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{INTRUDER}
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Kian was fuming. His blood was boiling in his veins as a torrent of rage consumed his very being. Clenching his fists by his sides as his jaw was set tightly, teeth gritted in frustration, he stormed out of the house.
'That f*cker Leon.' He cursed in his mind. 'It's all because of that damn bastard!' Swinging his tightened fist backward, he landed a harsh blow to the trunk of the tree he was currently standing beside.
"It's all his fault!" He yelled, clutching onto his hair in anger.
The Charmer wanted to talk to his beloved human, wanted her to listen to him and forgive him. He wanted (Y/N) to like him again, kiss him and embrace him back into her arms. But when he went to knock on her door to get her to let him in, he found out through Cassius that she'd left for a walk with Reece and Leon.
"Leon you f*cking beast! You despised her at the start! Why do you want to steal her from me now, bastard?!" Kian was trembling with the overflowing amount of anger that possessed him. All day and all night, all that consumed his thoughts was the images of the girl who had him wrapped around her finger.
(Y/N) was the only thing that occupied his brain, heart and soul. He wanted nothing more than to just correct what has been done wrong and keep her in his hold forever.
'Once I make you mine again, darling...' He thought, sighing with a faraway expression painted on his face. 'I'll do anything for you...'
Before he could delve further into his thoughts of infatuation, his sharp amber eyes caught onto the silhouette of a stranger hiding in the bushes near their house. It appeared to be a male given his body stature, and was dumb enough to let his spot of hiding be given away so easily.
But what utterly snapped an already rageful Kian was the fact that the demon was trying to peek inside (Y/N)'s room.
What little control he had over himself was broken. A small smile forged itself onto the Charmer's lips before it burst into a full blow of demonic laughter.
Walking closer to the intruder, he kept his footsteps quiet so as to not alert the peeking demon who was shamelessly drowning in the lewd thoughts he was imagining of himself with the attractive human as he tried to get a glance at her inside her room.
He was the same demon who, along with Sylvia and the other female demon, had been spying on all of them on that day where they had been spending a day out together like a family on picnic.
Currently too busy imagining the naked body of the human girl, he failed to notice the wrathful aura that suddenly seemed to engulf him from all surroundings. Kian's amber eyes were glowing a bright yellow in hatred, a deranged look crossing over his face as he stood right behind him.
Moving his hand forward to tightly grasp a fistful of the lusting demon's hair, he put all his might in pulling him away from his hiding position.
The demon yelled out in shock, not expecting to be grabbed so mercilessly by his hair. Before he could even process what was happening, he led out a loud, painful scream of agony just as his arm was twisted behind his back and broken in time less than a second by the Charmer.
Kian held a stoic expression on his face but inside was a burning sea of furious fire that reached till his very soul.
"How dare you try to even think about laying your filthy eyes on my darling?" His voice was eerily calm, but calm was the last thing Kian was.
"L-let me go!" The demon pleaded pathetically, not finding in himself a spirit to fight when he caught a single glimpse of expression on Kian's cold face.
"Let you go?" The Charmer giggled, his voice coming out more twisted than he felt. The demon in his grasp trembled in fear, not having experienced horror of this intensity ever before.
Kian stopped laughing. All hints of amusement left his face as he pulled the demon's hair straight out of his scalp using his bare hand, ignoring his loud wails of pure affliction as he continued to torture him ruthlessly, taking the true form of what he was himself.
A demon.
Now, laying on the ground in front of him was one bloody mess of teared apart, broken limbs and scattered hair drenched in black blood. A few uprooted teeth decorated the place around the demon's head which had been teared off of his torso while he was still alive, blood still pouring out through the neck.
"Think a million times before ever, ever thinking about (Y/N)." Kian whispered near the ear of the isolated head of what previously was a demon in one piece, now turned into nothing but a mesh of broken limbs and blood.
After staring at the scene he had created for a few more minutes, Kian broke out of the trance.
He took a startled step back, taking a sharp inhale of breath as his glowing eyes returned back to normal, widening instantly when they took in what lay in front.
His breathing started to get heavy as he clutched onto his chest, not believing that he was actually capable of doing something so merciless.
He just teared apart a whole demon in mere minutes!
"You're making me go crazy, (Y/N)..." He mumbled in panic. He had never murdered another demon before unless it was absolutely necessary.
"Kian!" He was snapped out of the stupor when Cassius called for him. The Shadow felt sick to his core when he saw the nightmarish scene his best friend had mastered. Brown eyes widened in terror as they met amber ones, black tentacles flying out of him as they covered around him.
"Cassius! I-I did not- I didn't mean to- I-"
"There's someone here!" Cassius interrupted him, his already panicked mind stressed even more after seeing what monstrosity his Charmer friend indulged into.
"Someone? Who?!" Kian ignored about what took place just moments ago and paid attention to this seemingly new problem they have to be facing with.
***
Leon pushed the door open to the house as I followed behind him to enter. Reece stirred in his sleep as if he sensed the familiar warmth of his house. I closed the door behind me before continuing on my tour inside further.
Having only entered a few steps in, I let out a small noise just as I collided with Leon's back due to him stopping abruptly all of a sudden. The entirety of Leon's being was tensed up in high alarm, his eyes going as wide as they could just as his hold on Reece tightened as if to keep him protected.
"Leo?" I looked at him in question before moving my vision to look at where he was currently staring at.
"Well, well~"
Leon immediately put his arm in front of me just as the stranger got up from his comfortable seat on our couch. It was a man who seemed to be in his late twenties. On his face, he wore a pleased smile and looked as if he'd been waiting here quite a while.
But what caught my immediate attention was the striking resemblance he shared with Leon. The same dark, black hair and the same pair of mismatched eyes- one red and the other green. He also seemed a bit taller and more mature looking than Leon. What was disturbing, however, was the big cheery smile he had on his face which seemed anything but genuine.
"Hello there, little brother." My eyes widened as the man grinned. Kian and Cassius stood together at the back silently as they observed the whole scenario, both standing there with concerned faces.
"How- Why are you here?" Leon asked with a blank expression as his face betrayed nothing about what he was truly feeling. But I could see the inner turmoil he was being drowned in. He was just as disturbed on the inside as calm as he made himself to appear on the outside.
"Just wanted to pay my dear brother a visit." Leon's brother shrugged nonchalantly. "I missed you, Leon. I really did." He walked closer to where we were standing, eyes never leaving Leon's. "You know I've always-"
"WHY NOW?!" Leon's patience snapped as he yelled, body as tensed as never before. I could feel the fuming aura he radiated off of himself. Confusion, disbelief and anger were as clear as a crystal on his face. His mismatched eyes glared into the mismatched ones of his brother's with a hateful and unforgivable intensity.
"Why now, Areon?!" Leon demanded, barely keeping himself in control. He was so immersed in his fury that he didn't even realise that he'd woken up Reece who was now looking in confusion at everyone in the room, eyes then fixing onto the only stranger's figure.
My eyes left Leon to look at the Charmer and the Shadow, silently asking them about this whole situation.
Kian shrugged with a frown just as Cassius shook his head, confirming that they know just as much about this as I do.
Areon, as Leon called him, chuckled as his eyes gleamed in excitement. The other beast finally let his gaze wander away from Leon to look at me, making a chill run down my spine as we made eye contact. His grin only increased in size which made my eyebrows furrow as I gave him an unimpressed look.
He looked from me to Reece, not missing the way Leon had him held safely in his arms before meeting the intense eyes of his brother again.
"Because you're happy again, Leon." Areon's huge smile dissipated to form a thin line before his face lost all his joy and happiness, changing to form a scarily angry look. "You're happy again which is why I want to snatch away all the source of your happiness." He snarled, a low growl emitting out of his throat.
Reece jerked up at the sudden change of attitude in the foreign demon's demeanour as he moved his arms to wrap around Leon's neck, clinging onto him.
"I'll destroy you...again." Areon's threat wasn't empty. It was clear as day that he meant every word that sprewed out of his mouth and he absolutely intended to act on his words.
"(Y/N)." I tensed upon being adressed by Leon in such a stern tone. Gone was the carefree, flirty Leon who had been walking around the forest today with me and Reece.
This Leon who turned to look at me was the same beast who I had met for the very first time in this forbidden forest, almost a year ago.
He untangled Reece from himself before carefully moving the scared boy into my arms, face remaining as cold as ever.
Turning back, he took a threatening step forward in Areon's direction, hands clenched into fists ready to be thrown if need arises. Getting closer to his brother's face all the while glaring deadly at him, he parted his lips to voice out his reply.
"I won't let you away with it this time."
Areon scoffed, rolling his eyes as he mocked the angered monster in front. "So you believe." He taunted.
Areon looked at me and then the hunal in my hold. Twisting his lips to form a sick smirk, he looked back at Leon. "This human and kid are important to you, aren't th-"
"Don't even think, Areon." In the flash of a second, Leon had him grabbed by the collar, his face getting more and more dangerous by every passing moment.
"Think about hurting them and see what I do with you."
Areon only smiled as he pushed Leon away, not getting bothered by his threat at all. "This is going to be interesting, Leon." Was the last thing he said before he passed by us to move out of the house as we all let him.
***
"I always felt that something was missing from your story." Kian commented as he leaned against a nearby wall, arms crossed in front of his chest.
"You never told us about your brother, Leon.." Cassius quietly joined in.
Leon only stared ahead in front of him, not paying any attention to what was being said. I was sitting beside him on the couch, still holding Reece as he sat sideways on my lap, resting his head on my chest as he let his curious eyes observe Leon.
"Will you speak?!" Kian asked a little louder in frustration, wanting answers to all of our questions.
Leon took a minute before finally letting his sight away from the wall he was staring at to look at Kian and Cassius who were staring back at him in expectation. He then turned his head to look at me and Reece, both of us probably giving him the same expression.
"Areon is my elder brother." He sighed. "We were never close to each other when we were human." He shared. "He always seemed to hate me for some reason." Leon scoffed, shaking his head later.
"Before my death... When I was still alive as a human, it had taken me a while to find out that he had been helping the Eustacians to take down our kingdom."
"Huh?! Betraying his own kingdom?!" Kian looked with an offended expression.
"He got what he deserved later... The betrayer got betrayed by the ones he'd helped." Leon huffed. "He helped the Eustacian king in capturing our father, wanting the throne for himself. But they were traitors after all... Did what they knew to do best. They outplayed him." Leon leaned back on the couch, closing his eyes as he continued.
"He had come to me in my cell after I was captured... Laughing when he saw me tied up in chains, tortured with scars and blood all over my body." A frown took over my lips upon knowing that bit of information. I was tempted to reach out and hold Leon's hand but decided against it, letting him have his space.
"He sputtered out all the nonsense about how much he loved seeing me in that condition and how much I deserved it for not being there to help in saving my kingdom. F*cking bastard.
"That's when he'd revealed all about his shitty plan to me. Confessing all about his role in the whole mess and how he was promised the throne of Melenoa but got betrayed." Leon opened his eyes again. He was there in the room with us physically, but his mind had taken him back into the past as he relived it through memories.
"In his anger and frustration, he had killed me." He concluded, not saying anything further and just let us let it all sink in.
"Is that what he meant by saying that he'll destroy you again? Did he imply to be killing you once more?" Cassius asked albeit hesitantly.
"Probably." Leon shrugged, not immersing in this conversation further.
"Why did you never tell us about this before? Even when we revealed everything to (Y/N), you never mentioned him.." Kian pressed.
Leon stayed quiet. It didn't look like he was willing to tell us. So, after gathering up some courage, I decided to ask him again. Maybe I had a shot at gaining an answer out of him?
"Tell us, Leo.." His eyes instantly snapped over to look into mine, his walls going down almost immediately.
"Because I thought that he had died... Died as a demon too because in all these centuries of living here, I never once saw him... I thought that maybe like my father... Maybe he was consumed by guilt too. Maybe he decided to quit like my father too... Which is why I found no point in telling anyone about him... He wasn't the enemy after all, they were. That Shaman was.."
"And now suddenly, out of seemingly no where, he's back." Kian scoffed. "To take away your happiness." He rolled his eyes as he remembered Areon's words.
"He didn't come before because Leon wasn't happy before..?" Cassius said, more to himself than to us. "Was he observing you all this time without you even knowing?"
I thought back to Leon's words from when he'd told me all about the curse and Melenoa's history that day...
"And you?" He looked up to see me. "You didn't give up?" I asked softly.
"I wanted to. When those damn voices kept reminding me about how I could have prevented all this from happening if I had been with my father that day instead of chasing after the love of those traitors' princess. She.. She was so beautiful.. So kind.. But she betrayed me!" His soft going eyes hardened again.
"It was their plan all along!.. And I fell for it.. I wasn't a good son.. I wasn't a good prince.. I let my kingdom down.."
"Don't say that, Leon..." I said in a quiet tone.
"That's why I wanted to keep suffering. Regret is a strong emotion, (Y/N)... I wanted myself to be punished for the mistake that I did. For my inability to save my kingdom.. I wanted to suffer.."
Leon was punishing himself... He was living because of his repentence... Blaming himself for his inability to save his kingdom and it's people from a cruel, cursed fate.
And because that was previously the reason why he kept on going with this life, Areon left him alone, enjoying watching him suffer in silence. But now that he was starting to get over it, now that he was trying to live openly again, now that he was starting to get happy again, he wanted to take it all away from Leon?
What a sick brother!
"Go and sleep, (Y/N). Reece, you too. Go and rest both of you." Leon adressed us before getting up from the couch. He patted Reece's head softly before heading straight for his own room.
Anyone could tell how much he was affected with the return of his brother. The same brother who had betrayed him and their father and killed him.
The brother who wanted him to keep suffering.
I felt angry and pissed at that Areon. What the hell is that f*cker's problem?! Why does he want to-
"C'mon, Reece. Let's go." Cassius offered his hand for the boy to grab onto. But Reece hesitated. He moved his head away from my chest to look up at me with those big eyes of his.
"Miss (Y/N), can I sleep with you today?" He looked away after asking me that, as if he was shy to be making such a request.
I smiled at him, "Of course you can, Reece." His eyes lit up before he thanked me and got up from my lap, wanting to just go and sleep now.
"You can have your room to yourself again, Cassy." I grinned as I got up too, attempting to make the tense atmospere that Leon left behind, lighter again.
"Oh! Well, I was happy with Reece's company but it's okay if he likes you more." He pouted, teasing Reece.
"Sorry Cassy but I love miss (Y/N) the most! You come at third place!" The boy admitted sheepishly.
Cassius raised an eyebrow at that, then with a small smile he asked, "Who's at second then?"
"Leon of course!" Reece smiled sweetly, eyes shining with admiration for the beast.
"Kian comes last. Sorry Kian."
"No worries, little champion." The Charmer laughed.
"Let's go then, miss (Y/N)!" Reece reached for my hand to hold, but Kian stopped us before we began on our move.
"Uh, (Y/N)! Can I please have a minute with you?"
"You already know my answer, Kian-"
"Please (Y/N)! Just one minute!" He begged.
I was getting tired of this. All I wanted at the moment was sleep but looking at the desperate eyes of the man I once liked so much, I just thought of getting over with this.
"Fine." I sighed.
***
It was just the two of us present in the living room as Cassius and Reece had already left, giving us privacy to talk this out.
I listened quietly as the Charmer poured all his feelings out for me to hear and judge. About his doubts for love and the belief he had about his type of demons not being able to experience it. He told me all about the inner conflicts he was feeling regarding his own feelings and true emotions.
He also told me everything about his initial plans for me, all the evil things he had planned in his mind and how he didn't wish to carry on with them anymore.
"But now I am sure, (Y/N). I know about how much I love you." He looked at me with a lovesick expression, amber eyes sparkling as he spoke.
"Things between us will never be the same, Kian." I told him clearly. "I need time.."
"Take as much time as you need, darling... I'll happily wait for you..."
There was clear obsession in his eyes as he stared at me, looking at me as if I was the most precious thing there was to look at in the world.
I sighed before wishing him goodnight and leaving for my room where Reece was waiting for me.
I didn't know what to feel about the Charmer's infatuation with me. I know that somewhere in my heart, I still liked him. But my trust that he broke.... It'll never be the same as before.
And my growing feelings for both Cassius and Leon didn't make this any easier.
Speaking of Leon, this brother of his that just appeared in our lives out of nowhere was a bother I wanted to be rid of as soon as possible seeing how much he affected Leon.
I opened the door to my room to see Reece still awake in my wait. He instantly moved to make room for me in the bed, making me laugh at his antics. Whenever I felt stressed, Reece would always be the breath of fresh air I needed.
Getting under the covers, I made myself comfortable before switching off the lamp on the bedside table. Reece seemed to be debating about something in his mind as he stared up at the ceiling.
I turned my head as my eyes searched for his, a few scattered rays of the moonlight penetrated inside, providing luminosity into the dark room. Reece's eyes met mine and I immediately understood what was bothering him.
Smiling at him, I opened my arms wide enough for him to fall into which he did almost immediately. Both of us shifted such that his head was resting on my chest as he listened to the even beating of my heart, hugging me affectionately. My fingers moved through his soft strands of hair, which seemed to be enough to lull him into a peaceful sleep, taking him away into the land of dreams.
My mind thought back to the face of the demon who intruded into our lives, cursing him uncensored for disrupting the mental peace for all of us. Most importantly, Leon's.
But if only I had known about the chaos and pain he would bring into our lives...
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A/N: Soooo.... 'Scar' has finally been introduced... What are your thoughts on him? 👀