I apologize to the very deepest part of the abyss in my heart. I did plan to update at the start of April but inspiration didn't come to me well. Then, a stone hit my head and now, I have a writer's block!
Previously:
Somewhere outside Japan, a young man is walking by the road side near the beach, thinking deeply about what to do. He has black messy hair with bangs parted evenly – to avoid covering his eyes – and crimson red eyes. He wears an exorcist uniform jacket and has a sword hanging around his shoulder.
"I have done what I could to pay back to her kindness to me. Now, I have done that, what should I do next?" he raises his eyebrows in question. He looks like he's walking aimlessly and talks to no one in particular.
"Argh! This is frustrating! It will be so boring with all the missions!" he stops in his tracks and clutches his hair and closes his eyes in anger of thinking so deeply upon such things.
After clearing his mind and deciding to think about it when needed to, he continues to walk in a quiet place with almost no people around.
"Huh?" After walking a short distance, his nose twitches at smelling something. 'It's faint but it's here.' His eyebrows furrow in frustration as he smell a familiar smell – of a demon.
'It's nearby.' "Tch." He dashes to follow where the smell originated. There, he finally sees it. He does not notice the beautiful scenery of the bright sunset at the horizon. He does not notice how the seas seem to twinkle as it reflects the sunset. What he sees is different from the usual scenery from every time he walks. He gazes at a different colour this time. It's the colour of blue.
Blue flames…
It is the symbol of those higher level demons.
But there's something different.
The blue flames are slowly dying out from the pale and bloodied young teen. The red-eyed exorcist could feel that if he does not do anything, the life of the young teen would die out just like the blue flames.
The young exorcist rushes to the shore, right hand reaching out to the hilt of his unsheathed sword. He slows down in careful steps, taking precautions as he observes with cautious eyes. The body is emitting weak blue flames. Such feature alone makes the exorcist sharpen his senses and stay in alert. Unmoving and bloody as it is, the demon could stand up anytime and attack him.
Waves innocently splash towards the still wounded torso of the demon and brings back the blood with it to the sea. With the salty water on those wounds, surely, the demon would grunt in pain and move slightly. Instead, more and more blood is oozing out of a deep wound on its chest. And with that, the blue flames disappeared completely just like a fire in a stove is put off.
The cautious exorcist relaxes his body but absolutely without letting down his guard. He finally decides to let go the hilt of the sword and crouches down near the demon and shakes it a bit. Without waiting for any response, he overturned the figure. Just underneath the body is a sword with blood-stained blade and an ordinary old leather hilt without any intricate designs in it. However, the exorcist could feel something different compared to the ordinary old swords. It feels something closer to the sword slung to his back.
'Why would a demon be lying dead in a shore with a sword like this?' his thoughts clearly portrayed in his features as he his left brow rise in question, eyes scanning the weapon.
His focus moved to the said demon now lying on its back beside the sword. As his red eyes widen in surprise when he lands a sight on the damaged body in front of him, his voice came out louder than usually.
"WHA-! A H-HUMAN?!" Upon hearing his own voice, the exorcist quickly reaches out to the hand of the blue-haired teen. At the slight brush of their skin, he flinches at the slowly dropping temperature of the teen. He immediately regains his composure and checks the pulse. The beating of the pulse is slowing, his life deliberately about to go.
His hesitation of the demon attacking him when it wakes up is quickly dispersed. Without further ado, the exorcist slips his hands beneath the teen's shoulders and legs. He firmly grips the cold body enough to lift it up at the same time, delicate enough to avoid shaking the body too much as it might aggravate the wounds. He holds the body as if it's fragile and would break any moment.
'He looks completely like a normal human. But he freaking had those blue flames and I can't be mistaken of it. Demons… when they are weak or about to die, they turn back to their original appearance. Could he be…?' he looks down at the limp body in his hands. "A half?" he suddenly realizes the ridiculous hypothesis he has and clicks his tongue in annoyance.
Despite having more and more questions reverberating and going round and round in his head, the exorcist continues to move to a direction with long strides. He couldn't deny that the human appearance of this 'demon' made his heart race faster in worry as he looked at the pale and lifeless body. The head of the dying teen gently leans in rest in the exorcist's chest. If the blue-haired teen is conscious, he could hear the loud anxious beating of the exorcist's chest.
The taller man finally decides to ask the teen about everything if he gets to wake up for another day.
With his hands full, he brought up his knees concentrating his strength to the raised up leg switching his center of gravity to his foot on the ground to have proper balance. In one swift movement of his kick, the door burst open with force, startling the occupant of the clinic.
"Old hag! Where are you?!" the exorcist shouts in hurry as his uniform is getting more and more soaked with the teen's blood.
Normally, his action would earn him an enraged woman stamping her way towards him while cursing, then a punch to his guts, and then dragging him by pinching his ears to get the tools to start fixing the door. However, the said woman stops in her tracks, the blood draining from her face making her complexion paler than usual. Her shocked reddish pink eyes lock gazes to the exorcist. With a nod, her composure changes "Bring him to that room." with a stern voice, she orders the exorcist as she fixes her lab coat and proceeds to the room.
"Scalpel."
Orders. Those are the only words that fill the room. There are no chatters exchanged between the occupants. The only noises are the clattering of the surgical instruments hitting each other on the steel table; slow and calm but worried breathing behind the masks; the faint squishing sound of the scalpel digging on the skin and of stitches as it forcibly closes the wounds; and lastly, the incessant beeping on the electronic monitor.
Sweat runs down at the back her neck yet the room is cold. As the operation goes on, they could feel the cold temperature crawling on their skin. The chilly air surrounds the room as it has nowhere to go from the windowless room.
The air brings with it the smell of antiseptics, swab and… blood. It has the distinct smell of blood all over it. With the enclosed room, it considerably smells of death.
With careful handling of the situation, it took 4 hours before the operating lights at the center are turned off, replaced by the room's light.
Blood-stained surgical gloves fall over to an empty steel table. The surgeon sighs in victory at the sound of the stable beeping. Her skilful hands remove the mask covering her mouth and nose.
"He's finally stable. Let's move him to a room." her reddish pink eyes check her patient. She runs her eyes from the biggest stitch on his chest to the smaller one on the abdomen. It continues to his wrist with the tube of the IV drip to his arms with the tube connecting to the bag of blood hanging on the pole.
"Now, tell me. Who is this fellow we have?" A woman in her early thirties with red hair neatly tied in a ponytail, its wavy end barely reaching below her shoulders; her lab coat graciously sways as her graceful body stands properly from her bent position. "Night?" she turns around, her reddish pink irises stares directly to the man she addressed as she slips in the stethoscope in her lab coat's pocket.
"I don't know." The exorcist, Night, gives a straightforward answer. He has his eyes on the woman intently listening on him. Her silence urges Night to continue as she sits on the bedside of the patient.
"I was strolling on the roadside and the found him lying on the shore, bleeding to death." he continues on as he leans on the chair he is sitting. "The only thing I know is he is a half-demon and half-human. After all, no demon could maintain its human disguise after almost dying." he puts his leg over the other. "Also, he looks too human minus the pointy ears, demon tail, and fangs. I just can't leave him like that after finding out." he immediately added.
"This is going to be difficult." she nods as her brows furrow into worry as she darts her gaze to her patient.
"Hey, Angela." Night observes the said woman as he calls her attention. With serious but softer tone in his voice, he proceeds without waiting for a response, "It was faint but I saw it. He has blue flames."
At the information, Angela flinches and takes away her hand touching her patient's hand. From Night's position, he couldn't clearly see what Angela's expression could be. She is facing sideways, her lengthy sideburns reaching her shoulders and her bangs shadowing her eyes prevent Night from identifying her expression. Without forcing himself to know, he moves his crimson eyes towards the patient. "He has a close relation to that bastard Satan." stating with such bitter emphases to the name, he grits his teeth in hatred.
At this, Angela quietly and slowly stands up. He expected her to get mad at him for bringing someone connected to Satan and ask her to dispose of the teen. "I'm going to sleep now." contrary to what Night expected, she only yawns, slackens her shoulders and walks slowly towards the door. "Ah. But I'll have milk first. Do you also want some?" she mumbles and even dares to ask the confused exorcist. But before she could hold the knob, Night grabs her wrist stopping her. His expression is beyond shocked; there's a mix of disturbed, unease, worry, tense, agitated, confusion and other unexplainable emotions in him.
"Did you - !" he could not finish his sentence as Angela faces him with her calm and mellow expression.
"I'm a doctor and he's a patient. It's my job to take care of him. And, wasn't he half-human?" she states in a professional but gentle voice.
"But - !" his hand is removed from Angela's wrist and his sentence is cut off again.
"Plus! You brought him here. Thus, you have the duty of keeping your eyes to him at all times, without R-E-S-T." she speaks in a rising and falling rhythm at the last part. Angela displays a smile on her but a different one. It is a smile of victory at getting back or punishing someone. It then hit Night. 'She remembered!' his thoughts screaming inside his head. This is one of her punishments to him for doing it again to the door.
He is frozen standing still from the same position. "M-milk. Y-you asked if I want one. P-please give me?" he could only mutter in the moment as he lowers his head.
"Okay~" and with her nod in victory, she exits the room and proceeds to make two cups of hot milk.
Night could only face palm himself. He had forgotten how truly cruel that woman could be. She has that red hair, reddish pink eyes, and her disguised mellow expression with the gentle voice and words. Giving up, Night with his head lowered and hand covering his face, unwillingly walks to the chair beside the bed. His 'duty' starts as he takes a sit.
'That woman is way scarier than the demon in front of me.' his cold sweat drops from his brow.
'She's the real demon!'
.
.
.
Sunlight slowly passes through the window bathing the room with warmth and light as the curtains are tied in the sides. The rustling of sheets and blanket could be heard. The exorcist on guarding duty shifts in his sleep, the blanket slightly sliding off of him. 'Blanket? When did I fell asleep?' He slowly and lazily opens one eye. However, it's not his blanket that is making the rustling noise. In a panic, Night widely opens his eyes, throws his blanket to the side and jumps from the comfort of the chair.
"What?" Another occupant, holding bandages is sitting by the bedside of the patient. "You startled me a little. I was just changing his bandages."
"Old hag, huh. It was just you." Night adds a click of his tongue as he rubs his head in realization.
"Yeah, yeah. Like an irresponsible guard like you could say that it's just me. And stop calling me old hag. I'm not that old." The doctor then cleans up her mess and stood up, her cheeks puffed up in annoyance from the name she has been called.
"Hey! I did my part! I just fell asleep, that's all!" Night shouts in retort but the doctor hushes him as she points to her patient. No matter how much they want the patient to wake up to question him, they know that he also needs to rest and that he should not be forced to awaken.
Sighing, the lady asks Night out, "Come on, let's eat together. You haven't eaten out after your mission, right? Join me."
Night perks up at this. 'Is she for real?' his confused and distrustful thoughts about the offer resounds in his mind.
"Don't give me that look. You just have to pay for your own, that's all. Nothing else to worry about." Angela puts her hands on her hips as she pouts slightly just like a child when in suspicion from doing something bad.
"Heh. Thanks for everything until now, Angela." Night smiles to the doctor. Now that he thinks about it, he might always be causing troubles, even calling her old hag, but she's always there. She even has the complete medical instruments and equipment in her clinic, only because of him. He remembers how she would always treat him while scolding him about how reckless he's always been. Even now that he brought someone in danger of dying, she helped him.
"But what if he wakes up?" the exorcists cautious thoughts shifts to that of their patient.
"I'm hungry. Let's go." Angela drags Night out of the room and out of the house to a nearby restaurant.
"Plus, it doesn't seem like he'll wake up now. He's been sleeping for three days straight." They slowed down their pace as she adds in a whisper. Night could only silently walk behind the shorter lady.
It has been two days since they had eaten together in the walking distance restaurant. Day and night the exorcist has been doing his duty. Not once has he noticed that the patient is waking up.
"This day too." Night mumbles as he stares at the teen in hopes that the patient could at least hear him and make a slight movement. However, nothing happened.
At this, the guard on duty just closes his eyes ready to take the darkness in his sleep.
Sleep…
It is a dreamless sleep for him.
An hour after, which feels like a only a few minutes after he closed his eyes, he heard a loud gasp and the blanket about to rip from a deathly clutch. Night wakes up alarmingly and had seen it. The patient is sweating heavily; his hands are pale white from clutching the blanket too much; his back arching as if in pain; and lastly, his heavy breathing.
Before Night could call the doctor, the patient opens his eyes and screams. He thrashes his hands and the tubes and wires from his wrist and arm are pulled off in the process and the beeping sound from the monitor flattened. Night is fast and immediately keeps hold of the patient's hands to keep him from hurting himself. However, the blue-haired teen did not stop at that. He keeps on screaming in between heavy breathing and kicks in his place as he tightly closes his eyes. As Night shouts for the doctor, he stops the weak kicks by pushing the slender legs with his stronger knees, enough to keep it down.
Angela hears the screams and comes rushing to the room. She is surprised to see Night holding down the hoarse from the entire screaming and thrashing patient. She immediately switches on the lights and holds up the injection.
Careful but hurriedly, she injected the patient's arm. "Shh… It's fine now. Everything's alright." She adds words of assurance to calm down the blue-haired teen as she takes out the injection.
The effects are instant. The patient's body slackened and weakened, all his thrashing stops and his screams are replaced by heavy breathing. Night loosens his hold as the teen falls back to sleep.
Gingerly, they properly settle the youngster's body and placed back the tubes and blanket over him.
"What just happened?" Angela breaths out.
"I don't know. He was gasping and clutching his hands and then wakes up and thrashes." Night sits down on the bedside, scanning the pale and heavily sweating patient.
"He'll be waking up. I'll sleep here for now." with this, the doctor yawns and climbs on the bed next to their patient.
The exorcist sits on the chair he previously sat upon.
Night could not fall asleep, not because he is not able to do so but because he can't afford to do so. He'll need to be alert for the next time the patient wakes up.
Again, let me apologize. I'm terribly sorry for updating at the end of April. Halfway through typing this, I lost my mood and inspiration to continue. I feel that I lack of the push to make me want to write more about this.
I really lost my inspiration and motivation all because of the busy days I had in school. I had lots of exams, homeworks and other school problems that i lack sleep almost everyday. Now, it seems like my brain can't take it anymore and so, it deleted my ideas for this story. As you can see, this chapter even lacks the 'feels' and the 'impact' to it! Ugh! And now, I hate myself! OTL
I even added an OC! Plus, Night seems so out of character. I even tried some funny parts and tried this to be hanging but it does not seem like one. I don't even understand anymore if this chapter is too draggy or rushed. I don't know what I'm doing anymore.
But I'm happy though. I did not expect that I would still get some follows and favorites while not uploading anything. Thank you guys. I'm sorry about this though. I'll try to make the next chapter next month. If not, this story might be in hiatus. I'm filled with other ideas for stories but I'm still not typing them. U_U
Rate and review. Tell me of my mistakes or any confusing parts. And if you could, slap some ideas back into my small brain!