Nameless Ghoul

Little Sunshine

Itzal didn’t feel like eating, but Sunshine made him have some fruit, some pancakes and some orange juice. They were sitting in his room on the sofa and he'd filled Sunshine in on what Secondo had said about his plan. She sat in silence for a while and he could see that she was thinking it through. He finished drinking the juice while she pondered everything.

“Okay. So you’re basically saying that Secondo wants to kill you to cut the bond and get rid of Santos, and then Papa will bring you back to life. But there's no guarantee it will work as it might send you back to your home dimension. Or it might not even work at all, as he’s never tried to bring a ghoul back. He might just be killing you. That’s it? That’s the master plan?” she said with an angry tone in her voice.

When she put it like that, it did sound kind of risky and a bit reckless.

“Well, that’s the bare bones of it... Yes,” he answered. “But there were other things they needed to research.”

“And you’re happy for them to just slit your throat, or however else they’re going to do it? You’re just going along with it?” she said, purple fire flashing in her eyes now.

“Well, I wanted to talk to you about it first. Omega thinks I should go for it.”

“Oh, so Omega is in on this too. Seriously?”

She crossed her arms over her chest, scowling.

Fuck, Itzal thought. He'd thought that she’d be happy he had a shot at freedom, he hadn't thought she’d get angry.

“Sunshine, there is no other way out of this bond. Death is the only option. That’s it. If there was another way, then they would try it. We’ve already tried to change the collar and it worked for what? A day? Santos won't let me go that easily. As far as he’s concerned, I’m his property and he wants his property back.”

Sunshine growled in frustration.

“I wish I could rip his throat out. I’m so freaking angry right now! I finally find someone who I have a connection with and he’s got some evil freaking sorcerer trying to enslave him! It’s so unfair!” She punched the cushion and looked up to meet his gaze. “I can’t lose you Itzal, it would kill me if they can’t bring you back. Why can’t you just stay here at the Abbey with me? We can just block the bond.”

He smiled a lopsided smile at her.

“You know we can’t do that. Santos will find a way to get to me, eventually. He’s proving that now. He’ll never give up. As long as I’m alive, he will be too. He's a stubborn fucker. He put everything he has into summoning and training me. He won't take a hit like that, as he can’t summon another ghoul. As far as I know, he only has this one collar anyway, so even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to control them like he can me. He won’t give up Sunshine. Ever.”

Itzal could see tears welling in her eyes as she put her head on his chest and cried. He rubbed slow circles on her back.

“To me, this is worth the risk. If I get to stay here with you, then it’s definitely worth it, and I think I want to go ahead with it.”

He felt her grip his shirt tighter.

They sat there quietly for a little while, before Sunshine sniffed and raised her face to look at him.

“I will never forgive Secondo, or you, if this goes wrong. Never.”

They called in to see Shay on the way down to Secondo’s study that afternoon. The old ghoul was writing something down as they entered his office. He smiled when he saw them and motioned for them to sit down by his desk.

“Ah, my children, I hope you’re well? To what do I owe this pleasure?” he asked.

“We were just checking the arrangements for the summoning later,” Sunshine said.

“Ah yes, it will be around seven p.m here, I think? Papa has selected three ghouls to donate their blood for the circle.”

Itzal hadn’t even thought about the practicalities of a summoning performed by the Clergy. The summoning circle required writing the symbols in blood, and they preferred to use ghoul blood. When Santos and his witches did a summoning, he was the only ghoul available and they almost drained him dry every time. Itzal would lose consciousness, and they would stitch his wounds and bandage them up. When he awoke afterwards, he was always back in his room feeling like shit, wrists throbbing from the wounds and white bandages wrapped around each one.

They didn’t risk draining him so much that he would die from the blood loss, and they always left a couple of weeks between summonings for him to regain his full strength again. From what Itzal understood, his own summoning had required the blood of thirteen humans and it had depleted the witches' powers so badly that they had taken a couple of weeks to recover from it.

But it seemed here, the ghouls willingly donated some of their blood to use for the circles. Again, he found himself longing for a choice like that and the option to refuse if he didn’t want to.

“We will arrange for one of the side rooms to the chapel to be made ready. You can wait in there for her to be summoned as I didn’t think you would want to be in the chapel for it,” Shay said with a kind look on his face.

“Thank you," Itzal said, “I’d rather not.”

They said their goodbyes and headed to see Secondo and the witches to give Itzal’s decision.

Secondo nodded his thanks when Itzal told him he wanted to go through with the plan. He looked at Sunshine and a half smile played on his lips.

“Do not worry, piccola sole. I know that you will never forgive me if this goes wrong.” He had clearly read her thoughts on the matter. “I am using every tool at my disposal to ensure that it does not. I need to speak to Itzal privately about it though, if you don’t mind?”

Sunshine nodded to him and stroked her hand down Itzal’s arm.

“I have a couple of errands to run, so I’ll do them now to get them out of the way.”

He nodded and thanked her, and she left.

“Take a seat, Itzal,” Secondo said. He did as he was told. “I see you and our little Sunshine have become very close.” He wasn’t sure where Secondo was going with this and he tensed up, ready for the warning to keep away from her. Secondo smirked. “Don’t panic, I am happy for you both. She is good for you. Her heart is pure.”

Itzal sighed.

“I know. Too pure for me.”

Secondo tutted at him and shook his head.

“You are so hard on yourself. She is a fully grown ghuleh who more than knows her own mind. She can see you for what you are. Never doubt that.” Itzal cringed at that, but he kept quiet. “We have progressed well with our plans, and I have to ask something of you. I do not know how you will take it, and I want you to think about it before you give me your answer, as I know it will be a massively important decision for you, si?”

Itzal’s brow furrowed as he wondered what it would be.

“Okay.” 

When he left Secondo’s office a few minutes later, his thoughts were spinning. So, he did what he always did when he needed to clear his head. He headed out to the woods for a run.