LUNA: The Witching Hour

21: Dreams At Night

"You are my son," The demon king said with an icy tone that could have bulked the knees of the lower-ranking demons, but Midnight kept his posture straight and held his father's cold gaze. "And you have miserably failed your training for today. Alam mo ba kung gaano mo ako nabigo?"

Midnight didn't falter as his dead eyes bore into his father's, who was now staring down at him with pure disgust. He didn't mind that he was thrown inside a cage and was condemned for his failure in today's training just because he had the decency to help his little sister who had fallen on her knees while they were trying to escape a labyrinth full of huge snakes and bone animals. 8 of his brothers and 3 of his sisters died during the training. He made sure he had carved the horror in their faces in his head when they've had figured out that they were going to meet dead's end.

Without him even realizing it, his tiny fingers curled on his sides. Both of his fists still smeared in blood, just like his body, fully drenched in the sticky, awful, smelly gore of the animals he had killed a few moments ago.

"She was my little sister" The words were out of his lips in a matter of seconds. No emotions in his eyes and tone. Midnight didn't care. "I was supposed to help her---"

He wasn't even finished when the demon king wrapped his throat with darkness and the words died on his tongue with a gagging choke he did so best to restrain. Agad na napunta ang mga kamay ni Midnight sa kadiliman na sumasakal sakanya. Sumikip ang kanyang dibdib at may kung anong anghang siyang naramdaman sakanyang mga mata. But he knew better than to show his struggle before his father. He knew damn well that it would only make his father hungrier and more aggressive than he was with him right now.

Instead of struggling and begging for his life to be saved, he let himself make use of his magic power within him. He reached for that thrumming inside of him. The unique kind of heat that traveled down his body and made his skin itch for some reason. He didn't want to beg. No. Of course not. Demons didn't have to beg for their lives. They cursed them. Vowed them the frightful death they would have given them even in the afterlife. They would've crawled back from that dark void if needed be. That was how the demons do it. They would come back and tear you apart. No matter what circumstances would that have been. There were no excuses.

And Midnight was taught by his father himself about that.

He pushed past his limit and focused his attention on his father's right eye. He saw it. Those little and thin blood vessels that connected through the demon king's eye-- he could see them all. Could sense them like it were his second body.

Without even a second thought, Midnight ruptured them all. The vessels in the eye. Both of them didn't even blink when it happened, even as the blood gushed out in all directions.

The darkness around his throat yielded.

His father grinned. One eye bleeding.

"Very well," The demon king said, satisfaction laced his words. Wala pang sampong segundo ng gumaling na kaagad ang mata nito. "That's what I like you to do. Give pain. Nurture your own violence. You do not yield. Instead, you make them fear you"

Midnight wanted so bad to grab the metal bars and lean on to them while he evened out his own breathing. But that would've meant weakness, and his father knew no such thing. Pinilit na lamang niya ang sarili na tumayo ng tuwid kahit nahihilo na ito sa nangyare. Umigting ang panga nito, pero hanggang roon lang ang pwede niyang ipakita. He wouldn't even give his father the satisfaction of his glare. That would be too much of an effort. The blank coldness of his eyes was enough to convey what he wanted his father to see. Deadness.

"Para sa parusa mo, mananatili ka rito ng isang buwan. Hindi kita papakainin. Hindi kita papainumin na kahit tubig man lang. You want them? Try and find a way. I don't care if you break your own cage, but you know how firm that cage is" Gusto uli ni Midnight pasabugin ang dalawang mata ng sariling ama pero alam niyang gagaling lang 'din ang mga ito kaagad. He hated how his father excelled in every field. "Reflect, Midnight Zagreus. You are aware that you're one of my precious products. Your mom is one of a kind and I do not wish to make a worthless demon out of you. If you're lucky, you might become one of the seven and next in line to the throne. But keep in mind that demons do not depend on luck. Because from the very beginning, we were the cursed in this world. Yesterday. Today. And in the future. No one befriends the darkness like how demons do it, my son"