Beach Vacey [On Hold]

Koi Fish I66I Part 3

Vio's periwinkles rolled, slumbering to drift past... towards the burning flames... Flames... Orange haze... A lovely, shiny amber. Remnants of the birth of Hell. If it could just be...

"So, I lied?" Slow, slurring words... drunk by sight and pain without a care. "I lied...? I fooled you? About the stones?" He gave into a small, pathetic chuckle—immediately regretting it by the choke of his blood. "Maybe... Maybe you..." His face folded, and his eyes began to close, narrowing in awe by the waving heat. "...were an idiot to believe me."

"AN IDIOT?!" Shadow grasped Vio's chin and forced his periwinkles to stare back at him. "DO YOU HONESTLY... DO YOU HONESTLY THINK..."

"The stone was your deal." Vio sided, releasing a low groan. "Your understanding." He adjusted himself, trying to flex his back. "You found me wrong... eventually... It might have let me live a little longer... and so... You got it. You did it... You—"

A slam across the face. Shadow's hand slapped Vio's cheek across, sending his head to fly towards the fire and off the trunk of the tree. Vio bit his lip, however, brushing it off, and kept his body fixated. His head hugged down to his shoulder, and his eyes resonated, attempting to focus on his mangled limb in means of refusal to tend to Shadow. Twisted. His arm might not have been detailed with its broken frame by his long sleeves, but his hand was a puckering gash. A flowering, oozing red pooling down into the stream of the earth and screaming for relief. Wherever he tried to move, the searing pain came to strike and yell at his headache. To die in this pathetic... form of... uselessness... He...

Clouds swiveled in his eyes... fading... until a light, cold touch came to caress the red forming blister on his cheek. Fingers squeezed on his face and tilted his head back to peer through that piercing gaze. Vibrancy... Bright... The koi fish swam and lapsed around a flame. Maybe it was pity... Maybe curiosity?

"You remind me of your father..." Shadow murmured. First time hearing that in... how long?

Vio remained unimpressed, however. "You knew him?" he spouted dully.

A smirk twitched on Shadow, and his hand fixed on Vio's chin, rubbing blood off the corners of Vio's lips with peace in mind. "He was a stubborn old man... Precise, serious, and arrogant." Was... "You look a lot like him. Maybe a spitting image of the poor man." A short chuckle escaped but quickly deceased.

Vio's lips firmed, and he exhaled through his nose, catching a glimmer in Shadow's emotionless face—studying him evenly. "He's... My father is dead." he blurted monotonously.

Shadow's eyes widened, yet a freckle of surprise did not seem to simmer in his pale complexion. His eyes were deceitful behind his violet fringe. "Oh? I'm sorry to hear that... I suppose... human life does not extend too far..."

Vio twitched—unnerved. His gaze tried to sharpen on Shadow, but all he saw was a blurred image—fogged, blended colors of light. His lips parted, sucking a breath. "My father... He was..." A thought processed, hastening his breath. "He was murdered... murdered by..."

Shadow's face blackened, dropping his hand from Vio. "How unfortunate..." His eyes narrowed. "What was his name again, anyway?"

Vio stopped, freezing up to stare. His eyes wavered... rising and falling, and his tongue stuck. Upon the tip of his tongue, his mouth sounded... attempting to voice a coherent thought, but... it slipped his mind. "I..." His mouth hung—a loss of words... a loss of... memory.