Book 2: Seven Demon's Hearts

Episode 71: The Trap

Episode 71: T h e T r a p

A flash into the near future:

Everything that could have gone wrong, had gone wrong.

One by one, they all fell down in front of her.

Sera collapsed to the ground, hands holding her up steady as they trembled against the cold marble floor now stained with splatters of blood. Her eyes were wide, chest lurching randomly with heavy sobs and nausea, and her arms trembled with fear and shock.

"Ai...ko..." she barely whispered out. So faint that she questioned if she had spoken in her thoughts. Sera stared at the frozen kid to her left. Aiko stood there, covered in blood from head to toe. Hands trembling. Eyes raging.

Everything that could have gone wrong, had gone wrong. And the worst part about all of it was that no one even saw it coming.

****

The present:

Her face shimmered with uncertainty as she looked back at his confident eyes. So colorful, yet so unsettling.

"Ready?" Aiko whispered, squeezing her hands.

"A-Are you sure we should do this? I mean...he's still Satan."

"Grandpa lied to me. I told you. He didn't really place that contract up."

"He told you, right?"

"Yeah. I wouldn't do this if it would harm you. You know that." He smiled again, one of those smiles that Sera immediately felt good right after looking at.

Maybe her feelings were wrong and it was all just delusions in her head. She knows that these days her senses have been tingling when she was around Aiko. There was some sort of weird energy and vibe, but it could have also been a result of him finally understanding his powers better. Which was a good thing for him. She was happy that at least now he won't feel guilty or bad about losing control. If anything came out of staying with Satan for the past few days then it was his efforts in actually being productive with helping Aiko hone his skills.

"Okay, but let's think about this first. We're only going to leave here right? Then we'll go stay somewhere else by ourselves and see what we'll do. I...I don't think we should really follow Min's advice, Aiko."

"Yeah, of course." He smiled back. "We don't really need him to get what we want. I just want to make sure of a few things." Aiko glanced, catching her lingering gaze. "Is something wrong?"

"No...I just feel like, you've changed." Sera mumbled as he winced at her words and placed on a nervous smile.

"How?"

"Nothing really. You just feel a lot more mature than how it used to be." She flushed a little bit, trying to admit her feelings. "I guess it's another one of those things that you demons go through with that wacky-time line and all."

"Well, don't expect me to stay a kid forever." He whispered, crouching down to get close to her nose. Sera observed the way his shimmering gaze glowed in the darkness of his room. "This time I'm going to make things right for everyone. I'm going to make sure of it. Then after that," he smiled with hope, "we can all live happily. Forever."

Sera cracked a small smile, giving in as he leaned over, gently pressing a kiss to her lips as his hand stabilized her head, thumb caressing her cheek.

At the bottom of her heart, the nagging never stopped. Secretly, what she truly wished was that this moment would last forever. That Aiko wouldn't leave here. He'd stay, even though Satan terrified her to the core. For some reason, she still felt guilty that this was all happening, and in the meantime, she couldn't help but reflect on the reason why they were separated from the start. What did the rest want out of it? It wasn't just simply to push them away from each other--no, there seemed to be something else that the adults were hiding.