Chapter Thirteen
Last Requiem
The sound of his nose breaking could be heard all about the room. It's sickening crunch was followed shortly by her scream of pain and frustration. "You? You are the reason I am down here now?" she nursed her hurt wrist, having felt a nasty crack as it had collided with Dais's nose. "The reason why my.. my boyfriend of so many fucking years went nuts and plunged his fucking knife into my back? What the fuck Dais! What in the hell did I do to you?" She screamed, tears rolling down her cheeks as she tried desperately not to cry. She did not want to cry in front of him.
His voice was choked as he was trying to stop the blood now flowing from his nose with one of his hands. "Briar I.." he started only to be stopped by her once more.
"You were who he was talking to wasn't it? The one he...he sacrificed me too? How could you!" Now the tears were ceasing, being replaced by anger and pain. Her eyes became slits and she hissed at him. The venom in her voice was almost palpable. "I can not believe you! After all this time... I actually thought we were becoming friends."
Dais's heart leaped into his throat, right before it fell back into his stomach. They had been friends? He had never had one of those before. Well he had, a long time ago, but it was just a stuffed animal he had used as a child. Yet, now he knew she thought of them as friends. Well, she had until his confession moments before. Now he had lost the only living friend he had ever had. That hurt him, and it hurt him bad.
"I dib noh mean foh it ta habben, he brandisht' tha knif at me as I wa' collectin' some books. So I took 'im and played wif 'is 'ead a lille bit. Bringin' you wab 'is idea!" he pleaded with her, voice muffled. The blood was starting to stop, yet he did not even notice. Briar was the only real thing in his life and he did not want to lose that. Not now, not ever.
"You messed with his head? What the hell is your problem Dais? You don't mess with people's heads! No one knows what someone will do in that kind of situation! Thanks to you, I got stabbed and nearly died!" Briar could not control herself. She was mad that he had let her go this whole time thinking him her savior. "Adam was right, you are a beast." She spit out, hating him at that moment more than she hated Adam or anyone more into her entire life.
At that, Dais snapped. Gripping his nose between two of his claws, he snapped it back into place. The sound of the crunch echoed about the room, sickening Briar. Yet Dais did not seem to notice. He stepped toward her, growling lowly, blood on his hands, the red stark against the black of his skin. She stepped backward, scared of him for only the third time in the few months she had known him. Together they backed up one agonizing step at a time, almost as if dancers in some morbid tango for two. With a small yelp of surprise, her back hit the wall of the room, the cold cement sending a chill through her body.
" That is correct Briar Gantz. I AM a monster." His voice now clear and no longer choked with blood, he grabbed his hood. "Allow me to show you."
Unable to look away, Briar looked up as he tore the hood from his head. From where the hood had once been, skin pale as snow colored a young chiseled face. His brows were thick and oil black, and both eyes were heavily lidded. Dark circles surrounded his eyes, making it look as if he had not slept in sometime. A large bulbous nose set on his face, shading a set of full lips. A set white points poked through into his bottom lip, and after a moment she realized that they were in fact his teeth. Large and razor sharp they poked into his lip, making his smile dangerous as any sharks might be.
A head full of oily black dreadlocks hung from his scalp, making him a crown. Yet the most distinguishing feature he possessed was his eyes. Oh god his eyes were so strange. Red as the blood in her veins, they sported no pupils, leaving no black to taint the pure color of those gorgeous orbs. From the black circles surrounding his eyes, the blood red of his eyes stared at her, unblinking.
"What interests you so?" He swiveled his head around with inhuman flexibility, almost turning it on its side. "Does my countenance frighten you? It did Adam." she looked away, scared by his tone. No emotion was in those red eyes, buried somewhere deep within himself. She had once seen such a look on television. It had been one of those programs about sharks. For a moment the camera lingered on the eyes of a Great White, and she had never been able to forget the way those eyes looked. Yet now she was once more faced with those eyes, only inches from her face.
Leaning close to her, he whispered something into her ear.
"Did your mother never tell you the story of Little Red Riding Hood?" his voice was husky, almost a purr. "Never trust a monster." His lips lingered near her ear, so close she could feel his hot breath bursting over her skin.
After a moment more, he flung himself away and took to staring at the wall opposite where she stood.
"Now, if you do not want to wake up one morning and find I have eaten your heart, I suggest you leave." he waved her off with one hand. "I've grown tired of your presence anyway."
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Briar did not move from her spot behind him. For the longest time she just stared at his back. Dais twitched nervously, waiting for her to leave. When she did not, he finally let his temper snap.
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE! NOW!" he roared at the top of his voice. The sound echoed through the cement room, magnifying into an unidentifiable primal scream. A sharp glare met his outburst and she stood her ground. No man was going to intimidate her.
"Fuck you." She snarled, striding through the curtains into the sewer beyond.
Tears were once again forming on her face as she turned corner after corner. The pipes were like a maze, and she had no real idea of where she was going. Finally she found herself at a drain that lead to the street, the light from the street lamps shone down through the grate above. There she sat down, wiping at the few tears that had begun to fall from her eyes. Briar could not believe she had let herself be so naive! Of course he was the cause of me being down here! I mean this whole time I thought we were becoming friends, and he was just nursing a guilty conscious.
Wiping her eyes, she stood up, and unhooked the grate. "Bastard." She climbed out onto the street, coming up into the outside world for the first time in months. What she noticed first was the smell of cheap booze and old piss assaulting her nose. Next was the three pairs of old beaten up sneakers that spoke to her from above.
"What do we have here?"