Chapter 39 - The Manipulated One : Part 0

There were five stages of grieves.

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

But don't you know, the demon version of Axel's family actually never made it past denial?

The three of them planned everything. They had been searching for a way to get their youngest back.

Even though he wasn't actually their youngest.

They watched every Axel's move around the house. They saw what he had been doing. They saw how the young boy relived everything that their real boy had gone through.

There was one thing though; they could make him their real boy.

When demon Kiaran saw the paper of the DM-2 experiment that Axel left on his desk, he recorded all of it in his brain.

He did what was best; he watched his own counterpart through the mirror.

Demon Kiaran followed his other self everywhere with a barrier of a mirror. He looked at how the other him went mad over the idea of a world burn. The demon looked as the human planned many things with a scientist.

He watched through the scientist's mirror. He was watching when human Kiaran gave the black arrows to the scientist. He was there. He was always there.

So when he saw the opportunity to strike in and when he saw how the story repeated all over again, the demon knew Axel would be safe with the anarchist family.

This was their opportunity to get their youngest back, and they would not let the universe take their Axel away from them again.

The Vergessene family would be whole again.

And the three demons would never make it past denial.

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When Axel woke up, he did not open his eyes yet. He was forced into awareness by a feeling he could not quite place. It was as if something was changing. Something was morphing.

Axel grunted. He felt lightheaded. His head was throbbing as he tried to open his eyes. A faint voice was surrounding him, and he tried to listen in.

The pain was the first thing Axel felt. It was a hot flood of racing pain that washed over him all at once. Sharp stabs were firing through his head. The boy whined and felt a hand that pushed him back down.

A fire was staying in his heart, licking his veins. Every breath he took felt like needles jabbing into his lungs.

The boy did not realize that his ears were ringing until they began to fade just enough for him to hear a voice.

"You still need a rest. It's alright. Your body's just changing slowly, son." Cain whispered, brushing off some black locks from the boy's face gently.

Realization hit the boy's foggy brain. The last memory shot through his brain, and he felt like he had been reliving all of them just by remembering them. What happened to him? When did he fall asleep? Oh no, no no-

Axel's awareness deprived quickly turned into horror at his immobility on waking up. For a moment, he even considered the idea that he might be dead. His chest tightened at the thought. A wave of fear overrode his restful numbness.

He forced his eyes to open and grimaced. He found himself on a warm bed. In his sleepy haze, he could only focus on the achingly familiar room he was in. The sight of his own duplicate bedroom somehow made him ill.

He caught sight of a person sitting right beside his bed. A too familiar figure that he knew yet did not at the same time. The person had the audacity to smile though. It irritated Axel a little.

"Good morning, son."

Axel grumbled under his breath and turned away from the person. The demon was the reason Avan was stuck in here now. Head heavy, foggy brain, and tired.

Axel coughed weakly, gasping for air as he realized how dry his throat was. There was a leftover taste of iron in his mouth when he tried to open his lips.

"What," Axel coughed, shaking as Cain slowly leant him in a seated position on the bed, "what is happening."

Cain cooed and embraced him tightly. Axel flinched at the closeness of the demon as wings slowly wrapped the both of them protectively like a cocoon. His pseudo father was hovering right beside the boy's ear that Axel could feel the breath running down his neck.

"We've been planning for your arrival. We can finally spend time together as a family. We can start over again and do what a father and son would do." The demon whispered, red eyes glinting with possessiveness.

"Say, what do you want to do, Axel?" His pseudo father continued, asking in a soft tone.

Axel struggled in his embrace, trying to put a space between them. "I want to go home."

Cain was not having it and tightened his hug to his fake son. "But you are home."

"I'm not." Axel gritted, gripping the sheet tight as he glared at his pseudo father.

Cain laughed. Axel chose not to join in.

"We're so close to being a whole family again. Don't worry. I'll make sure you have all the time in this world." The demon finally let go of him and patted his head, giving him some space so that he would not fall into a fit of panic attacks.

Axel's blue eyes diverted to the mirror in front of a study desk. He swore it broke the moment before-

-before whatever happened to him, whatever nightmare he had gone through before.

Noticing Axel's line of sight, Cain started to speak. "Oh, that mirror? We replaced all the mirrors in this house. We don't need to watch what's going on on the other side anymore."

The demon looked back at Axel's tired eyes. Wings straightened a little as he showed his best smile. "Because you're home."

The two stared at each other, the grieving father and the scared son that were not blood-related yet somehow related at the same time.

"You planned everything?" Axel asked with a quiet voice that was latched with a bitter taste of betrayal.

"Yes." Cain's kind smile was still on display as he patiently answered the boy.

"Why would you do this? I trusted you all." Axel whispered tremulously. His head started hurting more as he tried to catch with what was going on.

Axel stared right at the two red eyes of fake affections with two teary eyes. "You manipulated me into a false sense of security, and I don't like it." The boy choked hoarsely.

Cain sighed fondly, trying to calm the shaking boy. "We're not. We just want to make a safe home for you."

"Am I? Am I safe with you?" The boy asked brokenly, too tired for everything, and he was just so so tired.

"Just a while ago, you just stabbed me with your hand." He laughed confusedly. His brain could not even think of what actually had happened. He was so lost for the situation he was in. He was so lost for himself.

"And you're saying you're not manipulating me? You guys manipulated me just like my brothe-"

Axel snapped his mouth shut. The boy cut his own words as his brain screamed in pain.

He trembled a little as he looked at Cain's taunting red eyes. The demon raised his eyebrows at the sudden silence.

"Go on, finish the sentence." Said the pseudo father, tilting his head as if taunting the boy.

"Finish your sentence, son." The demon crossed his legs, patiently waiting as Axel fell into a pit of realization and denial.

Unable to accept what was happening, Axel shoved Cain and went straight to the mirror in the room. "Shut up!"

The 16-year-old stumbled a little before making his way to the glass of reflection, ignoring how his feet were aching and how the pain was increasing yet fading at the same time. He completely forgot the bullet wound on one of his feet as he stood.

When he finally looked at the mirror, he froze in his place. The dread in his throat was eating him inside out.

There were black roots that started to fade away little by little. The black lines were covering his hands and neck. Some of them were already vague, morphing their way into his body.

An aching, burning sensation started up inside his right eye, burning it like wildfire. Axel bit the inside of his cheek as he tried to hold the pain off.

His right eye became blurry as his left eye caught the sight of Cain creeping up behind him. The demon had the audacity to grin up at him, his face twisting into something that wasn't human.

"Adreanna would say how a red eye looked good on you." Cain began talking proudly and soft-spoken.

Axel quickly focused on his own eyes after hearing him. The boy was desperately trying to blink away the hot tears in his right eye.

When he finally could see clearly, Axel saw how his right eye had turned red, achingly slow as it fought the blue ocean colour.

Then he felt a mix of despair and terror. His shoulders slumped as he shakingly stared at his own reflection. His fingers trembled away when the black lines faded, leaving a completely smooth skin as if he was-

-as if he was a demon.

Cain hugged him from behind, trying to calm him down. The demon put his face on the boy's hair lovingly, showing how he deeply cared for him.

Axel had always wanted his father to care for him. But this wasn't his father. No matter how he tried to lie to himself, this wasn't Cain.

The demon version of his father held him with love. But he did not know why it felt so cold.

Was it always this cold? Was Kiaran right? Was he too naive?

Despite how Cain was still holding him, Axel dully stared in the mirror just to see a boy.

A boy that people called the manipulated one.