Guns, Bullets & Bones [Tokyo Ghoul]

Ch. 24 ~ Cowardice

      When a gasp tore from Dylan's throat, it didn't take long before the hypnotic, icy rings of Rio's eyes fell on Dylan, capturing his own olive eyes in an intense glare. He watched in horror as the blue was replaced with black and crimson, and her jaw clenched fiercely.

     Dylan sprung to his feet in terror as the six, plum coloured tentacles of her Kagune sprung from her back, coiling and arching around her like great, horrific pythons.

     Dylan began sheepishly backing away, bumping into chairs and tables along the way, and Nishiki and Kaneki shot to their feet.

     "You..." Rio hissed after a deep inhale, raising a perfectly still finger, pointing directly at Dylan across the room, as an air of menace hung around her.

    With slow, calculated steps, Rio began to stalk towards Dylan, but he found himself rooted to the spot. His mind was the only thing working, and working in overdrive it indeed was.

     Fight or flight.

      What to do. What to do. He could run, run for his life like he always has, and feel as rotten to the core as always. Or he could fight. He could take a chance. He could prove to himself that he wasn't the coward he had resigned himself to being. He could prove to himself that he could make a change. He could prove to himself that he could win.

     "I'm going to kill you," Rio hissed, teeth clenched together, hands balled into fists. Everything about her seemed to have come unhinged, far from the calm, composed and controlled person she could be.

     "Touka!" Kaneki cried, the dark haired boy quickly running for the counter, skidding out the back and Nishiki's own Kagune broke forth and he dove for Rio, gripping her tightly, trying to anchor her in one place.

      Rio struggled and kicked and fought, but she didn't have to for long.

     "You can let her go," Dylan said quietly, and he noted Kaneki and Touka had reappeared in the doorway.

     "What!?" Nishiki cried, but his grip loosened for just a moment in shock. Rio's face changed, and the angered flashed away for a moment of calm, blankness, but her eyes went wide, before they narrowed again.

     She seized her chance and broke free, propelling herself across the room, upon Dylan in an instant.

    One of Rio's hands wound around Dylan's throat and he slammed back against the wall. He gasped out in pain and flinched as her nails bit into his skin and her grip tightened. When he finally cracked open one eye, all he saw was Rio, face blank, simply staring.

     "You can't kill me," Dylan wheezed out, and watched something in her eyes flicked. "Even if you could, you can't bring yourself to do it. You hesitated, again,"

     Dylan took a large gulp of air when Rio's hand dropped away, but her face fell into a scowl, looking nothing less than enraged.

    "I hate you," Her voice started low, and her head hung and drooped, hair falling like a pastel blue curtain, hiding her hard features.

     Three simple words knocked the air right back out of Dylan's lungs and he felt his stomach churn. Somehow, this hurt him. Even when he knew she couldn't really be called his friend anymore, this hurt more than anything before. It hurt less when people he barely knew said it to him, it hurt less when his human 'friends' had said it to him, it had even hurt less when his own little sister had said it to him.

     So why did Rio's words cut so deep?

      "You... You ruined everything I thought I knew about- about the world - about my very existence as a ghoul... You've changed me in ways that I don't understand, but my eyes are open, and now, no matter what I do, I can't seem to close them-" Rio seethed, her chest rising and falling rapidly as the frustrated words tumbled out, one after another. "Nothing will ever be the same, it will never be a simple as it has been for my whole life. I'm a ghoul, I eat humans like you to survive, but now, because of you, humans are something more than that, and it's torture... How dare you... Everything has fallen apart, and you know what? you're right.... I can't kill you..."

      "R-Rio..." Dylan stuttered out, though he wasn't sure what he would even say if he had the right words.

      "If I can't kill you, I don't want to see you... I don't want to see your stupid face and be reminded of the way I've changed, or the way I was so blindly happy and clueless before..." Rio hissed lowly, and her Kagune slowly retracted into her back, her eyes swirling back to the beautiful, hypnotic blue.

       "You've made me feel some kind of way, and I hate it... You'll live, but you'll never see me again,"

     Rio gave one more, long look at Dylan before she turned, and marched her way out of Anteiku. Dylan's heart was pounding in his chest, rattling against his rib bones as the coffee shop descended into silence.

      'Are you going to be a coward again?' a voice whispered in his mind. No. He was done being a coward.

      Dylan leapt into action, pushing past the chairs and tables, some of which Rio had upturned, and he slammed out of the door, spotting Rio and her shock of pastel blue hair a few paces away, and his hand clamped down on her shoulder.

    "Rio!"

~