Chapter 10

Akaza awoke with a start wishing that it was all a nightmare but the heat he had felt the day before was too real. When he heard Kyo in the kitchen, he knew he had two options: act like nothing happened and eat with Kyo or lock himself in the room. “No, wait. I’ll beat him up for doing what he did yesterday.” he said to himself but when he thought of looking at Kyo he felt himself blush and knew he couldn’t do that either. Then it came to him, what he thought was a perfect idea: he could just run away. And so he did the only sensible thing that he could in said situation and left the house through his window.

When the food was ready Kyo approached Akaza’s room and knocked. There wasn’t an answer so he knocked some more and got the same result. He went inside and saw the window open. He went back to the kitchen and ate by himself. ‘Maybe he’s just embarrassed’ he thought. Long hours had gone by and Akaza hadn’t shown himself so Kyo decided to go look for him and ask for forgiveness. He went to the lagoon and all the other places they had been together and places that Akaza liked but Kyo found no trace of him anywhere. Crestfallen, he returned home.

More than a week passed and there was still no sign of Akaza, he hadn’t returned home nor was at any of the places he usually went. Kyo hadn’t been eating properly and he was sure that Akaza hated him and ran away, if that were not the case Akaza would have come to pick a fight with him to vent his anger. He couldn’t remember what kind of relationship they had before, he just felt that he had to protect the pink-haired demon who showed such lonely expressions when left alone. That day too, Kyo went to the places they had been together and as a last resort he mustered his courage and went to the village. He had never been in the village or any other place where humans gathered, he was scared that by some lapse he would hurt or kill a human. He couldn’t trust his own instincts.

There was a festival in the village and a lot of people were loitering around. The streets smelled of food, stalls of sweet and savoury food all around, but for Kyo the smell of humans overtook them all. The noise from people talking and shouting and crying filled Kyo’s ears and slowly became harder for Kyo to focus. All the noise around was muffled by the increased cacophony of human hearts beating, their blood rushing through their veins growing louder. Kyo could distinguish the faster from the slower ones, the vigorous from the weak. He could choose his next nutritious meal. The idea of searching for Akaza getting away from his mind, he felt himself ripping apart: his instinct telling him to eat; his soul begging him not to.

Kyo started moving away from the village, he made himself think of Akaza, only Akaza. How he smelled. How his heart sounded. How he had tasted that night. But all that was drowned by the humans surrounding him. He kept moving, drool dripping on the corner of his mouth, his fingers piercing his arm to maintain some sanity to get out of there. He reached the outskirts of the village, no one was around and he sat on a bench doing his best to control himself. Just when he was able to shut down the noise and smell of the humans in the festival and calm down, he heard it: two healthy and excited heartbeats in synch approaching him.

The couple was close when Kyo got up and turned to them. An evil grin across his lips and drool dripping down his chin. Anticipation made him breathe faster. His instincts won and he went for it. Kyo pushed the woman aside and tackled the man to the floor, his hand on the man’s neck. Kyo was void of reason, he just wanted to eat him. Eat it. He was about to pierce the man’s chest when he was pulled from behind by his clothes hard enough that it threw him a couple metres back. The man stared at the creature who had just saved his life “Run” said the pink-haired demon and the man stumbled up grabbed his girlfriend and they ran without looking back. Kyo instantly got up and attacked Akaza.

“I was the one who lost the bet so why are you here?” asked Akaza, his expression unreadable.