To Crush a Rose - Floyd & Riddle

Chapter 8

Riddle's heart was racing. His feet carried him as fast as they could along the dirt path, blue eyes glancing over his shoulder every so often to see if Floyd was following him. But of course he was—there was no way that he'd let him get away. He was Floyd's property . He'd made that perfectly clear after they had run into Trey.

You're not leaving here without me, kay~?

The teenager's body ran into someone as he glanced back once more and hands grabbed his upper arms, shaking the redhead a little. "Woah, there. What's gotten into you?" The redhead's eyes darted up towards the other, then back behind him once more. No sign of Floyd.

"H-He's coming." His words came out more of a series of gasps, causing the older stranger's brows to furrow.

"Who's coming?"

" Him. " Riddle turned towards the man, his own hands moving to grab the other's arms. Nails dug into his sleeves. "Please, you have to help me!" The boy begged.

"Alright, alri—"

A familiar chuckle filled the air and Floyd's nails wrapped around the stranger's neck. Riddle's panicked expression dropped as he took in the older man's face as his own eyes widened. "Sorry." Riddle managed to get out, taking a couple steps back as Floyd's sharp nails began to dig into his skin. That man let out a loud scream as the jikininki's teeth dug into his throat and Riddle crossed his arms over his chest, taking in the scene before him.

The man's body gave out from under him and the older of the two let his body drop to the ground, a bloody smile moving towards the redhead. "You were so good, Goldfishie~" He cooed before grabbing the man's limp arm once more.

"Of course I was." In fact, a part of him hoped that something would happen that would make Floyd lose track of him. Maybe he could get away if there was just the right circumstances. People were on edge nowadays—if he could run into the right person, if they could hurt Floyd, then maybe he could be free eventually. He could find Trey and Che'nya. He could go home .

Not that he really had a home. At this point, he wondered if he had spent more years living with Floyd than he had his own mother. Sometimes he would try to count, but the aggravating thing about the ghoul he lived with is that he also didn't seem to really care for time. His mind wandered to the diary hidden away and the notes about the people he'd met scrawled in the pages. He wondered if time was too strange of a concept for him at this point—that he never changed, so why would he pay attention to it? Or perhaps it was just a painful reminder that he'd left his brother behind.

Riddle picked up the other limp arm, helping the other to drag the body towards the woods. Mismatched eyes glanced at him for a moment, brows twitching for just a moment as he took in the sight of the smaller boy helping to handle the body. " What? " Riddle said, knitting his own brows together as he took in the other's expression.

"You're gonna get bloody." He said after a moment.

Blue eyes glanced down at the corpse, all signs of life now completely gone. His own hands went cold as he took in the sight of him holding onto the other's wrist, though he didn't let go. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders, trying not to let on that he hadn't really expected himself to help with such an action either. "Well, it's partially my fault."

"I've told you you don't need to help with the bodies." Riddle shrugged.

The truth was that things were getting dangerous for Floyd. He was hunting more, and with that, the people in the towns nearby were getting restless. They were coming armed more often than not and while nothing bad had happened yet, it was only a matter of time before someone caught Floyd off guard. A part of Riddle was jealous of whoever that was going to be—after all this time, the idea of not being the one to kill Floyd seemed strange and foreign. He'd spend his waking moments dreaming about how he'd do it, what he'd say. But nothing ever felt right. And now that Floyd was putting himself in more danger, it was only a matter of time before he just...never came home again.