Chapter 18 - The Demon Version Of My Family : Part 2

Aster's chest heaved up and down as he pulled Valerian along with him. After the lieutenant made sure every guard was already saved, he suddenly got dragged by his little brother to get out of the building.

The rooftop cracked when they were passing through. Valerian's bleeding shoulder was ignored as they kept running to save their life. The sound of walls rumbling and alarm blazing adorned the air.

The building went self-destruct but it felt like a war was being held as they ran. The crack went along the walls to the floor, making the two brothers jump and staggered around.

When they saw the main door, a breathtaking sigh of relief rumbled from their chest. Aster gripped Valerian's hand tighter before getting out of the door and almost stumbled to the ground.

Valerian caught Aster's chest before the boy fell and helped him to stand up. Both of them looked behind and saw the building crumbles into pieces slowly. Every guard stood in front of the building and watched the scene happen with the two of them. The moonlight watched it too.

A tug of realization struck the lieutenant. He could feel his breath disappear as he widened his forest eyes. He looked around warily, searching for a certain enemy that was with him.

"Fuck." A curse left his mouth as the last wall standing fell to the ground. Aster glanced at his white-faced brother and frowned.

Before Aster could ask what happened, Valerian was already running toward the building again. He stumbled upon some crack as he frantically scanned the area. His green eyes worriedly looked around.

Valerian felt a weird kind of relief as he saw a black-haired man with his infamous trench coat sat in the middle of the building's ruins. The mercenary was sitting on top of a fallen wall while looking at a scattered mirror.

The lieutenant slowly approached his sworn enemy, avoiding some bricks that were scattered around the area. Beneath the crescent moon, the man stood beside the mercenary, eyes looking at him with a raising eyebrow.

"You're bleeding," Valerian stated as his green eyes caught the red blood that was running from the mercenary's head to his neck.

"Yeah, no shit." The mercenary darted. His blue eyes still locked on the scattered mirror, unmoving.

"Same goes for you, police boy."

Valerian grunted at the answer and glanced at his bleeding shoulder for a second. He looked up at the mercenary again and noticed how the mercenary was holding two pairs of bloodied white shoes.

Something clicked in the lieutenant's mind as he looked around once more. "Mercenary, where's your murderer?"

There was only silence.

Though, only with that silence, Valerian understood the unspoken answer. Valerian followed the mercenary's eyes and looked toward the scattered mirror. He slowly walked towards it and tried to pick some of the glass pieces.

"Don't waste your time, I've tried already." The mercenary stopped Valerian's movement and finally stood up. "He disappeared after the mirror fell onto him."

Valerian opened his mouth to ask more, but the sound of Aster calling him stopped him. The lieutenant looked over his little brother who was running to where he was standing.

"Val! I found the murder boy's cap! Have you seen him?" Aster sped through some of the ruins. His right hand was waving around a white cap as he got close.

Aster arrived in front of Valerian with an uncontrolled breath. Valerian glanced at the mercenary for a moment who was looking at Aster with a skeptical look in a flash. The look was hidden as fast as it came.

Valerian sighed deeply and looked at Aster apologetically. "The mirror crashed onto the mute murderer, we'll be searching for him around the area, he's probably around."

The white cap fell down from Aster's hand.

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It was dark.

Everything was really dark. There were some mumbled words around him, Axel could not really get what they were saying. His ears were ringing as they tried to adjust to his surrounding.

Axel was sleeping on top of something soft. It was warm but his body hurt like hell. He could feel the sting on the right side of his head.

Someone was holding him gently, stroking his hair thoroughly. It felt really nice. The person was playing with his hair while at the same time massaging his scalp. He could feel the rumble on the person's chest as the boy realized that the person was hugging him.

"Is he waking up yet?"

A familiar monotone voice caught Axel's ears. He tried to open his eyes to make sure that it was the person's voice. Adreanna's voice. Though his eyes were really heavy and went against his will.

"He had a concussion, he's probably waking up soon."

Another achingly familiar voice rang in his ears. He missed that voice so much. He missed his father's warm voice.

Axel wriggled around a little, trying to wake up. He tried to get free from whoever was holding him and looked at his father. He let out a soft grunt as doing so.

"Can you guys be patient? Axel needs rest, you're waking him up."

The person who was holding him spoke. Axel recognized the voice right away. It was Kiaran's voice.

Kiaran's hugging him?

"K-kiaran?" Axel managed to croak. His hoarse voice made his brother stiffen a little before continued stroking his hair.

"Yes, Axel?"

Axel wriggled again, heavy eyelids managed to open slowly. Lights dripped over his blue eyes as he managed to see. The first thing he saw was the body of Kiaran, wearing his usual dark clothes.

The boy glanced up, trying to see his brother's face. Kiaran did not stop stroking his hair while Axel was struggling.

And then he saw the red eyes caught his blue one.

The red eyes were supposed to be the same as his blue ones.

The red eyes were staring at him.

Axel jolted back, he pushed Kiaran with all his might and made himself almost fall down from the bed. A hand caught him right before he hit the ground. Then Axel met with red eyes again.

Red eyes with his father's face.

His father smiled warmly at him. Axel did not realize he was holding his breath as Cain helped him get on the bed again. He forgot how to breathe as he saw the smile he almost never had, the smile was for him, his father was smiling at-

"Be careful, son. We don't want you to get hurt again." Cain gently spoke as he sat Axel down on the bed again.

Axel blinked at his father. The face was the same as his own father. Was he got in the demon world again? So his theory was right, there was really a duplicate of each person in his own world here.

"You have red eyes." The boy blurted out, despite all the questions he had in his head, and all the dangers that could possibly happen, only those words that came out of his mouth.

"And you have blue eyes." Cain smiled, sitting down on the side of his bed. He wiped the hair that fell down on Axel's forehead, his touch migrated down from his hair to his face, tracing the lines of his skull to his eyes.

"They're beautiful," Cain added, hand tracing down to Axel's cheek and staying there. Axel flinched at him a little, contemplating what he should do in this situation. His eyes were wavering as he stared at his pseudo father.

The shock in his brain was too much to comprehend for now. Not to mention how the side of his head hurt so much. He just noticed that there was actually a bandage covering half of his head.

"Do you want red eyes?" Adreanna chimed in, staring at Axel with some hidden interest behind her dull red eyes as she leaned on the doorway.

That did make Axel turned his head toward his pseudo sister. He noticed the porcelain wings waged down the doorway, beautifully reflecting the lights.

"I- no. I would- I would like to keep my blue eyes, please." Axel answered, trying to hide his trembling voice.

Adreanna huffed at the answer. Her braided hair swayed a little as she looked away. It was almost as if she was sulking even though her face was emotionless.

Suddenly, a hand crept down on Axel's neck, making the boy slap the hand reflexively and grip it. Axel could feel the rush of adrenaline in his body as it screamed danger.

"Ouch, that hurts," Kiaran uttered as he stared at the gripped hand.

Axel widened his eyes as he realized whose hand he was holding and quickly let go. "I'm sorry- I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, I'm sorry, I'm-"

"Hey, it's alright. I'm not mad." Kiaran calmed him down, taking Axel's hand again.

Axel's hand shook a little as he looked at Kiaran's red eyes. "You're not? But I hurt you! You can't keep being nice, Kiaran. You're not the bad guy, you should punish me and-"

"Hey, hey. Axel, calm down, it's just an accident." Kiaran paused, taking Axel's whole hand, and smiled. "Besides, it was me who startled you."

"I- okay. Okay." Axel tried to control his breathing and looked down at the white sheet he was on.

There was silence surrounding them. All eyes were on the human as Axel tried to wrap his mind around. He looked around once more, looking at Kiaran's red eyes and noticing the ominous black wings adorning his back.

He quickly looked over Cain who was still sitting on the side of the bed and he caught the black wings again. Adreanna was still standing there too as if waiting for Axel to do something.

The room he was in was oddly the same as his own bedroom. It was just more medievally. Not to mention the mirror that was covered up with some red cloth.

Axel looked at his pseudo brother again. "What's happening? Why am I here?"

Kiaran tilted his head and ruffled Axel's black hair. "You came in this world hurting and fell down right on my feet. You almost gave me a heart attack."

Axel frowned at the mention of 'this world'. "Why are you helping me, then?"

"We're your family too, no?" Cain added as he put a hand on Axel's shoulder. "It's a normal thing to help your family."

Axel's frown deepened. Despite how he was frowning, he felt a little warm in his heart at the mention of family. It seemed like the demon version of his own family was so kind.

He kind of wished his father was like this too.

"What happened back then? You were bleeding so much when we found you." Cain gently asked as he showed his best smile.

"I was-" Axel vaguely remembered the scene. At one second everything was blurry and he saw Kiaran in danger. A mirror crashed down on him as he saved Kiaran and then everything was black.

Oh no, Kiaran- he must be worried about him!

"I have to- I have to go." Axel thrust his body to get up. He quickly stood up before a wave of dizziness attacked him and made him sway.

He was caught yet again by Cain. "I think you should stay here for a while, son. You can go tomorrow after you recover."

Axel just nodded aimlessly at the demon. His head was eating him a he felt nausea all around. His pseudo father helped him lay down on his bed again.

"Here, drink this medicine." Cain gave him a cup and Axel chugged it down in a second. He should recover and go home tomorrow. He should find the mirror again.

"Sleep, we'll be right here when you're awake," Kiaran reassured, his hand started storing Axel's scalp again.

The boy slowly fell asleep, surrounded by his pseudo-family.

For the first time in forever, Axel felt like he was right at home.

✵✵✵✵✵✵

"Can't we just keep him here?" Adreanna spoke up as the three of them got out of Axel's room.

"Or kidnap him," Kiaran added, watching his father closing the door slowly until it made a soft click sound.

Cain sighed as he faced his two children. "No, he would find a way to run away then."

"We have to make sure we're the only one he could run to first." A glint of darkness adorned Cain's kind face. Adreanna furrowed his eyebrows while Kiaran flashed his teeth, smiling widely.

"We're one step closer to becoming a family again."