@demonsecho ᴀsᴋᴇᴅ: kotoha doesn’t run. as fast as her heart is beating, as scared as she is, she doesn’t run. she cradles inosuke close to her chest, hiding his face from douma’s view, but she stays still as stone, looking into eyes carved from rainbows. “will you eat us, too?” // unprompted
Blood still coated the Second Moon’s lips, a smear of gorgeous red against milky pale skin. He can still taste it on his tongue, sweet iron that sits at his gum line. Three bodies lay scattered around him; one is cut through the belly with her intestines spilling onto the floor, another’s head is twisted backward with a shocking angle of her spine, and the last is face down to hide the missing skin peeled from her cheeks. Each of them feature bite marks along their thighs and necks. Douma smiles and it looks sinister.
It’s a wonder she hasn’t run, but Kotoha has never been the brightest among his following.
She doesn’t realize it’s in her favor.
❝Dear Kotoha-chan… You misunderstand.❞ He stands frighteningly still, only motioning with his hands to the corpses he had been feasting on moments prior. ❝They aren’t dead.❞ Prism eyes watch her doubtful expression, delicate fingers cradled against her baby’s head. Inosuke doesn’t know what’s going on, but she hides his eyes from the horrors anyway.
❝They live on inside me — I can feel their sorrows and joys, understand their dreams and nightmares. They were suffering, Kotoha-chan, and I saved them from their pain. And the only way I can do that…❞
He takes a single step, tentative in the way only Douma is. He watches her like a hawk watches a fish, waiting to see if it will dart away at the last second. Both of his hands rise with his blood-stained palms facing her, a truce that only she can agree to. Truly he wonders why he hasn’t killed her already, any others who have walked in on similar displays were gutted on the spot.
She really is one of a pure heart.
❝You understand, don’t you, Kotoha-chan? I helped them reach enlightenment. I’m here for you. Any of your concerns… your woes. I will listen to them just as I listened to theirs.❞ This time he sighs, brows coming together at the apex of his forehead as if struggling with something. Lids fall over his eyes and his fingers curl into fists before him. ❝But, I… I can’t do this to you, Kotoha-chan. Nor Inosuke-kun.❞
She’s still here. He can hear her breathing and Inosuke beginning to fuss. Douma risks a glance in this theater of his own creation, bloody mouth pursed into a thin line. He feels moisture drip from chromatic eyes. ❝As much as I should want to, I can’t. I’m being selfish, I know… Wanting to keep you here next to me… I should want to bring you to enlightenment with the others!❞
❝I don’t want to. Please, Kotoha-chan.❞
The final nail in the coffin. The Gracious Founder holds out a hand to her, pinky extended. ❝Stay… here with me?❞