Insatiable

Chapter 3

What used to be a lovely, quiet home turned into pigsty when the former rogues became free.

Last year, Elijah was able to watch his favorite Asian drama peacefully because 1) Sage is almost always out with Eleanor. 2) Jimin spent most of his time at school.

As of this moment, the very first untouchable cannot go through his usual morning routine without Jennie and Jackson bickering.

"When will the two of you shut up?" Elijah groans in annoyance. He jolts awake five minutes ago because the untouchables living in his house can't keep their big mouths close.

"I'll tell you when," says Jackson with a furrowed brow. "Kick Jennie out of your house then we'll be at peace."

"Did you know that Jackson spilled red wine on your eight hundred thousand floor mat?"

"Jackson did what?" 

"I hate you!" Jackson starts tickling Jennie in the stomach—totally ignoring the fact that the owner of the house is pissed off.

Elijah groans again. He feels like crying for the reason that his head hurts so bad. He barely slept  last night because he is so worried about Sage. The latter left the former's house almost right after saying that he dug the enchantress' grave. He didn't even spill why he did such thing. Elijah felt betrayed. He thought that the ruthless vampire is in the process of moving on, but as it turns out, he is still pining over a dead girl.

'Is she really dead, though?' A part of Elijah is ruining what he wants to believe. It's not easy to claim that the enchantress already departed when he knows that she's not where she's supposed to be. If Eleanor happens to be dead, she still won't be at peace since her body is missing.

Elijah will never forget how he found out about this.

"You sure about this?" Jin's question seems innocent, like he just wants to know if Elijah's ready to face his guilt. In reality, Jin is more concerned for the emotion he might feel the moment they do this.

"She was the daughter of the woman I loved, the life of my best friend, and the sister of my son. Of course I'm sure about this." Elijah hardens his hold on the bouquet of daffodils in his arms. Sage told him that he's reminded of Eleanor every time he sees this kind of flower.

The best thing the very first untouchable can do is offer flowers in her grave.

"Sage told us to stay away though."

"From him. Not from her." Ignoring Jin's hesitant look, Elijah walks towards the foot of Anemone Mountain Cliff.

It's been two days since the enchantress died. Both Elijah and Jin read Sage's mind to know what happened to Eleanor, how she died and where she's buried—they had to do it since the ruthless vampire will never spill any detail to them. They know that it is cruel to just invade the vampire's vulnerable mind just like that. However, they dislike being in the gray area, especially because they have no idea why Sage abruptly barged into Elijah's home two days ago boiling with rage and urge to kill them all.

"It's for the best, right?" Jin blurts out as he stares at Eleanor's nameless tombstone. The only words carved in it are 'The Good One.'

Guess Sage doesn't want to attract anyone's attention, huh?

"The more you force yourself to believe into something, the less likely it is to come true." Elijah answers.

Jin smirks. It feels like a parasite's eating his heart—rotting it.

"It's what guilty people do." They're guilty, that's what Jin is implying. What he told Sage is the truth—that he isn't a bad vampire, that he didn't bite Eleanor for the sake of revenge. It just happened that he was out of choices. It's either kill or be killed. The latter can't happen again. Jin can't bear to be trapped into the phantasm spell anymore. It was plain hell, perhaps hell is better compared to that stupid spell.

"So you admit? We're guilty?" Elijah pushes.

"Doesn't mean I regret doing it." Jin turns away for the reason that looking at the tombstone hurt his eye.

Sage is right. He's a murderer as well. The ruthless vampire might be the one who ripped the enchantress' heart, but Jin was the one who hurt her heart. She only wanted Sage to kill her because the pain she felt was unbearable.

"I'm never coming back to this place." Jin walks away.

That was a lie. Both untouchables kept on coming back at Eleanor's grave to somehow lessen the guilt they feel. They visit at around one in the morning to make sure that Sage isn't around.

The ruthless vampire stays at the bar from eight to three am. His only way to alleviate the pain of losing the witch is by drinking. When he's intoxicated enough, he runs back to Eleanor's grave to cry. Both of the mind reader vampires have already memorized Sage' schedule since it only composed of two things: Sober crying over Eleanor and drunk crying over Eleanor.

Sage Alterio is pathetic.

On the seventh day of Eleanor's death, everything went wrong.

"Jin..." Jimin's adoptive father swallows hard when he sees her empty coffin. It appears like someone dug her grave since the coffin resurfaced. The tombstone is covered in soil too.

"S-She's gone," Elijah trembles.

Calming his heavy breathing, Jin thought of an excuse that somewhat makes sense.

"Sage probably moved her body somewhere else."

"Our informant literally told us that Sage is currently drinking his ass off at a bar." That's how careful Elijah and Jin are. They compelled a waitress to keep an eye on Sage while they visit Eleanor's grave.

"Maybe he moved her body a little while ago." Jin is still making excuses and it causes Elijah to huff in frustration.

"Are we just really going to believe your baseless speculation?"

"What's wrong with it? You're the one who's so convinced that Sage is finally moving on."

"I didn't say he got over her! He's diverting his attention! That's what I thought when our informant told us that he's taken interest on that bartender!" Hope. That's the name of the bartender if Elijah remembers it right.

Jin sighs. The only logical thing to do right now is to: "Fix this then. Make it appear like nothing weird happened while I go to the bar to read his mind. I'll let you know if Sage moved her body or if it's really stolen or whatever."

Elijah nods his head in agreement. He puts the coffin back to its original place and then he starts covering it with soil. He's in the middle of work when his phone vibrates.

Jin called to say that Sage didn't move the witch's body. Elijah panics more, he then tells the vampire on the other line to keep the ruthless vampire distracted as he buries an empty coffin. Elijah even compelled some human beings just to make things easier and faster.

Sage can never know that the enchantress' body is missing; otherwise he'll go crazy and kill thousands of innocent mortals. Elijah knows that his best friend's way of coping up with loss is pretty brutal.

"He won't know, right?"

Jin shakes his head as a response to Elijah's question. They're watching Sage talk to Eleanor's tombstone in a distance. A week has passed since the two mind readers covered up the fact that the witch's body is missing.

Sage looks normal. He's still grieving and getting drunk every passing day, but that's fine as long as he's not killing anyone.

"I'm never coming back here." Jin turns away, this time, he means it.

"Dad, are you okay?" Elijah's been pulled back to reality when Jimin holds his hand. He is staring into the space.

"Yeah," the hybrid's father blinks and instead of lashing out, he just ignores Jennie's revelation. Who cares about the ridiculously expensive floor mat when Sage's on the verge of relapsing again? Elijah saw it. He saw how his friend's eyes darkened as he revealed that Ellie's body is gone.

It's going to be a nightmare. Why did he even let Sage leave last night? That ruthless vampire is clearly destructive.

"Something wrong?" Jin nudges Elijah's shoulder.

It's two in the afternoon now. Jennie and Jackson finally stopped bickering and Jimin is busy watching some Netflix movie. No one knows that Elijah is losing his mind over a grieving vampire.

"Stupid question," Jin raises his hands as if surrendering. He takes a sit beside Elijah. "Sage Alterio was here last night. Obviously, something's wrong."

Jin can just read Elijah's mind if he wishes to know what's up, but if he wants vampires to trust him, he should wait and make them feel comfortable enough to share their thoughts to him. Yes, Jin desires to change for the better.

"Sage found out that Eleanor's not inside the coffin—" he pauses mid-sentence to examine Jin's passive expression. "You don't seem surprised."

Jin didn't even bat an eye.

"Kinda figured it out when you asked us to leave last night," he shrugs his shoulders. "By the way, the rogues were wondering why I suddenly dragged them out of the house, so naturally I would—"

"Lie. Yeah I get that part, just go straight to the point."

"Well," Jin looks hesitant at first. (Un)Fortunately, Elijah's glare is enough to make him spill the truth.

"I couldn't keep them out of the house on my own, so I brought Jimin with us. For entertainment purposes, w-we made your son drink human blood."

"You did not," Elijah says almost immediately, his face feels hot. "I told Jimin to stay inside his room."

"Yeah, but I kind of convinced him to come with us."

The very first untouchable groans.

"Please tell me my son didn't kill anyone."

"Relax. We went to an underground boxing match. The boxers were already bleeding when we found them so Jackson made Jimin suck his dripping blood. He didn't bite him and oh!" Jin clasps his hands together and smirks. "He even put an adhesive bandage on the boxer's wound!"

This warms Elijah's heart. His little boy grew up well.

"You're just like Sage, Jin." The father lets out a hearty laugh. "You make my son do crazy stuff."

"Sage and I are not the same."

The atmosphere changes and Elijah regrets the words that rolled out of his tongue. Damn it. He forgot how Jin despises being compared to Sage.

Elijah opens his mouth to retract his statement; howbeit Jin's already walking away from him.

Some might say that Jin is overreacting, but no one can truly blame him. Jin strives so hard to be a different kind of vampire. All his life, he tried to be good, to be selfless. His principles only changed because of inevitable circumstances. Things wouldn't have been force majeure if Sage excluded Jin to his miserable life.

Jin's entire effort to be good went away. Right now, he's everything he doesn't want to be. He's everything that Sage is: murderer, manipulative, and selfish.

But can Sage still be considered selfish when in spite of the pain he feels, he still manages to pull his s**t together and show up in front of Hope's house in the middle of the night?

Sage sighs as he presses the doorbell again. By the fifth ring, the door finally swings open—revealing a crying witch.

"I brought the potion for your brothe..." The ruthless vampire trails off the moment he comes face to face with Hope.

"Sage!" She whines. "Limuel ran away!"

She sobs even harder. Normally, Sage wouldn't care, but Hope sounds so lonely that he can't help but wrap his hands around her waist. The vampire lets out a sigh of relief the moment their bodies touch—a warm feeling floods through his system because after a very long time, he finally found someone who's broken as he is and that's enough to bring him peace.