Haruto and I started to date, much to Vincent's disapproval. I didn't care about what he thought, and what my mind was telling me to do, I was more focused on living in the moment, and experiencing Haruto in the fullest.

Something I learned was that as a person, Haruto loved to love.

His affection towards me couldn't be quantified—his sweetness was ramped up to a hundred. He took care of me, spoke to me sweetly, and comforted me in whatever way that he could when I shared something with him.

Being with Haruto became as easy as breathing. I couldn't imagine him not being in my life and annoyed Vincent with how much I spoke about him and started to care about trivial human things like birthdays, date nights, and anniversaries.

He made tasteless jokes about me being a cat that was playing with his meal, but I ignored him. Brushing off his accusations that I would eat Haruto in the future. I kept all those thoughts away because I didn't want to think about them. All I wanted to focus on was loving Haruto and being loved by him.

The feeling was overwhelming.

I had never been so happy in my life.

Days passed, then weeks, and eventually months. Haruto and I spent most of our time at one of our houses after work. We went to dinner a lot, and Haruto did insist on cooking for me from time to time. Of course, the food made my throat burn, but it was a small price to pay to see Haruto grinning from ear to ear when I told him whoever he had made was delicious. I ate actual food every few weeks. Dogs, humans, and I took to collecting the memories that Haruto shed.

He shed them everywhere. Everything he touched had a bit of black sloughing liquid that broke away from the main sources on his body.

At first, doing that had bothered me by making me feel that I would build a hunger for the 'real thing' over time, but I was sure that I was never going to jump from eating his memory shreds to biting him. As long as I kept my hunger in check, and as long as I kept loving Haruto, I was sure I would never have it in me to kill him.

Today, I hadn't been able to eat in the pound because they rescheduled the euthanasia of a dog to give it an extended period to find a forever home. It has been good news for the dog, but not good news for my stomach.

I went back home with an empty stomach and managed to climb up the stairs and unlock the door to my bedroom without seeing white from the smell of memories I got a whiff of as I walked past humans young and old.

Haruto was coming over for the evening, and I needed to eat something before he got here. I wandered to my bedroom, not bothering to close the door before taking a seat on my bed. I had begun to collect Haruto's memory sheds in small glass containers—something that I used to do with the memories of people I had killed in my house or wanted to save for a rainy day.

Haruto had asked me one day what all the bottles were. I had panicked at first, but then came up with a plausible explanation when I remembered that he couldn't see memories, and all he could tell was that there were empty containers under my bed and nothing more.

The edge of my lips turned up in a smile at the memory. It made me a little sad, knowing that I would have to lie to Haruto possibly forever.

I shook my head, not wanting to dwell on the thought. I bent down, making the bed creak with my weight as I grabbed one of the glass jars under my bed, before bringing it up to eye view. I stared at it, raising it up to the light, and watching the black slush of memories hover in the glass container like ink in water.

"This will do," I whispered by myself, unscrewing the bottle before reaching into it with his other hand. My eyes watered, my jaw hurt as my canines grew longer in preparation. Just like poisonous snakes, I relied on the glands in my teeth to deliver venom, but also break down food.

Trying to eat memories without a body to bite into was a bother, but it wasn't impossible.

I was in the process of guiding the hissing and roiling black mass in the glass jar into my mouth when I heard my name.

"Wern?"

I froze, looking up and finding Haruto looking at me from the doorway with horror in his eyes.