At The End Of Their Tunnel Vision

Chapter XIII

Under the tight grip of his hold, the creature withered away, spasming its limbs as the life slowly suffocated from the tiny creature Narelle adored so much. Nonetheless to say his naive little demon didn't sense the malicious intent harboured by the creature his precious friend welcomed inside their apartment. Elliot blamed the dulling senses from the side effects of the medicine she willingly took, suppressing her hunger and pheromones.

Elliot knew his little demon's fragile trust. So, he couldn't bear breaking to her the truth about the cat. The woman's trust was already shattered before meeting him. Already vulnerable, he feared that paranoia might come back if Narelle knew her past was still dead set from hunting her. He wasn't an i***t. From the start he sensed there were people following the succubus from the shadows. And he felt the urgency to protect something again because of the Voices commands. Protecting the only light managed to slip into their barrier, like how the moth was captivated by the lights.

It was the moment he appeared right inside his room when he sensed it. The strong sense of bloodlust, yet restrained, drifted through his sensitive perception. Alarming his instinct in an instant defensive force. Until he found the source of the malignant aura. Another culprit he had to eliminate.

Two years of keeping tabs on those who wanted his little demon finally intruded his apartment in the form of a cat. A clever scheme upon using Narelle's weakness. But not on him.

But it stung when Narelle accused him of something entirely he didn't have any control on. Sure disposing of the cat would be beneficial to him, because he was just doing some weeding in a garden. In a metaphoric sense. But if his treatment turned out successful, he could give her more of what she wanted. If only she could just wait.

And it seemed he had an inherent hatred of being accused. Rooted from whatever happened to him in his past life that instantly triggered his anger. He reacted strongly this time and sure he said something that unintentionally hurt her.

No wonder he was so keen on choking the feline familiar in a slow painful death. Especially when exterminating a familiar was like hitting two birds in one stone. The witch who owned this damn cat would be having a bad time too. This was what they got when crossing his path.

Soon when all the lines intersected he would annihilate the person that wanted his little demon. And he had a growing speculation that this particular person was also behind the trauma embedded in Narelle's psyche. The reason why a creature like her ended up broken.

For now he had to go back and make everything right. His grip loosened when the cat went limp, dissolving into ashes.

A whistle echoed within the concrete walls of the alley he walked into. Leaving as if nothing happened. Not even the dust from the life he took was left to tell the tale. It didn't matter anyway.

...

Elliot feared that Irene might tell Narelle too much. Since the angel had an uncanny skill of seeing the future. And the angel loved playing some sort of divine intervention from time to time. No need to prolong the inevitable from introducing Narelle from the monsters he had an involvement. At the same time he wanted to keep his little demon all to himself or the Voices wanted him to do.

So she brought her to the museum Irene was so proud of. And instantly they bonded. But after that visit, Narelle began acting strange. Just like what he suspected Irene told exactly what he didn't anticipate.

"You claimed what now?" He asked. Elliot eased his grip on the paper cup of coffee in his clutches when the cup instantly bent under his hold. He groaned a bit when some of the content spilled on his maroon leather gloves.

The soft light from the convenient store illuminated the puddle accumulated on the concrete floor right beside them. He pulled Irene out of her damn museum and walked aimlessly on the road until a heavy downpour suddenly showered in the gloomy dusk. Pinning the angel to talk, so he could figure out the root of Narelle's avoidance.

From the entirety of their walk Irene acted as if she was in a daze. Causing more irritation bubbling in his core. Now they were under the shed of the convenient store that they decided to take cover from the sudden downpour.

"Narelle is my sister now. It wasn't just a pretentious claim Elliot. It is her future." Irene said.

The beverage in Irene's hold tumbled when he grabbed the angel's front collar, pulling the angel out of her delighted trance, and making her face him. "We talked about this before, Irene. I told you to keep those visions to yourself. Her future is hers alone to decide." He snarled, pushing her when he couldn't hold staring at the angel anymore. Elliot could feel the painful clench of his jaw upon restraining the spike of bloodlust within him. Angry grumbles from the voices rumbled his ear drums. The voices got agitated, reacting with his simmering anger.

Irene stared at the ground where her drink landed, picking the empty cup up. "Aren't you happy to know she will inevitably be yours?"

Like a thunder shuttering the silence, his laughter reverberated within the occasional pitter patter between the rain. He laughed at the bitterness from the news carelessly handed on him. The knowledge he feared discovering. The future he had deliberately descended from obsessed only to resent later on.

Elliot didn't deserve her. He never deserved anybody. But the Voices, the Corruption told him otherwise, as they continued chanting their claims, deviously whispering the succubus was theirs.

Theirs. Theirs. Theirs. Ours!

He screamed. Finally releasing his pent up frustration, silencing the Voices over his own howl.

So, he was doing in every speck of his existence to deny that part of him. And yet, it appeared in every form of will in this universe, he was meant to have her. What a joke. This life already denied so much to him and it decided to compensate by something that he didn't want was what he got instead. What a sick, twisted gag this had become.

"What will be the point of this if Narelle will only end up in another cage?"

"She will heal." The look in her eyes, the blind hope that caused even more hatred flared in his chest.

Elliot's fingers twitched when an itching idea was directly whispered by the voices. The slips were becoming more and more enticing, like a soothing music played in the dark luring him even deeper at the heart of darkness. He shoved one of his hands inside the pocket of his slacks and leaned his back on the glass wall panels.

"Yes she will. But I will rather be her friend than be another reason for her downfall."

He wanted her free. And they wouldn't simply understand that. Narelle deserved better than ending up being with him. But he feared that even his own resolve wouldn't be firm enough to protect her even from himself.

Although the goal of protecting the succubus intersected with his corruption, he genuinely held a piece of adoration towards Narelle. Somehow he wanted to believe there was a remaining soul in his projected existence that could prevent him tainting what he had. But he knew more than anybody else it was just a lie he desperately latched onto.

Elliot accepted the nuisance of his deranged mind. Incapable of healthy romantic companionship when he couldn't even keep himself stable for too long. That means a relationship beyond what he currently had with Narelle was out of the option.

"You love her right?" Irene asked.

Love? If he could describe with words of what he felt for the little demon, love was never the right word. "Do you think I am still capable of love?" He said. The corner of his lips hiked up. He watched the look on Irene's face crumble into fear. He knew the angel in front of him was a seer. But her ability had a downside, flawed. So, the future she saw wasn't always sunshine and rainbows. Shame, really. He always had daydream about his future outings with the succubus. Being casual and friendly. Elliot was really trying his best to suppress the carnal, twisted obsession beginning to form in him.

Elliot rolled his eyes when Irene had fallen into her knees and began crying. Finally coming into terms with the consequence of her foreseeing ability. The consequence of being nosy brat to be honest. She just realised she was blindly throwing her new friend into the pit; a mouth of a starving anomaly awaited at the very bottom.

Sighed, chugging his coffee before he grabbed her waist hauling the angel on his shoulder. He might be seen as a heartless being but he still had his morals. A moral he had chosen to cling from his deteriorating sanity. And he was glad the morals he exercised set him into a more straighter path for having a sense of identity.

They teleported right outside the entrance of the museum and dropped the angel down the tiled floor.

"What have I done. She's already been traumatised. But that is her future. To be with you." Irene dazedly mumbled in frenzied panic.

Nothing. None of them could do anything now. Only to wait and watch their lives unfold. "What entails in her future is hers alone." He engraved those words in his mind. In hope of strengthening his resolve. He had to if he wanted his little demon continued radiating her unique light in his life.

Elliot was no longer surprised by Narelle's sudden avoidance lately because of what Irene told the succubus from their last visit. And her avoidance strained his already delicate bond towards her. He was dangerously threading into a thin strand of line towards his self-control and sanity.

So in a single tug, he was forcefully redirected into the path which his restrained desire finally made known and set everything in motion.

This world truly was cruel.