He was almost there, and he was beginning to feel it. The dark woods, trees stretching high above him in the dim sky, surrounded him as he stumbled through. His eyes looked through everything around him, blankly gazing half lidded ahead of him.
The pulse was strong now, he could feel it in his whole body. His lungs seemed to require more air, and he breathed heavier. It was the type of breathing that almost hurt it was so strained. And he wasn’t even there yet. Heh.
He could see it then, a dark looming stature, like a medival ogre’s castle, the boughs curving and winding up, no true form to it. A dark aura surrounded it, the dark mist vibrating off of every twisting bow, seeming like a giant shadow amidst the quiet woods.
His hand resting against a tree to support himself, he had his other hand to his chest, his breathing steady yet increasingly heavy. His heart....it hurt so much... With a soft wince, he pulled himself away from the tree and started towards his region.
There was no entrance, or no specific entrance at least. Just open areas to enter into. As soon as he stepped in, the black enegry closed in around him, surrounding his thin body, closing up his throat and his lungs. He couldn’t breath. It was a frightening realization, to be cut off directly from your source of air, and the hand on his chest clutched the thin material of his shirt tighter, trying desperately to suck in whatever air he could, panickedly, frantically. All at once, along with the inability to breath, his whole body felt paralyzed, and he fell down onto his knees, still gasping for air. A cry of pain escaped him, the blackness winding around him, wrapping him in it’s energy, attempting to take the very life out of him. He wanted to cry out to his region, to the hate and anger and pain that swelled around him that he was one of them, that they leave him be, but he knew he wasn’t. His human body recognized all this as something horrible, something bad, something that could kill him. And it could.
Maybe I can just die. Then Grey won’t have to worry about it. Then Aza won’t have to worry about it. Let the darkness take me down, that would be the way to go. His whole body is a state of painful shock, he fell forward onto his face, lying on his stomach, his eyes closing. The floor vibrated with energy, taking him in more, wrapping it’s dark arms around him.
A tear slipped down his cheek. A tear. He’d never cried before....even at the worst times in his life. During the rape, he hadn’t been able to shed a single tear as much as he sobbed and screamed and pleaded. Nothing. Perhaps that’s what Grey had been trying to give him. Another chance to cry at being raped, since he hadn’t been able to the first time. And, as he had the first time, he’d called for help. He /asked/ for help. And, just as it had happened the first time, no one had come. He remembered being stared at...just being stared at.... His memories flashed in his brain.
/”M-master.....onegai....”/
He stared at his master, his young demon eyes huge, terrified, petrified, as the man hovered above him, staring down at his young, naked body. He felt so exposed. He hated that feeling. He hated the way he was being looked at. He hated being held down. He hated not knowing what the man was going to do to him. What...what did he want?? Somehow...he knew it would be bad.
/”Master......onegai, tasukette!!”/ his young voice yelped, trying against to jerk away from the man. Of course, he didn’t, being small and weak compared to the huge hulk of a man who hastily was undoing his trousers.
Araizo turned his head, slowly, a blank expression on his face. He saw the boy, and the boy saw him. Their eyes locked, Araizo continued to gaze upon the boy as the man proceeded to rape him, the boy’s screams and sobs filling the air of the noisy room.
/”MASTER!!!”/ the pained shriek ripped through the air, followed by another sob. Araizo watched the scene a bit more, his face expressionless and calm, then turned back to the men he had been talking to.
The man was done with him. He left him on the table, a long trail of blood flowing from him, his whole body limp and filled with an immense pain, more than he could comprehend. Master....his master....
Suddenly, another man grabbed him. This man, trousers already undone and fallen, roughly turned him over, forcing him down onto his stomach agains the table, and as much as he tried to struggle, he was weak, and weakened by his pain more so now. It happened again. Master...
And again. And again. And again. It seemed as soon as one man was finished with him, another would be ready for his turn. They seemed to be all around him. His mind so blotted in the pain, he could feel his consiousness slipping.
/”Tryin’ ta pass out on us?”/ one man snapped angrily, swinging his sake bottle and smashing it against the boy’s head. It shattered, more pain shooting through his body. M-master.....
again, his eyes searched for the old mazoku. And, as if coming to his command, Araizo was standing above him, shoving the former man away. His eyes stared down, and a relief filled the boy. It was a heavenly feeling, like being woken up very early in the morning, and finding out you can go back to sleep, or thinking everyone forgot your birthday and suddenly being surprised by all your friends and loved ones by a party, or having the worst day imaginable and coming home to your lover, ready to hold you in their arms. He was here, and he was going to kill all these men. He was going to get rid of them, and they would drink in their pain, and life would go on.
The memory ended. A deep sob ripped from his throat, fallen onto the region floor, tears streaming down his face. And just last night...
“Aza...”
“What?”
“Aza...”
“No....”
“Aza....”
“No, it’s me..”
“I....need....”
Hating himself, his life, and everyone else who’d ever lived, he felt his consiousness fading. The blackness wrapped him in it’s dark embrace, taking him down, and he passed out, his lungs taking in no more air.
From the shadows, a thin figure peeked out, no bigger than a foot tall. Another peered out. They then seemed to morph from the shadows, tiny demons with thin black bodies and long, graceful feathered wings, dancing gayly over to their new victim.
“Another....”
“......He has fallen to us...”
“Has he fallen......”
“To us...”
“.......We shall take him...”
“..He shall be ours.....”
“.....Another....”
“Let him be our groom.....”
“Take him....”
“Another...”
Their voices, not even barely voices, echoed, whispered, winded around the twisting arches and formations of the region. They danced on his body, touched his shining golden hair, kissed his pale, soft cheeks and pink lips, brushed their wing tips over his large hands.
Whispering excitedly more to each other, they lifted his body, carrying him off, claiming him as their own. The disappeared into the shadows with them.