holy

xxxv

it was so silent that you could hear the heartbeats of the demon and the angel as they slept. the sun rose without a noise, and the birds would not dare speak a word to you, even if you asked. even when brett nestled closer to eddy, you could not hear the sound of the bedsheets rustling.

as eddy woke, he found the silence far too unnerving. it reminded him of an empty house, the angel gone. it reminded him of the barren cell, brett passed out on the floor. but above all, it reminded him that brett would not be okay once he woke up.

above all, what he wanted was the angel to open his beautiful golden eyes and smile sleepily up at eddy. he wanted to hear the angel's upbeat, sweet morning voice. he wanted to kiss him until he was left breathless and pink. but he could not.

it was an hour before eddy heard the first noise of the morning. surprisingly, it was a soft sigh from the angel.

he froze in anticipation, waiting for the angel's reaction.

...there was none.

at least, nothing particularly extreme.

it seemed as if, for a moment, the last two days had been nothing but a bad dream on eddy's behalf.

brett licked his lips, smiling absentmindedly as his hand searched for eddy's under the covers. once he found it, he squeezed the demon's larger hand, his eyes still closed to the outside world.

"good morning," he whispered sweetly, his voice uncharacteristically raspy.

eddy was so entirely shocked that he did not know what to say. the only sign that the events in hell had actually happened was the weakness of brett's voice. otherwise, his actions were scarily normal.

"hey," brett repeated, squinting up at eddy, "good morning."

just a little bit dumb-struck, eddy smiled.

"good morning, angel."

and then the silence was broken, like glass shattering on impact with an unstoppable object.

brett screamed as loud as he could with his sore throat, prying himself out of eddy's arms and pushing the demon away as hard as he could. being called 'angel' sent him spiraling. for a moment, he forgot that he was on a bed instead of in a dark cell, and scrambled backwards until he fell off the edge, landing on the floor with a hard, resounding thud.

it happened all too quickly for eddy to realize. he only snapped into action when he heard an discomforting pop and a pained yelp from the angel.

by the time he made it to the floor, next to brett, there were already hot tears flowing down the short boy's face.

"angel please—"

brett attempted to crawl back and away from eddy, but was forced to stop as inexplicable pain shot down his arm.

he screamed again, grabbing his shoulder and gritting his teeth.

the demon approached him with worry written across his face.

"oh, baby, your shoulder—"

"no, no, no! get away!" the angel begged, choking on his tears, "don't touch me, don't touch me!"

"baby—" eddy whispered as if his voice were a weapon that he did not wish to yield. his arm stretched out carefully like a sword that did not wish to kill.

"go away!" brett sobbed hard, crawling back until he hit the wall and could move no longer. it was when he tried to pull open the closet door that his arm let out another sickening pop.