That Night (Jokamui)
Perhaps it was out of desperation that he came to her in her, maybe the culmination of loneliness and fear of the unknown brought this strange man in jester’s clothing from the depths of inky darkness to provide her with companionship—at the cost of her soul.
She was only six when they came: bandits who somehow discovered the fortress, clever enough to infiltrate it thinking it was abandoned. Were it not for the hasty urgings of one of her maids, she would have been another corpse added to the pile, yet part of her wished that she was dead as the scent of death flooded her systems and evoked upon her a true understanding of the word “fear.” Bile climbed up her throat but it refused to come out. Tears bubbled at the edge of her doe-like eyes in her search for survivors.
A fallen chalice hit her foot and she came tumbling through a carpet of blood. Blond hair became strawberry, and her hands dyed as if she killed them all herself—sometimes she did blame herself, for the servants were all hired to care for her; she led them to death with a smile on her face. Her eyes became hollow that night, a certain kind of despair nesting in the bosom of her tiny chest as nightmares-made-reality enveloped her with the tragedy of human nature.
First came the wings, cocooning her in a spotlight of dark for a conversation only she and he would be able to participate. Then came his body as silver encased in purple and black came to being before her eyes. She remembered her heart beating steadily even when she was eye-to-eye with sin incarnate. Part of Kamui accepted death that night as she reached forward to caress the devil’s face and witnessed him leaning against the touch. This great, terrible being answered her call when no one else would. He listened to the unintelligible sobs of a child with nothing but a dead kingdom to her name, and he would stand by her side until the end of days if only to devour her despair at the end of her life.
Kamui couldn’t care less that she would no longer pass into the afterlife. As far as she was concerned, she was already dead.