Demon: Others' Sins (Ch. 4)

The Dead Masters - Demon: Others' Sins

“You still blame me for that?”

The merciless cold of that winter night was chilling to the bone, even to the pedestrian with layers of clothes on. However, on the rooftop of the Fieldwork building, a skyscraper of three hundred floors, the black-winged man stood, his upper body bare. The snow was falling, almost like a blizzard, but not even one drop of snowflake could touch his pale white skin.

“It’s not about who is at fault. Everything had happened, and I will follow your ‘game’, for that is the only solution. But don’t get so high and mighty; the stronger between us is yet to be decided.” 

The black-winged man lectured the old man, fist clenched as if to ready himself against everything up the old man’s sleeve. But he released it when the old man laughed, tapping his shoulder plate. Nobody had ever seen a demon acting so friendly towards another; but that’s perhaps because of the confidence. 

“Man, I’ll be waiting for that,” the old demon answered as they both let their sight focused on a certain muscular person walking along the bridge all alone in the night. The person was turning his head, scanning and observing the surrounding as if it were to be a battleground. A demon’s superior sight could see clearly even a twitch of muscle in the person’s face, even from some rooftop of a skyscrapers, approximately one and a half kilometers from the bridge. And the two demons kept staring at the person, as if he was of great importance, silently until the person took steps away from the bridge and into the Parliament’s district area. Then the black-winged man interrupted their taciturnity. 

“Do you really think another two ‘players’ are required? Is he that powerful of a contractor?”

“Whoo, little demon has something to be afraid of,” the old man pulled out a joke, but was replied by a silence, the importance of the matter emphasized. “Well, the thing is he is already at his maximum potential even before I met that Durge. If he do find Durge or any other contractor, he may be able to slay them even before the game become interesting,” was the old demon’s long explanation. Then there was a sudden, unexpected telepath link between them, then they both understood what to do. While the old demon simply disappear as if turned into dust, the black-winged man jumped high before gliding into an unknown region. 

None of them knew that the Durge they were talking about was somewhere around there, wandering around under the moon, the chilling touch bothered him no more. He was confused, frightened, and appalled, to be in such a complex situation, and he decided to calm himself first for a while. The fighting he had been in and witnessed was more than insane; everyone in this ‘game’, or so the monster said, was more than ready to kill each other. Again, he reminded himself to take his mind off of everything about it, and that was why he was there – on the way to shop. 

“Oh, it’s you. Haven’t seen you in a while..” was the warm welcome he received from the cashier, as Durge stepped into the half-lit store that was actually closing. He spent mostly his time here; he worked here, since he lived alone for the time being. Of course his parents wanted him to be independent if he could, and he did so; living alone in a small apartment room he had been saving his money for, paying school fees with his own hard work and lat nights in that very store. It was everybody’s expectations, and so he followed it. Not that it was unusual.

“Yeah, but I came today as a costumer.”

“Only today? But only 4 minutes of it remains.”

A simple smile to end the usual, midnight workers’ joke of time. Then Durge went ahead to pick everything necessary: shampoo, soap, a packet of red meat, some kilograms of apples, and detergent. When he went ahead to the darker side of the store, he caught some suspicious, slow movement of an object he couldn’t seem to figure out, so he instinctively tried to reach the switch. How disappointed he was when he found his weird classmate ridiculously scanning every nook and cranny in the store and act as if to purify everything with the dark green crystal shaped like a cross inside a circle.

“You’re here again, huh?” Durge sighed as he went over to take two bottles of fresh chocolate milk placed far around the corner, walking calmly although nothing especially awkward was happening. The scarlet-haired girl continued to chant something he could not recognize, and she did it surprisingly seriously. Done with his goods, he went on to observe his occult-addicted friend. At least, that was what others called her. 

“The demonic impurities were even stronger,” was the only remark the girl gave while performing her ‘ritual’, upon realizing that Durge was staring at her. After she seemed to have finished her ritual, she went around to check again, only to become curious upon detecting Durge’s body with the crystal. She saw through the crystal, and as if using a magnifier, carefully observed him from head to toe. Durge himself was taken aback. ‘What if she is an occult expert and detected my contact with demon?’ He asked himself. 

“What is it, Scarlett?” He protested as he slowly took a step back awkwardly, that was followed by her taking one step closer. He tried to distract himself from overestimating her passion for occult, and what actually distract him was the crystal. It was shining, not really brightly but a bit more shiny. The shine of green that seemed as if resonating with his attention, his gaze. Without him noticing, the red circle began to form in his pupils, however it was dim and blurred; Scarlett only saw his eyes becoming red as if he had a long, tiring day.

“Did something happen between you and Valentine?” was her question after she had completed her ‘ritual’. The circle in his pupils faded as Durge regained his sense; it was as if he was not there for a moment, and then suddenly he was brought back. He was silent for a moment, and only realized there was a question thrown at him when Scarlett repeated it. “Hey, did something happen between you two? I saw Valentine running away from the class this afternoon.”

“Oh, ah, nothing, I guess..” Durge answered vaguely, but that did not satisfy her. Through her oval lenses, she stared at him, digging for an answer that may be hidden in his eyes. Eyes don’t lie. He could only avoid her look, for he himself was afraid that he could expose any truth simply by looking back at her. He looked at the stack of packaged red meat, then a little mice coming out of its hole and nimbly dashed away from sight, then the weak street light illuminating the winter night, and then a muscular man entering the store, every attempt to distract himself until she decided to let it go. “Then go to bed early. Don’t be late like this morning.”

“Yesterday morning, you mean?” Durge joked as he quickly glanced to the clock. And his words were true; it was ten past twelve in the midnight. She smiled at the joke, which was responded by a fake, awkward smile, before she turned and simply walked away from him, through the glass door and away from the store. He then slowly shuffled to the cashier, both of them still looking at her figure shrouded in thick fog. 

“Isn’t it about time you close the store?”

“Isn’t it about time you confess to her?”

“Hey!” Durge protested, but a pat on his back was what the he received. “Serious, man. I mean, she’s a good face, a smart brain, although her occultism is a bit too much.” He explained as her figure diminished within the snowfall. What were told to him were true, and Durge acknowledge it, but she was not of his love interest. Love had never actually interest him; his father told him so. If he were a normal guy, he would have considered the idea. Not that he did not at that very moment.

No, he told himself. Don’t let such thing interfere. He had once loved a person; a girl with nobility. A person, dead and replaced, and even after her death, the next day was not unusual. Ah, but that was the past. That was the very thing he wanted to prevent, but in the meantime, it was not the most important.

“Well, I’ll leave the store to you. There’s only that guy and once he’s out, you can go home. See ya!” the cashier mumbled as he quickly made his way out, as if afraid. 

That's how he usually ended up - alone in the store, waiting for a seemingly long silence. The last person of the day - no, the first - only bought grooming tools such as hair dryer, soap and shampoo, a small towel an more as such, and it left Durge wondering how such things could be an emergency need that the person had to buy it in the middle of the night. Or he might be nocturnal.

Wait! Now that he thought about it, all of them are goods which you purchase if you moved to a new place, and it seemed he was going to live alone, Durge thought. Well, Durge had been living alone for a while, and it just occurred to him that such things were meant for a lone wolf.

Why would such thing matters?

Durge wondered as he quickly dealt with the goods. Durge knew himself as a focused person; never before was he been deep in thought about trivial things, for a lost of focus would result in inefficiency of work. As Durge was about to hand the goods to the man, a sudden, unanticipated eye contact made the two of them aware of what both truly were.

Durge's reaction was to duck, taking cover of the cashier table, and roll out of the cashier area, for the place would not allow such action to take place. When a full forward roll was performed, he continued by jumping sideways, turning mid-air, and pointing the spear already materialized to the person's neck, creating a checkmate situation. "It's not that I came out unprepared," Durge thought to himself.

To his surprise, the man already put his hand in the air, freezing as if countless guns are pointing towards him. The goods was scattered on the floor, some fragile ones broken. This betrayed Durge's expectation; he thought he had anticipated an attack and performed a good counterattack. This man didn't even materialize his weapon. Fear was reflected in his red-tainted eyes, sweat rolling down his nape. If Durge had intended to, he could kill this defenseless man anytime.

"Can you hear me out for a moment?"