A Song of Grief

Lucine tapped his foot, clicking his tongue in distaste. "This really isn't good enough from you, Raifu."

"From me?" Raifu looked away, brushing her ginger hair behind her ears. "Does that mean it is good enough for someone else?"

"Nevermind." Lucine rolled his eyes. "You're ginger. I should lower the bar a bit."

"It's literally just my hair!" Raifu's tail started moving around. "I'm sorry for not being a shapeshifter."

Lucine raised his eyebrows. "You do have a point." He felt a shiver run down his spine. "I'd be pretty upset too if I got put into the body of a ginger." Lucine eyed her tail. "This isn't your actual body, is it?"

Raifu's tail calmed down. "N-no, it's not." Raifu waved her hands infront of his face. "And what are you staring at my tail for?"

He rolled his eyes. "It's the prettiest part of you. I'm glad your tail isn't ginger as well."

Raifu crossed her arms. "Your thing for gingers is getting really annoying."

"I think the point is that I don't have a thing for gingers."

"You know what I mean!" Raifu looked around them quickly. "A-Also, on the topic of tails..." She shifted around uncomfortably. "There's this thing this girl told me a while back and...uH... What do you think tails are used for?"

Lucine stared at her blankly.

Raifu stared back.

"What...tails are used for?"

"Yeah! She never really told me so like, i was wondering...Well, no, she said you used it when you were..." She cleared her throat, going beet red. "In bed, and like, how does that even happen? If guys had tails it would make more sense but its the girls so-"

Lucine held up a hand, putting her to a stop. "Why're you acting like such a baby? It's not even that embarrassing so calm down." He thought back to the 'research' he had done before. "Uh, so basically..."

There was a moment of silence.

"Yeah, nah I don't really know."

"T-That's a lie!" Raifu said, tail stiff. "You know, don't you? Tell me!"

Lucine looked away, eyes twitching. "Don't chat to me about lies. I really don't know."

"What does that mean?? And plus, you said it wasn't embarrassing, so just tell me!"

"It's tough to say out loud, okay?" Lucine pushed her away, composing himself. "Ok, I'll tell you, but let's have a trade of knowledge. I'll tell you about the lewd tail stuff, and you tell me everything you know about demons and stuff. Deal?"

Raifu's tail wrapped around her. "Deal, but do you really-"

"Yeah, whatever, I agree, can you tell me already?"

She glared at him, thinking for a second. "Humans... Are basically demons..." She paused

"For real? That's crazy."

"Shut up! Humans are demons with no tail, no wings, and..." She hesitated grabbing her tail to stop it from moving about. " Yeah, that's about it. They were seen as these sort of dealers, and they'd take your soul for something... I don't really know."

Lucine sighed. "Have you got anything to add?"

She looked away, firm grip on her tail. "N-No. That's it."

The setting sun cast an orange tint over the both of them.

Lucine stretched out his arms. "That's useless information, you know?"

Raifu looked a bit embarrassed. "Y-you asked for everything I knew..."

"Guess I did." Lucine brushed a hand through his hair, stroking his horns as he came across them, feeling every little dent in them. "I do have one more question though." He detached himself from the wall, turning to face her properly. "About the humans."

"Yeah? W-What is it?"

"You said they were missing tails and wings." He held out two fingers on his hand. "That's only 2. From what I remember, there was just one more small thing they were missing."

Raifu's eyes widened. "Remember f-from where? What else are they missing?"

"You don't remember?" A smile crept onto his face, his eyes gleaming a hypnotising gold. "Well, let me rephrase the question."

He unfolded his wings, casting a shadow on the trembling Raifu, dark apart from a sickening yellow glow.

Raifu forced a shaky smile." Lucine? What are you-"

He slammed his arm onto the wall next to her heard, pressing her up against it.

She gasped as he grabbed her chin,gently tilting her face up, so that the two of them were looking completely eye to eye. Her empty eyes, the ones he'd been so scared of before, were wide and frozen as he stared into her.

"How did the demons describe their eyes?"

He brushed aside a stray hair from her face, getting even closer to her.

"Were they not given a description? Were they colours I'd recognise? Were they colours that demons would recognise? Or..."

His wings curved inwards, keeping her trapped in his grasp

"Were they empty, like yours?"

Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. Her chest heaved up and down as her breath got faster and faster. Golden. Glowing. Cold. . Was this really-

"Lucine?"

The voice from behind jolted the two of them out of their trance. He turned around, seeing Asrin standing there with a conflicted expression on her face. His heart skipped a beat.

"A-ah, hey there Asrin..."

Raifu detached from the wall, whimpering as she slumped to the floor.

Asrin's tail was wrapped tightly around her waist, as she struggled to look Lucine in the eyes.

"So, uhm..." She started. "Nice day today."

"Yeah it's-uh, nice." He swallowed. "What were you doing out here?"

She scratched her head. "Just, you know, wandering, doing stuff." She glanced at Raifu, who had gone as red as her hair. "You...I, uh" She coughed very loudly. "You guys having fun?"

There was silence for a bit.

"Asrin, whatever you're thinking-"

She slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'll be off now."

"Wait, sloW DOWN WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?"

Poor, poor Lucine, and his tangled love affairs. If only he hadn't tried to scare Raifu, this wouldn't be a problem at all.

But wait, hold on. This really wasn't a problem at all. He, after all, longed for the human Asrin. Whatever that demon did or thought wasn't his problem. This was the demon Lucine's problem. He could just fuck off, and get back home, and go back to courting his Asrin.

But the demon Lucine would talk to human Asrin as well.

Maybe not even talk.

Maybe.

A bit

More.

His mind raced with the various scenarios that grew and blossomed like poisonous flowers in his head. The mere memory of the look on her face was enough to twist his love-stricken heart. Okay, don't look at me like that. Perhaps i'm exaggerating a little, but I'm not lying when i say something primal fought in his heart for him to chase after her. But the conflict and shame inside of him fought harder against it, and he unfolded his shaking wings.

"Fuck." He grabbed his horns, slumping beside Raifu.

They both sat there breathing heavily for a second, as you do after your crush mistakes you terrorising her friend for the two of you flirting.

"So..." Lucine cleared his throat, trying to throw everything that had happened out of his mind. "I think it'd be best if you gave me your number."

Raifu stared at him, breathing heavily with wide eyes.

"No- what? Not like that." He sighed, covering his face with his hands. "Just so that in the future i don't have to spend so long looking for you." He stood up, looking over at where Asrin had ran away.

"A-Ah, yeah, okay." She said, standing up alongside him.

Lucine took out his phone, surprised that Demon Lucine had the same password as him. Plot convenience really is a force to be reckoned with.

There wasn't much else to do for them both, and it was getting late. The street lamps flickered on above them as the half moon began to rise. And with that, they bid each other an admittedly awkward farewell, and went their own ways.

***

Raifu breathed a sigh of relief, confident that she'd gotten far away from Lucine. Was it really her fate to meet such scary people?

And it looked like both Asrin and Lucine had a thing for each other. She wrapped her arms around herself as a chill went down her spine. Yeah, psychos should stick together. She felt bad immediately afterwards, and apologised to nobody in particular. Isn't she just adorable?

And, in the chaos, she had never learnt what the tail actually did.

Annoying, but she didn't really want to go back and talk to Lucine about it. What if he tried pulling something else on her? Her mind ran through all the possible scenarios, all of them sharing the idea of Lucine "teaching" her how to use her tail. A terrifying thought that she wanted to banish from her mind.

The hair on her skin pricked up, her tail immediately stiffening up. She could smell something. Something that smelt familiar, and she couldn't figure out whether it smelt good or bad.

She made her decision. Whatever it was, she wasn't taking any chances.

Just as she was about to run, the smell grew stronger, spiking her nose.

It smelt like...her mother?

She spun around, looking frantically for the source of the smell. The moon's light proved useless as she searched to no avail.

But there was another smell in the air as well. While her mother seemed to be in front of her, this smell came from behind her. The scents could have been identical, but there was something else mixed in it.

Blood.

Legs shaking, heart thumping, she opened her mouth to scream for her mother.

A thick mass flowed into her open mouth, wrapping around her face like some sort of liquid gag. Her hand flew up to her mouth, trying to claw it out, choking, gagging on the thick tentacles suffocating her. It wouldn't budge.

Before she could do anything else, she felt something bind her legs, and with teary eyes she felt them collapse.

With a muffled scream, she fell to the floor, writhing around in a desperate struggle to escape. The mass expanded to cover her nose, cutting off her breathing and slowly suffocating her.

And the smells.

The smells mixed and blended together, a mixture of blood, fear, and that hellish familiarity she screamed to save her.

A laugh cut through her muffled cries. She clamped her eyes shut, her heart thumping as if it wanted to burst out from her chest and run. The language he spoke wasn't English, but Raifu understood it well enough. She was left in no doubt of who this man was.

"What's the matter, darling sister? Could it be you know you can't move?" He hummed a joyful tune. "I'm sorry to be so rough, but I need some protection. I still remember last time. And from what I've seen, this cute little thing is one of the last people you have left."

She couldn't see him at all, but she could picture him leaning closer to her.

"Such pretty red hair." He stroked her hair, with sickeningly inappropriate gentleness. "It looks just like that bastard's. Why do you stay so attached to them? " He sucked in his breath. "I never understood any of your sentiments."

The tentacles tightened harder, but the pain was the last thing on her mind. The floor swam before her as her tail stiffened up. Her lungs burnt and her throat felt parched and dry. Wasn't suffocation meant to be painless?

"None of this was needed." There was a sickening crunch, and a groan of relief "And now, after all you've done, you've been reduced to playing around with the souls of demons and humans For what? Surely you don't think it'll help you kill me?" There was a wet slap, as if a piece of flesh had been dropped to the ground, as the man laughed once more. "Bitter woman. Let's see who wins this game, shall we?"

She could get out if she wanted to.

She could still fight.

But the smell kept her from moving. That same hellish familiarity kept her shackled, the same thing she counted on to save her. She struggled and struggled but her arms wouldn't move like she wanted them to. Tears of fear and frustration clawed their ways out of her empty eyes.

The man fell silent and she felt the wet touch of his hands on her hair.

She couldn't hold on for much longer.

"There was a song you sang, after you nearly killed me. I heard you sing it for hours and hours, or maybe it just seemed that way." He stroked her hair gently, as the last of her strength faded from her body. "I loved it. I'd never heard you sing so beautifully before."

Raifu slipped into unconsciousness, her tear-stained face relaxing as the suffocation overtook her.

"Is this girl enough for you to sing it again, Vesperi."