It had now been a week since Kitty started living here.
The first night was stressful. Kitty didn't realise that he would be sleeping in the same bed as Damien. This would not do at all. It wasn't that he was ungrateful – he was extremely thankful – but he didn't think it was right. His father always warned him about getting into bed with strangers. Even though he had become close to Damien, he was still a stranger. What would his father say if he found out? He'd have a heart attack.
Luckily, Damien sensed his concern. He smiled and offered Kitty the bed to himself. He wouldn't mind sleeping on the floor if it made him feel more comfortable. Kitty declined. It wasn't fair kicking Damien out of his own bed. But Damien insisted he didn't mind. Kitty agreed and thanked him. They settled down to go to sleep. Damien was just as handsome without all his make-up on. For some reason, he kept his eyepatch on and wore black cotton gloves to replace the long red ones he usually had on. It puzzled Kitty, but he didn't ask him in case it was a touchy subject.
Despite Damien's courtesy, Kitty still couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the horrors he experienced in the refuge camp. Corpses covered in blood and bullet holes. Brains smeared on the floor from where people were shot in the head. Young hybrids, even children, taken alive and put into sacks. He imagined the death of his family, a morbid "what if" movie playing in his head. After an hour of trying to sleep, he gave up. He sat up in the bed and stared at his hands. There were still marks on his wrists from the handcuffs. He imagined them slashed and bleeding. He felt strangely comforted by this. He wanted to see it for himself, to make himself bleed. Maybe if he hurt himself, it would take away the pain in his heart. Damien's voice interrupted him from these dark thoughts.
"Can't sleep?"
Kitty glanced over at him. He was laying on the floor, head rested on his hand, staring up at Kitty with a concerned face.
"No." Kitty replied. "I just don't feel tired right now."
An icy blue eye studied him for a second. Then Damien nodded and sat up. He was silent for a moment before saying, "If you want to talk about what you've been through, I'll gladly listen."
Unable to hold back any longer, Kitty began to cry. All his worries and trauma came pouring out. Damien listened to his warbling with patience and sympathy. After he had gotten it off his chest, he felt a bit better. His heart didn't feel as heavy as it did before.
Damien gave him a reassuring smile. "Your worries are valid. Of course you'd be scared and traumatised by what you've seen. Even a trained soldier would." He pursed his lips. "I'm not going to tell you that they'll come back alive, because I don't know if they will. I don't want to give you false hope." He smiled. "But I will tell you one thing: things will get better. It may not seem like it will right now, and you may have a lot more stress in the future. But if you carry on and hold your head high, you'll get through this. Trust me."
Kitty's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He never expected him, or anyone, to say that. All this time, all he had been hearing was "everything will be OK, your family will come home". He was grateful that they were reassuring him, but it felt empty, like they were only saying it to stop his worry. Damien was being honest with him, and he appreciated that. For some reason, what he said made him feel better. It gave him hope that even if the worst happened, he could be strong and make it through. He had long suspected that they may be dead, but he didn't want to admit it. He even made a silent pact with himself that if they didn't come back alive, he would kill himself. But with one speech, Damien changed that. Kitty nodded and smiled, tears in his eyes. He thanked Damien for being there for him. They stayed up all night, talking about silly little things. The fear in Kitty's heart was slowly easing off.
☽☾
Damien had suggested that going for a walk might help clear Kitty's mind and keep his spirits up. So, today, that was what they were doing.
It was a slow walk around the town - Kuromori, named so because of the large, dark wooded area that surrounded it. Kuromori was small, with a population of around 8,000 people. Traditional buildings dotted the landscape, as well as a few more modern ones, like the local supermarket and airport. There was even an ice cream shop, which delighted Kitty. They stopped off there to get some. Kitty bought two cones of different flavoured ice cream, but Damien didn't have anything. When Kitty asked why, he gave him a nervous look, then smiled and said he was on a diet. Why would he need to go on a diet when he was so slim? Kitty shrugged and decided to drop the issue.
After he had eaten his ice creams, they left. They strolled through the rest of the shops and one in particular caught Kitty's eye. It was traditional, like the others, but it had creepy decorations. The sign at the top of the building was in Japanese, so Kitty didn't understand it, but he was still intrigued. He asked Damien what it said, and Damien told him it was an alternate clothing and piercing shop. This was where he bought his clothes and had his piercings done. Kitty stared up at the shop in awe. A girl in the refuge camp had a nose piercing, and Kitty always wanted one for himself. But his father wouldn't allow it. He said it was dangerous, and that it would have gotten infected as soon as he'd had it done. Kitty understood his reasoning. Sand surrounded the camp. It might have gotten into the hole where the piercing was and made it go gross. But things were different here. The wretched sand was gone.
Damien must have noticed his interest. He smiled and asked if he wanted to get one. Kitty nodded, but said that the potential pain it would cause scared him. Damien offered to hold his hand. Kitty agreed to get his bellybutton pierced. The inside of the shop was exactly like the outside. The walls were dark purple and the floor was pitch black. There were posters of people posing in outfits like Damien's. Kitty learned the style was called visual kei. He'd never even heard of that back in America, but Damien said it was popular in Japan. Kitty actually quite liked it. The men were gorgeous. They looked like girls, some actually wearing dresses, but they weren't ridiculed here. It made him feel less ashamed of his own femininity.
They went into the piercing department. The smell of chemicals hit his nose. As Kitty inspected the place with interest, Damien spoke to the piercer in Japanese. She smiled and nodded, then instructed Kitty, in English, to sit in the black chair in the middle of the room. The sudden language change surprised him. Damien told him he knew the piercer pretty well. He was explaining to her that Kitty could only speak English. He asked her if she could use it around him to make him feel more at ease. She gladly agreed. She asked him where he wanted it and he told her. She instructed him to lift up his shirt to reveal his stomach. She took out an antiseptic wipe and cleaned around Kitty's bellybutton. It wasn't dirty, but he probably had unseen germs and bacteria on his skin. It was a necessary precaution. Then she sprayed it with some clear liquid out of a bottle. Kitty almost jumped out of his skin. It was so cold. She marked his bellybutton with a small pen. He assumed that's where the piercing would go.
When the piercer took a long needle out of the packet, Kitty's blood ran cold. He knew it would involve needles, but it still made him nervous. As he'd promised, Damien held his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Kitty shut his eyes tight and waited for the pain.
But it never came. He opened his eyes again to see the needle in his bellybutton and the lady threading the piercing through it. Kitty blinked in confusion. It didn't hurt one bit. He turned to Damien and was about to ask why when he saw his smile. Damien told him he asked the piercer to numb it so it wouldn't hurt. That's what the spray was. It astonished Kitty how lovely Damien was being. He once again thanked him. Damien also encouraged him to buy some clothes. He only had one outfit, the magenta shorts, football t-shirt and tattered old shoes he came here in. He had been wearing them for days, washing them every night and putting them back on the next day. He was overjoyed. He bought a ton of cute-looking clothes, the ones Damien described as oshare kei. Damien payed quite a lot, which made Kitty feel bad but Damien insisted he didn't mind. He said he was happy to buy nice things for such a cute guy. This made Kitty blush. Once outside, Damien instructed Kitty on how to take care of a fresh piercing. This impressed Kitty. He must have been an expert on piercings.
☽☾
Their little journey took them to the more natural areas of Kuromori, where the temples were. One in particular stood out to Kitty.
A large, modern structure made of gold with a white cross embedded onto the roof. The sun glistened off it, making it look majestic. Surrounding it were several statues of what seemed to be a young girl with long hair wearing a nightdress. Kitty stopped walking and stared up at it, transfixed.
"What's that pretty building for?" Kitty asked, pointing up at it.
Damien glanced up at it. "It's a place of worship. A temple." He said with cold eyes. "For the members of the Order of the Holy God."
"Oh." Kitty stared up in wonder. He had no idea what this was. Living his life in isolation in the middle of nowhere meant he wasn't up to date with the affairs of the world. He knew that God and Satan existed, and they had children, but he had never seen any of them. He had heard that God was a scary man who made the inhabitants of Earth suffer for his own amusement. Everyone was afraid of him, but they feared that Satan would be worse. To them, God was the lesser evil. But after his encounter with Nyuujaku, Kitty wasn't so sure this was true.
He turned his head to face Damien and noticed him glaring up at the temple. The look in his eyes was one of abhorrence. Kitty raised an eyebrow. Why was he so angry at a building?
"Do you not like the temple?"
Damien bit his lip, eyes trained on the building. "It's not the temple itself. It's the meaning of it." He put his hands in his pockets. "I don't approve of God or his children, particularly the Holy Tyrant."
"Who's that?"
"Her Holy Highness, Dana." Damien's nose wrinckled in contempt when he said her name. Then he chuckled to himself and turned to Kitty with a silly smile. "Don't tell her I said that, though. She'd literally kill me."
"Really?" Kitty's trembled. "She sounds scary! Who is she?"
A look of absolute shock appeared on Damien's face. "You don't know who Dana is? For real?"
"No. Should I?"
"Absolutely!" Damien replied in disbelief. "She's the daughter of God, the next in line to rule Earth – well, she's the de-facto leader. She's not in charge yet, but she still has immense power."
"She's gonna rule Earth?" Kitty exclaimed. "But she sounds evil! Someone should stop her!"
"Someone is." Damien muttered. "That's what Nyuujaku's doing. He's the reason she can't fully come to power yet."
The memory of Nyuujaku popped up in Kitty's mind. He didn't kill him back then, even though he easily could have. All his life, he'd heard of Nyuujaku being a violent menace who slaughtered the innocent as well as the guilty. But he'd saved him from the hybrid traffickers, and Richard knew him, so he couldn't have been a bad guy.
Damien put his head down, glaring at the ground. He began walking off, politely beckoning Kitty to follow. Kitty took one last look at the temple and shuffled after him.
☽☾
They continued their walk, moving back to the shopping district of the town. There weren't many people around, but Kitty felt like they were being stared at. He looked at the faces of some of them and saw fear in their eyes. He frowned to himself. Why were they scared? He glanced at Damien, but his face was blank. Were they frightened of him? Kitty shook his head. No, they couldn't be. He was such a lovely person. He'd never do anyone harm. Well, that's what Kitty thought. He'd only just met him, so he didn't know for sure.
Kitty was becoming tired, so he and Damien were about to head home when Kitty heard a man shouting over to them.
"Hey, your hybrid should be on a lead!" He yelled. "It's against the law to let them just go-"
He stopped dead when Damien looked over at him. He went deathly pale and started trembling.
"Oh God, it's you." He backed off. "Look, I'm sorry, OK? I didn't know it was you!"
The glare Damien gave him was more of frustration than fury. "It's fine." He muttered.
"Thank you. Thank you so mu-"
"Just fuck off!" Damien shouted. "I've never done anything to you! Why do you treat me like a fucking-" His head snapped around to look at Kitty with a face filled with anxiety.
Kitty had nearly jumped out of his skin when Damien starting yelling. He'd never expected anything like that from him. Why was he so angry?
By now, the man had ran off. Damien put his head down. He was embarrassed by his outburst. He refused to look at him, head lowered in shame. Kitty wanted to know what the hell just happened. Why was everyone afraid of him? What had he done?
Who was he really?
"Why-" Kitty began, then stopped. He thought about what he was going to say for a second. "What was that about? Everyone stares at you like you're dangerous, and they get scared when you're around." He stared at Damien's face. "Did you do anything to them?"
They finally made eye contact after what felt like hours. The pain and guilt on Damien's face made Kitty's heart ache. Damien stood up straight and rubbed his neck, averting his eyes again.
"I'll tell you why. But please," Damien chewed on his lip again. His eyes met Kitty's again. "Please don't think I'm evil."
"I-I won't." Kitty was starting to become nervous. "Just tell me. Please."
Damien sighed. "Once, I kind of..." He paused and took a deep breath.
Kitty waited for his answer with bated breath. This time, Damien maintained eye contact as he spoke.
"I've killed people before."