1 A Falling Desire

"Where's Mr.Edward?" No one even dared to answer her question so she repeats it focusing an answer to a girl seating at the last row near the window.

The girl caught the attention she was given, she frowns her eyebrows and curls her lips as she thinks that it was a rhetorical question.

"I don't know ma'am, maybe he ditched out…"

At the old school warehouse

"the bitch's looking for him, it must be their homeroom!" the boy with a smug-looking face shows his phone to another guy beside him, making them laugh.

"what are you looking at loser!!?" his leg kicked someone who is lying on the floor, the soles of his shoe prints a mark on the face of the boy who has blood coming out from his nose.

"you fucking dog!!" he continues to kick the other person, "I allowed you to touch my girl 'cause her parents are bitching! Who told you to control her huh! You're just my dog! This Fucker!!"

*bruaghhh*

He was cornered on the wall and the kick landed on his stomach, the boy barfed his lunch on the cement where he is lying only to shake in fear further curling his back to the cold wall.

A living hell.

If his life could be summarized, it could be the perfect description. His childhood was not exempted, born from poverty, his parents abandoned him without any memories to remember. He learned to live independently with his drunkard uncle who pretty much neglects him.

His high school life must have been normal if it wasn't for him being too impressionable.

The gesture that he thought to be helping turns out to be a one-way ticket to hell.

Aziel realized that it's already dark when he opened his eyes. His stomach begins to feel sharp pain with his whole body aching all over.

He might've fainted through his beating.

Suddenly, something flew to his face. It might've hit him if he hadn't got up immediately.

A bag, and the one who threw it was Nhaia, his girlfriend,

or so they say…...

"Fucking assholes! I said not to overdo it, my mom would be irritatingly persistent about this!" Nhaia throws a pack of band-aids to Aziel. The boy thanked her and patches his face quickly.

Nhaia David is the crème of the crop. Aziel helped her once as she got lost her way in the campus since she was newly transferred. He didn't know that behind the face of an angel was a cruel woman who likes to see someone weaker than her suffering.

Nhaia had a boyfriend from the lower class who's a member of an infamous gang around the city.

The woman made him agree to act as his boyfriend to cover up her actions from her parents. Especially being connected with an infamous gang since her parents are famous lawyers and doctors in the region.

It all started with his will to help people who needed it like him.

But as time passes,

His eyes changed how it looks at the world.

The only thing that brings him temporary comfort was Nhaias' parents. As the two people cherished him like their own son. Giving him memories that could be remembered even if it was just made-up, even if someday, the same smile would become curses as the truth becomes clear.

"how long do I have to do this…?" Aziel asks with his small voice,

Nhaia is sending him off when he mustered up the courage to ask.

The woman touches Aziels' face, tracing his jawline and softly touching his lips. Aziel flinches making the woman laugh.

"hahaha!! This fucker? I can end this if I want and it's so easy! But it means, your make-believe world would be gone don't ya' think??"

Nhaia slaps his face, waving and asking him to walk away from their house.

As the boy approaches his house, scattered bottles of alcohol are on the doorstep.

"I told you don't come back!!!"

Aziel opens the door and a stuffing smell escapes the room. It might be too dim, but he can see silhouettes of people cooking something and women on the floor. His uncle approaches him at the doorstep yelling at him to get out.

All of a sudden and Aziel realized that the door has been locked.

It happened a few times already. He knows he should be reporting his uncle. But he's just terrified of what he can do to him after.

Miserable.

Lonely.

His brain sometimes stops thinking.

Feeling lightheaded like his being separates from his body.

Maybe because he just accepted it,

Like when your beliefs got crushed on after seeing the reality head-on.

And it was so fast that you can't even think of how to face it.

After another crushing defeat, you'll get tired eventually and just let those pieces fall to the ground.

One after another.

Aziel follows a truck coming at high speed on the road.

For a second thought, maybe he did not accept it. A reality without any beliefs, he did not accept it.

And it felt like, he's just falling infinitely from a building waiting for the ground to break his body apart.

Waiting…

His feet move, and the truck driver who's losing from sleep didn't notice the person in front of him.

"Hey, kid!"

Aziel opens his eyes,

He saw an image of an angel, with long heavenly wings and a majestic face.

The man lets him down his arms,

And the light from the street lamp showed the creatures' true form.

"I'm Acrasia, the embodied desires of humans."

It's as if he had seen a greek god, with its black wings and sculptured body. The man who named himself Acrasia changed its form into a human being.

"I will save you, so offer me your desires..."