A Daemon and His Work

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EquinoxSol

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Daemon Mixta Sanguis sits on a park bench.

He just sits there, watching the various men, women, and children pass by on the pathway. Some of them stare as they pass by, noticing the young man with long, pure white hair and piercing red eyes. They notice his clothes, relatively torn and worn, but nice nonetheless. He sighs, waiting for dusk to fall, so that he can do his deed in peace. He fingers the folded up slip of paper in his pants pocket.

Sitting there, he contemplates his new master, would he be cruel, like his father, or kind, would he force him to do the horrid things the vampires made him? His apparent calmness turns to shakes and shivers, like an opium addict going into withdrawals. Even more stares, and murmurs. A Scotland Yard officer passes by, giving him an odd look, one that said, Should I really take in this homeless boy?

Beneath his shirt were old scars and healing cuts: he had only escaped the vampires a week ago, and there was no doubt in his mind that they were still looking for their 'weapon of mass destruction,' as they so often called him.

The boy looks at the sky, gauging the time of day from the sun. 3:30. He still has a long time before nightfall. His posture is straight, his demeanor of one who has been brought up well, even if it was a lie. Sighing out of boredom, Mixta takes a sketch pad and pencil from his bag, and begins drawing the expanse of the park. When he is finished, the sun is already dipping below the trees, and there aren't any people in the immediate vicinity.

Putting away his sketch pad and tucking his pencil behind his ear, he placed a wire between his teeth and began climbing the tree that grew over the bench. On a branch that hung over the pathway, he strung up the paper on the string and tied the string to the branch, hanging it over the path.

The boy stays there, waiting until the next person comes by. That person will be his next master, commandant, whatever, and will order him about as such. He'd never been in the spirit state, but had heard that his new master would not see him until the Deal was made. He sighs, his eyes fluttering as he dozes slightly.
 
Yuuki walked through the park, her slender arms holding the long, dusky pink cardigan tight around her body. It was a little too large and the sleeves tended to drape over her hands, but she didn't mind. At least it was warm against the breeze. It went down to the middle of her thighs, completely hiding the dress that she wore beneath, which was black and so thin it was obviously meant for sleeping in. She wore a plain black pair of flats and her dark brown hair was in a braid that fell over her shoulder. A few pieces had escaped to frame her pale face, highlighting her odd purple eyes. She kept glancing behind her nervously, but this entire place seemed deserted.


It was while she was looking back that she ran into something. Obviously too small to be a person, the object still made her flinch and whirl around. She blinked a few times, staring at the dangling paper that was just at eye level. Why was this hanging from the tree? She looked all around again, not seeing or hearing anybody near. Perhaps it was a clue in some sort of game children had been playing earlier in the day. Her curiosity got the better of her and she moved back in closer, her thin fingers holding the paper to steady it long enough for her to read it.


'Hello. You, my somewhat lucky or maybe not so lucky friend..'


She read it in silence, her expression turning to curiosity. Was this some sort of joke? It seemed like pure insanity. She wondered at the name, Mixta Sanguine. So foreign. How could a person possibly remember that when they were about to die? She frowned and shrugged, moving to walk around it when a shock of pain filled her. A startled gasp slipped from her lips and she looked down, hands shaking as she saw the tip of a bloodied blade sticking out of her belly. He had found her.
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As he heard the girl approach, he startled awake, shaking the tree slightly, but that could be accounted for as the wind. How curious, he thought, a girl, out at this hour. But, nevermind, I've work to do. The young Daemon watched her read the note, and he found himself shaking again with...anticipation? Fear? Taking the small knife from his bag, he unsheathed it, steeling himself for one more kill, even if she would still live.

To his slight disappointment, she didn't take the note, but kept walking. Take a breath, he told himself, following his own instructions, jump down...NOW!

He leapt down from his branch, landing silently. He crept behind her, stepping when she stepped as to not make a noticeable noise. In his mind, he gauged at what position he should stab her so that she would be alive long enough to say the Call. Lower-middle back, he thought. He raised his weapon, its long, skinny blade shining in the moonlight. How could she not hear him? He thought to himself. Taking one last, silent breath before the moment came, he thrust the knife into her, seeing its tip poke out of her stomach.

"Shh," He commanded, "don't scream." He withdrew the knife, discarding it before helping her lay on the ground. Finding she was no older than he, he preformed a double-take, then got to business. "Do you want to live, girl, or are you accepting death? You haven't much time, answer me, quickly, before you die and I have to do this again. If you want to live, repeat after me: 'Here I stand upon my grave, and here I call--' He stopped, finding he could not say the name the vampires gave him. "My name, say the name on the paper. I cannot say it, you must, but only if you wish to live."
 
Trembling as she stared down at the blade, she wasn't prepared for the voice that came along with it. Wait, who was that? It wasn't who she expected. Where was the one who had been after her? She couldn't imagine why somebody else would want to kill her. As the knife was pulled out of her, she gasped and half collapsed, being helped to the ground by a figure she had never seen before in her life. She looked up at him in confusion, struggling not to think of the pain. It was hard to even focus on what he was saying, but she got the gist. He was claiming to be the person in the note she had read, the one that hung from the tree. What had it said? Something about wishes or something. Fairytale nonsense.


She pressed her hand to the rapidly bleeding wound on her stomach and realized that she felt cold. This wasn't good, she was going to die here, thanks to some lunatic that she didn't even know. Her thoughts began evolving and she wondered if it would really be such a bad thing to die. She was going to be killed anyway, why not just accept it now and give up? No, she couldn't give up. It would give him too much satisfaction to have her dead.


"Here I s-stand.. upon my grave," she stuttered out slowly, her life fading fast. She could feel herself losing her grip on consciousness quickly, and she struggled to remain in reality. "And here I c-call.." she continued on slowly. The name came to her mind, but then it dissolved as though she had never known it. She couldn't focus on him any longer and felt as though she were freezing, but still she forced herself to breathe.
 
"No, no, no, I won't let you die." The Daemon almost shouted, leaping up to tear the paper from the string. He quickly unfolded it, ripping it in once place.
He knelt by her side again, "Hold my hand," he told her, because doing so would allow him to focus his energies through her. Not enough to save her, but enough for her to stay alive long enough to read his name.

His red eyes flashed in the dark, shining on her. Holding the paper in front of her eyes, he willed her to see his name as if it was written in illuminated gold. "You can still see, right? When you die, it's feeling that goes first, then taste, then smell, then hearing, then sight." A breeze that affected no one but the Daemon blew threw, an aftereffect of her saying the Call halfway.

"Please," Tears were in his eyes, an odd sight for a Daemon, "if you die, then a large, bright light will expand from here," he pointed at his heart, "to nearly everywhere in England. It will only stay for a few seconds, but every damn vampire in the country will come for me. I cannot explain it now, nor am I asking for your pity, I'm just rambling..." He trailed off, not knowing what else to do.
 
Yuuki felt.. strange. It was the only way that she could accurately describe the feeling of dying to herself. She was cold and felt like the world was falling out from around her. It was completely miserable, and she found herself wondering why some people craved this. At points in her life, she had considered death, thinking that it might ease her pains. Yet death was so final, and she thought it would hurt. Now she was finding that it didn't hurt, but the numbness was far worse than that. She stared up at the boy kneeling next to her, the hand that wasn't laying on her wound in his. It was odd, though, because she couldn't feel his hand. There was no more sensation there than air.


She looked at the paper with a feeling of confusion, not understanding what he wanted from her. Feeling, taste, smell, hearing, sight. What step was she on? She started wondering how you could know if your taste was gone if you weren't eating or drinking anything, but then her thoughts were diverted as the boy began speaking again. Her eyes rose to meet his again and she knew she was nearly gone. His voice was barely a murmur, a faint sound in the background that she couldn't focus on, nor understand. Around the edges of her vision was a blackness that was beginning to spread.


Her eyes moved back to the paper, her pulse so slow it was a wonder her heart was even still beating. She saw the name and suddenly knew why he was holding this paper here. It was the name from before, the one that she had been supposed to say.


"Mixta Sanguine," she stuttered out, her voice quieter than a whisper. With that, she passed out cold.
 
He felt the power of her last two words rush through him. Feeling himself disappear until he was invisible, he was thrown into the spirit state, and he saw her.

She was lying horizontally in the impossibly dark expanse that was the spirit state. Her clothes were off, but a red cloth covered her. It hung down, as if she was suspended in the air.

"You're safe now." He said, his unseen voice resonating all around her. "The spirit state will slow your heartbeat down so much that you will stop bleeding. Do not panic." He sighed, "This is where the Contract is made. From my understanding, it is this: I will be your pawn to control until the day you die. I am sorry for this to have happened to you. On the day you die, your soul will go to neither Heaven nor Hell. It resides inside of me, afterwards. I'm not really sure of the whole thing myself."

He took a deep breath. "For the Contract to be made--and you can stop me at any time, and I'll let you go on, into death--you choose a spot on your body. The more visible it is, the greater the binds of the Contract are. A blood seal will be made there, and it will never go away. Mine will always be on my right hand. Yours is wherever you want it." He stopped, waiting for her say in all of this.
 
Yuuki suddenly realized that the stars above that gave off such a faint light were gone. She also noticed that she couldn't see anything but blackness, and that the natural sounds of the park were gone. So this was death, was it? It felt.. awful. Knowing that she had died and that she could not longer affect things in the living world was a hard pill to swallow. Before she could get too upset, however, she heard a voice. It startled her and she sat up rapidly, holding the red cloth to her chest once she realized that she was naked. She didn't know what she was sitting on or where the cloth came from, but she wasn't very interested in all of that compared to the voice.


She listened as he told her not to panic, and that she was safe. He was speaking of some sort of contract, reminding her of the paper she had read. This must be the boy who had stabbed her, the one who had her read the paper and speak the words that didn't quite make sense. He was telling her that he would be hers to control until she died - wait, she wasn't dead? Odd. She did frown when he claimed to be sorry. If he was sorry, then he wouldn't have nearly killed her. What was the point? He wanted to be a slave? She was about to ask, but then he said he would somehow get her soul when she died. After he spoke of the seal, she knew she had to say something.


"You aren't even sure how this whole thing works and you just nearly killed me anyway? Does that really seem like a good idea to you?" she asked, but she wasn't angry or demanding. She just felt sad and hopeless, struggling to understand how somebody could do such a thing. Looking down at her lap despondently, she just shrugged slightly. "Put the seal wherever, it doesn't matter," she added in a murmur.
 
For a second, he was taken aback, not knowing how to respond. Finally, he said, "You want something. Every human does. While I do not know the how of the process, I know what becomes of it." He paused, listening to her last few words. "I cannot decide where the seal goes. Only you can do it." Whereever the seal was placed, if anyone else saw it and was not killed within five minutes, the full knowledge of Daemons would flood into their mind, and could possibly ruin the entire race.

"You want me to tell you the real reason I'm doing this? I could care less about your petty human soul. I'm going to all this trouble to protect myself. The damned vampires can't touch me if my obligations as a Daemon are in effect." The Daemon's voice became more childish, less like a Daemon and more like a human. "I need this to stay sane..." He trailed off. "I'm not human like you. I think you're smart enough to know that. I'm Daemon, but I'm not fully that either. I'm also a vampire. Both races have ties to me, and both races want what lies inside of me. The only way I can stay safe is through you."

"But, of course, you don't care. You're just a human. So, what is it you want, and where should the seal go?" He said, instantly going back to business.
 
For a few minutes Yuuki was completely silent as she listened to him speak to her about how she had to decide where to put the seal, and about how he didn't care for her. She listened as he spoke of the threat of vampires and how he wasn't human, which she had guessed. As he told her what his race was - or rather, races - she simply continued to listen, not even nodding in acknowledgement. She didn't say a single word until he was silent and waiting for an answer about the seal.


"You claim not to care about my soul. You say I am just a human. Yet I am the one you are relying on to retain your sanity and not be captured by the vampires. You are relying on 'just a human' to give you safety," she pointed out quietly. How ironic. "Next time you do this, I would try to be a bit kinder to the person you want to keep you in one piece. Even if they are just a lowly human," she added, then turned slightly and gestured to the back of her shoulder. "Here, I suppose, for the seal."


She fell silent again as she waited for him to respond and apply the seal, having no idea what it would even look like or what he would say. It seemed so absurd, what he was doing. He almost killed her too quickly to say what the paper had said, and now he was admitting that he had only a faint idea of what he was doing. Add that to his mentality about humans and his need to stay safe through her, and he might as well be a shaken up maze.


"What I want is for my mother to not be sick anymore."
 
As soon as she indicated where she wanted the seal to go, it formed, appearing as a circle made of elongated diamonds. Inside the circle, a pentagram was seen, surrounded by intricate Daemonic language. It was the color of moonlight, a larger star encompassing the circle of diamonds. "It's there, now." He whispered, not sure what else to say.

Finally, after a seemingly endless moment of silence, "You must choose a name for me. That is why we haven't been pulled out of the spirit state. I apologize for my previous statements, my young master." he said, knowing the effects of the Contract were coming into play. "They were rash, and done in a time of weakness, something I should hope will never happen again." Now, he was proper and respectful, knowing if the Contract should break, something terrible would happen. The Contract's binds manacled him as soon as she pointed out where she wanted the seal.

"If you do not choose a name for me, young master, you will keep on calling me by my Daemon name, which will continue sending us into the spirit state. Choose whatever you would wish, my master. I am simply your servant now, bound to your wishes by the seal we now share."
 
A name? She wasn't really sure how to take any of this anymore. It was like gaining a pet - one that kept tripping over himself and apologizing. She wondered if he were being sincere or if he just felt that he should fake it to satisfy the one he was bound to. Probably the later, nobody chose to be nice and polite to her. She cast her mind about for a name that would suit him, but of course it was impossible to really do that since she barely knew him. Running a hand over her face, she tried to remain focused and not start thinking about the fact that she had just sold her soul just to keep living. Her life wasn't even of value, why had she bothered?


"Samael," she finally said, not bothering to explain what it meant or why she had chosen it. If he didn't know, then it didn't matter. Actually, if he did know, it still didn't matter from what she had gathered. Her decisions from now on. What a horrid feeling.


"And please, don't call me master, or young master, or anything like that. My name is Yuuki," she added softly, shifting a bit and adjusting the red cloth that hid most of her body from view. She fell silent after that, not really knowing what to say. What was she supposed to do now? Go on living with him following her around? It'd make it harder to hide, but she supposed having a second person could be useful sometimes. "I'm not above you, you don't need to treat me as such. I was merely saying to not bite the hand of the only one offering you food," she pointed out quietly.
 
"Yes," he said, "my mas--uh, Yuuki."

A second passed after he finished talking, then he could feel himself being pulled out of the spirit state. Yuuki would stay there for maybe five minutes more, while her heart sped back up. He had that much time to get her to safety and patch her up. It would be like reverse dying, she'd go through the motions of dying, but regaining the senses, not losing them. It would be in the same order.

As soon as he could see again, and found that he was visible again, he picked Yuuki's body up in his arms, and ran off. Once they were in an alleyway, Samael took off his jacket, placing it beneath her body. He grabbed a needle and a spool of thread from his bag, broke off a long strand of thread, green no less, and looped it through the eye of the needle.

Counting down the seconds, he prayed she wasn't feeling anything yet. He lifted her dress up, trying to do so without looking, sewed up the front wound, where the knife poked out of, then he flipped Yuuki over. Bracing himself, he shoved his hand into the entrance wound, feeling gently if anything besides her skin was damaged. Biting his bottom lip, he found nothing wrong, only a chipped bone, and withdrew his hand. Taking another length of thread, he sewed up the entrance wound, cleaning his now-bloody hand on his shirt.

Her heart was beating faster now, and Samael could see her beginning to revive. "Don't try to move." He told her, not sure if she could hear him yet. "I know it hurts, I'll get some alcohol later to clean your wounds when the sun comes up."
 
After he disappeared and she was alone, Yuuki laid back down and stared up at the blackness. There was nothing to do now except wait, she figured. Something must be happening, something to pull her back to the world of the living. Of course, he could have been lying the entire time. This could just be a scheme to get her to sign away her soul and remain dead - or nearly dead, however he had described it. Then again, that didn't make sense since he hadn't just given up the ploy once she was here. She shrugged a little to herself, wondering if he could help her mother like she wanted.


With that thought in mind, she realized the blackness was starting to lighten. She could hear and faintly see things. Tall buildings on either side, making her surrounded by close walls. It was dark, but there were stars above and she could hear Samael telling her not to move. That was when she realized that she felt pain from where he had stabbed her. It ached badly, but she didn't flinch.


"I won't," she assured him after a moment, feeling a bit dizzy and disoriented but not bad enough to be nauseous. She shifted her weight a tiny bit and had to bite her lower lip to hold in a yelp of pain, but she managed to remain silent. Taking a slow breath, she forced herself to relax and tried to focus on other things instead. "So, are you just basically going to follow me around until I die now?" she asked, glancing at him as much as she could without moving her body.
 
"That's it in its most basic form." Samael nodded his affirmation. "My binds to the Contract force me to do what's in my power to keep you alive, as long as possible, no matter what may happen to me. If you are ever in danger when I am around, you simply say, 'Samael, this is an order: Save me.' or, if you need anything for any reason, you say the first part, then give whatever order you want. I am also bound to never lie to you, but I can just not tell you the truth. At least, that's what the book said." He smiled lightly, not sure what else to do. "I am bound to your every wish, no matter what it may be." He concluded. "I will do nothing unless your life is in danger or you haven't told me to do something."

Taking a leather bag of cheese and bread from his bag, he handed a slice of bread and some cheese to Yuuki, saying, "You must be hungry. Dying is no easy feat, neither is coming back like that. I checked while you were still in the spirit state: nothing will start falling out of your organs or anything." He chuckled a little at his inside joke. He stopped when he realized it wasn't funny. "So," he announces, trying to take her attention away from that, "even if you send me away, if I sense you dying, I will come to your aid immediately."
 
There were some holes that Yuuki noticed in what Samael was telling her. Some that could end up being deadly, she knew. For instance, the way he was speaking, the only way that he would lend a hand was if she said that it was an order and then described what she wanted. That was fine in times like these, but what would happen if she were in a situation when she couldn't speak? What if she had her throat cut by the one that she had thought ran her through when it was in fact Samael? Besides all that, she was a bit bothered by the fact that he pointed out he could not tell her the truth. She hadn't expected him to not be able to lie - in fact, she had rather thought that he'd probably lie to her all the time since everybody else always did. However, it was just the way that he felt the need to say it that made her think he was going to be dancing around the truth often. Wonderful.


"Okay," she managed, then looked up as he offered her food. She was surprised by the gesture, but she accepted it with a slight smile. "Thank you," she said, then fell silent as he mentioned checking on her. It was a disorienting thought, and she was glad for the distraction as he went on to say more. Nibbling on the cheese, she shook her head a little and swallowed. "I won't send you away. Not yet, anyway," she said. Halfway through the cheese and with a whole slice of bread left, she found that her appetite was gone. She felt tired and in too much pain to focus on eating. Setting the food aside on a somewhat clean crate, she laid her cheek on her arm, trying not to think about anything.
 
Samael smiled weakly, trying to cheer her up. Sighing, and figuring she wouldn't mind, he takes out his sketchpad and pencil and begins drawing her. Just the way she lies there, her eyes halfway closed, a slight frown on her mouth, makes her look picture perfect. He makes faces as he draws, a show of how much he cares for his work. How much he cares for anything he does.

Eventually, the sun rises, and Samael excuses himself after making sure it is alright with her. He quickly gets a bottle of alcohol from a hospital, counting off how many more hours Yuuki has until infection will set in, not long, now. Finding her still in the alleyway, he unstops the bottle, and tells her, "It's going to hurt worse than dying, maybe, but you have to push through so the infection doesn't start.

Holding his breath, he pours some of the bottle onto the healing stitches, then helps her turn over so he can do the other side. "Bear with me for just a few seconds longer."
 
Yuuki watched Samael as he pulled out a sketchpad, curious as to what he was doing. She was still exhausted and in a lot of pain, so she kept nearly falling asleep as she watched him. More than once she caught herself with her eyes closed, having drifted off for a few moments before waking herself up. Whenever she did wake, she would look up at Samael, watching him draw something. Even though he kept glancing at her, she didn't put the pieces together to realize that she was the subject of his sketch. She drifted off again for about half an hour, until the first rays of sunlight hit her face and woke her up.


As he excused himself, she just nodded a little. He'd go anyway, she was certain. It wasn't up to her what he did - oh wait, it was, wasn't it? It was so disorienting to be in charge of somebody else like this, she wasn't sure how to get used to it. She laid there, not moving a single inch apart from breathing as she waited for Samael to come back. Maybe he wasn't going to come back. It could all just be an elaborate scheme, couldn't it? He could leave her here to die. She could feel the telltale burn that indicated the start of infection, the pain worsening by the second.


Just as she started to really get anxious and squirm, he came back. She looked up at him as he told her it was going to hurt, seeing the alcohol in his hand. Nodding a little, she bit her lower lip and took a deep breath to try and relax. She knew it'd hurt... She just didn't realize how much. The sting was nearly as bad as getting stabbed, and she was a lot more aware of it. She gasped and clasped her hands tightly over her mouth to hold in a shriek of pain, her eyes immediately filling with tears. Holding them in, she rolled over without resistance and held in another scream as he cleaned the other side.
 
After he threw away the now-empty bottle of alcohol, he said to Yuuki, "When I, um," He coughed, "stabbed you, you seemed surprised. Might I ask why? It is perfectly fine with me if you choose not to answer, I'm simply a curious soul." He coughed awkwardly again, not sure how she'd respond to this. "If anything," he struggled to come up with a second plausible reason, "it might help me help you when you request it."

His back straightened, suddenly alert. He'd thought he'd heard something at the other end of the alley. Upon inspection, it was nothing, simply the morning people. "Sorry. Just, I'm not used to sentients who aren't out to hurt me, or make me do something I don't want to do." Sighing, he continues, "Humans are odd creatures. They aren't like the black and white vampires or Daemons. They aren't just one thing. But," he chuckled lightly, "I suppose I'm not one to talk..."
 
It took several moments for her to relax after the pain of the alcohol, which allowed him time to ask about her surprise before. She gingerly shifted her position a little bit to get more comfortable and winced in pain, then relaxed again. Getting stabbed really was no fun at all. She sighed and wondered how best to answer him, but soon she realized that she would have to tell the whole story in order for her explanation to make sense.


"I wasn't surprised to be stabbed, I was surprised that it was you. I thought it was somebody else," she began tiredly. "When I saw your note, I was running away from somebody. He was drunk and raving about how I'm a witch or some other nonsense. He's never liked my family, so I think he's just crazy. I thought he had caught up to me and killed me finally, but.. It was you," she finished, looking up at him as she fell silent after her explanation. It was a short version of what had happened, but it answered his question and should sate his curiosity. She wasn't sure what to even say to the rest of what he had said, so she just stayed quiet.
 
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