Ever since he could remember, Ben has felt this presence in his mind, heard this voice in his head. He seems to have no control over his body, waking in strange places, disoriented, sometimes hurt.
But when he finds himself in Sakura's garden one n...
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The night was eerily quiet. Without the moon casting its silvery glow on the surroundings, the sky seemed almost naked, stripped off its usual lightbulb. Clouds were hiding the stars from sight and the scent of damp earth and grass hung heavy in the air, tickling my nose. It had rained earlier, but it was a warm night. An owl hooted in the distance.
"Ready?" Sakura appeared by my side, but before I could reply or even acknowledge her presence, she had left and brushed past me. A door slid open behind me. I turned around and heard the rustle of her too-wide sleeves as she peeled them back, exposing the paleness of her forearms and tying them back with a ribbon.
She made me sit on the floor. Outside the wind chimes tinkled to the melody of the lazy spring breeze but I barely paid it any mind when Sakura settled down in front of me, knees bumping against mine as she sank onto the floorboards, her fingers reaching out for my hands and grasping them, sending a pulse of awareness through me. I couldn't tell what made my heart rate pick up more, my nervousness about this... procedure or finally having her so awfully close after watching her from afar for so long.
Shadows flickered across the thin walls when she moved, reaching for something on one of the counters. I heard the light sound of metal, her eyelids fluttered closed, lips moving and whispering words under her breath in a dialect I failed to understand. She leant towards me and slipped a chain over my head.
I hissed, but not at the bite of cold metal on my skin. It burned. "What is this?" I asked.
Sakura's eyes shimmered in the candlelight around us, deep and dark. "Silver," she simply said and I looked down, noticing the tiny glass container hanging around my neck.
"But why does it burn?" I fought the urge to rip off the chain and throw it to the ground.
"That's because of him," she said in a whisper. "Demons don't like silver, they're vulnerable to it." And with that, she sat down in front of me again, her hands reaching for mine and she continued to whisper more foreign words.
I lapsed into silence, my mind fading out at the sound of her murmuring voice until suddenly, I felt a tug at my chest, a jerk in my joints. Something — someone — awoke from their sleep. I growled, without wanting to. It sounded low and menacing and I didn't know my throat could make such a noise. It was like it was forced out of me.
Sakura's voice grew steadier, her intonation increasing in intensity as shivers started to wrack my body. My hands cramped underneath hers, fighting to break free, to lash out and rip her apart. I didn't know where that last thought came from, but it scared me. She tightened her hold on me, determined but her thumbs caressed the back of my hands gently as if she was trying to calm me down.
My lip pulled back and without me ever deciding to do so, I snarled. I didn't want to, I didn't mean to make these sounds that were more animal than human, but something was ripping these responses from my body. Something was taking over my being bit by bit. Thick black smoke filled my brain, pushing my conscious thoughts and everything that was me into a corner of my mind and trapping them there.
