Demon Slayer Imagines

Agatsuma Zenitsu

The Lovers

❀ word count: 2182

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From the top of the mountain behind your village the night sky view was most beautiful on summers. It had pained your eyes to deal with months on end of rain, so when the warmer months came, and the skies were clearer, your smile grew.
Each and every night, moments before sunset, you'd walk your way up the mountain, and rested only at the top, staying for hours, sometimes, before going back down.

It wasn't at all scary, as your parents used to guide you since you were a baby, and it felt natural, for the moonlight was enough to make you see a bright path that led to the back of your home. Without any concerns, you kept your hobby.

This particular night however, your safe haven would become a gruesome scenery that would make you wish you'd stay home that day.
The way up was as calm as usual, and your stay was nothing out of ordinary. You'd often catch yourself look for little flowers to make flower crowns as a way to entertain yourself. Back there, there was nothing but a night of sleep. You weren't tired, and you always wished to keep going. Besides, your mother just seemed so happy whenever you gifted her with a crown.

A smile graced your lips, and a look of determination made you continue your task even quicker. The stars remained unchanged for the time period, and the light that cast down on you made you look even more ethereal, with a smile that many in your village cherished. Good fortune seemed to surround you, even in the darkest of times. When a disease affected the village, or when a few summers back, the heat was too much and by sheer accident, a broken glass started a fire, it was your encouraging energy that made everyone else pick up their spirits and fight the bad omens tat threatened the peace within their borders.

A strange shiver ran down your spine, and a twist of your stomach made you feel like throwing up. It felt a lot like a warning, but you'd just need some more minutes to finish the crown, so you decided to postpone your investigation of what might be wrong, and continued. It was usual for you to get bad feelings, and it was even more usual that they were simple things like an animal that escaped their owner or a child that had fallen and scrapped a knee. You weren't paying attention to the quickening of your heart beat, and instead, proceeded. Perhaps that was your saving grace, perhaps the end of your good fortune, but one truth was universal - it spared at least one life.

As you finished, you skipped your way down the hill with a smile on your face. The wind blowing softly on your cheeks made a delightful sound, trees dancing with you, until you reached the entrance to your village.
At first, the smell of blood made you almost gag in disgust. You were baffled at the intensity, moving quickly to plug your nose and breathe through your mouth as you worried to find the source of such butchery, in hopes it was a dusk activity of some sort - like killing a pig to make a food festival later, which used to happen during summer, every now and then, when there would be plenty to share.

However, your intense look for some dead animal proved useless. Unable to shake the feeling of dread, you picked a long stick from the ground and began moving towards the first house, a friend of you mother's lived there with her family. Perhaps, something had happened. And it proved to be right.
You climbed the first two steps to the house, and hoping to find a perfectly well closed door, your eyes widened in horror. Blood drained from your face, as you paralyzed, barely managing to hold in a scream of panic.

The door had been very roughly opened, cracked and scratched by what seemed like inhuman sized nails. You could almost picture the screams and the desperation that took place, as you saw the remains of dead people, and the face of your mother's friend, right in front of you, as if she'd unsuccessfully tried to escape. Her expression was still that of a horrified person, no light in her eyes, blood in all placed, and some body parts missing, making the overall picture all the more gory and traumatizing.