This is chapter 10 y'all~~~~

I hope you guys enjoy the POV change.

Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe it really goes a long way.

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Noah couldn't move his eyes away from them.

The intricate symbols etched into the railings caught his attention and held it with a physical weight.

An ominous energy emanated from the metal; dark, ancient, and pulsing. He felt a cautious dread, yet he was undeniably drawn to them.

He wanted to touch them.

He needed to—

"What are they? You see them, right?" Noah asked, his gaze still glued to the patterns.

Silence answered him.

He turned his head sharply. "Kael?"

The space beside him was empty. Kael was gone.

The world fell into an eerie, suffocating silence. 

Panic surged through him, his heartbeat drumming against his ribs as his breathing became shallow and erratic.

"Kael?!" he shouted, the sound dying instantly in the heavy air. It felt as though his lungs were collapsing.

His vision blurred, the edges of the world twisted, distorted like a warped video recording.

The railing began to twist like living smoke-

And the sudden, violent screech of bus brakes snapped him out of the daze.

Beside him, Kael let out a small, very undignified squeak, his mouth falling open in genuine shock.

Noah blinked, his brain struggling to stabilise.

They were standing on a curb. The air smelled of rain and diesel.

It was clearly Kael’s first time seeing a bus.

The demon looked as though he wanted to walk right up and examine every inch of the massive vehicle, like a museum curator inspecting a newly unearthed artifact. Noah had to grab his sleeve and yank him back before he stepped into traffic.

“What is this metal construction?” Kael demanded, eyes wide with awe.

“There are humans inside? Is it a public carriage? Is it alive? What’s it called? A car? A taxi? Answer me, goddammit!”

"Oh my God, stop it, Kael! It's just a bus!" Noah yelled back, half-laughing at the absurdity.

"What are you talking about?!!" Kael roared.

The world snapped.

The smell of exhaust vanished instantly, replaced by the sharp, floral scent of Kathleen's perfume and the stale, familiar air of Noah's apartment.

Noah felt a sickening sense of vertigo, his hand still reaching out to grab a sleeve that was no longer there.

Kael’s hand was a vice around Noah’s arm, bruising the skin.

His eyes weren't the curious, wide-eyed ones from the bus stop; they were dark, trembling with a volatile mix of fury and something that looked sickeningly like fear.

"Where did you learn that language?" Kael’s voice was a low, guttural snarl that vibrated through Noah’s very bones.

"What... what language?" Noah stammered. His brain felt like it was lagging seconds behind reality. His throat felt scorched, as if he’d swallowed hot coals. "Kael, you're hurting me."

"Answer me goddammit, where the fuck did you learn to speak Zhilerian?!!"

"If you don't get your hands off him right now, I'll call the police!"

Kathleen was a blur of motion, slamming into the space between them. She didn't see a demon or hear a cursed language; she saw the same "monster" who had sent Noah to the hospital.

Her fingers clawed at Kael’s wrist, trying to peel him away. "Let him go! I know you did something to him and he just got back from the hospital and you want to send him back?!? Let go of him!!”

Kael didn't even acknowledge her presence. His gaze remained locked on Noah’s, searching the boy's terrified eyes for a Noah nowhere to be found.

He let go of Noah's hand, which Kathleen immediately snatched, and gingerly took a step back doubting his own mind.

"Noah, who the f*ck are you?" Kael asked, his voice breaking. 

The fear in his voice and eyes made Noah want to reach out to him. He didn’t know if it was the pact or something else, but he dared not let the feeling grow.

All he knew is that he wanted those lovely brown eyes to look at him teasingly as before not with the fear now present.

Kathleen noticed Noah's outstretched hand and yanked it back. Feeling a cocktail of fear and anger she asked, her voice trembling with each syllable "What are you doing?! Seriously!? Look at me he's going to hurt you!! I can't see you like that again"

Noah did not hear a single word Kathleen said, his gaze glued to Kael. He noticed a single line of blood drip from his eyes.

It broke his heart.

He opened his mouth to speak but he felt something hot fill his throat, what came out wasn't words but a gush of blood. 

In a daze he tried to stop it by grabbing it but he couldn't, it just kept pouring out.

Am I going to die? he thought, his eyelids growing heavy.

The scent of charred herbs wafted into his nose as he fell into a warm embrace. And as he felt those warm hands brush against his face, a single wish sang in his mind 'Let him smile at me again, please'

Alas some wishes take time to answer.

As Noah fell into the darkness, he let the homey scent guide him.

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The roaring sound of a train filled the alleyway as it rushed past in a distance.

Once it passed by what could now be heard is the sound of cameras clicking. The scent of blood and something unidentifiable clung to the air.

The originally gloomy weather looked even darker as if evil itself passed through and if you asked the detectives standing in the crime scene they will tell you it did.

Detective Duke's face scrunched up in disgust at the sight of the body in front of him.

The body lay unnaturally still, as though the world had simply forgotten to wake it.

His skin had taken on the pale, waxen color of cooled candlelight, faint purplish shadows blooming along the side pressed against the floor. His eyes were half-open, the cloudy film over them dulling whatever life had once been there.

There were no wounds. No signs of struggle. No blood.

Only the symbols.

They had been burned into his skin with deliberate precision, dark and jagged against the corpse’s pallor. The flesh around them was scorched, the lines blackened as though something impossibly hot had traced them there.

The markings pulsed with an ominous wrongness making the body almost unbearable to look at, turning it into something that felt less like a victim… and more like a canvas whose artist went crazy halfway through.

Duke turned to his partner to ask his thoughts but found him staring intensely at the symbols.

"Urghhhh, there's no blood but the stench of it is so strong on the body."

"Uh-huh…really" Detective Mitch gave half hearted responses to his partner's comments his sight never shifting from the strange symbols in front of him.

Duke walked up to him and questioned "What in God's name are you looking at?" 

Mitch didn't answer, instead he walked to his van and brought out a file and marched up to the body, pulling out a picture.

Detective Duke recognised the file and spoke up "Isn't that the file from that home assault case? Wasn't it closed?"

Again, Detective Mitch didn't answer.

He hovered the picture beside a symbol on the corpse until Duke came up close.

On the picture is a symbol on the skin of a person, a similar one to the one littered round the corpse.

Detective Duke's gaze hardened and Detective Mitch spoke up "I think we should revisit that case" 

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And with that the first arc of the story has officially kicked off (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)

Do let me know what you guys think~~~