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the crescent moon shone above you as your shoes pitter-pattered on the hard pavement you walked on.
you had just closed up shop for the night, and you were on your way home.
being one of the only employees at your small bakery, to say that you were tired was an understatement. to you, though? it was worth it.
you lived in a small town where everyone knew eachother, and you were known as the town baker, a title that you wore with pride. the fact that you were able to bring joy to people through your work made it all feel worthwhile.
you followed your usual route, the one you had taken dozens of times before. left then left then right and left- until something caught your eye.
around the corner, right beside the usually deserted building you always passed, was a….creature?
any other, reasonably normal person would’ve started screaming, but you were used to this. you had been seeing these…..things (for lack of a better word) since you were little. you were terrified at first, but attempts at telling others what you were seeing only earned you confused glares, so you kept it to yourself. the smaller ones you could easily fling away, but you had learnt the hard way that it was better to leave the larger ones alone.
this one was different, though. there was a man next to it, but he didn’t seem distressed. the creature wasn’t violent, but was subdued, almost like the man was controlling it. with a snap of a finger, the creature was gone.
you watched the scene before you, lips slightly parted in awe, before the man’s eyes diverted to you. before he could ask why you were staring, “how’d you do that?”you blurted out, blunt and straight to the point, like a child asking how an item works.
a hint of surprise flashed through his features before his lips crinkled into a soft smile. “how does what work?” he asked, playing dumb.
“the- the, um. where’d it-?” you stumbled over your words. he laughed at your confusion, and your face heated up in mild embarrassment.
“the curse? it’s mine.” he said matter-of-factly, as if that explained anything.
“curse? yours?”
he nodded.
“…i’ve never met anyone who can see them too.” you were intrigued by this strange man. you’d never seen him before, so he must’ve been an outsider.
he seemed intrigued in you too. “you haven’t?” he asked. you shook your head no.
he walked towards you. “well,” he started, “you’re a curse user, no? you have a cursed technique?”
you thought to yourself. you had always known you were different, too hyper aware of the air around you. you could somewhat control the wind, you could even lift small items if you tried hard enough.
you nodded, hesitantly. “i-i can control the wind.”
“the wind?” he questioned.
“the air.” you corrected yourself, and to prove your point you lifted a small pebble that was near your feet to eye level.
the man looked impressed, leaning on the wall next to him. “…and you’ve never met any other curse users, so you taught yourself?”
“yeah..” you responded, tossing the pebble to the side.
“that’s impressive.”
the man was tall, with long, ebony hair that cascaded down his back. he had a dark aura to him, which contradicted with how pulled you felt towards him, despite only knowing him for a few minutes.
“oh,” he exclaimed, “forgive me, i haven’t even introduced myself.”
his name was suguru. suguru geto. not a name you were familiar with, so he definitely wasn’t from here.
the two of you talked for a while longer. he was there to collect curses, he said, to add them to his arsenal of some sort. he answered some of your questions, but left you with many more, and when he said that he should start heading home, that his girls would be waiting for him, you felt a pang of disappointment.
he did leave you with his number, though, and a promise that he would be back, so you walked the rest of your way back home with a bounce in your step.
turns out that he wasn’t lying. the two of you met again, a second time, third time, fourth time, etc. he did spy on you a bit between said meetings, not in a malicious way, suguru justified to himself, just to make sure you were safe and doing well!
his presence lingered around you, whether it was outside your window, across the street, he just wanted to be near you, and could you blame him? you were stunning, would be the perfect addition to his “family” in time. though you were trapped, shackled by this society that saw sorcerers as lesser, he would free you. he would be the savior that you needed.
he became obsessed with this thought, and as he learnt more about you, you gradually learnt more about him. he told you about his 2 adoptive daughters, who he loved dearly. he also told you more about his views on the world, and the people in it.
“we’re special, [name]. different from them. better than them.” he told you one day.
“them?” you asked.
“non-sorcerers.”
you blinked at him. “i mean, we are different, yeah. i wouldn’t say better-“
“what are curses made out of?” he interrupted.
“….cursed energy?” you quoted his teachings.
“and where does cursed energy come from?”
“the emotions of non-sorcerers.”
he let out a small hum of approval before pulling you closer to him.
“the leaches of society.”
he had talked down on non-sorcerers before, small little jabs, but you were able to brush them off. he didn’t want to scare you off, of course. he had started to find a liking towards you, as the girls also had when he brought them around. he couldn’t let you slip away, not now.
you had grown attached, though. you were in his grasp now, and through carefully curated words, he planted the first seeds in your mind, letting his ideals bloom. “ they’re monkeys,” he would tell you, “you shouldn’t waste your time, talent, and effort on them.”
you loved your bakery more than you loved yourself, but the more that you listened to him, the more that you started to understand.
you had always been alienated from people, like they could just tell that you were different. you felt like you had to do favors, like you had to bend over backwards so you wouldn’t be alone, but with suguru, you could just be you, and that was enough.
you were infatuated with him, exactly how he wanted you to be.
you knew now, how cruel he could be. you knew that the same hands that held you so softly had struck down many. you knew that the same voice that told you such sweet praises was the last thing some heard before their demise. you knew, and yet you didn’t care. they were non-sorcerers, after all. they didn’t matter.
and so when he’d eventually ask you to uproot your life and move in with him permanently, to become a part of his family, you’d say yes, of course, because nobody else mattered. only him.