Setting: a few minutes after Plans

Danny Boy

Everyone said he was a strong man. There was none better than him.

How easily he was defeated.

I suppose it’s unfair to judge him against someone like me. After all, even the strongest of a species can’t stand up to the strongest man in the world.

He put up a brave fight—a feisty little thing, he was, jumping this way and that, hitting me with the strongest blasts of ice he could conjure. They did hurt when he hit me with them, I won’t lie. But pain is only a transient to me—a fleeting sensation.

He tired himself out after about half an hour, and he was not nearly so spry. Attacks that wouldn’t have even grazed him now hit the mark as he stood in front of me, shivering. He had used too much power trying to defeat me, and it had exhausted his body. That was a peculiarity of the ice demons—with exhaustion came an intense chill, a fatal slowness of the movement, a lethal shortening of the breath.

To attack me, knowing he’d lose—why would a person do something so foolish? …Love? Is that why he’s doing it? That unexplained emotion that lays siege to the heart, is that what moves him? Or is he just too idiotic to recognize his own weakness?

There was no time to dwell on reasons. It was time to stop playing. I had tarried enough with him; it was time to send him to the other side, to send him off to meet whatever was waiting there for him.

But then a thought, a truly insidious thought that made me smirk in pleasure, crossed my mind. Yes, that would be much better. If I truly wanted to hurt him, then that would be a delicious way to go about it. Yes.

He gasped as, when he finally came to strike out at me once more, my hand lunged out, wrapping around his neck. I pulled him close as he fought to get away, flailing about as I held him suspended in the air. He was a small thing, with wide ruby eyes and white hair in a girlish cut.

“Let go of me!” he cried, slamming a small sandaled foot into my shin. There were little fists pounding at my arms, but I ignored them. There would be innumerable bruises where he had hit me, but they hardly mattered.

I growled, grasping him in a headlock so that I could draw my sword. I pressed it gently against his throat, just enough so that a thin line of red appeared above the collar of his shirt. “I’d be careful if I were you, Aisukyandi-sama. These things are dangerous, and I… am not an expert at the subtleties of the art.”

There was a sigh, and the demon’s body went limp in my grasp. I glanced down at him, surprised.

“What do you mean to do?” he asked quietly. His English was very good, although I could still detect a slight accent— an odd twisting to the syllables that somehow sounded natural when he spoke them.

I smirked. “Can’t you guess, little one?”

“…You will use me to hurt Daan-hime?” he asked.

“Yes. Daan-hime.” I smirked at the nickname. “Because after all, your death will hurt him most of all.”

Those ruby eyes widened in fright. “Don’t hurt Daan-hime! Please, don’t use me to hurt him! He doesn’t deserve that.”

I smiled. “You’re so kind—more worried about him than yourself, when you’re the one with a sword pressed against your throat. I can understand why he likes you.”

“Why—why do you want to hurt him?”

I gazed darkly at the floor. “Sometimes it is better to hurt than to love.”

“You are a silly man. A stupid man.”

I just pressed the blade harder into his throat and waited for Daniel to arrive.

(m)(o)(u)

Daniel was already quite shaken up when he stumbled inside the room. Shiny red tear tracks glistened on his cheeks as he stared forward.

“W-what?!” he cried, eyes bulging as he saw the two of them standing in the center of the room. Farrin grinned, met Daniel’s eyes, tilted the ice demon’s head forward and dragged the blade swiftly across his throat.

Red eyes filled with tears as Aisukyandi gasped. Horror painted itself across Daniel’s features as the demon struggled to breathe and liquid copper poured down his neck.

His legs propelled him desperately forward, halting in front of where Farrin had just let the demon drop to the ground.

“YOU BASTARD!” Daniel yelled, knowing that no amount of curses or invectives would be enough to take away his pain and anger. He struggled to speak, to scream at Farrin, but the words got caught in his throat and came out as only garbled, high-pitched tones, nonsensical syllables haphazardly stitched together. “How could you why did you what would make you think why hurt him why not hurt me instead?”

Farrin only smiled, licking the blood from his sword.

Daniel rushed forward, screaming as loudly as he could. Before Farrin could even blink the redhead had sent him crashing to the ground. He was sprawled on the floor, Daniel sitting on his stomach and leaning forward so that the red curtain of the boy’s hair fell around his face.

There were tears in the boy’s blue eyes and his teeth were clenched as he took Farrin’s face in his hands, his fingers resting lightly on his cheeks. Then the pink lips spread and he smiled, but it was a demented smile, a murderous smile. “You… you want to hurt me, I suppose…” Daniel mumbled, his fingers trailing down the other’s shoulders. “I wouldn’t have minded, really—if you’d only hurt me. But… you’re an imbecile, Farrin. You killed the one I loved the most… and for that you will suffer pain beyond the imagination.”

“Oh, I can imagine a lot of pain,” Farrin said, unfazed.

“Heh heh… well, I can imagine more.”

The redhead grinned, pulling the other’s sunglasses off of his face; Farrin watched with wide eyes as Daniel crunched them in his hand.

“You enjoy this, don’t you? You want me to be all over you like this… but you shouldn’t have worried about it so much—it’s not odd at all,” Daniel reassured. “Everyone wants me… it’s just inevitable. But you—I guess your attraction frightened you, did it? So you made it your goal to prove to everyone that you didn’t have any feelings for me… by hurting me in the worst ways possible. You’ll find, however, that your plan has backfired on you. You crossed a line, Farrin. And now… and now…”

Farrin tried to push Daniel away, but was amazed to find that the boy had him in an impenetrable grip. Daniel held him like someone who was dead.

“It’s pointless, little one. You can’t get away from me now, Farrin. You made the mistake of pissing me off so much that you broke the cap on my power. I’m first now. I’m stronger than you. Now I can patronize you, jerk you around, hurt you. And do you know how I’ll do it?”

Farrin slowly swallowed, resigning himself to his fate. “How?” he asked.

“I’ll destroy your brain… I’ll destroy every part except that which allows you to feel pain… and then after that I’ll rend your body piece by piece, bone by bone, tendon by tendon, cell by cell… truly a death by inches,” Daniel whispered gleefully, leaning in close so that Farrin could feel his warm breaths blowing against the hollow of his neck. “Aren’t you proud of me? Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted?”

Daniel was truly beautiful, especially up close. Farrin decided that, since he was truly about to die, he should take the time to notice all the little details he’d never paid attention to… he should allow himself one last joyride, after all. He studied the light freckles on the boy’s cheeks, his long blond eyelashes, his pink lips, his large sapphire eyes flecked with violet…

Hands settled around his face, fingers pointing inward to his ears. “This will hurt. This will hurt like hell… but even so, it won’t hurt you as much as you’ve hurt me. So enjoy it, Farrin. Delight in it. When all you can sense is pain, you will cling to it, and that will make you hurt all the more… heh heh. Remember this, Farrin. Let this be a lesson for your next life… and then maybe you won’t be so stupid as to cross someone like me.”

Then his fingers brushed Farrin’s temples and the man’s brain was reduced to mush. Farrin could only scream as, starting with the joints of his toes, Daniel began to rend his body as promised. By the time his fifth toe dropped to the floor, Farrin could barely see through the haze of pain covering his eyes.

(m)(o)(u)

Seth’s eyes widened as they took in the sight. Deep, dark pools of blood and severed body parts littered the floor, and sitting in the middle of all of it was…

“Daniel!” he cried, but the boy didn’t respond.

Daniel was bent over, his long crimson hair spilling over his shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, his voice thick with tears. “I’m trying, but I can’t keep you warm…”

Seth stepped forward, his boot crunching on something lying on the ground. “Blue sunglasses…” he mumbled. “Farrin.” He continued on, coming to stand in front of the boy.

“I wish I could make you some hot chocolate, Aisu… that would warm you up,” he told the demon king lying in his lap. Lifeless ruby eyes stared blankly ahead and a crimson river was drying against his neck.

Green-gold eyes narrowed in pain and Seth bent down, placing a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Daniel,” he whispered, leaning in close. “Let go of him.”

Blue eyes widened as Daniel finally noticed the other’s presence. “No!” he clutched the broken body to his chest defensively. “I have to keep him warm! If I don’t, he’ll die!”

“Daniel… he’s already dead…”

“No he isn’t! He’s just used too much energy… he gets cold when that happens! He’ll be fine if I make sure he’s warm, if I keep holding on to him…” He leaned down, kissing the demon’s cheek.

“Daniel, please,” Seth whispered, putting his hand on the redhead’s shoulder.

“What?” he asked, curious.

“Come here,” the black-haired boy said, taking Daniel’s hand and pulling him away from the demon. Daniel protested, but by then he was weak and limp and Seth had no trouble tugging him away. Daniel stumbled into his arms, staring up at Seth. “It’s OK…” Seth murmured, rubbing the top of the other’s head.

Daniel’s eyes closed softly and he breathed out a choked sigh. “He… he’s dead, isn’t he?”

“Yes… but so is Farrin,” Seth ended brightly, trying to cheer the redhead up.

“…That hardly matters… even if Farrin is only some little pieces on the floor, it doesn’t make me hurt any less…”

“I’m sorry,” Seth murmured, because it was the only thing he could say.

“…All the flowers are dying, aren’t they?” Daniel mumbled, breaking from Seth’s hold. The black-haired man let him, watching as he walked back over to the demon. He bent down, whispered a choked, “I love you”, and took Aisu up in his arms like a bride of death. He closed the wide ruby eyes with gentle fingers. “Sleep in peace… I’ll be with you someday…”

Seth stared disconcertedly at Daniel, but decided not to comment. Whatever Daniel did from then on, Seth could not blame him.