HEART AT WAR [PART 2 OF A&B] [CSM]

i! i wish i could be strong without somebody there

The moment you shove the rest of your burger in your mouth, debris flies past you as the devil rams itself into the building. Quanxi dashes out of the booth to avoid its jaws. You, unfortunately, don't move as it sinks its teeth into your arm.

"OWWWW! OW! OW!" You squeal, smacking its snout. It lifts you up and shakes you around, tossing you out of the window. You crash onto the ground and roll into a light post. It scrambles towards you, wagging its tail and panting as it picks you up once more.

Civilians run by you as Quanxi directs them where to go. You try smacking its snout again to try and get it to let go of you. "QUANXI! A LITTLE HELP?!"

"No. You can kill it."

"OWWW! HOW?! OW! OWWWW!"

"Hit it as hard as you can." She says as she leads the middle aged waitress away to safety. You try to ram your fist into it, but it slams your head into the light post before you get a chance. It drops you onto the ground, placing its large paw onto your torso and trying to bite your arm off.

As it gnaws on your arm, you start to question if this is better than being locked up for eternity.

It doesn't sound that bad.

It's what you deserve, right?

No, do you deserve this more?

Maybe you're just thinking selfishly.

A part of you deep down doesn't want to kill it.

Why?

You've only ever killed small bugs like flies, not something that's as obviously alive as this.

Does it deserve to be killed?

It's probably only hungry.. what's wrong with being hungry? You were hungry just a few moments ago.

Maybe you should just let it eat you.

Why does anybody need you?

Wait, no.. what about Ma?

She'd be real sad if you up and died on her.

You don't wanna make Ma sad.

Kill it.

You grab onto its tongue, lifting your legs up and placing them on each side of its jaws. You pull as hard as you can, ripping it out and climbing into its mouth. Piercing through the back of its mouth, you grasp its spine, ripping it out half way and lifting the devil up. You slam it onto the ground over and over, its blood splattering all over you as it screeches. As you let its spine go and leave it on its back, you climb on top of it and punch its chest as hard as you can. You feel a snap travel throughout your forearm as you remove your hand from inside of its chest. You shove your other arm through it, grabbing its heart and crushing it.

Quanxi walks up behind you, picking you up under your arms and pulling you off of the devils corpse. She notices your limp arm.

"Is your arm alright?" She says, holding your wrist and lifting it up. She rolls your sleeve up, noticing a bone poking out of your elbow. As soon as you see the bone, you look away and start groaning. "Ooooh, dude, my arm.. ow.. owwww.."

"You didn't have to kill it like that. A simple punch would've worked."

"Punching it is what made my arm snap, dude.. ow.."

"You must've punched it wrong. Drink its blood."

You look at the corpse, watching it twitch as blood pours out of its chest. "Y-Yeah, no thanks.. I don't wanna drink blood.."

"I'm not taking you to a hospital. Either you drink it, or I snap your bone back into place."

You'd rather not see if she's a good chiropractor. You limp over to the corpse, bending over and cupping some of its blood in your hand. As you drink it, you feel parts of your body heal, including your arm.