Chapter 44 - The Piece Of Ashes : Part 2

Aster and Rune stared at each other as if their eyes were talking. The blond had a bandage over his head that covered almost half of his hair while Rune's ponytail had gone neat again.

The sound of fighting had stopped just a few minutes ago, leaving an achingly quiet silence outside. There was no screaming nor yelling anymore.

Both of them were hiding under a table after one of the mindless demons tried to barge in. Rune and Aster managed to move a table to the door and hope that it would hold the demons outside.

And it did. But now, the sound had stopped as if they had just disappeared.

"Do you think they're gone?" Rune asked. Hazel eyes warily peeked from the tip of the table, trying to see the door.

Aster stayed down under the table, not wanting to join her while looking up at the red-haired girl. "You want to check?" He asked unsurely.

"Well," Rune looked down at him. Her ponytail bounced a little as she did a low tilt movement. "The most adult way to face this is to stay in here." She added.

Aster blinked. "But we're not adults, though."

"I know," The red-haired shrugged. "But we still have a responsibility for ourselves."

The blond nodded. "What you said, white knight."

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"Stop kicking the corpses, Aster!"

Rune yelled at the blond while holding a baseball bat in her hand. They had walked out of the police station and decided to go where they had left the mute murderer. They would blame Rune's worry over her father if something happened to them.

Both of them needed an alibi, alright.

Aster picked up the said corpse in his hand and offered it to Rune, who widened her eyes at the sight. "It's just a hand."

"Yes." She nodded, offering a strained smile at him. "Someone else's hand!"

"More like a demon's hand." Aster spun the hand before throwing it to the ground.

Rune's eyes followed the hand before diverting her gaze to the Edelweiss boy. "How do you know if it's a demon."

"Just a hunch. Murder boy would vouch for me that I have the best hunch." Aster proudly exclaimed. The corner of his lip tugged up a little as he bragged at Rune, who was just looking at him, deadpan.

Axel, of course, would not vouch for him if he was there with them. Sadly, the boy was withering in a bed right now.

But anyway, as Rune warily walked with a baseball bat over her shoulder, ready to bash anyone that tried to attack them, Aster just walked easily, dragging a crowbar lazily.

This wasn't his first rodeo on a weird deadly situation like this.

They passed some people on their way. Those people were crying. The majority of them were confused as they looked around. There were some that tried to record the surrounding with their phone too.

"Oh right, I never got to thank you for saving me earlier." Rune began and looked over at the blond boy.

Aster frowned. "I don't recall saving you at all."

"You know, the one when we were running to the station. You were yelling at me to run while you distracted the rest of the demons for me. So thank you." She sincerely thanked her classmate, smiling genuinely at him.

Aster stared at Rune like he just saw the weirdest thing on earth. He wrinkled his nose and looked away from her with a red tint on his cheeks. "Don't put on that face to me. It's disgusting. You're so out of character right now."

Aster fastened his pace, going ahead of the red hair. "Besides, you should thank the mute murderer instead." Added the blond. A hand that wasn't holding a crowbar grazed over the white cap that dangled in his pocket.

"He asked me to make sure you arrive safely. He was really worried about you, you know." The blond justified, throwing his head back as he stared at the hiding sun.

"It seems like you just gained a literal white knight." He looked over to Rune with a knowing smile.

"You finally become a princess for your fairy tale after exclaiming that you're a white knight for years." Aster turned around and clasped both of his hands. "Congratulation, miss first lady." He said as he walked backwards with a sideways smile.

Rune's grip on the baseball bat tightened. "He's not a white knight." She gritted, hazel eyes sharpened as she met the green ones. "He's a monster. He killed people."

Aster raised both of his hands and the crowbar. "Woah, touch a nerve there." He paused and raised his eyebrows. "That's kind of rude, ain't it? He saved us."

"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that he is a monster." Rune angrily settled as she stormed past the blond.

Aster quickly turned around and tried to catch up with Rune. He was about to open his mouth to try to talk with her again but slammed his mouth shut when they realized they had arrived at where the mute murderer was.

Both of the 16-year-olds froze on both feet, looking around at their surroundings in a daze.

Unlike the road they had passed by, the place where they stood right now had no human left standing. Everyone was on the ground, looking lifeless. Blood was everywhere, and there were so many feathers.

There were so many holes on the ground from explosions. The buildings slowly fell one by one, and they could find blood trails everywhere.

Aster was still trying to take everything while Rune had gone forward first, inspecting the situation.

The blond knew who he was looking for and the reason why he froze. He knew why he stood there as his heartbeat fastened, looking around for a certain big brother.

When his green eyes landed on a familiar person on the ground, he could feel his whole world stop. Aster's heartbeat slowly pulsed in his ears, and his breath was caught in his throat.

The blond did not know when he started running toward Valerian. He also did not know the water that had already begun to collect at the bottom lid of his eyes.

A short intake of breath followed his lips as he held his older brother in his hand trembly, trying to shake Valerian to wake up.

Aster gripped both of the lieutenant's shoulders and shook his body. "Val, open your damn ugly eyes!"

Tears started to collect in his eyelashes, making his vision blurry. "Open your eyes!"

"No, please, please stay alive." Aster's voice cracked as he started to lose hope. There was a lump in his throat when he tried to speak again.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He begged for forgiveness with a trembling lip, a first sob rang in the air as he hugged Valerian's body.

On the verge of a crying fit, he sputtered some words that went into his mind. "I'm sorry for being annoying, for hating on you, and- and for being ungrateful."

"I swear I'll be good, so please stay alive!" A couple of sniffles could be heard when the boy finally let the tears fall down on his face. Aster buried his face on Valerian's chest as he continued crying.

"You'll actually be good?"

A voice rang in Aster's ears, and he eagerly nodded. "Yes!"

"You'll do what I said?"

The voice asked again, and the boy hugged Valerian even tighter. "Yes!"

"You'll even do the dishes?"

"Yes!" His yelling was mumbled, and Aster found himself burying his head on Valerian's chest even deeper.

"Do you swear on your life?"

"Yes, I swear on my-" Aster suddenly went still on Valerian's hold.

The boy looked up slowly to meet Valerian, who was looking at him with a teasing smile. The youngest's green eyes blinked, trying to see in between his tears just to find identical green eyes staring down at him.

Aster's grieving face slowly morphed into a frown before quickly changing into anger. "You bastard!"

He thrashed in Valerian's hold, punching his chest with a fit of glowering anger. "You fucking bastard. You're the worst brother ever. You scared me so much, please-"

"-Please don't do that again." Aster gave one last punch before melting in his brother's hold, sobbing again.

"I'm sorry." Valerian returned the hug to his brother and buried his face on the younger's hair.

They stayed like that for a while, melting into each other's touch, ignoring the mess around them. Aster calmed down a short after and pushed the lieutenant away with a frown and bloodshot green eyes.

"I'm done crying." He stated, eyes forming a glare as he looked at Valerian. "This stayed between us. If you ever told anyone about this, I'll kill you myself." Threatened the young blond.

Valerian chuckled lightly. "Alright."

But then, the lieutenant remembered something as he saw his surrounding. He quickly diverted his gaze on Axel again with a severe look. "Though Aster, I wanted to ask you a question."

The boy's puffy eyes looked up at the lieutenant's tired one with wonder, waiting for Valerian to continue his question.

"I have something regarding your friend in your school." The lieutenant stated.

Aster tilted his head. "Which one?"

"The one that teamed up with us in the game." The older brother's face stiffened as he tried to pry more information.

"He's not my friend." Aster clicked his tongue.

Valerian frowned for a second. But it quickly faded away, just like when it came. "Actually, I need to know more about his broth-"

"Aster!"

Both of the Edelweiss brothers looked over to the source of the voice. They both could see a red-haired girl running toward them with a look of horror on her face as she held some kind of a silver necklace.

Rune stopped right in front of Aster with teary eyes.. "Axel's gone."