It usually didn't snow in May. Supposedly it was rare on Earth; it was downright unheard of in Hell. But as Elya sat upon her dorm room futon, she felt a strange sense of tranquility wash over her as she stared out of the window at the flurry of white flecks against the clouded black sky. Such weather usually only occurred in December, when the snow threatened to choke the entire world for almost a month straight. The Fallen liked the snow, but she had never been allowed to go out and play in it.
Mother said that games were for stupid little whores.
Back during the annual winter freeze, Cobalt had invited her out a couple of times to build snowmen or make snow-Devils. But as direly as she wished to spend time with her new best friend, Elya just couldn't shake the sensation of constantly being watched enough to join him. Mother's stormy purple gaze had been burned into the back of the Fallen's mind, constantly judging her even when she wasn't around.
Swallowing hard, the Fallen felt her cheeks burn as she thought about the Incubus. There was something about him that also pervaded her every thought, but she much preferred his soft amber gaze to Mother's unblinking stare. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn't help herself; she had long since stopped trying to resist his allure. He was too kind, too funny, too gentle, too...
Shaking her head, Elya stood up and stretched her wings, hearing her feathers rattle as a shudder ran through her body.
Cobalt had been so much help getting her settled at B.I.D., even though he was only a first-year himself. He kept her company in class and during lunch, and always offered to hang out with the Fallen whenever she felt down. Even on the days when Elya didn't feel like chatting, the Incubus was happy to just sit in the infirmary and read with her. He was so patient with her, even when she struggled to do the simplest of things like speaking out loud, or freezing because she was afraid of-
An involuntary shiver ran up her spine. No matter what she did, she just couldn't stop thinking about him.
If Mother found out she was having such thoughts... if she was having such fantasies about this Incubus boy... this younger, Incubus boy...
"I'm sorry, Mother," she breathed, her breath appearing in puffs of steam.
The dormitory heating system had cut out again, but she didn't mind the cold. Mother never put the radiators on back home, even if Papa asked her nicely, and she usually did anything he asked. Elya had spent most of of her life in stark frigid rooms, to the point where she got uncomfortable whenever she was warm.
Except...
Cobalt was always unusually warm, and it wasn't just his sunny disposition. Whenever the Fallen had reason to brush past him, she felt a soothing heat wherever his skin touched hers. A heat that would return whenever her mind wandered to thoughts of him.
"Oh..." she sighed, stepping over to the window.
Her bedroom was fairly high up and overlooked the plaza at the front of the twin dormitories. Everything from the benches and lampposts to the many ashbirches lining the path were covered in a thick blanket of snow. Curiously, a mass of footprints led from the boys' dormitory entrance down towards the school, flanking a deep gash in the otherwise-unbroken snow, like something had been dragged through it.
Shunting the window open, Elya stuck her head out and took a deep breath of the crisp night air. She leaned out further and craned her neck in order to get a look at the boys' building, tracking her gaze across the various lit and unlit windows. Cobalt's bedroom was on the west side of the building, close by the structural supports that linked the two structures. She sometimes saw him in the window, but she always shied away before he noticed her.
Sometimes the Fallen wished she had a room on the dormitory's east side. She overheard a girl say that she used the structural beams to sneak over to her boyfriend's room, and although she knew it was for indecent purposes, Elya couldn't help but feel jealous.
It would be so exciting to be able to visit Cobalt's room.
Mother taught her always to be proper in her thoughts.
But Mother wasn't here, was she?
"Hm?"
There was someone trudging down the path, dragging their feet through the snow as they slowly lurched towards the dormitories. At first, Elya pulled her head back inside and hunkered down, but her anxiety was soon replaced with curiosity upon noticing that they were limping. She could see a pair of wings and a tail listlessly dragging behind them, and as they passed beneath one of the lampposts, they were illuminated just enough for her to see the telltale glint of iridescent blue skin.
"C- Cobalt...?!" the Fallen gasped, her eyes widening.
She saw the Incubus stumble before collapsing against the lamppost. Without even thinking, Elya climbed out onto her windowsill and leaped out into the night, spreading her wings and gliding down to the ground. The snow was painfully cold beneath her feet and she was dressed in little more than a nightdress, but she ignored the bitter wind and rushed over to her injured friend.
"Cobalt!" she cried, stumbling as she slipped on the gravel beneath the snow.
As she drew close, she could see just how bad it was.
The Incubus' clothes were soaked with snow and blood, torn in some places and smudged with mud. Tattered duct tape was wrapped around his wrists, and a larger piece had been slapped across his mouth, binding it shut. Cuts and bruises marred his face, and his eyes looked weary and bloodshot. He murmured through the tape and limply held out his hand, which Elya quickly took up in her own. He was so cold.
She was used to seeing him in a bad way after the constant harassment he faced, but this... never like this.
"Wh- What happened to you?!" Elya choked, feeling her tears threatening to freeze upon her face.
Cobalt reached up to pull the tape off his face, but his fingernails were broken and far too crusted with blood to find purchase. Both of his hands were in a bad way. His knuckles were split wide open and his skin was caked red.
Shaking more from fear than from the cold, the Fallen raised a shivering hand and gripped a corner of the duct tape. Whispering a faint apology, she steeled herself and ripped it off as quickly as she could. The Incubus gave a cry of pain as a surge of blood splattered from his mouth, spattering Elya's nightdress with flecks of red.
"Hah... Agh... E- Elya..." Cobalt gasped, smearing his shirt sleeve as he wiped his mouth.
A stark wind blew the hair out of Elya's eyes, prompting him to gaze deep into them. He forced on a reddened smile, despite the graveness of his condition.
"Never been happier to see those emeralds of yours..."
"Cobalt, what happened?!"
He took a second to take a breath. Coughing, more blood flowed from his mouth as his face twisted with agony. Recognising the symptoms of a fracture, Elya quickly undid the buttons on his shirt and pulled it open. More cuts were prevalent beneath his clothes, and his skin had gone a worrying shade of purple. There was no doubt in her mind that he had broken a rib, perhaps even several.
"How did this happen?" she breathed, gently wiping his face.
The Incubus sighed and pulled a face, wincing with every breath.
"Durnall... Durnall and his fuckwit cronies," he grunted spitefully, reaching to clutch his chest.
Elya held his tape-wrapped wrists to stop him from touching his chest, worried that he might worsen them.
B.I.D. played host to a lot of delinquents and troublemakers, but Durnall was the worst by far. He was a burly Oni boy that preyed on those he considered weaker than himself, and to Durnall, that meant everybody. In her first few days, Elya had fallen prey to much of his tormenting, but it was thanks to Cobalt that he eventually lost interest in her. The Incubus was always ready to stand up to him, and the two would inevitably come to blows. But the Oni's friends would always overwhelm him...
"Bastards jumped me in my sleep... Dragged me out to the sports field..." Cobalt continued, his tail coiling and bunching with discomfort.
"Why?"
"Dunno. Don't wanna know. Ugh... Bastards tied me up to the goalposts... Durnall went at me with a bat..."
The drag marks... That was Cobalt?
Elya tried to do what she could to clean his wounds and ease his pain, but panicked and unequipped as she was, there was little she could do. She wanted to cry, but she did her best to keep the tears at bay.
Mother said tears were useless.
"I- I'll go get help!"
The Incubus shook his head and tried to get to his feet, only to slump back to the ground.
"No, I'll be fine. Just... gimme a minute," he sighed.
His breathing was getting shallower. He was sweating despite the cold, and his face had gone deathly pale. Broken ribs and possibly internal bleeding. Judging by the severity of the wounds, organ bruising wasn't out of the question either. He was losing blood, and if he didn't get help soon...
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Elya shook her head and gently held Cobalt's shoulders, brushing her fringe aside in order to stare deep into the Incubus' eyes. His gaze, once so calm and serene, was shaky and strained. Subconjuctival hemorrhaging had stained them red, and deep within his pupils she could see a twitchy, dangerous spark.
"You stay here. Don't close your eyes, okay?" she breathed, holding his cheek.
"Elya, I'm fine, just-"
"Promise me, Cobalt!"
"I..."
The Incubus took a deep breath.
"... Okay. Just be careful."
He held her hand for a moment, and for a split second, Elya forgot her fear. He was counting on her. For all the times he had to save her, now she could finally do something for him.
She couldn't let him down.
Drawing herself to her full height, the Fallen smoothed down her nightdress and wrapped her wings around herself in an effort to keep the cold out. She couldn't risk flying when visibility was this poor. No, she'd have to run to the teachers' dorms and fetch Nurse Keating. Failing that, she would have to leg it all the way to the hospital and return with help before Cobalt bled out. Heart pounding in her chest, she kept her eyes to the ground as she ran down the path, slipping and skidding as the frozen gravel dug into the soles of her feet. Cobalt's blood had soaked into the snow, leaving a sanguine trail leading all the way down the pathway.
In the distance, she could hear ambulance sirens. Had somebody already called the emergency services?
Arriving at the darkened B.I.D. campus, Elya made to run towards the teachers' apartments, but halted in her tracks upon noticing something on the ground. The drag marks, footprints and blood trail lead off in the opposite direction, towards the sports field. Lying discarded in a decorative shrub was an aluminum baseball bat, heavily dented and stained with blood. Gingerly pulling it from the branches, she was alarmed to feel that the handle was still warm. It had been dropped recently.
Mother always said a solid weapon was more reliable than a magical one.
Holding the bat close, the Fallen abandoned her original destination and bolted off towards the sports field, the uneasy feeling in her gut growing worse and worse as she spied more red marks on the ground.
It led her by the bleachers and across the running track, towards the sports field. Grinding to a halt, Elya's eyes widened as her arms went limp.
It looked like a massacre. All around one of the goalposts, half a dozen demons lay scattered around amidst the slushy snow and churned mud. They were all grievously wounded; faces bloodied, clothes stained and limbs sticking out at erratic angles. As the sirens in the distance gradually grew louder, she rushed over to the listless demons, blood running colder than the snow all around her.
"Sweet Hellfire..." she gasped, clamping a hand over her mouth as she drew closer.
Durnall's friends. She recognised each and every one of them. That pimply Glutton girl, the two Nymphs, the tallish Imp and the shortish Fallen... They all lay with their faces in the mud, alive but barely conscious. They were sporting broken arms, buckled knees and cracked horns. Loosed teeth and scraps of torn flesh littered the patches of red staining the snow, and as she picked her way through the carnage, she heard strained grunting from the goalpost.
It was Durnall, but she had never seen him laid low like this. The Oni was bleeding from countless ragged wounds, to the point where every breath he took caused the red puddle he was sitting in to grow. His left arm was clearly broken in several places, and in his right he limply clutched a cellphone. A roll of duct tape had been used to bind his throat to the goalpost, forcing him to sit straight up in order to not choke himself.
One eye peeled open as she approached.
"You," Durnall guttered, his usually-intimidating voice garbled by a mouth full of splintered teeth.
She stared at the crippled Oni.
"M- Me," she responded, unable to think of anything else to say.
"Is... Is he gone? Is it over?"
Blinking the frost out of her eyes, Elya looked up at the goalpost. Just as Cobalt had told her, a fair amount of silvery tape had been wrapped around the upper bar.
"What did you do to him?" she asked in a small voice.
Durnall grimaced, revealing the jagged mosaic that was once a yellowed smile.
"He had it coming. I fucking warned him."
"What did you do?"
He coughed, splattering blood all down his front.
"Showed him the consequences of his fucking actions. Always swanning around like a fucking peacock, thinking he's hot shit because he's the only fucking blueskin in the fucking-"
Elya pointed the dented bat at Durnall, silencing him. She felt an anger deep within her, indignation for what he had put her best friend through. He tried to make a growling noise, the same sound he made to intimidate those he bullied. But as choked as he was by the tape and the blood, all he could manage was a feeble gurgle.
"P- Put that away," the Oni grunted.
Elya's grip on the bat tightened.
"What did you do to him, Durnall? Why?"
"... where'd he go?"
Elya didn't answer him.
"Tell me, you fucking freak! Where the Hell did that psychopath go?!"
"I'm here, Durnall," chimed a voice from behind Elya.
The Oni went pale as his anger and bravado drained away. Turning around, Elya gasped to see Cobalt Trayer standing upon sports field, still bleeding and clutching his ribs. He wasn't smiling.
His eyes looked as though they were on fire.
"C- Cobalt...?" the Fallen breathed.
Glancing over at her, the blaze in his eyes died away and the corner of his mouth tugged upwards.
"Hey," he said simply.
"You said you would-!"
"I know. Thought you would have gone to Keating or headed off campus. Didn't want you seeing this. But regardless, I didn't want you getting the wrong idea. About all of this," he explained, gesturing to the chaos surrounding him.
He took a step forward. Durnall flinched, eyes as small as pinpricks.
"Hung by my wrists for a couple of hours. Probably no more than three. They all took turns going at me with that bat. Isn't that right, Durnall?" the Incubus sighed, staring at the man bound to the goalpost.
"S- Stay away from me, you f- fucking animal..." the Oni breathed.
"Yeah, fun times."
There was something off about the Incubus. That fire in his eyes...
"Thing is, Durnall here said some pretty nasty stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary at first, but once I started seeing double, he started talking about how he was gonna do the same thing to you, Elya."
Closing in on the Fallen, he reached over and gently took the bat from her quivering hands. With a hefty sigh, the Incubus ran his finger across the bloody dents in the aluminum and approached Durnall, who struggled and squirmed in an effort to break free.
"What was it you said you were gonna do again...?" Cobalt mused, using the bat like a crutch.
"I- I didn't mean it, I- I swear...!"
Elya watched on in horror as Durnall - this insurmountable, dominant figure - wriggled like a trapped worm beneath a hawk's gaze. More terrifying still was Cobalt's demeanor. He still spoke in that calm, confident tone of his, but all the warmth and amicability had just... gone.
"Is that a fact? Because I remember pretty well. And I can't say I appreciate it."
He lifted the bat onto his shoulders, wincing slightly as he held his other hand to his chest.
"Listen, I don't mind these little spats of ours. Hell, just give me a time and place and I'll let you and the goons here kick the shit out of me any day. But while you can do what you want to me..."
Cobalt raised a finger and pointed it at Elya.
"... No-one lays a fucking finger on her," he hissed in a threatening tone that chilled her right to the bone.
"I- I swear... I'll leave you alone!" Durnall gasped.
The Incubus nodded.
"Do you promise?"
"I promise!"
"Not to me, Durnall. To her."
The Oni turned his eyes onto Elya. He was crying through terrified, swollen eyes, streaking the blood caked to his face.
"I- I promise, you won't hear from me ever again!" he guttered, shaking and pale.
Cobalt gave a satisfied sigh and smiled at them both in kind.
"Atta boy~!"
Gripping the bat tightly, the Incubus swung with all of his might, striking Durnall in the face at an oblique angle. A horrific crunch rang out above the wail of the sirens closing in as fresh blood splattered against the muddied snow. Though she was watching through her fingers, Elya could see the Oni's limp jaw hanging open as his head slumped forward, the bone thoroughly pulverised by Cobalt's strike. He just sighed once more and dropped the bat, staggering to the side as he clutched his own wounds. Glancing back at Elya, he flashed her a kindly, reassuring smile.
"That's that, then..."
Exhaustion had taken its toll. Cobalt slumped onto his side, leaving Elya as the only one conscious upon that sports field. She just stood there, staring into the middle distance as the sirens grew louder, not moving even as police officers and paramedics rushed to the scene. Though they tried to talk to her, all she could do was stare blankly at her friend as he was cuffed and carried off in a stretcher alongside those that had brutalised him, and whom he had brutalised in turn.
It was horrible. A genuinely horrible sight.
And yet... He did all that for her.
It was wrong.
Mother would say so.
But then...
Why was her heart racing...?
~~~~~
Another dream. Another memory.
Elya lay limp on the cold wooden floor, still as a statue even as rain poured onto her from the hole in the ceiling.
Back then, she saw Cobalt as her knight in shining armour. A girlish notion, but the feeling was real. He was her valiant prince, a man who staked his body for her every day, fending off those who would seek to do her harm and asking for nothing but her company in return. He'd return to her with fresh wounds and a brilliant smile, and those hours she spent gently tending to his wounds were the best moments of her life. Cleaning the cuts on his knuckles, listening to his little gasps as she applied cold antiseptic to his wounds, pressing against his chest and listening to his heartbeat as she feigned searching for more injuries...
But that night... He showed her a different side of him. A ruthless, powerful side. He took bloody revenge against their tormentors, and did so with a smile on his face. A lesser woman would call him a monster and would tremble with fear upon meeting his eye.
But she was not a lesser woman. And from that night onwards, all Elya trembled with was excitement.
"Not one finger..." she murmured, caressing her bare skin with a single digit.
Those words. The very words she burned into her memory that night. He had said them again, after he had seemingly forgotten everything.
HE HAS TO REMEMBER.
He has to.
MAKE HIM REMEMBER.
She was trying. But something was different about him this year.
HIS EYES.
Yes... His eyes used to burn with passionate fire, only to be quenched and deadened upon taking up the teacher's mantle. But back in the infirmary, and again at his mother's house, Elya saw the barest hint of a spark deep within them.
AND SOMETHING ELSE.
Yes... Something else...
Elya slowly climbed to her feet, dripping all over as she walked to the other end of the derelict room. Immoderata waited by the door, buried halfway through the crumbling plaster. She pulled it free and stalked through the ruined house, her eyes well-adjusted to the shadows.
She entered an old bathroom, its cracked tiled floor covered in a thick layer of alabaster hair. Standing in front of the destroyed sink, Elya gazed deep into the shattered fragments of mirror that still remained within the frame. Her own turbulent purple eyes stared back at her.
YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.
That she did. Gather her hair up into her hands, Elya began to slash through it with the dagger, haphazardly cutting it short. This was how he wanted it.
As strands of hair wafted to the ground, she continued to gaze into her own eyes, feeling uneasy at the sight of them. Roiling purple irises, but behind her gaze, a darker shadow... Just like Cobalt...
She direly hoped that he wasn't-
"Agh!" Elya cried, grabbing her head as a sharp pain ran through it.
ENOUGH OF THAT.
She swallowed hard and shook her head. Fine.
A PLAN IS NEEDED.
She knew that.
YOU ARE LOSING HIM.
She knew that!
YOU ARE FAILING IN YOUR DUTY.
"I know!" Elya screeched, slamming Immoderata into the wall. The iron blade effortlessly split a tile open and bit deep into the grout behind it.
Glaring indignantly at the weapon, she took a deep breath and collected herself.
She would continue as she had been, attempting to coax him around. He was subtly changing, she could tell; hopefully he would finally see sense. If not, however... She would bring him here. And take him by force, kicking and screaming if she had to.
He'd cut his ligaments if he ran. Slice his tendons if he fought back. Remove his tongue if he screamed.
Elya was going to make Cobalt hers and hers alone.
OR YOU WILL DIE TRYING.