The Purple Flame (A Mephisto Pheles/Blue Exorcist Romance Novel)

Chapter 60

The air against my face is cool.

Goosebumps arise on my bare legs, uncovered since I'm still in my shorts.

I persuaded Mephisto to let me have a few moments to myself, since I haven't really gotten that chance ever since I came back to Assiah.

I'm sure he's home, pacing the floor.

But being out alone with my own thoughts is important for me.

Especially after all of the things I've learned today, experienced today.

The walk from the Academy to town is not too far by foot. I can see the distant light of the small convienence stores and boutiques, all woven together by festive lights that decorate the lamp posts.

Cars whiz past me, causing my hair to blow behind me as I walk alongside the road. Cars occasionally honk at each other, slurring profanities out of the window sometimes.

I laugh under my breath. Humans.

Although I am like them in more ways than one, there are some things they do that continue to entertain me to this day.

As soon as I step foot into town, I'm startled.

Although it looks generally the same, new buildings and shopping complexes fill what once was empty lots and abandoned buildings.

I remember one day I was walking to get something to eat when I saw a primary school getting demolished in place for a gas station.

The school had become substituted by another one farther on the outskirts, since that very school was being eaten alive by termites and other small bags with complicated names.

Although it was rundown and unsanitary, the students seemed to have loved it. I remember seeing weeping children clinging to their parents as they watched the wrecking ball smash into the cement walls.

I shake my head at the thought, walking farther down the street.

Small families shrouded by clouds of laughter pass by, as well as urbanized, single men and women. Children play in the streets until cars honk at them to move out of the way.

Some of the passerbyers give me small smiles when they look at me.

And I smile back.

Maybe out of courtesy, maybe out of pure instinct...

Or maybe because when they look at me, they see someone just like them.

Not a monster, not a demon, not a killer...

But someone just like them.

I continue to walk until the crowd begins to die out. The moon is out now, and the sky is dark.

I exhale deeply and sit myself down on a bench, the neighboring buildings now turning off their lights and locking the front doors.

I wasn't keeping track of time... I wonder how late it already was when I left.

Tch. I don't even remember the last time I kept track of what time it was. Or what day it was.

Everything has somehow become molded together. Almost as if a day is no longer a day, but just a small piece of one prolonged event.

And that event?

It's unclear.

Gosh. I could really go for a smoke right now.

I dig around in my pocket to see if I happened to have any lingering change, but all I roll between my fingers is string and lint.

I sigh and sit back against the bench.