9 R 1 2

Having the monster's back in my face made my other major problem come to surface. The urge to touch wasn't going away. I clenched the jaw. It was clear as day – he'd done something to me. This was more than an attraction, because there could hardly be one at all with this alien thing. No, this felt more like withdrawal. Draw to repeat the high. And this inclination fell right under the malicious entity's jurisdiction.

To say I was struggling was an understatement. I could somewhat disregard it before, especially with all the other matters pressing onto my plate, but this was right in front of me now. My impulse control was subpar on a good day and I normally wasn't one to restrain my urges in first place. That was more of a personality flaw than a professional hazard if I was being honest, but all of that was working against me now.

I chewed on my lip aggressively to get my mind off it. Wasn't working. Concentrated on reasons why getting involved with this creature any further would be a bad idea.

I hated him. This was just another arrogant bastard trying to rule over me. The craving could get worse. It would make it even easier for him to push me around… but it's not like I could offer up much resistance anyhow. 

Most importantly, creature isn't human, why would I even want to go down that route? I would not be attracted to trout, no matter how it would feel… right? Pin on that one for reluctant later consideration. I definitely did not need any more questionable traits.

Eventually, the creature will end up dismembering and eating me – not necessarily in that order, so why am I even considering this? Hold - shouldn't I be wringing out every last drop of joy I could while I could then? Scratch this part out, it doesn't belong.

In any case, monster's human parts weren't even his. He already admitted to stealing some poor sap's boots along with the legs. Was it because he's got fetish for feet or just the worn shoes? Pin on this one too, something to be worked up to. You don't simply slam people with questions like this, that was plain rude.

"So… whose arms are those?" I blurted out smoothly instead. The sun was leaning heavily towards the west. Perhaps I should just sleep.

"Mine," he said unhelpfully and I held in a reaction. Great success.

"Very nice," I complimented with as little sarcasm as possible. "I can see you've gotten into a lot of brawls with them. I personally wouldn't have thought punching monsters in the face does much damage."

"It doesn't," horned menace confirmed and did not elaborate. I did not enjoy the taste of my own medicine. My housemates would love this. "What's wrong with them?" Monster asked after I gave up and piped down.

What an odd question. Hands were hands. "The hands? Nothing. They're fine," I said casually admiring some poor dead man's severed limbs.

"Yet you can clearly tell they don't belong," monster hissed in the wind.

Air left me in a big whoosh. Well, he wasn't wrong. Even besides the glaringly obvious reasons…

"You don't look like someone who'd do a lotta punching or would bother evading a haymaker. You're far too still. You'd strangle, or just knife people," I explained and fell quiet upon realising he wasn't a human, so he would not be doing any of those things. Did that even make sense to him?

Another glance downwards told me he had gleamed something from the tirade. It was an entirely different limb. I scooped it up to examine closer. The fingers were scarless and stubby. Strong. Perhaps he'd assumed strangling needs physical strength. The way he'd do it – probably. One-handedly.

"Longer fingers. Thinner," I said and it changed again. Slightly too elegant for the dirty job, but he pulled off arrogant upper-class bastard flawlessly anyway. A shiver threatened to run down my back as I realised I was holding onto him. Let go. "Not that it matters. Why are you even bothering to appear human? Especially with such minute details."

"I'm yet to successfully imitate your kind. Somehow you can always tell," monster whispered.

I finally permitted myself to snort. "Nobody's gonna mistake you for a human with that amazing rack."

He turned as if to look at me and I gasped. Then tripped, stopped and gaped some more. He ceased walking as well and turned to me fully. There was no crown of bone, no hood either. Short hair in the colour of ivory framed a face which looked back at me. Stared. Bore into my soul. The tense eyes jumped to my every twitch, and the intensity was unsettling. Languid blinking did nothing to dissuade the predatory impression.

There were traces of some kind of expression on it, but I couldn't tell what it was supposed to convey. It didn't help that it didn't shift at all, fixed in all the wrong places. Nose was flattened from being broken multiple times, but he wasn't ugly. Injury just gave the person an edge. But definitely not someone I'd hit up for spare change.

"Is this… who the hands… used to belong to?" I asked quietly, putting unnecessary amount of thought into phrasing.

The stranger smiled and I completely understood why creature was failing to blend in. It wasn't overly wide, toothy, nor sinister. Something was just off, even more so than when he did nothing with it. He stopped, as if noticing my reaction and said, "It's why we use mouths to do human things."

Puzzling expression went slack with surprise and the baffled stranger blinked rapidly couple of times. The face contorted into panic and turmoil. He looked around, crazed eyes finally letting my image slip from their captivity. I doubt he'd even seen me, being so frantic and dealing with all this new information. He was muttering something that sounded hell of a lot like nononono. Man's brows knitted into easily combustible outrage. It was a real human. Really unhappy, confused scrapper that towered me. My scrawny self started feeling quite blue all of a sudden as well.

Oof. What was I supposed to do with this brute in my path? He ate wimps like me for breakfast and not in the way I'd like. I stepped to the side as slowly as I dared and his delirious eyes affixed upon me. Well, fuck.

I made finger guns at him and said, "Good talk. Bye." Walked big circle around the fellow. His hand grabbed my elbow from way too far away and so hard there would definitely be a bruise if not an entire crack. I kept the emotions out of my face - best not to trigger any predatory instincts.

"Wait. What did I say?" man croaked with heavy accent.

Fuck. He was scary in a deranged, unpredictable and very violent way. Strange I did not feel like that about the monster at all. The latter was hands down entire new level of terrifying, but the stillness lulled my sense of danger. The demon put a lot of effort into his act. And fuck. I kind of wanted him back.

"Nothing, man. I just asked for directions."

"Am I supposed to go there too?" the twitchy madman muttered, as confused as me. "Where are you going again?"

"Away?" I struggled against the hold but there was no give, just pain. And more was coming – stranger raised his bruised up fist to smack me but fingers had unclenched and cupped my cheek instead. Pain dissipated and the other hand let go of me. My heartbeat calmed way too quickly and I stepped away to escape the touch. He flushed my fear but now anger was rising.

"Stop messing with my body," I snarled.

"I upset you and I fixed it," man with a stiff expression informed me.

"No! No, you didn't! That's not how that works!" Exhibit A – I was still quite upset.

"You wanted to be stressed?"

"Brother, ain't nothing about this situation is relaxing! Rubbing two braincells together won't make it feel okay!" Regardless of my plans and intentions, I snapped at him again. I could not suffer this injustice in quiet any longer. How foolish. Not like this would change anything.

Monster stared at me blankly with puzzling human face. "You know it will," he spoke in a gravely low voice and extended a hand for me to hold on to. I knew exactly what he was implying. There probably were several ways which would make me forget where I am whatsoever, but I had specifically decided to not be falling for his chemical trap.

I slapped his offered palm away. "No, you smug asshole! And undo whatever you've already done to me."

"Do you really want your charred body back?" the cold reminder of who exactly I was talking to slapped me in the face again. Behave, behave, I told myself. Check your shitty attitude. Fuck. I had to keep it together for two more days. It's all going to end in me soundlessly screaming on the church lawn, but I can definitely stave it off for that long. Ruby deserves that much.

"No. I'm sorry," I whispered meekly and turned away from the tense face I couldn't read. Silence was heavy. Might as well have one last smoke. Lit the cig, took a drag and held my breath.

"You ingest the smoke to calm down, killing your cells in the process. How is that better?"

I exhaled. "We don't live long anyway. What's the harm?" I, for example, was already living on borrowed time. The demon prolonged my suffering at least twice.

"You humans seethe aimless violence," he said and I was not smart enough to figure out what he wanted me to do about that. Concentrate it onto certain someone's face? Tempting, but not my style. Self-destruction was much more up to par.

Creature didn't seem pissed off, so I dared to voice some misgivings, "Take that face off. That guy's an asshole."

"You wanted to meet him."

"Nnnno. I wanted you to tell me about him."

"Words are up for interpretation. This was quicker and more informative."

Yeah, I doubt monster would have described the guy as an unstable lunatic. "Are they all like that?" I whispered quietly. Am I going to go mad in there? Duh. I was barely holding it together on a good day.

I exhaled deeply, watching him pull up the leathery hood. I realised he was using human gestures on purpose. I hadn't thought about it before, but he would probably need to masquerade in the city. That had to be daunting. Especially since he was smart enough to know he absolutely sucked at it.

"Did you want to practise passing for a human? 'Cause we can, I just…" hated looking at that murderous man's face while talking to him? Something of that sort. "… Didn't like that guy."

Monster shook his horned head.