The padded walls of the recovery room were driving Damien mad.
He was alone for the first time in weeks. The drugs the doctors gave him were wearing off. An intense anger and mental pain replaced the tiredness. Everyone in Kuromori town, including the people who knew him as a child before all that evil shit started, knew the torture and abuse he endured. They knew, yet they did nothing. They let him suffer, let the other children Kenta used as meal tickets suffer and die. He couldn't let them get away with it.
"So, what are you gonna do?"
Damien glanced over at the speaker, the demon who had watched over him all his life, Karuki. He crouched next to him, staring at him intently. He hadn't changed at all since he last saw him four years ago. His spiky purple hair and bandaged arms were exactly as he remembered.
"What are you talking about?" Damien asked him with a scowl.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I heard what that little holy bitch said. I would have intervened, but it seemed like you had it under control."
"You didn't intervene the last time she attacked me, either."
"It worked out for the best, didn't it? Your little cat boyfriend found you and fixed you up." Karuki shrugged. He looked far too relaxed for Damien's liking. "Just answer my question. What are you going to do about this?"
"What can I do?" Damien huffed. "I'm stuck in here whether I like it or not."
"Then break out." Karuki grinned. "Get your revenge on the world."
A weak glare was sent his way. Karuki rolled his eyes.
"You've gotta do something." He said. "They all left you to be abused and, as far as they knew, killed."
Damien continued to glare, then averted his eyes. "I don't want revenge. I want..." He trailed off, squinting his eyes.
"What? What do you want?" Karuki persisted. "Tell me what you want. How do you want to fix this?"
"Stop fucking nagging! I don't know!" Damien sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. "I don't know what I want to do right now, but I don't want anyone else getting hurt."
Karuki scoffed. "So you're just gonna let them get away with it? They used and abused you, rented you out to strangers for profit. They caused the death of the boy you loved and every other goddamn child they kept locked up like cattle. None of them would have died if those selfish bastards had the heart to help you." He shook his head. He stared at Damien with determined eyes. "You have to make them pay for that. Make the world pay."
Damien didn't look at him, but he registered what he said. Maybe he was right. They abandoned him and left him and the others to die in a dark, dirty room with nothing but one mattress to sleep on if they were lucky. Every hour, he would have to sleep with a stranger, men who were at least twenty years older than him. He had never felt so dirty, so degraded and disgusting. He went months without showering back then, and not by choice like most children. Now, he had to have two showers a day and brushed his teeth as much as he could. But he still felt unclean. He still felt repulsive and debauched.
All he wanted was to feel pure again.
"Yeah, I should." Damien whispered. "But I can't get out of here. I can't exactly check myself out after being sectioned."
"We can get out easily." Karuki's grin became manic. "You have special abilities that no human can compete with."
Giving Karuki a nod, Damien decided. He was going to escape and get his own back on society. He could do this. He wanted to do this. No more looking at piss yellow painted walls, no more padded cells. All he needed was a concrete plan.
As if his prayers were answered, the door to the room opened. Karuki disappeared as soon as the nurse entered.
"Are you all right, Aoi?" She asked with a gentle smile. "Sorry we had to leave you alone for so long. We're having a bit of an incident with patients. They all seem to believe that the world is about to end." She sighed in exhaustion. The cheerful look came back to her face. "How are you coping?"
As the nurse spoke, Damien could hear Karuki in his head, shouting "kill her". Damien shook his head rapidly to block him out.
The nurse seemed concerned by this. "Are you OK?" She asked with a confused frown.
Fuck the plan. He was going to wing it.
Damien leapt to his feet, ran to the door and shoved past the nurse. He was never going to kill her, no matter how much Karuki pestered. The demon seemed to read his mind, as he appeared floating above as Damien ran down the hallway.
"Should have killed her, man." Karuki said with a bored look. "She's a witness. The police'll come."
"I'm not killing her, or anyone else." Damien yelled back.
"They'll all be dead soon. You want revenge, don't you?" Karuki flipped upside-down as he hovered in the air. He must have thought this was amusing. "That involves killing the ones who betrayed you. She'll just be part of the tally."
"Shut up!" Damien swatted the air where Karuki was, and he disappeared again.
He raced for the exit, trying to remember where exactly it was. There were so many hallways, so many doors to confuse him. He just kept running.
The nurse must have alerted security. Two huge men appeared in front of him, blocking the way. Damien spat spider webs at them. The gloopy substance hit them straight in the eyes. As they struggled to get it off, he jumped up, grabbed their heads and threw them to the floor behind him as he hopped over them.
His end goal was in sight. He had entered the reception area. Nurses and doctors watched him in shock as he burst through the doors. Patients were cheering him on, but they probably didn't understand what exactly was going on. Damien felt a sick guilt in his stomach. If everything went to plan, they would all be dead in a matter of hours.
Just as he reached the doors, two more security guards jumped in front of him and tried to grab him. Without stopping, he ducked and slid under one's legs. He smashed the glass door with a ball of shadow and rushed through it.
He had done it. He was free.
He raced down the street without even looking back. He had no idea where he was going. Karuki came back, floating above him once more with a grin on his face.
"Well done, man! Should have killed them, though."
"Yeah, whatever." Damien kept running as he spoke. "Where am I supposed to go now?"
"Just keep running." Karuki turned to look ahead of them. "I'll tell you where to go. I'll be your satnav."
☽☾
After travelling for at least an hour, Karuki finally told Damien to stop.
"We're here."
"Here" wasn't exactly what Damien had expected. It was a deserted town, nothing but debris and devastation. The grass was gone and the soil had the consistency of sand. Damaged buildings scattered about, making the place look like a demolition site.
"Why are we here?" Damien asked, shielding his eyes from the aggressive sun.
Karuki didn't tell him. His feet touched the ground and he began walking. "Come with me."
A confused frown graced Damien's face, but he followed anyway. They walked in silence for a while until they came to a wide black building - also semi-destroyed - with a barbed wire fence surrounding it. This didn't deter him. Karuki forced the gate open and sauntered inside. Damien thought that this may not be such a good idea, but he went after him.
"Where are we?" Damien asked as they walked over to the building.
"Akayuri." Karuki said. He looked calmer than Damien had ever seen him. "One of the places that the nuclear bombs hit during the war. Do you know the story?"
"Of course not. It was over forty years ago."
"Seriously?" Karuki's eyes widened. "Didn't you ever learn about in in class?"
"I didn't go to school, remember? I'm lucky I can read." Damien scowled, then whacked Karuki when he laughed.
"Well, basically, the president of the USA, Jacob Wright, ordered his military to fire off bombs to every country in the world, in case they were harbouring you. Then the countries who were attacked sent bombs back to them, and each other. So then, World War III ensues." Karuki sighed in disgust. "The humans were so afraid of you being born that they turned on each other. Their paranoia destroyed them before you even came into this world." He turned to Damien and smiled. "Ironic, isn't it? Their own fear was their undoing.
"The people living here didn't stand a chance. Most were wiped out instantly, others died later on due to the effects of the radiation." Karuki tapped the building. "This place was where they stored nuclear bombs. That's why it was hit, to cause as much devastation as possible."
All because of me, Damien thought. He lowered his head. The war wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for him. If he hadn't been born, if he hadn't existed, all these people would still be alive. They were so afraid of him that they destroyed one another. They didn't care. They didn't view each other as allies. They turned on each other on the off-chance of killing him along with everyone else near where the bombs hit. The shame he felt because of that was immense.
Karuki must have noticed his low mood. He smiled and ruffled Damien's hair. "Don't feel so bad. It wasn't your fault. It was merely human paranoia. People are always afraid of what they don't understand."
It didn't make the guilt go away, but Damien appreciated it. "Thanks." He said with a small smile.
They made their way into the building. The sight of about 20 nuclear bombs shocked Damien. He felt his blood run cold. Was this what Karuki meant when he said "revenge"?
"Why are we here?" Damien asked again.
Karuki grinned at him and spread his arms. "Why else would we be here? Payback." He let out a content sigh and turned to the bombs.
"We're gonna detonate the bombs, Aoi. Blow this planet to kingdom come."