FAILURE. | rui x reader

ii.

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The boy looked down and his eyes met yours. You were stunned by his bloodshot sclera with kanji imprinted on his irises. You knew he wasn't human the second you saw his eyes, and the complexion of his face, a sickly white, resembling that, of a preserved corpse. Eternal youth kept forever in the face of a young boy, his white hair, white skin, white haori made it looked like he was a porcelain doll, one with lifeless glass eyes you once saw in the antique shop at the city center. Yet you can't help but to be lulled into wonder by his appearance, dismissing the sinister aura and the lingering smell of blood he left in his wake.

"You're not human." The sentence was blunt, forced and yet it was tinged with your fear. Dread filled you with a cold feeling, yet your desire to live still pumps in your veins, dousing your nerves into raw adrenaline, resulting in cold sweat. The boy still looked down on you, expression never changing, only leaving an impression of neutrality. His eyes imprinted on your mind, everywhere you look would resemble the red of his sclera.

"Oh? You knew already?" The voice was cold, not befitting that, of a boy. How can someone be so young yet so evil? Youth had always been a representation of purity; you did not know whether that was the case with this boy-turned-demon, because he was no human.

When a 5-year-old play a game of hide and seek, they would close their eyes using their hands, cupping the sides of their faces. They would think by doing so, they had concealed their being, their hands being their own invisible cloak. The same case why most people hid their faces when looking at something that instills fear within them. A facade sense of safety through only a few seconds of ignorance. But you are not playing a game of hide and seek, the seeker had been in front of you all the time, they found you even before the game started. Yet you still squeeze your eyes shut, you wished with all your might that the dead-lands you are in right now would vanish with no trace. You would wake up, in your bed, with the sun greeting you with its brightest rays. Or, at least, you hoped you would be invisible, the demon won't be able to see you no more. A tear escaped due to the force of the muscles in your eyes, eyelashes catching the droplets of your tears.

When you opened your eyes once more, the boy still stands, peering down on you with his blood-red eyes. Curiosity signed through the tilt of his head, as a sentence formed from his pale lips.

"Hey, I'll think about letting you go, if you answer one question." He didn't say this out of pity. He just wanted the amusement of hearing words stumble on your lips. The last words of a dying girl do sound entertaining.

You looked up to him; a chill in your spine, his eyes scares you to the depth of your fear. Stark red against the paleness of his porcelain skin. But you wanted to live. For who would cherish the kiss of death when a chance to live is right there, just a few words from yourself?

"What is family to you?" He seems to be enjoying the terror in your eyes. It was as if invisible threads, and he, the person who holds your life relishes in said emotions of the tearful maiden, beneath his feet, were pulling your emotions. Yet his expression remained neutral, though a slight smile plays on his lips, and the eyes of the devil continued to paralyze you with heavy doses of fright.

Your tongue felt heavy. What is family supposed to mean to you? As an orphan, you wouldn't know, for no one had provided you a figure you could call a parent, or a sibling. With the dryness of your parched throat, you felt hopeless. How do you know a word you never understand? How do you explain something you never even heard? You had always been a solitary being, growing up without the slightest attachments to anyone.

"Family is a... unit of which consisting a parent and child." You answered in a hoarse voice; it wasn't a pleasant sound to hear, as the deprivation of water affects your voice, added with the fear factor of death. You felt the cold air enveloping you in its mindless embrace. Puffs of air from your chapped blue lips.