Chapter 5:

The terrifying truth about Ren

12 Hour Angel


Taro, Kami, Ren, and shockingly even Daisuke sit in the living room with nothing but an awkward silence accompanying them. Daisuke stares down at his feet, feeling as though he's causing trouble just by being there. The goal of his visit was for him to talk to Ren, but he can tell that he doesn't feel the same way. Taro gives Daisuke a quick nudge, getting him to break the silence.

"I'm sorry." Daisuke says to Ren, letting out a big sigh of relief. Just talking to Ren started giving him goosebumps. Knowing how strong Ren was, he could, and probably would easily pound Daisuke to a bloody pulp if he said anything wrong. Ren locks eyes with Daisuke, and as much as he would like to look away, he can't. Daisuke gulps, waiting in terror for Ren's next words.

"Hey, Taro? Could you do me a solid and turn the kettle on?" Ren asks, turning to the white-haired boy across from him. He gets up and strides to the kitchen where he then flips the kettle's switch, preparing mugs for each of them.

"Listen, Daisuke. Taro told me about everything from the last day." Daisuke's eyes meet the floor, realising that Ren already knew about him apologising to Taro. It wasn't necessarily that Daisuke was ashamed of this fact, but he was more worried about how Ren would have reacted to that situation. "But I'm still going to look out for Taro, he means so much to me, you couldn't even imagine." Daisuke looks back up to Ren, who is now clearly holding back tears.

"We really need to stop the fighting." Daisuke confessed, realising that he'd been wrong the whole time. Daisuke gets up off the seat and begins walking over to Ren. "I can't believe it took me until now to realise." Ren, now wiping tears from his eyes, watches as Daisuke holds his hand out as a gesture of kindness.

"Save it, we still have more to talk about" Ren demands, gently pushing Daisuke's hand aside, and an almost sincere looking smile grows along Ren's face. Daisuke's heart sinks, it wasn't a complete rejection, but it still hurt anyway. Taro re-enters the room with a tray of drinks and places them each carefully on the coffee table before making his way back to the sofa, plopping himself next to Kami, who has been watching the whole predicament between Daisuke and Ren unfold before her.

The room, upon Taro's return, grows silent yet again. The four of them sit and sip their drinks before Daisuke breaks the silence yet again. 

"So, what else did you want to talk about?" he asks, as he runs his finger along the rim of his mug frightened of what else Ren might have planned for him.

"Oh! Right. Taro was also telling me about your situation at home." Daisuke falls silent, looking down to his feet. Ren gets up and places a hand on his shoulder. Ren's smile became softer, and friendlier towards Daisuke. "If you want to stay here, even for a little bit. I'd be happy to take care of you."

Daisuke recoils in shock, did he really just hear that? Everyone's eyes are now on Daisuke. He rubs his chin, thinking of how to respond to the question posed to him.

"Is that really okay with you?"

"Sure, just make sure not to break anything."

"Thank you so much! I promise you won't regret it!" Daisuke beams before gulping down the rest of his drink. Daisuke turns to Taro with an excited expression on his face. "Thank you too!"

"Don't sweat it." Taro responds, placing his head on Kami's shoulder shortly after. The attention turns back to Ren, who still hasn't finished talking to Daisuke.

"We'll need to make room preparations. There are three beds and the couch, so it all depends on what everyone's wanting to do." Ren turns to Taro and Kami, who have their attention on Daisuke. "What do you two think?"

"I'm fine with sleeping on the couch." Kami announces as Taro turns to her, scrunching up his face as if he's not completely satisfied with that answer. He twists his head to look at Ren.

"Absolutely not, I'm not taking that for an answer." He fumes, grabbing onto Kami's sleeve. "How about Kami stays in my room, considering I was attacked last night I think it'd be a good idea" Taro suggests, hoping to make Kami as comfortable as possible. Kami nods in agreement with Taro's suggestion.

"Yeah, alright, I suppose that makes sense." Ren concludes, placing his thumb and forefinger on the bridge of his nose. Ren walks to the stairs, gesturing for the other three to follow him up.

Ren leads each of them to their respective rooms: Daisuke will be staying in a very basic guest room, a single twin-sized bed sits at the end of the room with a bedside stand and a lamp on it, as well as a few books stacked on top of each other.

Ren leads them to the second guest room and stops before opening the door. Ren turns to the last two standing before him.
"Lucky enough for you two, I had the foresight to buy a bigger bed." He says as the door swings open to a queen-sized bed in roughly the same position as Daisuke's bed was.

"Didn't think to get two beds, but whatever." Ren shrugs, as he gestures the other two into the room.

Taro tosses himself onto the bed and lets out a big sigh. Kami, trying to hold back laughter, joins him. The two turn back to Ren, giving him a thumbs up with huge smiles on their faces. Ren returns a warm smile, gently closing the door before retreating to his own bedroom.

***

Hours pass and the house falls silent. Everyone had long fallen asleep, apart from Kami who decided to stay up and read one of the books left on the bedside table. Taro, ignoring the light shining from the lamp, rolls over onto his side.

Before long, Kami hears a soft knock at the door followed by Ren's voice. "Kami, can you come out here for a second, we need to talk while the others are sleeping." He urges as if it's something important that's on his mind.

Kami places down her book on the bedside desk, before getting up and peeking out the door to see Ren, who's nervously tapping his foot on the floor. Kami slips out of the room and into the hallway.

"What is it?"

"Taro... He seemed disturbed. Anyone who had their house broken into would." Ren stresses, looking away from Kami and down into the hall. "But he saw something more sinister than just a burglar, didn't he?"

Kami recoils, almost surprised at how easily he picked up on how Taro was feeling. "He... The... Uhmm..." She hesitates as she tries to find the right words. "The corruption... It's back." Ren's eyes widen as he paces around in circles, biting his fingernails. The panic that Ren had felt was immense.

"The corruption? But we eradicated it centuries ago!"

"Yeah? Well what Taro saw was a corrupted human, so you better prepare for the worst."

"W... What corruption? What do you mean centuries ago?" Taro groggily says, peering through the slightly open door. The other two turn in shock to see him standing there, rubbing his eyes. This sudden turn of events makes Ren walk in circles faster.

Taro had never seen Ren so nervous, so he was unpleasantly surprised to see this be the case. "You need to go back to bed, Taro. This is serious." Kami demands, pointing back into the room.

"It's okay, this is going to affect him as much as it's going to affect us." Ren responds, pushing Kami's hand down. It was clear he did this to try and make Taro feel more comfortable with the situation he found himself in. Unfortunately, this just stressed Taro out even more.

Kami sighs deeply before speaking. "The corruption is a disease that can affect both humans and angels." Kami shivers just from saying those few words. "Despite this, the disease works differently depending on if you're an angel or not."

"So you were saying what I saw was human?"

"A corrupted human." Ren corrects him, still trying to keep as calm as possible. "The weird shadowy ooze is how they get other humans and potentially even angels." Taro nods, agreeing with what Ren is saying before the sudden realisation hits.

"WAIT! HOW DO YOU KNOW KAMI'S AN ANGEL!" He shouts loud enough for his words to echo around the whole house, praying that Daisuke doesn't wake up and butt into the conversation. Kami covers her face in embarrassment while Ren places his hand on his forehead.

Both Taro and Kami turn to Ren as they wait for his response. Ren's face turns completely red as he has to face what had inevitably been coming. He takes in a deep breath and finally says what Taro wanted to hear.

"I'm also an angel."

The room falls silent. Nobody says anything for a good few seconds until Ren continues. "I'm fallen, so I couldn't protect you as well as Kami could. I'm so sorry." Taro stands, silent. He's been Ren's friend for god knows how long now, and only now has he told Taro what he should have known, what he should have been told from the beginning.

He's been keeping things from me? Taro thinks to himself, trying his hardest to understand why Ren would have any reason to keep secrets from him. How much hasn't he told me? Taro runs his fingers through his white hair to at least try to understand.

"How long?"

"Huh?"

"How long have you been fallen? What does that even mean?"

"About a year ago, just before I was sent to the slammer."

"You've been lying to me for so much longer though, haven't you."

Taro's face became filled with a mixture of emotions: Anger, Sadness, Betrayal. How could he have lied to Taro for so long? It's not like it would have hurt him to know that his best friend was an angel sent to protect him.

"I want to be alone for a little bit." Taro announces as he makes his way down the stairs, tossing a jacket on. Kami and Ren both follow, not planning to go with him, but to at least see him on his way out.

"Taro at least let me-"

"No, stay here. When I say I want to be alone, I mean I want to be alone." He says, interrupting Kami as he opens the door and leaves the house, slamming the door behind him. The cold dusk air fills Taro's lungs as he takes deep breaths. He sits on the top step, just letting the darkness consume him.

Can I really trust anyone? Taro ponders, trying his hardest to not let the tears that have inevitably filled his eyes seep out. The new information that had finally come to light tonight had struck him hard, he didn't know what to think or how to feel.

I'll just have a little walk, to clear my head. Taro thought as he got up off the step and walked down the street. It was the start of the weekend, so it didn't really matter if Taro was asleep late tonight. 

The silence of the night calmed Taro as he passed by all the shops that had been closed for the night. He stops in his track, looking ahead to see two girls chatting: Yami and another girl he couldn't remember the name of.

Not wanting to talk to Yami, he turns so that he can cross the street and avoid the confrontation. As he steps off the sidewalk, he hears his name being called from over in the direction of the two he was attempting to avoid.

"Taro! Over here!" The unfamiliar girl calls, this embarrassed Taro even further. She knew who he was but not the other way around. Taro rolls his eyes before walking over to the duo who had completely turned their attention to him.

As he approaches the girls, he wipes away the tears that had left his eyes. His eyes were now bloodshot, but it didn't matter, he was furious and was about to make that known. "Yeah? What's up?" He grumbles, wishing to be anywhere else at the current moment.

"Hi, Taro darling." Yami spoke flirtatiously as if trying to hypnotise Taro. He tries to grit his teeth at the comment and turn his focus away from Yami. 

"Hiya Taro!" The other girl said. It was at that moment that Taro realised that he had to figure out this girl's name, and fast. He tried to speak but it just came out in garbled stutters and incoherent noises.

"I umm... Uh, Hi.... uhhhhh"

"Shiro." The girl dejectedly reminds Taro. His face flushes a bright red as he remembers, covering his eyes to avoid the embarrassment. "I'm in your classes, remember?"

"Oh, right! Sorry, Shiro. There have been some things messing with my head recently." Taro confessed, hoping that Shiro would understand. Admittedly, Shiro didn't particularly stand out among the rest of Taro's classmates. She has brown hair that goes down to her shoulders and bright pink irises that are covered by her full moon glasses. She appeared to be around the same height as Taro, if not a little shorter.

Yami nudges Shiro with a wink. "Look at you two getting friendly. Y'know he's got a girlfriend, right?"

"That's none of your business, Yami." Taro growls, clearly not wanting to talk to Yami. I wish she'd just butt out of things that don't involve her. Thought Taro, turning his attention back to Shiro, who is now looking at him with slight confusion. "Don't think about it, it's complicated." Taro said, not completely realising the implications of his words.

"Yeah, I'm just messing with you two." Yami howls with laughter as if this is the funniest thing she had seen for years. Yami clearly had trouble reading the room, what had been said seconds ago wasn't funny and she refused to acknowledge that. Taro and Shiro look at her in disgust before turning their attentions back to each other.

"How come you've not talked to me up until now?" Taro asked, curious as to the reason for the conversation currently taking place. "You seem really sweet, it's a shame we're only now talking." Taro tries to sound confident but ends up stumbling on some of his words.

"You've been hanging out with Daisuke a lot recently." Shiro admits, looking down and kicking rocks at her feet. "He's really scary, so I couldn't approach you without getting near him too." Taro smiles slightly at this, he realised now just how much he had in common with Shiro, even if it wasn't the good stuff, it was still something.

"Yeah, he's pretty scary." Taro agrees, looking over his shoulder into the darkness of the night. "But we're starting to get along now, even after everything I've been through." The fact that this is even the case still surprises Taro, Daisuke had started to play a role in his life, this time for the better.

"Alright, I'm going to leave you two 'friendly friends' be, I'll see both of you later." Yami makes a passing comment as she announces her departure. Both Taro and Shiro roll their eyes at the nonsense being spouted from Yami's mouth, making sure she's actually gone before talking about it.

"What a piece of work, am I right?" Taro scowled, wishing that he had never needed to introduce himself to her in the first place. What was Daisuke even thinking? Taro thinks, hoping that she can't read his mind for any reason. "I'm not her biggest fan, I'll be honest."

"She's just a little nosey" Shiro responds, seeing mostly the good in Yami. Taro, however, just couldn't see it. Yami was more than nosey, she seemed really rude and disrespectful. That should have been clear. "I suppose she's like what Daisuke is to you then."

"It's nothing like that." Taro laughs slightly, being reminded of his torment by Daisuke's hands. The countless hospital trips, the many stitches, the number of painkillers he's been on. "It really is nothing like that."

Their conversation continues as normal for a few minutes until out of the blue all the power in the town shuts down, leaving the two in complete darkness. Shiro pulls out her phone, shining the flashlight so she can see Taro.

"What was that all about?" She asks, looking around for any sort of light. Every streetlight had been stripped of any form of brightness it was providing, this seemingly random occurrence confused Taro just as much, until he eventually heard a low gurgling sound from in the distance.

From that point, there were only 3 visible lights: Shiro's flashlight, and both of the corrupted figure's eyes. The same bright white eyes that Taro had seen the previous night.  Shiro looks over to where Taro is looking and any joy that was present earlier drains from her face.

"What is that thing!" Shiro yells into the dark seeing the thing dripping with ooze. Taro grabs Shiro's hand, and the two of them run in the opposite direction hoping, praying that it didn't see them.

Both of them run down the street, eventually turning into an alleyway and over a fence where they settle for a little bit. That's the corruption Kami was talking about then? And that ooze... Taro doesn't say this out loud in an attempt to not panic Shiro further. "Are you okay?"

"Okay? That was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen!" Shiro panics, trying her hardest to catch her breath. Taro peers over the fence to try and see if they were being followed.

"Let's stay here for a little bit." Taro demands, still looking over the fence. "We'll catch our breaths and make a mad dash out of here." Shiro nods, still shaking from the fright. Taro isn't completely sure what to say to her, but he tries to make an effort. "We'll be fine, as long as we work as a team." He says, holding on to her hands gently.

"I never took you for one to be heroic." Shiro nervously giggled. This comment took Taro by surprise, causing him to blush.

"I wouldn't call it heroic" Taro responds with a smile before looking over the fence again. To his surprise, he saw Kami, who appeared to be searching for him. He had been out for a while, so it made sense to him. How long have I been out? Taro asked himself pulling out his phone to check the time.

His phone read 12:23 AM. Kami shouldn't be here. Surely it just had to be an error on his phone. Taro wasn't willing to take that risk, assuming that the imposter that was looking for him wasn't Kami. Taro slips back down next to Shiro.

"We're going to make a run for it." Taro tells Shiro. "No matter what you see or hear, don't stop running. Just follow me." Taro instructs as he gets up off the cold concrete. If Shiro wasn't there Taro would be on the ground crying about now, but he couldn't just give up. It wasn't just his life in danger.

Both of them start climbing the fence, quietly dropping back down to the floor so as to not alert the thing now disguised as Kami to their presence. Taro stops and points to the imposter.

"Just so you're aware, that isn't Kami."

"I know, It looks nothing like her."Shiro responds, clearly confused about how Taro somehow thought that it was Kami in the first place. "Are you feeling alright?"

"What are you talking about? That totally looks like her."

"Taro, that shadowy figure over there looks nothing like her... If she heard you right now, she'd be insulted" Shiro quietly chuckled. Taro had no other response, but he was nearly certain that whatever was over there looked like Kami.

"Whatever, just don't go near it." Taro pleads with absolute terror in his eyes. "On the count of three, we run, and we don't look back." Shiro nods, acknowledging Taro's commands. As Shiro had said previously, it wasn't like Taro to be heroic, but despite all the fear inside him, he knew what had to be done.

"Three,"

"Two,"

"One," 

Taro grabs Shiro's hand as they both take a running stance, the pressure building, a fiery determination in his heart. Taro swallows all his fear and his face shows nothing but his rare, courageous side.

"Run!" Taro demands as they both start sprinting out the alleyway and up the street. The imposter turns around, noticing Taro and Shiro. As if a missile locked on to its target, this creature would stop at nothing until one of them was caught.

"Bet you're glad you bumped into me tonight." Taro jests, breathing heavily as he runs alongside Shiro. "This appears to be my average day right now."

"If this is your average day then are you sure you're going to be okay?"

"I have no clue, We'll find out on Monday." Taro responds, half-joking. He couldn't think straight, especially not with this monster chasing him. Taro looks over his shoulder to see the distance between them and the corrupted being.

Just as he turns, a large spear-like tendril shoots out from the dark, striking the ground next to him. This sudden action from the corruption makes both Taro and Shiro scream, causing them to pick up the pace.

Eventually, Ren's house comes into sight, the lights still on inside. Taro points over to the decrepit looking building. "In there! Hurry!" He shouts, breaking from a run into a sprint. While they run the final stretch, another tendril shoots directly at Taro. As it flies through the air it makes a gross, gooey sound.

Taro steps to the right, out of the way of the thing that was now desperately trying to catch them. They then run up the stairs of the building, opening the door.

"HURRY! GO!" He shouts gesturing for Shiro to get in. Once both of them are inside, Taro slams the door, barricading it with his body. The two of them let out a sigh of relief as Ren and Daisuke both come running down the stairs.

"What the hell is going on!" Daisuke and Ren both yell simultaneously. Suddenly loud bangs can be heard on the other side of the door, Taro jumps away from the door and both Shiro and Taro hide behind Ren and Daisuke.

"T-the corruption!" Taro stammers, still trying to catch his breath. He takes in large, sharp breaths. "It followed us!"