To say she was devastated and humiliated was a grave understatement.
After Kai had harshly driven her away the girl spent the rest of the day sulking, it made no sense; moments before he turned hostile he was forthcoming about personal matters and was speaking to her normally, but then that seizure seemed to rewrite his entire personality in a matter of seconds.
She was sure; if she had persisted any more after that moment he would have hurt her as he promised he would, this revelation was what convinced her to finally leave him alone.
"The Devil told him the world is going to end soon...?" Ava was on her way home after a day getting over her blues, she was engrossed in the topics that had been raised in her conversations with Kai, it seemed like a joke after he had threatened and then left her there, the same as he had done for the whole week prior to saving her from the thughs turned twinks, but no matter how she tried passing it off, that brief moment of clarity in his eyes pulled her back every few minutes.
For the brief moment she had known him thus far, he was generally unreadable as far as she could tell, but for that single moment his eyes had relayed honesty; honesty she couldn't ignore. "Was he being serious?" She asked herself but then scoffed and shook her head, stopping by an overhead bridge and gazing off into the distant sunset.
The day had come to an end.
"Maybe he is a bit crazy after all. No sane person would say something like that with such a serious expression." She blinked and shuddered from a sudden sense of unease when something zoomed past her, kicking up dust as it flew by.
Turning to meet the object, Ava's eyes widened when the same person she had just been thinking of was revealed to be the cause of her uneasiness, she had never seen someone move as fast as he was running, for a moment, it looked inhuman, Kai came to a halt at the end of the bridge and spun, glaring at her with evident annoyance in his eyes.
"What is he doing here...?" She couldn't help but ask herself, but something was off this time, he was heaving, he looked panicked, strands fo hair clung to his face and neck, his shirt had bloodstains on it, and those eyes that were previously hostile were now wide and frantic.
He turned and prepared start running again but seemed conflicted, he shook his head and looked away once more after glancing at her and then balled his fists, visibly at war with himself before he made a makeshift mic with his hands and pointed it in her direction. "-un, Ava!"
She squinted her eyes, staring at him and standing still, but the urgency of his body language only doubled as he took several steps in her direction and then stopped once more, cupping his mouth again.
"Ava!!" Kai screamed out, pointing behind her.
Her legs began moving on their own before he finished speaking, she didn't know what was behind her, but she started moving in his direction, afraid to find out; afraid to even think about it, she placed her trust in his panic.
"Run!" Kai snapped once more, and the girl broke into a full sprint towards him.
Kai wanted to turn and run, he wanted to ignore her, but he had witnessed it with his own eyes, these creatures treated everything around them like fodder.
°°°Ten minutes earlier°°°
He had spent the entire day waiting for the voice to return, for those horrible images to resurface, but they never did, after the sun had set, he released a sigh of relief and began making his way home, taking a detour in an alleyway he had been frequently using when a whisper invaded his head.
"Kai." It called.
Silky and chilling like the cold hiss of a snake searching for its prey, it made his blood curdle and his flesh crawl in disgust.
Looking behind himself, however, there was nothing, there was nobody; just the usually empty alleyway, not even an animal in sight.
"I've been having nightmares, I have been experiencing hell every day, now I'm hearing voices all day too, great," Kai scoffed and went back to checking again, but as soon as he reached halfway through it returned, louder than before, this time sounding more physical.
"Kai Mora~"
"Fuck!" Kai snapped swinging a blind punch behind himself, except this time there was someone; an adult, one shady-looking dude wearing baggy pants, a tank top and a cap.
"Yo, what the hell, you got a death wish, you little shit?" The man scrunched up his nose, lowering Kai's hand after easily catching his panicked punch.
"He must be if he's fucking around like that." Another man poked his head from behind the one before him dressed the same except with a scruffy beard, they seemed related, their crooked noses and flat lips were similar in every degree.
"You ever get into a real fist fight, boy?"
"Nah, he's good... Throws one hell of a punch, too," The first man chuckled and flashed his hand, showing the other his reddened palm, and then looking at Kai again. "You ever fight for money kid, I get the feeling you can really fuck someone up with a punch like that."
"They're just normal people, he's lucky I pulled my punch in time..." Kai blewa long sigh of relief and shook his head.
"Sorry," Kai lowered his head and took all the money he had on his person. "Here, this is all I have. I don't want any trouble." He offered it to them and the man before him snatched it and scoffed.
"Nobody's just gonna offer money like that unless they know who we are" The bearded of the two men glared suspiciously at the teen before him. "Now I know you're up to some shit kid, who sent you here?"
"Nobody, I walk this route every day from school," Kai answered abruptly sucking in a breath of panic and then releasing it again when his fears from before began slowly materialising before his eyes.
"You little liar, I ain't ever seen you here before," The second man walked up to him and grabbed him by the collar. "Come on, don't make this harder than it needs to be, we don't fuck kids up without a good reason."
"I'm serious," Kai answered calmly, keeping the same serene expression while his mind screamed, not because of either of them, but because something was standing behind them that he was pretending wasn't there, it stood seven feet tall with a shoddy torn up hood covering it from head to toe and pooling around its slender body.
It had hands made of grey flesh-like scythes, dripping with some kind of slimy black substance. "I use this route every day," he narrowed his eyes, thinking of how the second man had walked right through the tall humanoid creature.
He had seen them before, he had always seen them, even before he was able to see the thousands that followed over the shoulders of every person he had ever seen, they were there, following him since he was a child, but he learnt very early on that as long as he didn't acknowledge them he was safe.
This time was different though, it stared directly at him, urging him to react to its presence. "I slipped up when I was talking to Ava and nearly pointed at them, they're on to me... I'm an idiot."
"I don't feel like doing anything to him though," The first man that had accepted the money shrugged and looked at his friend. "I don't know what's up but something here feels off, y'know?"
"Yeah man, you're right." The second agreed and let go of his shirt.
"Don't..." Kai grabbed the man's hand.
"Huh, what the fuck I just said we were letting you go -"
"Don't move a muscle, don't even breathe if you can." Kai looked up at him and the man through his eyes felt so much fear he started wetting himself on the spot, death was right before him, death was right at his neck, he could suddenly feel the scythe pressed against his flesh.
"Yo what the fuck m-" his friend was about to start laughing at him, but falling from the sky another black figure landed, plain and visible to the three of them, it had skin as pale as a ghost's, shackles on its legs, and the face was elongated with the chin almost reaching the waist.
With its black eyes glimmering and a sick smile it laughed as it grabbed the man by his jaw and ripped it clean off his face.
"O-o oh G-God, S-s-santa Maria, sweet-sweet Bhudda, dear Allah, protect me from-" the other began praying when he realised what was happening, but amidst his prayers his vision blurred and the back of his head hit his back tethered by a single flap of flesh when his neck was sliced open.
"Mora~" the one with the scythes for hands turned to him. "You can finally see us can't you...? Huhuhuh." It chuckled beneath the hood. "Hél demands your sacrifice~ Kai Mora."
"You are finally ready."