"Ize? Ize!"
Despite the anxiety in her mother's tone, her voice was as she had remembered, still as soft and reassuring as they used to. Riize blinked and blinked, long accustomed to the endless darkness surrounding her since birth.
Riize was born blind – that at least, she remembered despite the waning of her distant memories. And aside from this, she was born with another major defect – the lack of demon horns.
Yes, she was once a hornless demon serpent, and this was the exact reason why everyone looked down on her, including herself – the useless demon. Riize herself never thought of living through this useless and meaningless life, but her mother Martha and her twin sister Reiki had thought otherwise.
"Ize? Dear… Are you listening to me?"
Her mother's loving voice reached out to her once more, this time visibly weaker and short of breath. Riize choked out a sob, her throat burning as she couldn't force out the slightest sound, much less a word as a reply.
Her mother was dying and she could do nothing about it – unsurprising of a useless demon. Was that the reason why her sister Reiki left them without any notice?
Riize couldn't deny the popping notion as a pang of guilt hit her on the spot. If it was Reiki here in her place, she could've done something to save their mother.
It was her who had caused her mother's death. It's all her fault.
"Don't blame yourself, dear…"
A single glance was all it took for a mother to look through her daughter's inner conflict.
"All mother hope is for you and Reiki to live a decent and happier life. It is I who have failed you both. Mother is useless and isn't even capable of protecting my two lovely daughters…"
Her mother's dying words weakly trailed off along with the diminishing life force within her, shattering Riize's frozen heart into thousands of pieces.
"Ize… remember… the living nature is cruel and being oblivious to it kills in this ruined world. There is not a place for the kind and naive to survive."
Her mother said in between her short difficult breaths.
Riize desperately clenched at her mother's hands that were almost devoid of any warmth, tears pouring out of her eyes that were both without any light nor any signs of life.
Her mother's withered voice rang against her ears, her words echoing over and over again, haunting each and every of her worst dreams since then.
"Kindness is a sin however, if you were to chance upon it one day, hold on to it and cherish it with all your life."
"Remember, hold on to it tight…"
"… and Never–Let–Go…"
.
RIIZE hitched a breath, finding herself being forced awake by the hurried knocks of her door.
She groaned at the stiffness enveloping the entirety of her body, robotically raising a cold hand to wipe off the tears staining her cheeks.
Another dream, another reminiscent of the time she left her mother to die. Oh, what a great way to start the new day.
Riize climbed out of her bed with a sluggish move, seemingly in no mood to get up so early to the day when another series of thuds came from the heavily rumbling door, threatening to crumble down anytime sooner along with the pile of worn-out bricks it was connected to.
*Knock*Knock*Knock*
"Yes, yes. I am not deaf! In a minute!" Riize snarled out as she turned to light up the only candle left in the house. She had made sure to dress herself 'appropriately' before making her way to the shaking door, turning the doorknob as a strong violent surge of anger roiled in her heart.
Now, who was it so itching for a beating to disturb her this early in the morning? Riize couldn't wait to find out the troublemaker and beat the daylight out of him!
===
The bustling region bordering The Red Sea, which separated the Human Realm from the Demon Realm, knew nothing of the day and night. The town of Mork as well as the other small settlements flocking within shared the same sky as the Demon Realm — a vast dull canvas of bloody red with a single lone moon hanging above, forever devoid of clouds, stars, and any other source of light.
At the moment, within the abandoned area of Ingrid, which was more widely known as the slums of Mork, a young man arrived upon the dilapidated door leading to a small house made of ruins, a bouquet of purple roses hidden behind him as he waited with a heated face, the whirling anticipation in his sparkling red eye, the other one covered with a black leather eye patch, too obvious to be unseen.
He was quite a dashing young man with a lovely smile, eyes round and clear as his tall and lean figure, cladded in fitted combat suits, coupled with his messy fiery-red short hair, gave off a very strong youthful vigor. Max waited and waited, the ends of his curled lips widening as the door finally creaked open.
Having his fair share of experience, he was quick to place a boot in between the small gap of the opened door, hindering the vexed woman from slamming the door in his face, yet again.
"Morning Beautiful," Max flashed the woman his best smile, greeting her with unrestrained cheerfulness befitting of his charming facial features, "Have you perhaps, ever heard of a thing called love at first sight?"
In response to his enthusiasm, the woman merely cast him a foul frown, eyes and the upper part of her face obscured behind the dark hood hanging above her.
She hadn't put on her usual devil mask. But even when nestled in a safe haven such as her home sweet home, that wide piece of black cloak never left her figure, enshrouding the idea of her in an enigmatic mist that tempted his curiosity even more.
Just what was this woman hiding from the whole world? Max couldn't wait to unravel the mystery.
"It's you, again."
Suppressing the twitch in the ends of her lips, Riize maintained her cold and unapproachable persona, sweeping his boot off her door with a broom she had kept within reach.
"No, and piss off. I don't welcome you today either."
"Wait–"
Bam!
The door nearly hit the tip of his high nose-bridge with a "bang" as Max, upon realizing this, broke out in cold sweat.
"That heartless woman," Max muttered under his breath, the roses in his hand drooping along with his saddened mood.
In fact, it wasn't as if it was his first time being swept out of the house and rejected in such harsh and embarrassing manner.
However, Max wouldn't be called the brave and charismatic lady killer Maximus if he was one to easily give up. With his fighting spirit revived, he raised his voice to question out loud, "Well, will you be happy to welcome me the next day, Miss? I'll be sure to bring you the most beautiful flowers in town just for you!"
Soon after, an irked voice came from behind the door, which was followed by a sound similar to that of a breaking vase, "Scram!"
"Right," Max wasn't the slightest bit offended by her, tiptoeing further from the motionless door as he said out loud, "Well then, see you in two day's time, Miss. Better not miss me, Max out."
Shamelessly saying his piece, Max quickly sprinted away from the residence when another sound of something breaking rang out, speculating that a plate might come flying to his direction if he was just a tad bit slower in his response.
Max sighed when he saw the lone moon above him. The moon may have looked bright and majestic on the outside. But from the inside, it was just as empty and equally pitiful as he was, a single dog since birth.
The day was still young and for a hopeless lovelorn like him, two days of not meeting her was akin to two weeks of drowning in the sea, simply a torture for both the lungs and the heart.
By then, who has the say of who'll miss whom? For the least at this moment, Max was undeniably in for the loss.