Bleeding Demons: The Dark Bloods - Book III ✓

Chapter 10 - Upstart

10.

Upstart

Ram sighed. "You again, Harpy Girl? I'm starting to think you like me."

He had encountered and sent off this spirt ten times and this was going to be the eleventh. Though she wasn't his most frequent costumer, he was most familiar with her yellow and brown feathers and sharp, orange eyes. Seeing endless, but familiar faces, was the norm since the balance broke and woke up the spirits that had been asleep. Even when Ram sent them back, they returned.

It was an endless cycle, he knew, but one he had to continue if he wished to still have Reyna and Umbra in existence. By returning the spirits back to their plane, regardless of their eventual escape, Ram was providing a temporary patch to the cracks in the balance. Never mind the cracks kept getting bigger and the patches smaller. As long as he gave Reyna time.

He grinned. He had lost the meaning of time since he "died" but now it was what they all needed.

He sighed. Ram had grown tired of the demon world. It was such a repetitive and boring sight. Only green and black and red. No blue or yellow or even pink. He smiled again. For some reason, he suddenly knew that Reyna once had a pink, plush bunny when she was younger.

A sharp cry awoke him from his thoughts and his attention returned to the harpy-like spirit in front of him. At least the spirits provided a nice contrast to demon world's drab appearance. Too bad he had to get rid of them.

"Bye, my sweet," Ram said and collected the spirit into its sphere form. He sent it off into the sky, another piece to be collected by Lys.

That was the other part of the plan. To keep Lys preoccupied. As long as she was bombarded by the incoming spirits, she'd be too busy sorting them out. Too busy to do what Umbra fears she will do.

"Even so, we won't be able to keep Lys distracted forever," Umbra had told Ram. "That is why you have to remind them and show them. The past must always be remembered."

Ram had already done that part. He hadn't been able to personally show them all the images like when he had encountered them in the spirit world. Then, there had been more stability and the images he showed to Reyna and the others flowed freely and easily, but now he was too busy. Too tired. But Ram had still managed to send off what he had to.

If anything, the broken balance had made connection to the living world easier, had made his messages slip faster. How and when they would be seen was another matter, but they would be received.

Ram sighed as he watched Harpy Girl's sphere sail up in the air, shiver in the sky like a loose leaf caught in the wind, and disappear...only to reappear. Ram frowned as the shimmering ball dropped to the ground. It dissolved into mist that grew and spread into the acquainted figure of Harpy Girl. A second later, the spirit herself was standing before Ram again, whole.

"Uh-oh," he said with a slight smile on his lips.

The spirit gave him a grin full of needled teeth before kissing Ram on the cheek and flying away.

Ram placed a black hand on his face, appreciating the kiss's evaporating warmth. He thought of Reyna until a sharp rip made him look up. The sound was thunderous as if the sky was being torn apart by invisible hands which was appropriate because the dark sky above was indeed parted by a giant, white oval. Bolts of lightning showered over the area, a snowy eye bloodshot yellow.

Another giant splotch split the sky, followed by another and more after that. Ram thought it looked like that cheese with all the holes. He couldn't remember what it was called, but he could remember that Harpy Girl had been twelve years old when she and her family had been lynched.