Uragiri

Late one night my neighbor knocked on the front door and asked me to stop by when I had a chance. I’d never seen the inside of their house, and honestly I was curious. Sometimes, I’d peak around the corners of their blinds, desperate to see inside. I knew he must have seen me once, but I kept my cool and pressed my hand against the frame of the door knocking softly. He opened the door sooner than I thought he would, shirtless and slightly damp from the shower he must have just taken. I couldn’t hold my breath and coughed into my hand to play it off. He took it as a sign to move over and let me inside.

It was beautiful. More beautiful than any of the pictures I could ever take, and it was warm. I remember the room being warm without stifling me, making me lean further inside. The soft grays and rich blues of his furniture blended well into the black leather couches nestled in the far right corner, a television nowhere in sight. I wondered for a moment what he did for entertainment. On the other side of the room, book shelves stood in front of a small table. The odor of brewed tea filled my nose and I turned my head as the hairs on his arm brushed the side of my cheek, and he gestured for me to have a seat. The sensation was weird, and I cringed as unnoticeably as possible to not offend him. He only gave a small smile before following me to have a seat on the couch.

“I’m sure you must think it’s pretty weird that I asked you over here like that.” He said.

For a second I couldn’t breathe and only nodded my head as he continued to speak. Even sitting he was a god among men. I could judge he was about 6’3’’ and 125lbs. He was shirtless, and hadn’t seemed at all nervous that I could see his tan skin stretched taunt underneath his muscled physique. He was pure beauty, and had liquid coal eyes that bore so deep into my soul that it took a moment before I realized his supple pink lips had stopped moving. I blinked and looked at his palm, which held a cup of tea. I hadn’t even seen him move. I took a hesitant sip and looked back at him. He waited patiently, no signs of hurrying me along to answer or reply to whatever he has just said.

“I…um, don’t really find it weird.” It was a whisper, the only way I could handle speaking.

“I do. The thing has been going crazy all day. Look, I know it’s your, you know, specialty to handle these things. I’ll pay whatever you want.”

He laid his checkbook open in front of me, a blank, signed check ready for me to take at my leisure. He knew what I did, when did that part of the conversation happen, and if he did know who I was then…

“What exactly do you need from me?” I said.

“Like I said, that damn thing has been going crazy. I want you to fix it.”

He’d started to look angry, and so I directed him to show me what ‘it’ was that was making him so irritated. He smiled, sincere, and took my hand so that I would get up from the couch. In one smooth move, he pushed the couch back to reveal a glass enclosure underneath. Inside was what could best be described as a wild beast. Bleeding fingers that used to have claws beat at the glass and lacerations could be seen all over their naked form. I stepped back and it noticed me, going still, the alabaster skin going paler if at all possible. A Monjack female. And she was pregnant.

“She’s pregnant.” I mentioned.
“I know. I can’t kill it so I have to wait until it’s out. Aren’t they supposed to be docile when they get pregnant?”

He said it so assuredly that I didn’t have to lean down to see the cuts on her lower abdomen for proof. She’d healed, but barely, and I could see every cut made against her skin. The fur on her ears were even haggard, patches missing and others bleeding. Her yellow-gold eyes had long since turned brown. I reached out to touch the glass and his hand stopped me, bruising the skin around my wrist with the heat and force of his grip.

“Don’t, its protected. “ He nearly screamed.

“Open it.”

Grumbling he went to a switch and the glass slid away. She jumped, looking to aim her fury at him, but snapped back as pain laced up her spine. I could tell from the mark on her neck that she had been claimed. His hold on her punishing her for attempting to attack him. It seemed he knew exactly what he needed to do. So why did he need me?

“So, what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to do it.”

That was all he needed to say. I knew what it was. It was why everyone called me. I could tell in the way she stilled and then grabbed at my feet that she too knew what it was.

He wanted me to break her. To completely let her will be at his command, while her soul watched behind a glass wall, seeing what he commanded her to do and say without so much as flinching. Any punishment, her body would take in at his delight, and only her eyes would burn with hate before turning inward, becoming dull and suicidal without the ability to kill herself and be free. She would never be able to break free, as was the norm for this type of thing.

“Fine. I’ll need to be with her alone.”

My words dripped like acid onto his skin and for a second he stood there unmoving. I filled the room with my void and he shivered as his skin started to peel, crack, and bleed. He left then, to a room in the back of the apartment.

Once gone I brought my void into myself, letting the cold settle into my bones. My hair pooled onto the floor bleeding into a deep red. My teeth began to itch as fangs peaked from my top lip, and I scratched lightly at the green and golden scales appearing at my temples with my sleek claws, mindful of their poison. My ears peeked out in a fluff of white pointing in every which way, happy to be free and swiveling at every sound. My body tightened as old muscles sprang and flexed, remembering this body and all the things it was capable of. The worst part was my eyes. They stung and burned like they were on fire, blinking increased the pain. One at a time they adjusted to the new light, the world changing. The walls were even screaming for me to grace them with a brief healing touch or glance, something to ease the decay this apartment has caused to grow.

The woman stared for a minute before recognition took hold in her eyes. She flinched and recoiled from my presence. She was in obvious pain, which slowed her and I was able to get to her quickly.

“You! Evil! You would do this, to me. I am...Ack!”

She spit blood onto my boots and coughed violently as I grabbed her throat. I didn’t want to hurt her as much as stop her from speaking. I’d always thought women were annoying and couldn’t stand hearing the same surprised speech everyone threw at me. Yes, it was me, of course I’m here and still alive, no I’m really not dead. And my favorite, sure being an exiled prince, not so secretly bearing the mark of Anon was fun. Idiots.

“Do you want the child?”

“…No. His seed grows strong, but is evil. It is…she would be beautiful but impure. My blood cannot cleanse her.”

She said this through clenched teeth and the pain was evident in her eyes. Her kind would never abandon a child, which is why they were granted the ability to cleanse evil from any child spirit as the beauty of their women often led to rape. The gods had taken pity on their kind only after centuries of bastard children gave birth to more bastards and the gods got tired of hearing generations of souls crying out for mercy. For her to say that this child would be evil, meant that her own intentions to cleanse the child were not pure. She’d hated this man so much that even her spiritual gift would not cleanse his void.

“Very well.” I breathed, expecting…

“You are an abomination allowed to roam this earth for only the sake of punishment by our Gods. Traitor, you—“

I cut her off as my hands began to glow a bright yellow, fading to a dim red and nestling at the base of her stomach. In a flash the child was gone, her natural ability to cleanse even in death, aiding the child to rejoin its planned destiny. She opened her mouth, but stopped as the glow on my hand faded and began to clench tighter around her throat. Black veins sprouted from where my hand touched her skin, and the screaming began. At first I could tell she did not know what to do with the type of pain she felt, and as the veins grew larger, her insanity increased. Her eyes turned their natural yellow-gold and finally the tears of blood, stopped.

I moved back, her body slumping face first to the ground. It only took a few minutes before she rose, her eyes impossibly round. She dug her fingers into her neck.

“I…I…” She’d sucked in too much air to really say it loudly.

“Yes. You are.”

“Traitor. I…your sins are needed in this world.”

It was the best thank you I’d ever gotten so I just shrugged. After a few minutes I cleared my throat and she looked at the checkbook before tearing off a page. On the back she wrote something and then signed her name. I took it, deemed the payment enough, and turned toward the door just as he emerged from the bedroom. He smiled, bigger than any time before, then looked at her neck, found out she didn’t have his mark anymore. I made sure to lock the door on my way out, his screams of tortured pain and cries of ‘why’ drowned out by his own soundproofing.

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So, here it is, the first chapter.

Please, Please Review. Let me know what you think.