The Gaze of Fear

Chapter 6: Leaving the Past

     After a moment of silence, Widow walks forward, Leider close behind. "Isn't the night beautiful Leider?" Widow asks, standing in the middle of the road with him to her right side. Her nonchalant way of asking after the previously emotional conversation was more than off-putting to him.

     "I-I guess." Another awkward silence, now reverberating off the trunks that lie ahead of them.

     "Don't you ever get off?"

     "W-what?!"

     "You heard me. You're so strung up, so determined to stay professional and uptight, don't you ever just let go and celebrate being alive?" He gazes at her and her two heads, or at least her seemingly new, two extra heads. "Oh, don't look at me like that, you knew that it'd come up eventually." She walks to him quickly, forcing him to back up and shuffle. "I know you have no experience, and that's what's so great, you and your innocence, your purity, we can rip that from you at any given point we want and get away with it. You may think you're entitled to being so fucking pure," he bumps into a tree, now cornered by her as she put her arms against the trunk, trapping him, "but I own you. You, and your so-called purity."

     She leans in and places her face near the side of his head, putting her lips practically against his good ear. "I, however, can never be so brutal. I'm not your type, right?" He nods quickly, frozen. "Well..." She sticks out her tongue, licking the outer edges of his earlobe, along with just barley the insides as well. He shivers, using all his strength to not cringe and collapse at the new sensation of saliva against his ear. Her abuse of his ear is obvious, clearly making him focus on that sense. But why hearing? "Maybe there's someone who is your type." Her hot breath sends a shiver down his spine, all his thought to be unbreakable emotions melting as her breath heats them to a liquid. She smiles and blows out, causing him to suddenly grab the side of his head from surprise. She chuckles and backs off, letting him stare at her. "Well, I guess that's what saved by the bell means."

     With a slam from the door leading inside shuts, Kōkai quickly slows from a jog to a pause in front of the pair. The three friends stand in silence for a moment, Leider bashfully frozen against the tree. The silent air gets sliced by Kōkai's frustrated, concentrated voice. "Widow. That's enough, you've gotten him where we need him to be. It's time to back off."

     "Sweet Kōkai, I know you're the youngest here, but you just don't seem to understand. None of you do." Her legs nearly swaying as she walks, a hand reaches out and pulls Kōkai's face up. "You're so cute. You seem to think that the world can be made fair, like any of us have a choice. Leider is the perfect example of just how wrong that is, he didn't ask to be molded like an Osore, to be broken in through slightly extreme methods, and yet here he is, strings just begging for a puppet master."

     "Enough with these metaphors!" Kōkai pushes her hand away while looking up at her, standing at just over half of Widow's height. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but I promise you that whatever it is, it's misplaced. Leider is- y-you know how important he is! Why are you trying to control him? Why do you crave manipulating everyone you care about?! That care about you!" The tension in the silent air has only increased, Kōkai holding back tears. "You did it with all of us. You tried to make us yours, but we called you out on it. You even wanted to sacrifice me when we saw Ayana! Why can't you just be normal and actually fucking care about us? About me?!"

     A crisp smack reverberates from Widow's hand, flying down and leaving a mark on Kōkai's cheek. "I do what I do for all of you, not myself." She stands like a scorning mother over Kōkai before brushing past her and entering the house. With a better view, Leider watches the tears fall from the girl's face, holding the mark.