Chapter 64 - Epiphany : Part 1

"God, what happened to you?" Rune gasped as she brought in medkit to her room, looking at Axel who was getting rid of his white blouse and trying to change into a new shirt.

There was a slight wide bruise on the Vergessene's chest. There were also vague black lines spreading from his chest like messed up blooming flowers, adorning his body.

Not to mention all the scars on his feet and hands.

"O-oh, you're here!" Axel quickly turned around, showing his back on Rune with a face that slowly turned red. He desperately tried to hide his body from her as he curled upon himself.

"God! What happened to your back?!" The red-haired girl blurted out, eyeing the boy's back like it was some kind of a broken painting.

The boy furrowed his eyebrows at the exclaim, quickly looking at the mirror near him to see what was actually Rune trying to say. "What happened to my-"

Axel's blue eyes widened. "Oh my god, what happened to my back?!"

There were a black line and a white line on each side of his spine. The lines bubbled up a little as if it was bleeding, making it look like a deep scar that one was trying to paint over.

"That's some nasty scar. But I don't think it's a scar." Rune darted, walking closer to Axel as she dropped the medicine beside the boy. "Did you get a tattoo?" She popped her head over Axel's shoulder, trying to make eye contact with him as she spoke.

"What?" Axel blinked and looked over at Rune's two warm hazel eyes. "No-"

"Then it's a weird looking scar." She cut him off, nodding to herself as she gently pushed Axel to the floor and faced him eye to eye.

Her pointed hazel eyes scanned the boy's body from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. "Okay, where should we start."

Axel's face was completely red now, unlike Rune's calm one. She was too focused on trying to heal the boy's scars to notice the protruding muscles over well-toned abs on the young murderer's stomach.

The youngest Vergessene bit his lips when the alcohol brushed his skin. His blue eyes stared at the girl intensely, watching every feature on her face with focus as the red-haired girl did the same to his bruises.

Her hair was mercury-red, and the tip of her ponytail tumbled over her shoulders. She had saccharine sweet lips; they were blossom soft. Her eyelashes were velvety as the pale hazel eyes blinked slowly, focusing on healing Axel.

She looked a lot like the demon version of herself.

"My other self must be worried about you, then." The demon Rune added that day, tilting her head in understatement before scathing her sword inside her hooded cloak again.

She was right. Rune was worried about him that she cried until her eyes became red and puffy, worrying about him for days.

"His mission was to kill me." The demon's words rang in his head as she stated easily that the memory did not terrify her or her trust in him. "But then we became friends."

"If I thought about it, I should've hated him." The princess kept going, trying to prove a point for him. "But I didn't."

Why did his counterpart try to kill her? Would he ever do that? Would he actually try to kill Rune if they both never met?

No.

Axel shook his head slightly, trying to push the thoughts away. He would never harm his best friend. She was the only one who would stay. She was the only one who would accept him the way he was.

Right?

Would she really accept him the way he was? A criminal? A murderer? Would she hate him for it?

"So I don't see why your Rune would hate you since you've been friends way longer than us." The demon Rune stated the fact as her words yet again flew into his mind, trying to snap Axel out of his daze.

Axel looked back at his best friend again. He did not even explain what had happened to him when he arrived in front of Rune's gate, all torn up and had nowhere else to run.

Would this be the right time to tell her? Would it be okay? What would happen after he said that he was the cruel mute murderer? She at least deserved an explanation.

"You know, you don't have to talk about it." Rune suddenly spoke, snapping Axel away from his thoughts and doubts.

"What?"

The mercury-red ponytail fell to her back when she looked up to her best friend. "You don't have to talk about those things you might be thinking of telling me. I won't ask anything. You can tell me anytime." She clarified sweetly with eyes full of reassurance and warmth.

A genuine smile started to form on her lips. "I'm just glad that you're safe." She paused, took a deep breath and shakingly put a hand on Axel's shoulder. "I thought I lost you, you know?"

She gripped the shoulder tight but made sure it did not hurt. "You really loved to disappear and made me worry to death every time you did it," Rune confessed with pure worry and reassurance.

"I swear you took a quarter of my lifespan every time you did the disappearing thing." She chuckled and went back on trying to heal Axel again.

Even though she only tried to calm him down and told him that everything was fine the way they were right now, the Vergessene boy could not help but feel the guilt eating his gut slowly from every lie he had told her.

"It's just..." Axel gulped and let out a shaky breath. "It's my family." He continued, trying to form the courage to talk even more. "And me too, I guess." The murderer added.

"I-" He trembled, closing his eyes, trying to look away from the red-haired girl in front of him.

"The thing is, I'm-" He breathed. He could feel his heart throbbed as the words stuck on the tip of his tongue. "I'm not who you think I am."

"I just-" He forcibly opened his eyes again and stared right at Rune, who patiently waited for him to finish his words.

Rune smiled as if saying to him to take all the time he needed. She nodded and raised her eyebrows while tilting her head, waiting for Axel to continue what he was about to say.

"Rune, I-" The boy trembled and closed his eyes again. He could not see her face. The kind face that would morph into hatred and betrayal right after he told her everything.

A hand brushed his hair and tucked it behind his ear. The boy slowly opened his eyes to see Rune's calming one that was an inch away from his face.

"Hey. It's alright." She intertwined their foreheads together, causing the tip of their nose to touch with each other.

"I don't know what's happening at your home, but I just want you to know that I'm here." She spoke quietly. Their eyes met with each other like the world was going to be okay if they stuck together.

The time seemed to stop as they stayed like that for a while. Axel's upper body was covered with bandages and completely covered his whole skin, only leaving his right shoulder on display.

The boy could feel her melting breath mixed with his own. Her hands were holding each side of his ears, causing him to freeze and only look at his best friend.

Then she suddenly bumped their foreheads together, causing him to startle at the sudden aggression and blinked confusedly at the smirking girl who was already away from his face.

"Unless you're accidentally turned out to be a criminal or something, I might get really pissed." Rune joked, trying to calm the tense atmosphere between them as she went back to finish the bandages.

Though she did not realize that she just made it worse.

Maybe not today. Axel would tell her later, but not today.

Today he would like to feel the warmth of someone. To be a normal human.

"Ah, right." He chuckled ironically, faking it like he always did. "Yeah, it's just my family."

"You know, I just feel like I don't want to go home right now." Axel shrugged, causing his black locks to fall slightly over his eyes.

She finished her last bandage on him and looked up at the boy with two smiling eyes. A pair of arched eyebrows looked down on sweeping eyelashes, beautifully painted her face.

"I can be your home if you want to." She offered, putting a hand on Axel's and intertwining their fingers. "And you'll be my home too."

"Home is not a place, it's people." She continued as she slowly hugged the boy and fondly buried her head on his chest.

"And you are one of the people."