Queen of the Ashes

Chapter Twelve

Narcissus pseudonarcissus:
new beginnings
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Maze snapped her eyes open as she felt Ethan squirm in her arms. He released a tiny audible moan in pain which caused her to tighten her grip around him. Ethan responded to this by muttering out low stutters, his heart beating in an alarming rate as he was clearly beyond terrified.

"Shhh" Maze tried her best to soothe him, but her shush was far from comforting as it reminded more of a hiss and did little to silence Ethan.

«W-wha...?» Ethan's voice was low, hoarse and most of all broken in despair as he came to realize that he was still alive. He whimpered lowly as he felt tears build in his eyes.

«N-no...» he moaned out and hid his face in his hands. Disappointment made him want to escape into the sheets, but confusion made him look up from his hands and around. That was when he noticed Maze fully and with all the strength he could muster tried to get free from her grasp, but Maze didn't budge. She didn't care if he was still mad, she didn't care if he hated her, she would be damned if she ever lot him go anytime soon. She knew she was fucked up- she was a demon for crying out loud! But he had tangled himself into this mess all on his own, so now he would just have to deal with the consequences. It was the perfect example of why one should not play with fire. Or flirt with a demon.

«N-no...W-why..." he kept whimpering, his mind screaming at him for being such a failure. For being so weak. He felt disgusted with himself. Why couldn't he succeed in anything? Not even killing himself? Why him? Why did he have to survive? Why couldn't life just for once just give him some slack and have mercy on him?

"L-let g-go.." He sobbed out through ragged breaths that was too shallow to sooth his burning lungs.

But Maze didn't let go, she just kept her firm grip on him as she pressed her nose into his neck. Slowly she ran it up his nape to his hairline and Ethan shivered, body coming to a stop as he finally stilled in her arms.

Her breath ghosted over his sensitive skin and he couldn't help but whimper. Maze continued to caress him, her arms pressing him further up against her until there were no space left between them - besides the thin sheet protecting the little Ethan had left of his honor.

Ethan lot out a broken sigh as he closed his bloodshot eyes. He wet his lips before he spoke, voice low and hesitant.

"w-what di-did y-you...d-do?»

Maze couldn't hold back the anger that suddenly erupted up inside her.

«What the fuck do you mean by that? What did I do? What did you fucking do?»

Her words were rough as they pierced through Ethan mercilessly. Ripple effects rose goosebumps on his pale skin and caused his form to tremble as he curled up into a little ball. She could see her words clearly weren't helping at all, but she was far too gone into her rage to take it under consideration right now. She was too hurt to care about his emotions.

"Do you have any idea what could've happened?" She knew he was already aware of some of the obvious consequences of suicide, but he was oblivious to the biggest consequences of them all: he would leave her behind. Leaving her behind to mourn and allow her to lose any and every trace of her humanity -and reality for that matter-, dive into her own darkness in search of release and get lost in the rage constantly swirling around in her body. If this happened, the results would be horrendous, and blood would be spilled.

There were rules in hell, much like the ones in the human realm, but the council of five took longer to act if a demon crossed the line on earth, because of the distance and the fact that only a few demons temporarily roomed freely there, and therefore hundreds could die before they even had time to raise a finger - or claw.