13
It finally becomes easier.
The man claws his way across the pavement, nails catching and tearing as he attempts to make his way to the end of the alley. There's an orange light at the end, some run down fast food joint or all night laundry-mat. Distant, but just bright enough to obscure the name of the shop beneath it, and perhaps that's what drives him on. Choking on his own blood and saliva and broken teeth, he makes the mistake of calling out.
"Help! Oh God, help!"
Crona feels like laughing, although he can't remember what makes this all so funny. He steps down on the man's broken leg, just able to make out the sound of it shattering further over the screaming. Maybe that's what was funny.
"You look like you've got a tiny soul," he utters softly, not really caring if this man listens. "I don't think it will be very good for eating."
"Stop," groans the victim for what must be the fifth time. Or the tenth. Or the first...Crona hasn't been keeping very good count. "Please, stop. I've got two kids..."
"That's stupid. You can't say that. Remember, my blood is black." He raises Ragnarok, suddenly very tired of this. "You need to stay quiet."
It dies like an apple bursts, left beneath the tree for far too long and stepped on hard; messy and red and the soul that's left behind is, if not tiny, not worth all the work it took to corner and kill its container. He thinks Ragnarok is saying something about that, but right now it's all static in his ears, and he lets his head loll back, feeling the squirm between their bodies.
'Crona,' she commands, right there with him, right above the static. 'You need to get out of there this instant.'
"Okaaaay..."
It's wonderful that way. Whenever he falters, whenever she tells him he can do it, that's the only time he really can. If she tells him, then it's like a switch going off and unlocking a door that opens wide, releasing all kinds of little furry things that rush to fill him up...and maybe, he thinks, that's what it feels like to have no fear. It's very nice of her to tell him when he shouldn't be afraid, really. So nice of her to make it happen.
Even when if all fades away and leaves him afraid again, that will be alright too. He'll just have to deal with it, because there's nothing else.
He knew he should have trusted her when she said it would become easy.