(Y/N) stared closely at the fumbling doorknob to her locked room. Something about it didn't sit right with her, her gut was literally screaming at her to run.
Luckily before the door creaked open ominously, Yama lifted her up to the spot next to him on top of the high shelf. She almost gasped when she felt her feet leave the hard floor but being closer to Yama and further from the door gave her some comfort.
The door was weakly pushed open and the darkness on the other side prevented the demon and the girl from seeing who it was. But when a blackened decomposing hand rested on the door frame, (Y/N)'s eyes widened and her hand immediately went to her backpack. Yama narrowed his red eyes at the hand and recognized it to be that demon that chased after the human. It must have a lot of fight in it to continue in that rotten corpse for this long.
A head of darkened red hair appeared and leaned against the door frame weakly. The demon groaned and stared at the fire that was still lit. Upon seeing an empty room, I9 wasn't too concerned and took its time to stumble into the room towards the cooking meat.
It was too hard for (Y/N) to look at the body. Blythe was unrecognizable...
Despite some obvious attempts at repairing some parts of the body with the bodies of others, the corpse of her once friend looked awful. Her left arm was completely dead and barely any muscle to move it. Her face was beginning to resemble a sunken skull with black eyes that melted down her cheeks. Her once bright red hair was now dark and matted with blood, both black and red. And the clothes she was last wearing were torn to pieces and covered in all kinds of stains.
Her once best friend now resembled a zombie. A body that should've been buried a long time ago...
Yama took in the demon's state as well and peaked back to (Y/N) behind him. Seeing that she couldn't lay her eyes on it for even a second.
I9 lifted up its movable right arm and touched the tips of the fire. A quiet breath of air escaped its lips when it couldn't feel the pain of the heat against its cold skin. Everything felt cold to it...
"I re-remember being warm- once... to have my own body... to feel my own pain... to breathe my own air..."
That deep voice... (Y/N) shrunk back against Yama. 'It knows we're here!'
I9 didn't bother looking up. It can tell that its target was on the shelves with another. Always out of close reach.
"I... had skin like yours... hair like yours... and was alive like you... I used to have a- name, I used to be... someone, and now... I'm just a monster... I'm what you call a demon..." Its gaze lingered down to its arms, the arms that turned dark once it took control of its former Keeper.
"I've killed... I've taken... I've let myself get captured- to find a body- to not have to kill and take anymore..."
Then, it traveled its eyes up to (Y/N), making the girl shiver from its dead stare. It ignored Yama completely and focused on her instead.
"I was cursed this way... We were- a-ll cursed... this way." Then it smiled a sinister smile that made (Y/N) think of the devil. "We were all- cursed to be demons."
It took a step forward and Yama threw an arm back to cover (Y/N). She had a tight grip on the holy grenade and was ready to throw it at the demon at any second.
"You're meant to die, (Y/N)..." Its voice went deep and monstrous. "Just like your friend, Blythe..."
Red tendrils that laid on the ground sprouted to life and launched towards the shelf (Y/N) and Yama were on. The tendrils wrapped around the shelf and yanked it forwards, Yama jumped away in time but didn't manage to grab the girl before doing so. He watched as she tumbled forward screaming and landed right into an open tendril that weaved its way around her throat. She gagged and fought against the demon, slicing at it every chance she got with her knife. Yama quickly used his ability to lift the fire up and send it at the demon as the flames quickly engulfed it.
I9 shrieked but didn't lose its hold on (Y/N) who repeatedly stabbed the tendril with her knife. Unfortunately, I9 couldn't feel much pain like a stab anymore.
It stumbled back and shot multiple tendrils at Yama at a rapid speed. He tried jumping away again but I9 counted on him doing that, sending the tendrils to the left and pinning the demon against the wall.
"Yam-ma!" (Y/N) choked as she saw the demon hiss and grit his teeth from being impaled in the shoulders, arms, and hands. The doctor was pinned against a destroyed metal shelf as a sharp piece was currently in his stomach. Black blood spilled from his many wounds and burned the clothing he wore. He tried using his ability to free himself but the enemy took notice of this.
I9 growled and shot a tendril directly at his neck but stopped a centimeter away.
(Y/N) gasped and Yama hitched his breath, feeling the tip of the sharp limb grace his skin. I9 bit its lip and leaned its head back while smirking in satisfaction. "This seems... almost familiar? How about- I put a hole in your neck... and we'll call it even?"
"Sure, but I'll survive, you idiot." Yama retorted. "I'm a demon too!"
I9 lost its smile and reached a tendril into (Y/N)'s backpack, pulling out the grenade she desperately wanted to use right now. (Y/N) yelped and tried to grab it back but the demon tightened its hold around her neck while staring intensely at Yama who was confused.
"You won't survive... None of you will..." it growled.
I9 then settled its gaze on the struggling human. She pulled at the rough tendril and did her best to cut herself loose. (Y/N) wasn't going to die now, she couldn't die now! She was going to escape this and get as far away as humanly possible and return home to her sister alive and well without Ki and Akai! She was going to survive this but the demon choking her found her determined thoughts amusing. It could see her thinking of her sister and her freedom, of running away from here and meeting up with other humans who'll take her home, it could see all of that. It brought her down closer and relished how she had tears falling from her eyes. She stopped stabbing into its tendril, now focused on trying to breathe than escape. I9 observed the pain she was feeling and felt her body radiate the heat it craved. It reached its right arm out to her face and weakly graced her cheek which made her look at it. Its hand traveled from her cheek to her chin and leaned its head closer.
"We all want to survive, (Y/N)... too bad... you won't live to see your dear sister again."
Without giving her time to react, I9 opened its mouth and a black cloud of smoke shot from it to her. The smoke forced its way into (Y/N)'s mouth and she shrieked before feeling her eyes roll back into her skull and her body stiffen up. She then convulsed in I9's grips and felt her brain throb in pain with every heartbeat. Her mind started to cloud up and every sense in her body became weaker and weaker until she felt numb. Before her sight went completely dark, she could faintly hear the sound of struggling and the distant screeching that was all too familiar.
Then it went dark...
Her mind came a second later but... she felt light. Completely weightless and like gravity stopped working around her. She tiredly opened her eyes and suddenly, she wasn't in the locked room anymore. No demons were in sight, no fire, no... nothing.
But that nothing turned into something as her head received a sharp pain and now she was in an unfamiliar room.
(Y/N) went to breathe but didn't feel any air in her lungs and this didn't seem to pain her. She patted her body down for any injuries and luckily she had none. But she realized she was sitting in a seat, a pretty outdated but kind of seat that you'd find at a hospital...
And indeed she was in a hospital. The room was filled with machines and a quarantine tent placed around a hospital bed with someone in it. The person barely moved but the sheets on top of their stomach moved up and down faintly. The machines helped the person breathe while also taking blood that was both red and black. Besides this and the machines, the room was completely empty. No other furniture or windows in sight but the bed and equipment hooked up to it.
(Y/N) stared at the bed curiously. She couldn't see the person's face due to the tent but their hand was in view. The hand looked feminine...
She went to stand but a door to her left opened up and suddenly (Y/N) felt the pain again in her brain. She yelped and hunched over, wishing the pain would just go away. She heard voices enter the room and this caused her to look up. When her eyes landed on a man, the pain stopped.
The middle-aged man seemed restless and weak. He appeared to not have gotten any sleep in days, dark circles decorated his light green eyes and pale skin. His short ginger hair, while maintained was still ruffled and uncombed. He was tall and had an average build but because he was tired, he was leaning slightly over against the hospital bed. His hand was gently holding the hand that belonged to the person lying in the bed.
A doctor, wearing a hazmat suit, was also in the room with them and they held a clipboard against their chest as they watched the man look over the person in bed. "Sir, I'm sorry... but her condition isn't getting any better. She's deteriorating at an alarming speed and-"
"Is she going to die...?"
The man made both the doctor and (Y/N) freeze up. The doctor stumbled to get their words together while (Y/N) narrowed her eyes at the man's voice, so deep and ragged. He sounded familiar...
"I-I'm afraid so, sir. Unless we can develop a vaccine in time, there's not much we can do..." The doctor stopped to watch the man's reaction. He didn't move or change his expression much, but it was obvious he was upset.
"We estimate that she only has a few days left. The virus is attacking every organ in her body, it's impossible to keep up with..."
The man let out a deep breath and nodded, the doctor took this as their queue to leave. (Y/N) watched them shuffle out the room and quietly close the door. She turned back to the man, sadly watching as he massaged the woman's knuckles.
Standing up, she slowly approached the bed and next to the man. As she got closer, she noticed he was wearing a suit, the kind a businessman would wear. He had a wristband around his wrist given to him by the hospital with a barcode on it. Then she looked to the hand he was holding and widened her eyes.
The hand was black. Completely blackened and frail. The woman's fingernails were sharper than normal and she had blisters all over her fingertips and knuckles. It was like she was burnt from a fire of some kind and it left her hand charred and weak.
"I'm sorry, Beth..."
(Y/N) looked to the man next to her. He had his eyes closed and head tilted down but a single tear fell down his cheek.
"You were right about me... I didn't think things through and got infected..." The man sobbed.
'Infected?' What did he mean? What did he do? By judging the furniture, the man's clothes, and by what her mind was telling her, this must be before the demons. Before the world was forced underground. But she wasn't aware of a virus. There were no records of any dating back before the demons, what was the man talking about?
The man leaned down and kissed the woman's darkened hand. He was trembling from the simple action like it took a lot of energy to do so.
"I never wanted this to happen to us... We were never meant to be cursed like this..."
'Cursed?'
That word... Could it be...
(Y/N) slowly followed the hand to the owner of it. From a darkened hand to a thin arm and finally a face with no life in it. (Y/N) almost screamed when she saw the black tears falling from black eyes but once the woman in the bed returned her gaze, intense pain shot through her head, and a feeling of falling struck the girl.
She fell and fell, screaming as she did as memories that aren't hers flashed like headlights into her eyes.
Seeing the man look into a mirror, a casket being pushed into a pit of fire, the man clawing his own arm, a dead body at his feet, and suddenly him looking into the mirror again but this time...
...he had the black eyes.
"I don't know who I am anymore..."
The man's deep voice spoke to her softly and in sorrow.
"I don't... know what I am anymore..."
His voice began to stagger and deepen at certain parts.
"I- don't e-ven have a b-body anymore..."
A final memory flashed into (Y/N)'s eyes and she could see the body of the man lying in the street with a pool of black blood surrounding him. But she was still seeing what he was seeing... from another body...
"I'm sor-ry B-Beth... I'm sorry... that we're cursed...."
(Y/N) looked up from the man's body and to a store window ahead of her. She was met with her possessed body that resembled Blythe's, black eyes, darkened arms, and tendrils that lashed out everywhere to any human and demon who happened to come near. They impaled a woman, gutted a animal like demon, ripped into an old man, slaughtered anyone and anything.
And she was commanding them.
Her vision went black and so did every sense in her body. If she had to guess, she would have assumed that she died. At least it felt like it...
When she reawakened, exhausted, breathless, and shaking, she wasn't in I9's chokehold, she wasn't in that locked room anymore, and the sky above her was getting lighter and lighter.
Buildings sped past her view which made her dizzier than she already was. Cold arms were wrapped around her body and carried her against a rough chest. Her hearing came back and she was now able to hear deep gruffs and growls and the sound of heavy legs pushing against the ground. White hair fell into her face when the sounds stopped before flying back into the wind as the running continued.
It's been like that for the next couple of minutes. (Y/N) didn't register that she was being carried by a feral Ki or that he was forcing a sewer gate open and slamming it shut behind him. When her view of the buildings was gone, that's when (Y/N) started regaining her consciousness.
She sucked in a deep breath which startled Ki. She coughed harshly like she wasn't breathing at all before. (Y/N) fell out of Ki's hold and onto a wet concrete ground as her lungs burned and her brain throbbed. Her heartbeat was going fast and sounds pierced her ears like horns. She didn't notice Ki growl at the way they just came in and the way they were now heading, he yanked her to her feet and threw her over his shoulder, not caring that this didn't help her current pained state.
She was too weak to fight back and allowed the demon to carry her through the dark tunnels, turning in different directions and through various gates as if he knew the place from the back of his hand.
"Ki..." she rasped out. She grabbed one of the spikes on his back and hit him with the other to gain his attention. Ki ignored her, however, too focused on where he was going and who was potentially following him.
"Ki... stop..." her voice was now hushed as she didn't even have the strength to speak anymore. Ki's constant running was making her even dizzier by the second and her consciousness was slowly starting to fade because of this.
When he finally did stop, the demon halted at a large metal door. The door had two pipes that drained water onto the ground on both sides. Rats scurried away from the demon and into little holes they'd created before Ki began banging on the door. He screeched at it and wildly clawed the metal with his free arm before jumping back when the door started making sounds.
(Y/N) could feel the vibrations of each low growl he did, she weakly used her arm to push herself up but fell back down after a tremble hit her. "Ki..."
Her mind became dizzy again and this time for sure, she was going to pass out. Her hearing went back to static so she didn't hear the door opening, Ki hissing, and a female voice speaking his name.
The last thing she remembered before she went unconscious was seeing the blank white eyes of a woman come into view before darkness took her once again.