✓ DYING MOURNINGS, original

eighteen : burial

┌──────━┿──┿━──────┐

𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 : 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐋

└──────━┿──┿━──────┘

Black dots threatened my eyesight and I fought the urge to pass out as my back hit the wall behind me. I'm sure he didn't anticipate this reaction because he blinked and the demon eyes were gone and he was worried.

Worried for me, are you? Worried and concerned for your prey?

My knees were weak and I really hoped I didn't faint, because I wasn't sure what he'd do if I was unconscious. I wouldn't know if he'd kill me or just leave me there for someone else in his little group.

How I didn't recognize him, was beyond me entirely. How handsome I had thought he was, how I believed there was something deep between us made me feel absolutely mortified. Was this how it felt to die of embarrassment? To completely want to run and hide forever?

He waved his hand in front of my face, snapping a few times to try and get my attention. But I couldn't get myself to meet his eyes because I was afraid if I looked anywhere other than his chest, I'd surely lose my balance and that would be even more embarrassing.

But I couldn't stop him from forcing me to make eye contact with him, forcing me to look up as he took hold of my face. He was speaking, mouth moving but I could barely hear him over the growing static in my ears and the flashes of gray that were fighting to the surface as I heard the voices more clearly than his.

"Run! Girl, what are you doing?! Run!"

"Can't trust him, don't trust him, not yet."

"The devil! The devil is here!"

The gray vanished and I was surprised to see Crow so worried, to have him holding my face so tenderly up at his. But I couldn't forget what was at stake, what all I had learned in the past few days as I said numbly, "You killed my dad. You-you killed him."

He blinked, as if he was surprised that I had called him out like this.

So I said it again. More forcefully. "You killed my dad. You fucking murdered my dad!"

I hadn't realized I had pushed him away until he was stumbling backwards and I was rushing at him like a dog off a leash. My purse fell somewhere behind me as I swung my fists with more strength than I thought, knocking a punch to his jaw before swinging back and going for his nose.

I heard a crack and I felt something wet hit my knuckles as he grabbed onto his nose with an animalistic cry. I rounded my fist back, thrusting it forward again but it didn't get far before he grabbed my wrist, stopping me.

"It's not that simple, okay-" he started but I was shaking my head, refusing to listen any further as I shouted, "You killed my dad! You probably even had something to do with my mom, you're-you're-"

"I'm a what?" he hissed, dropping my wrist with an aggressive sneer on his face.

I didn't want to call him a monster. I didn't even want to call him an asshole, a jerk, or anything to give him any reason I cared that much.

"Why so quiet?" he smiled, wiping dark blood from his mouth and underneath his nose. "Suddenly scared to be alone with me?"

There was a slight shake to my hands that I hadn't noticed were balled up by my sides. I shook with a soft rage, threatening to overflow and attack all over again. I was vulnerable alone in the dark morgue. He knew how to lurk, to strike at the perfect moment, he was a trained killer after all. I wasn't safe here, but that didn't stop me from running my big mouth, of course.