldn't exactly find in the first place, so in turn they tried to find someone who did know where to look for a repair man; which didn't work out either, and in the end they had to go online and figure out how to apply fresh store-bought foundation to the gaping hole in the wall. In short, a small portion of Rosette's east wall had a rather lumpy, slightly discolored rebellious blob smack in the middle. Good luck explaining that to the landlord.

"I so do not want to go into work today…" Rosette groaned and sat herself lazily next to her brother on the living room couch. "Josh, gimme the remote. It's my turn."

"Ten more minutes. Surface is almost done." She heard him reply, pulling his blanket over his shoulders.

"Fine. Call me when it's done – I'll be in my room." The blond sat up once more, making her way back to the solace of her bedroom, and began filtering through her closet for her work uniform. Ever since the incident in the kitchen a while back, she was permanently placed as a waitress, forcing her to wear the same monotonous outfit every day – green pleated skirt (Which was way too short in her opinion), white collared top with a black tie that bore the restaurant's logo on it.

After fixing herself up quickly, she adjusted her tie in the mirror, and combed through her hair real quick once more. Slowly she glanced at the book Chrno had caught her reading the night before, on a stack of notebooks that adorned the right side of her dresser. Why didn't he want her to read it? She could barely understand most of it anyway…

"Hey, Chrno." She stated with an almost strict tone as if she was about to give him an order - and immediately regretting it. She flinched slightly as she waited for him to snap at her for 'using such a tone' or some such nonsense, but it never came.

Slowly she looked behind her needlessly, raising an eyebrow. "Kurono?" She called again, this time a bit softer.

No way. She hadn't talked to him since this morning, but he couldn't be gone again already, could he? She thought she'd be under constant surveillance after what happened last night.

She grinned devilishly at the silence before turning back and grabbing the book. "When the cat's away, the mice will play, Chrno." She said in an almost sing-song voice as she unclasped the old leather binding and flipped to a random page.

Though she had been confident she would find something she was sure Chrno wouldn't want her to know, she once again found herself struggling to read much of the text – sometimes there were whole paragraphs in old English, or even Latin; not to mention there were a few pages torn beyond recognition.

Her will was already wearing thin, knowing well Chrno would be pissed if he found her doing this again – and it didn't help that she found a chapter that talked about the various ways demons would torture their human contractors in their last weeks, inevitably killing them in horrifying ways. At one point she closed the book and sat down on her bed, feeling more than a bit creeped out. But that didn't last long after calling Chrno's name a few times, and had a boost of confidence when she was once again met with silence.

Only after a few more minutes of searching, she found something of interest. Apparently there was a point in time where humans were able to control their demons, and could sometimes force them to kill other people… Not everyone, but many found out that threatening to commit suicide (Mostly through spells, but apparently sometimes holding a blade to your neck worked fine too) could force their demon into a sort of pact that turned the tables on who controlled who.

'Wonder if I could do that to Chrno…' Rosette thought to herself with interest – but some of the spells listed sounded impossible for her (that and she could only ready half of the instructions if she was lucky), and in most cases, risky. There was one that could just end up killing you on the spot if done incorrectly… and some of the others weren't any prettier.

Flipping a few chapters forward again, she skimmed through some Latin text, finding a few sentences here and there she was able to read. Something about a chain and a bridge…. More philosophical crud that made absolutely no sense to her.

By now her heart was pounding with anticipation, afraid that with each turn of the page, Chrno would return and show her less mercy than he had the night before. The bastard enjoyed scaring the daylights out of her, she just knew it. So needless to say she winded up placing the book back exactly where she got it (or at least she hoped so) only minutes after she picked it up again, and walked back out to the living room to watch TV before she'd have to go to work.

"You were supposed to tell me when your show was done." She muttered, voice oddly quiet and timid as she sat down next to Joshua, watching him channel surf.

"You were busy getting ready… here, I'm done." He shrugged his blanket off him and sat up, handing her the remote. "Nothing's really on anyway. I'm gonna work on homework."

"Gee, thanks." She said with a grin, sarcasm thick in her voice. He was right though, after a few minutes of searching, she just wound up turning on some cartoon about fairies and a boy with a pink hat. It was mildly entertaining, and at the very least it gave her some time to calm down, relieved that she had yet to hear from Chrno – meaning that she got away with looking through that book.

Well, sitting here bored was just about as bad as working. Might as well do the constructive latter.

"Joshua, I'm heading out early!" She called down the hall and to her brother's bedroom as she pulled her brown leather jacket on and grabbed her wallet, stuffing it in one of the pockets on the sides.

"Bye Neesan!" She heard him call faintly from the other side of the apartment, probably too absorbed in whatever work he was doing to step out and see her off, which he usually does.

Slipping on her shoes, she walked out and locked the door behind her, letting out somewhat of a content sigh as she began leisurely making her way to the restaurant, something she rarely ever gets to do due to her horrible timing.

The sun was just beginning to set, not quite twilight, but just dim enough for the colors around the city to warm into a slightly orange hue. There were plenty of people around, one the streets and sidewalk, trying to beat the dinner rush that would inevitably back the New York streets in around thirty minutes, once the clocks struck six. It was almost peaceful… kind of like the calm before the storm.

Someone up there was surely laughing at the irony – oh how right she was.

"Rosette." Chrno's stern voice made Rosette jerk to a stop, a chill running up her spine. For a split second, she could have sworn he was about to reprimand her, or something of the like. "Turn into the alley at your right. Now."

"Wh-what? Chrno…" She stuttered for a moment, looking around as if she was going to see some crazed murderer coming at her with a bloody cleaver.

"NOW, Rosette!" His voice boomed in her ears, making her jump again, and in an almost involuntary act, dive into the alleyway he pointed her too, almost stumbling past an overturned trash can. She made a turn at the end, before coming up to the next street at the end. "Make a right – keep running." Odd… his voice sounded almost worried.

"Wh-what the Hell, Chrno?!" She practically yelled, not at all concerned about the people she passed as they gave her bewildered looks the moments she started yelling at the air. "What's going on?!"

An eerie silence fell upon her, only the sound of her strained breath and own pounding heartbeat reaching her ears. She was about to call his name again, before an invisible force pushed her across the street, the cars that would have run into her swerving to either side, metal clashing against metal, people crying with fright.

"Demons. They've found us." His voice was oddly quiet – like he was talking to her from far away, but it was still laced with the same amount of intensity as it had been earlier. Before she was able to try and get another word in, she was shoved once again into the park side, tripping over herself and stumbling to the grass. A blast of wind came from behind, followed by more screams, and the blood-curdling sound of an otherworldly screech and cracking pavement.

Demons… there were other demons? Like Chrno? Why were they after her? "Chrno – what-!!!" She turned around after getting back on her feet, eyes widening as she felt her entire body freeze. A gigantic black creature was raising out of the shadows from the street, multiple clawed arms crushing street lights and cars that had already backed into each other. A handful of smaller ones dropped in from the tops of the buildings, breaking the concrete below their claws as the landed, blood flying as a few unlucky individuals fell victim to their claws.

"MOVE, ROSETTE!" Chrno's voice snapped her out of her frozen state, a part of her relieved that her demon couldn't possibly be one of the monstrosities that were tearing through metal and concrete like it was wet paper. Sirens began filling the air along with the screams of mortals, Rosette's blood running cold as she turned on her heels and ran, knowing there was little she could do but run as her demon ordered her to. Not moments later she was pulled again by an invisible force, just as a deformed wolf-like creature fell upon the ground, snarling at her, blood red eyes intent to kill, a venomous ooze dripping from its canines. Where were they all coming from?

The offending demon let out a cry of pain as it was slashed into two from nowhere, and Rosette found herself being pushed once again farther into the park, passing up many people who were running towards the entrance, screaming with horror.

Screeching to a halt, Rosette's eyes widened as she backed up a few steps, face paling considerably. Another creature was emerging from the shadows by the fountain in the center of the park, crushing the ground under its feet, long spiked tail tearing down offending trees from nearly eighty feet behind it. It rose to its full height, easily towering over the surrounding buildings outside the park; four gleaming red eyes fixating upon her as it opened its maw, a golden glow emanating from behind its mass of razor sharp fangs.

Her breath caught in her throat, her body suddenly feeling limp as she fell to her knees.

The air around her dropped to a freezing temperature, time slowing as she felt her heart skip a beat.

She was going to die.

She was going to die.

Bright yellow flames ejected from the mouth of the monster looming before her, the screeches and calls of countless otherworldly creatures echoing in her ears. Shadows from every corner of her vision began lurching forward, pitch black protrusions reaching out in forms of claws like whisps of smoke. So much destruction already… and there were still more coming.

Her vision blurred, her mind nearly slipping into unconsciousness as she winced, bracing herself for the pain, the sensation of blistering heat…

A lingering chill ran up her spine as a breeze of cold air passed her body from behind… and even after seemingly long moments of wait, she felt a breath of heat – but the she never felt the pain.

Breath heavy and staggering, she looked up, tears barely stinging her eyes as they widened.

Before her stood the figure of a man, one arm crossed in front of his chest, the aftermath of sun colored flames licking his skin and the grass around them. Black leathery wings protruded from his back, outstretched and slightly singed – and to her surprise, the scorched flesh was quickly mending over itself, healing rapidly until she could no longer tell there were ever burn marks there. A metallic, blade-tipped tail that extended from the base of his neck stayed slightly suspended in mid-air, the light of the flames reflecting off of the smooth surface in an eerie dance.

His head turned back towards her, golden eyes glowing slightly under dark violet hair – his gaze meeting hers for the first time in desperation.

"Rosette…"

Her blood ran cold, body completely frozen as her breath caught in her throat. Her mouth felt dry, her heart pounding painfully in her chest.

She knew that voice.

The very same voice that had caused her years of pain and fear…

Years of isolation and regret…

"Chrno…?"

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OH GOD YES I am evil. Shower me with praise. Or flames. Y'know, whichever you feel like.

I'm on a roll here so the next chapter may be up fairly soon!

Zoey