Ferrin's gaze slowly turned pungent, causing Ano to feel as if many small things had started latching onto her.
As her eyes darted left and right, her sight fell upon Ferrin before his figure quickly got drowned in the monkeys surrounding him.
'Something is very funny... huh? Tell me... what do you find so funny? I want to... smile as well!' Ferrin took a step towards Ano's direction, her figure long lost in the monkeys but he still couldn't find the light to see that he could die at any moment along with Aria.
Even the latter felt suffocated to say anything, she still couldn't understand if he was her son or what? He sometimes did things her son would do and then sometimes... this pungent scent would ooze off him as if he was some kind of blood-thirsty monster.
As he took one step forward, his eyes still fixated on the imaginary Ano and her ever so relieved smile, something started feeling cold within his gut.
His vision blurred, like a car's windscreen getting covered in fog, before coming back into the reality he had momentarily forgone. 'Pain...' His head moved down, falling upon Aria, '...No, lower.' He moved aside Aria's body, revealing a small gap from where he could clearly see five wretched claws piercing through him, still drenched in warm blood. 'Pain! From... behind!'
He turned his head around, coming face to face with a devil like smile etched atop a being no different from him, 'Everyone seems to be smiling... but what's so funny? I want to laugh as well! So tell me... what's so funny?'
Aria's eyes peered through the gap Ferrin had created by lifting her a little further away, 'Claws? Blood? Wha_ Whose?' Her eyes moved above, glancing at Ferrin's unfazed face, "Fe...rrin?"
"Hey, monkey! What's so funny?" Ferrin growled in his monkey tone, causing the monkey to pull out its claws and move back with eyes slowing morphing into confusion from its previous ecstasy.
"Keke?" The monkey moved even further back, its eyes peering straight inside Ferrin's. Its heart rate started shooting higher and higher, unbeknownst to it, its pores started secreting sweat at an extreme rate as if responding to the horror drenching it from head to toe.
"I asked, what's so funny?" Ferrin turned around, his tail rising higher and higher, his eyes morphing into thin slits of that of a beast.
"Wh-What?" The monkey moved a step back, its claws slowly digging out from behind its flesh. Gulping its fear, it took a gutsy step forward, baring its fangs, "KEEE!"
"That is not... what I am asking."
The seven feet tall whooshed through air, piercing through everything and landing with a crisp pa upon the monkey's face. Sending it stumbling backwards.
Some kind of strange soothingly warm energy flowed through Ferrin's body, repairing his wounds albeit a tiny bit.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The whole world fell silent, as if turning to glorify Ferrin's steps. "I asked, what is so funny?" Ferrin stepped right in front of the monkey and peered straight into its eyes.
The other monkeys who had been observing this with bright smiles slowly raised their head, glancing in the direction of the Genius.
"The first stage has been completed! Blood has spilled! Now then, on to the next stage!" The Genius scratched its neck with its pointy claw before staring down with overwhelming malice in its aloof green eyes, "Mayhem o mayhem!"
Suddenly, a fire seemed to light up in the monkeys green eyes, their claws pierced out of their skin in a single instance, their malevolent eyes drowned Ferrin from head to toe, "KEEEEE!"
"KEK!" Ferrin stepped back, blood flowing out of his sensitive ears. Feeling the sound suddenly lessen, his eyes shot wide open, he gazed down at Aria who had blocked his ears with her hands, "Mom!"
His teeth rolled against each other, crushing his sharp fangs from the force he had applied. Yet the pain felt nothing compared to seeing Aria's ears drowned in her own blood. The blood dripped down her ears, staining his fur in red.
"KEAAUUUA!" A wretched scream seeped out of his mouth, he roared and roared, until his voice turned hoarse.
"YOU WRETCHED GENIUS!!! WAIT FOR ME! WAIT FOR ME UNTIL I FIND YOU! I WILL RIP YOUR INCH AND INCH INTO SHREDS! I WILL CRUSH YOUR BONES INTO ASH AND MAKE RATS CHEW ON YOUR LIVE FLESH! I WILL SEEP YOUR BODY FROM EVERY DROP OF BLOOD AND BOIL YOUR FLESH IN IT! I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL PULL OUT YOUR SOUL AND FEED IT TO DOGS! YOU FIENDDD!!! I, FERRIN, SWEARS TO YOU, YOU WILL FACE A HELL MORE WRETCHED THAN THE ONE YOU WILL BURN IN, IN YOUR DEATH YOU SON OF A__" His throat turned hoarse, his whole body stood unmoving like a crumbling mountain.
"I WILL!" His chest moved up and down heavily, his mouth sticking against each other, not having any strength to continue. But he did, "I will! I wil_ sniff! I will, sniff!"
Aria smiled gently, seeing the sound fade away. She moved her hands from his ear to his eyes and wiped the tears falling down from his face. "Its alright, Ferrin! Listen, it doesn't matter what happens to me! I can bear it, but please! I beg of you! My son... stay the same as my son! Don't change! Don't lose in this sick game of his! I can be ripped to shreds, but I can still smile as long as my son is near me. But I can't ever be happy even if I am no different from the Aria from 3 days back... if my son leaves me! Don't change!
When they seek to crush you into the shape of a devil, I want you to heal back into the beautiful flower that you are! I want you to stay the same. It doesn't matter if you return back into that turtle-pace of yours. I don't care! All that matters is the heart, if you have the heart of a devil inside the flesh of my son, inside Ferrin. You are not Ferrin! I want the Ferrin... who cries like a little baby and tells me that you don't want me to harm the ones bullying you... that you can't bear it when somebody gets hurts, because you know it feels bad! Because you don't want them to feel what you do! Because... you want to enjoy life..." Aria inhaled deeply, her heart cracking up on remembering her weak and... pure son.
She wanted to continue but... her lips trembled, losing the strength to say any more, "Just be Ferrin! I beg you! Ferrin is enough for me! Ferrin is enough... I don't want... a devil inside my son! So please, Ferrin... just glance at the way you have started smiling now... and tell me are you Ferrin... or a devil?"
Gravity forced down the tears piling up inside Ferrin's eyes, his chipped teeth bitterly holding onto his trembling lips, 'Mom... Ferrin isn't... Ferrin anymore!?'
'Where is Ferrin? Tell me! Who is Ferrin! Ferrin wants to be Ferrin too! This... this thing... is scary! It smiles and laughs! It runs and feels the wind! It grins and kills! Its... its scary! Its not Ferrin! I... I lost Ferrin! I can't remember who is Ferrin! So, tell me mom! Who is Ferrin? Ferrin... Ferrin wants to be... He wants to be Ferrin again as well!' His heart trembled as he gazed down in pure agony, his eyes shivering in fear as he searched for he who Aria called Ferrin within her teary eyes.
"Ferrin! I want you to be warm like the sun! Kind like a innocent flower, offering its scent to whomever is seeking. Gentle like the summer wind and happy... like a dazzling star giving off light even in pure darkness. And Ferrin... was just this! He hated violence. He disliked sadness and always kept his own things to himself, no matter if he was done good or bad. No matter if harmed or healed. He smiled, at me... at everyone! So... can you be that Ferrin again?" Aria asked, her hands joined together, her pleading gaze wandering atop Ferrin's gentle and sympathetic face.
'I... mom I!' Ferrin bit his lips, his gaze slowly turned firmer and firmer. Until he opened his mouth.
***
"Alright! I think that's enough chatting between them! Now to some action please!" The Genius malevolent eyes squinted together, as he chuckled while snapping his fingers... commanding the numb monkeys to start moving.
"Kee!" One of the nearby monkeys suddenly exclaimed cutely and innocently while walking towards Ferrin. Its gentle and innocent smile numbed Ferrin's mind.
'What the...' Ferrin blinked his eyes, noticing the monkey waving its hand while standing right in front of him.
"May I... do this?" The monkey sweetly raised his claw and... pierced it through Aria's hand and into Ferrin's cheeks.
'...' Ferrin's face tilted sideways in confusion, his pupil moved down to Aria's hand, 'Red... blood?'
Truly, like a pure genius! The Genius shaded Ferrin's view in red. And whispered to him without actually doing it, that red is the only colour of blood!