Chapter Text
Her life was beautiful the first six years she was existing.
She had a mother mentor, who taught her how to speak and write and even told her some parts from history! Her mentor was like her mom, which Rumi knew died. Celine never told her how, though.
Celine was from a band called “The Sunlight Sisters”, which was also the band Rumi’s mother was in.
But, since Celine was the band’s leader, she was very strict with Rumi.
Rumi needed to fluently speak both Korean, and English. Celine started teaching her how to speak since she was able to say her first word – which was “Mama” at the age of two years old. Rumi was a quick learner, so she got good at her native language – Korean – good really quickly. She was able to form sentences from the age of three, and when she was four, she knew every word in Korean and how to use it. Celine praised her that she was learning faster than other children.
English was more of a struggle. Since Celine spoke mostly only Korean, English was clearly in a second place. But it was also the second most important language. So, Rumi learned it (with Celine’s help of course).
Celine also taught her how to write. She said it’s also really important thing to know how to do.
So Rumi learned and learned, and absorbed every information that was given to her. She wanted to make Celine proud, since Rumi’s mother and also Celine’s best friend died.
Everything was going great, until one day, when she was six, everything changed.
She was in the bathroom, doing her morning routine. Brushing her hair and teeth, washing her face and then doing up her dragon braid. She liked her braid, it reminded Rumi of her mother.
Rumi was standing in front of a mirror on a wooden stool, so she would see her reflection properly. She already had her hair brushed and put in a tight braid. Rumi was brushing her teeth with her purple toothbrush.
It was a normal morning, until the pain came.
It came from her upper arms, just bellow her shoulders. The pain felt like a bunch of needles were pushing themselves from her muscles and tearing out of the skin, rising to the surface.
Rumi yelped, toothbrush falling from her mouth and she herself fell off the stool, falling to the ground.
The pain refused to stop for a solid minute, but eventually, it stopped. What remained was just a dull ache below her shoulders. Rumi was glad it stopped, a few more minutes and she’d be crying. Celine always said that “Our faults and fears must never be seen” and Rumi respected that rule.
She scrambled to her feet, though quite shakily. Rumi splashed her toothbrush with water and put it back into the cup she got it from. Then, Rumi braced herself to look at the shoulders and inspect what caused the pain and if there was any aftermath.
Carefully, she lifted the short sleeve of her t-shirt. Rumi expected some red area, maybe even a bit of blood or something like that.
She hadn’t expected to see two weird, jagged and purple stripes branding each one of her shoulders. Rumi tilted her head to the side, her reflection mimicking her. Rumi brought her fingers to the weird looking thing and touched it. It didn’t hurt, it was just… there.
Rumi observed the marks for a while longer and the more she looked at them, the more she thought they were pretty. They matched her hair, and were also her favorite color. She smiled at the thought.
She started to trace the small stripes, her touch featherlight. They felt a bit different from the rest of her skin, they were warmer and smoother.
“Rumi, where are you?” suddenly sounded from the hall. Rumi tensed up and quickly pushed the sleeves back down, covering the pretty marks. She didn’t know if she should show them to Celine, but then she remembered that she was Rumi’s mentor. It would be fine.
Rumi quickly skidded to the door, which was now held opened by Celine, who was standing in the doorframe. She raised her eyebrows at Rumi. “You were taking longer than usual. What happened?”
Rumi opened her mouth to speak, but her stomach answered sooner than she could. It let out a low grumble, signaling that Rumi was hungry. Celine smiled at that. “You’ll tell me after breakfast, okay?”
Rumi nodded and slipped past Celine, walking towards the kitchen. Her mentor just followed her, a smile still on her lips as she watched the six-year-old run to the kitchen.
Once Rumi was seated, Celine went to the counter and put the meal onto the plates. Rumi picked up the fork and dining-knife.
Celine made her way to the table and placed the plates onto it, one – with a small portion – for Rumi and the other for herself. She sat down, on the opposite side of the table from where Rumi was sitting.
The small girl devoured her food like she hasn’t eaten in years.
They sat in silence, which Rumi thought wasn’t necessarily bad. Though, she was still kind of scared to show Celine the marks on her skin. Rumi was mostly afraid she would disapprove them, maybe thinking it was some sort of “tattoo” and maybe she’ll even be mad at Rumi.
But she can’t hide something like this from the person that was taking care of her. It would be only fair to Celine that Rumi showed her the small stripes on her lower shoulder.
When Celine also finished her meal, she looked at Rumi, right into the small girl’s eyes. “So, what was taking you so long in the bathroom?” she asked. Rumi gulped, but she had to tell Celine the truth. She promised when she was old enough to understand what “promise” meant.
Rumi got from her seat and slowly padded towards Celine, who was quite shocked by the girl’s seat-leaving, but she didn’t say anything else when Rumi was next to her leg.
“What is it, Rumi?” Celine asked her again. Rumi sucked in a deep breath, and then she lifted the sleeves of her t-shirt.
“They appeared this morning, when I…” Rumi didn’t finish, because two twin blades were under her neck in an instant. They glowed bright blue and white. But that was not important because they were now pressed against her skin.
Rumi frantically looked up at Celine, silent pleas in her eyes. “Cece, what… what is happening? Why do you have…” the question hung in the air, not even finished when dread and fear snapped into place in her brain.
She was gonna get murdered by her own mentor. Her breathing started to quicken, now shallow and uneven. It was more of a gasping than breathing actually.
When she managed to bring her eyes to Celine’s face, all that she saw was disgust and anger. Rumi knew that Celine wasn’t going to be all that happy with permanent-looking marks on her skin, but she truly didn’t expect for Celine to materialize a weapon out of thin air!
Celine managed to get some words out from between heavy breaths of her anger. “I’ve always had a suspicion that you had your father’s genes,” she paused, eyeing Rumi up and down. Rumi’s breath caught once again. “…But I was hoping you wouldn’t have them. That you’ll be only Mi-yeong’s daughter, and not his.” The last word was more of a hiss than actual speech.
Rumi didn’t understand properly. Or maybe she did, but the words were just so unbelievable. Was Celine really mentioning her father?
Before she could ask or speak more, the twin blades disappeared, only to be replaced by an iron-grip on her neck by Celine’s hand. The other hand grabbed Rumi’s wrists.
A second later, Celine stood up and started dragging Rumi somewhere. Rumi sensed that this wasn’t a good sign. She thrashed herself, trying to get from Celine’s incredibly strong grasp. “Cece, where are you taking me?” Rumi screamed at her mentor, her voice full of panic and fear. Rumi never felt so scared in her entire life.
Celine stopped at the door leading to her bedroom. Rumi also slept here, apparently too young for her own room. Rumi felt relief at the sight of the door. Maybe Celine didn’t have bad intentions with her.
Celine flew the door open with unnecessary force. That was always a bad sign. Celine dragged Rumi to the closet. The hand that was under her neck was removed, because Celine needed to reach for the closet’s handle.
Rumi remained trapped and unable to even take a step, because Celine’s other hand was still forcefully gripping her wrists.
Celine frantically searched the closet, until she found what she was searching for in the back of the closet. She grabbed the thing and brought it out.
“Cece, are you… going to kill me?” Rumi’s question came small and frightened. Celine looked over at her, coldness in her eyes.
“No, but only because I gave a promise to your mother before she passed.” With that, Celine turned back to the object in her hand.
It was a box, quite small, just the size of a grown adult’s hand. Celine tried to open it, though it must’ve been quite hard since she had only one hand available. She managed to open it after a moment of fidgeting (it looked like it).
The woman brought one finger inside of the box, seemed to hook something and then she let the box fall to the ground.
The thing Celine was trying to retrieve from the box was now hooked around her finger. The object was hanging from Celine’s finger by black leather straps.
Rumi traced the thing with her eyes, starting from the point where Celine held it and ending with the metal base.
Her breath hitched for what was like a third time today. She knew what was the thing in Celine’s hand, she saw this on dogs when Rumi and her mentor went out.
The object Celine retrieved from the closet was a muzzle. The metal part looked like a basket, its small bars connecting almost everywhere.
Rumi feared what was about to come. Her fear of it was confirmed when Celine quickly repositioned her hand from her wrists to her face, tightly cupping it. Rumi looked at her mentor. The child looked at the older woman. “But since you’re dangerous, I’ll have to keep you under control and prevent you from hurting anyone.”
Rumi wasn’t fully able to process the words, her small six-year-old brain slacking off, before Celine brought the muzzle to Rumi’s face. She dragged the leather straps of the cursed object across Rumi’s small head. Once it was on the kid, Celine started to tighten it, so it wouldn’t fall off. To Rumi’s own surprise, she wasn’t resisting or fighting much. She just stood there, too stunned and shocked to do anything about the muzzle that was now on her face.
Only when Celine let go of her face and the tightened muzzle, Rumi brought her hands to the casket that was now over her mouth and nose.
Celine pulled her weapons again at the sight. “You will not touch the muzzle, or try to manipulate with it. It stays on.”
Rumi instantly yanked her hands from the casket. She was scared of the consequences it would have if she would touch it.
Celine then let her blades disappear again (how was she doing that?). Then, she grabbed Rumi’s wrists again and turned to the door, ready to walk away and drag Rumi with her.
But Celine got a better idea. She turned towards Rumi again, and without a word, she scooped the child from the floor. Rumi started kicking her legs, but what good would it do? Exactly nothing, Celine’s strength was unbeatable.
Rumi’s mentor walked out of the room, and even out of the house, only to stop at the backyard. She looked at the metal door that was on the outer side of the cabin, chains and locks keeping it closed.
Rumi asked one more question. “Why… are you doing this? What did I-” Rumi was cut off by Celine’s sharp reply. “Because you’re a demon, a monster. I taught you about them, you know what they are.” Then, she leveled Rumi so she would be looking into the small girl’s eyes. “And you’re just like them.”
With that, Celine put Rumi to the ground, but keeping her in place with her legs. She started to unlock all the locks and started to put away the locks from the door. After a while (because the door was literally barricaded) she managed to open them.
Rumi looked into the space the doors revealed –stairs that led into a complete darkness.
Celine grabbed Rumi again and went to the dark with her. Rumi was paralyzed by fear enough so that her brain didn’t try to make her run away or do anything, but not paralyzed enough to lose her ability to walk.
When darkness swallowed them, Celine found the switch. She flicked it on, making the room immediately bright. Rumi was thankful at least for that.
She stopped being thankful when she saw what the light revealed. On the concrete walls, on the one that was exactly on the opposite side from where Rumi was standing, were chain holders, etched deep in the wall. From the chain holders were hanging chains.
And there wasn’t only one, no. there were multiple. Two pairs of chains were small, exactly for a medium sized dog. The ones in the middle were a bit bigger, enough to hold back a crazed predator. And the ones on the right were the biggest and thickest – they could hold back a lion.
On the other wall was a shelf, which held different ring sizes. But those weren’t just some “rings”. No. Those were the parts of the chains that held the limbs in place, that snaked around ankles.
There was plenty sizes. Rumi wondered if Celine had planned for this to happen from the very start, but she pushed the thought down. Celine wouldn’t chain her, right?
Well, she put a muzzle on Rumi so she couldn’t be really sure now.
Celine came to the shelf, picking out a small ring. She looked at Rumi, then back at the thing in her hands. She must’ve decided that it was a good size or something because in the next moment, she dragged Rumi to the medium-sized chains.
Only then Rumi really realized that Celine was about to do it. She started screaming and thrashing, trying to free herself. It only made Celine speed up the process. In an instant, the “rings” were attached to the chains. A heartbeat later, she was closing the rings around Rumi’s wrists and then her ankles.
Rumi watched it with wide eyes. It was too late, she was trapped, chained and now even locked. Celine used another key to lock the chains into place.
The woman then slowly stood up, eyeing Rumi with coldness that could freeze the entire land. “You will get fed twice a day. And when I find a recruit the hunters if this generation, your dosage will get reduced to only one meal a day. Do I make myself clear?” she asked the chained girl. Rumi nodded, unable to speak. How could her life get so bad in a span of half an hour?
Celine looked at her more, as if studying her. After a few moments of silence, she spoke up again. “Do you know what a hunter is?”
Rumi shook her head. She knew about hunters who hunted animals, but she had a feeling that these “hunters” weren’t going to hunt animals.
Celine sighed, but then explained. “Hunters are people who hunt down demons. Each generation, a new trio of huntresses gets chosen to protect the world from demons. They empower the barrier between realms – the Honmoon, which keeps demons at bay. They work towards their ultimate goal, which is to seal the barrier and turn it gold. And since you’re a demon, you’ll be able to see the Honmoon too, in some time.”
Rumi absorbed every word that was said to her. Hunters… who hunt and kill demons. Realization struck her like lightning. She was a demon too! They would be after her!
Celine noticed her distress. “I’ll keep you hidden from them, as long as you’re quiet.” She looked away for a moment, thinking about saying something else. Rumi was a bit scared now what would it be. Then, Celine looked into her eyes again. “And if you disobey me, there will be consequences and punishments, do I make myself clear?”
Rumi nodded and said “Yes, Celine”. The woman smiled, though the smile didn’t contain any emotion.
She flicked the switch off, leaving the room in a complete darkness except for the daylight that came in through the opened metal doors.
Celine exited the space, closing the door behind her. She left Rumi in a complete darkness.
After a few seconds, Rumi heard how Celine started to put the chains back in place and as she locked the locks. Then, Rumi heard footsteps walking away from the doors.
And so Rumi cried.
She cried because of how her life was beautiful, she cried because of her mother’s choices, she cried because of who her father was…
And Rumi cried because those beautiful stripes on her arm made her a monster.
------
Celine liked Rumi. She grew accustomed to the child and she enjoyed Rumi's presence, even though she painfully reminded Celine of Mi-yeong.
It was hard for Celine to do what she did. Even though it was her rage towards Rumi's father and years of hunter's instincts that were acting for her.
She hoped, even prayed for that the child wouldn't bear demonic marks, much less she wanted it to be a demon. But Rumi was, whether either of them liked it or not. But Celine couldn't kill Rumi, even if it was the right thing to do. She couldn't, because she gave a goddamn promise to Mi-yeong.
But Celine couldn't let Rumi wander around, free. She is dangerous and it was only a matter of time before her demonic genes would start wanting to take over. The elderly woman just hoped that the child wouldn't need souls, that the small part of her humanity would still be present enough to deny this need.
So now, Rumi was locked, chained and with way out. Celine would soon need to start researching for special items that would suppress Rumi's demonic abilities, so the girl wouldn't just teleport out when she would be able to.
She just hoped that items like this do exist.
The same day, Celine cried. She cried because of what she done, what needed to be done in order for Rumi to keep living and not just die like some feral beast.
Celine couldn't bring herself to hate Rumi, despite the fact of what the child really was.
This issue disappeared as the years went on, because Rumi was turning more and more into a monster. And with each change, Celine started to hate her more and the little sympathy she had left, slowly disappeared.
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At first, it were just a beautiful little marks on below her shoulders. But they grew, they grew and with them, a sick thing somewhere in the back of her mind.
The marks grew, each time they expanded it left Rumi in the same pain as the first time – the feeling of sharp needles pushing themselves from her bones, up her muscles and tearing her skin. Each time this happened, it left more and more marks on her skin.
Celine, when she brought her food, saw this a few times. Rumi's ex-mentor saw the pains she had, how she cried each and how she always thrashed in the chains. Celine always seemed more worried about the metal than about her.
And after the marks – patterns how Celine called them – appeared, Celine was always more disgusted, even though she tried to hide it.
Rumi started to hate the marks too. What she once adored (it was only once, before everything went to hell), she now hated and wished it would just disappear.
But it didn't. One day, when the marks covered her entire arms, from shoulders to hands, she just had enough.
Rumi had no idea what to do, so she just started clawing at the purple patterns on her arms with untrimmed nails. The patterns pulsed each time she did it, they glowed with purple and red and a weird shade of pink. Despite the pain that was overtaking her, Rumi continued ripping out the marks of a monster. She only stopped when the pain became unbearable, when she collapsed on the floor.
They always covered more of her skin when she woke up, so she did it once a year max.
The fourth time she tried to claw the patterns out, something changed. It was when she was around ten, the patterns already covering her entire body.
Rumi was sure she blacked out, just like always. She tried to claw the patterns on her thighs, and managed to rip out half of them on her right one, but then she just couldn't do more.
When she woke up, there were weird blue stings all around her. They glowed bright, shining like beacons in the dark place, but not illuminating it. It was just there.
Rumi stared at it, blinking a few times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. She wasn't. the glowing strings were still there, still slightly swirling.
Rumi yelped and backed away, only to hit a wall behind her. With the wall, she also hit the glowing thing. She was trapped, just like the four years of her life that she spent here. Rumi burst into tears, trying to shrink into herself and maybe disappear.
She cried and sobbed and tried to do anything to make the strings disappear. Rumi eventually gave up, so she collapsed to the ground. Just as her stomach hit the cold ground, the strings on the floor – the closest to her – started to shift closer. Rumi screamed, but Celine couldn't hear her through the metal doors and the privacy of her cabin.
The strings moved from the ground and up to her hands. Rumi gasped but didn't pull away. The blue thing was now on her hands and maybe even ankles. It danced and swirled a bit on her skin.
Rumi tried to process what she was seeing. It took her a few moments to finally realize what the strings were – they were the Honmoon.
Rumi gasped once more, but then fear snapped back into place. The Honmoon was a barrier that keeps demons from this world.
And Rumi was a demon.
Rumi started to violently thrash herself, trying to break free from the Honmoon's grasp. It was useless, despite it being only see-through strings, it held her tightly.
Rumi came to a conclusion that fighting it was useless, so she gave up again.
Soft cries filled the space as she accepted her fate. Maybe being stuck in the demon realm would be better than this, than being chained for the rest of her life. Rumi just hoped she isn't immortal like normal demons.
Instead of a forceful pull under, which she expected, she got soothing swirls on her hands. Rumi opened her eyes and the sight in front of her confirmed it. The Honmoon was soothing her, trying to calm her down.
Rumi started crying again. The Honmoon just did another swirl as if trying to say I'm here now.
And so Rumi cried, but this time out of relief and happiness. Maybe she wasn't so alone in the world, even though the only thing that showed her pity was in reality meant to banish her from this world.
Maybe it recognized that she was its past hunters' daughter.
-----
But with time, even the Honmoon couldn't bring her relief and comfort. She was a monster after all. Not even a magic barrier could prevent her from turning more and more into a demon.
It could just watch. Rumi wondered if it watched with the same horror she saw on Celine's face every time she caught her transforming into a monster.
Many circumstances led to this one evening, when her inner demon decided it wanted more. That covering Rumi in patterns wasn't enough, like she needed to be an exquisite monster that didn't deserve to die because of a stupid promise.
She was currently crying, from shame or whatever, she didn't remember because she was crying almost always. In the safety of the dark room where Celine's judging and full-of-hatred eyes couldn't reach her.
Rumi felt a sharp object form inside each one of her fingers. It was uncomfortable, and she tried to open the pads of her fingers with the sharp untrimmed nails. The skin just wouldn't break, instead… the tips turned purple.
And like if that wasn't already enough, the uncomfortable thing in ger fingers started to push out. Rumi felt every move of it, how the bones lengthened and how they fused. She felt how the claw's tip started to push itself out of her skin, millimeter by millimeter. Rumi saw how the claw lengthened, leaving behind trails of blood. The talons replaced the nails and the pads of her fingertips, which were now laying on the ground. The new pushed-through bone started to form skin over it. The claws weren't just some regular long nails… they were a fucking bone.
She cried. She cried a lot during the process of replacing her fingers for claws that could tear and rip through flesh like it was just some piece of paper.
She cried again. She cried when her soft fingertips got replaced by this monstrosity. The skin on the hands that she used to hug herself in the worst moments of her life. Now she has this.
Rumi cried and sobbed and, in an instinct, she brought her hands up to comfort herself. Rumi winced in pain as the bloodied talons pierced her skin. Why were they so sharp? Why?
The worst thing came in the evening, when Celine came to fed her.
Celine came down, to the space Rumi was locked with the usual meal – blunt rice and some meat. All chopped and mixed together so Rumi could eat it with a small spoon, just big enough to fit through the gaps in the muzzle.
When the ex-mentor flipped the switch on, she noticed that Rumi was in the furthest corner from her and was clutching her hands on her chest. The next thing she noticed were nails and fingertips scattered on the ground, bloodied.
Something was wrong. “Rumi, look at me.” It was a command, one that Rumi heard almost every time Celine came down there. She didn't obey, mostly because she was scared of Celine's reaction. Sharp claws were just too much.
Rumi heard a bowl being set onto the ground and then rapid footsteps approaching her. The child couldn't even do anything, she just accepted what was about to come. Not like she didn't deserve it, she was a monster after all.
Celine grabbed Rumi's wrists. Or, more specifically, she grabbed the chains that were securing Rumi's wrists. (Celine never touched her directly)
Rumi tried to wriggle out of Cline's grip, she really did, but it was no use since Celine had decades of experience with demon hunting. Celine pulled Rumi up to the air, the demon's legs kicking uselessly. The elderly woman gasped, and as if some instinct took over, she summoned one of her twin blades.
Rumi's eyes widened, and she started resisting once more. It, again, did no good.
Celine was furious. “What, the fuck are those?”
By the tone she said it, it was obvious that she knew the answer. Rumi stared at the ground, trying to suppress her tears. Celine hated when she cried. Demons aren't supposed to feel anything.
And yet, Rumi felt. She felt a lot of things.
In the next second, Celine dropped Rumi to the ground. The air was sucked out of the girl's lungs, she needed to catch her breath.
But Celine's arm was already moving. The blade in her arm chopped off the claws on Rumi's right hand, and then the left one. Rumi let out a scream of agony.
She hated the Honmoon's blades. Not only they cut her, they burned her too. They burned the area of the cut and burned every single muscle, vein or nerve that was in centimeter radius from the wound. She was lucky that since she was part-human, that the wounds would close. It took way longer than when literally anything else wounded her, but it could heal.
Maybe she started to want that it won't close and instead it would kill her. Slowly or quickly, it didn't matter.
The pain was real, and it hurl like hell. Celine gave her cuts, or slices or whatever by the blade, she even sometimes hit her in the face. But she never chopped something off and this, this was awful.
Celine left when Rumi curled into herself.
------
The claws grew back two days later. Celine didn't cut them this time.
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When Rumi was twelve, Celine forgot to come down and feed Rumi. She forgot entire four days. But that wasn't the whole problem. She left Rumi alone, in the dark. The dark was a very important part of this, because the dark triggered another transformation from Rumi's inner monster.
It was the fourth day of the not-feeding. Rumi was quite used to the dark, but she still couldn't see in it. Her eyes couldn't adjust to darkness this… dark.
And so her body decided that she needed supervision.
Rumi was laying on the ground, staring into the ceiling – or trying to, since all she saw was the dark, the Honmoon and the bright light her patterns illuminated.
Then, she started feeling something wrong with her eyes. Suddenly, they were starting to burn. It was like the liquid in her eyes turned into lava.
Rumi clasped her hands on her face, accidently scratching herself. It didn't matter because her eyes were burning like an eternal fire. One moment her eyes were completely fine, and in the next, she felt pressure squeezing her eyeballs and felt how the eyes' liquids turned into lava.
Rumi screamed. The white-hot pain surged through her entire eyes. She felt like her eyes would squash.
What happened, never before, was that Celine came in. right in the middle of the process. She saw Rumi on the ground, restraining herself from clawing her eyeballs out. Celine rushed to the monster on the ground and gripped her wrists, preventing Rumi from damaging her eyesight.
It might be better if she was blind The girl cannot turn blind. Celine might use her in training the new hunters, showing them living example or proof that demons exist.
“Rumi, open your eyes,” Celine commanded. Rumi flinched when she heard her voice, but no other reaction. “I said, open your eyes.” This time, Rumi obeyed.
Celine almost wished she didn't.
When Rumi finally managed to open her eyes, Celine could see how the irises slowly changed. The usual dark brown was now bright brown, glowing faintly. It was more than obvious that after a few moments, Rumi's eye would be slitted and glowing like a beacon with golden light.
Now, the pupils were still round but the irises changed.
And they were changing even more. It was changing from the faintly glowing bright-brown to orange. The pupils were turning into fat ovals.
Celine could only watch in horror as the eyes that reminded her of Mi-yeong turned more and more into the eyes of the twisted bastard.
The orange finally turned gold. The brown or any other color similar to Mi-yeong's eyes was gone. The pupils were inhuman now too – instead of round circles, they were thin and sharp ovals. Her eyes didn't look like human's, they looked like cat's or snake's. Except these were glowing.
Celine let go of Rumi like she had burned her. Rumi's head fell to the ground, a loud thunk echoing through the space. The child cried.
Celine left the food on the floor and ran from the basement, locking it behind her.
She threw up in the bathroom.
------
When Celine came that evening to feed her, Rumi could see a blue-white orb glowing in her chest. She asked Celine about it, and the woman just turned pale-white and electrocuted Rumi.
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Something formed above Rumi's canines, in the gums and the skull. It took some time, but without a doubt, it were new teeth. A very uncomfortable ones.
It took about a month since they grew in.
Rumi's teeth started to ache. And not the normal ache, the one that wanted to chew on food and candies. This ache was demanding one and only thing – sinking into someone's flesh, tear muscles and reach the bone and chew or shake hard until the bone snapped and then continue to feast upon them…
Rumi's teeth clattered to the ground. Her canines just… fell out, even though she already had adult teeth.
Rumi stared at the ground, specifically at the teeth that just fell out. Realization struck her like lightning – the uncomfortable teeth in her gums were going to grow instead of these. Rumi brought her clawed hands to her mouth, but got blocked by the muzzle. In a desperate attempt to reach her mouth, she started hitting the muzzle, clawing at it and trying to get it off.
Wait, she could cut the leather straps that secured the muzzle on her face. Rumi scrapped the idea right away. If Celine would find her without the casket on her mouth, she would most likely punish her and then get another one.
The teeth started to push out of her gums. It wasn't as painful as the other demonic parts rising to the surface, it was just uncomfortable. And annoying.
After an hour or so, the fangs were out. And with them came the ache and need to tear someone apart, piece by piece and then-
With a gasp, Rumi pushed those thoughts down. She isn't going to sink her fangs into somebody's flesh.
When Celine came to feed her, she didn't notice how Rumi kept her lips partially separated so her four fangs (two on the lower jaw, two on the upper one) wouldn't pierce the insides of her mouth. The fallen teeth were laying in the furthest corner from Rumi, she yanked them there.
------
Rumi eventually asked Celine if she could get a chew toy, because the urge to bite and tear something was becoming unbearable. To her surprise, she got a chew toy three days after she asked. Rumi put it into her muzzle, through the gaps between the metal. The chew toy fit through and Rumi could get it into her mouth and chew.
Thank god it wasn't a squeaky toy.
------
Fourteen. That was her age now. She spent eight years down there.
Rumi was in puberty for some time now. Her inner demon was in puberty too. Puberty was a stage of growing up and almost becoming an adult. Well, her demon was becoming a full demon and Rumi had to change into a monster with it.
One day, something started to form on her skull, just bellow her skin. She didn't notice it first, even though something was bothering her on her forehead.
Celine noticed. She came with food and then stopped, her usual exhausted and angry (at least angry whenever she had to come down to feed Rumi) expression shifting into horror and fury.
Rumi was used to sudden changes, Celine was always angry at her. It didn't hurt any less. Rumi remembered times when Celine would brush her hair, tell her bedtime stories and prepare a really good meal. But that was long ago and reserved for good kids, not monsters who wanted to murder someone.
“What is it?” Rumi asked her ex-mentor. Celine gulped and left, leaving Rumi alone once more.
After a day or two, something sharp started to pierce itself out of her skin on her forehead. She brought her claws to it, and felt a sharp bulge beneath the skin.
Rumi was growing fucking horns. They took the longest to grow, after all, they turned out to be huge bones.
They grew for about a week, each time Celine came and saw how they lengthened, she would just get angry. But she didn't have her glowing blade anymore. Rumi suspected it was because new generation of hunters was already chosen by the Honmoon and Celine lost the connection because someone else gained it.
When the horns reached their full length, they were crowning her head – literally. The bones twisted themselves backwards, running along her head, and the tips twisted upwards. Rumi ran her hands along the smooth nail-like texture multiple times.
Celine wanted to cut them off. She brought a strange tool, and went to Rumi. The demon fought, though she wasn't quite sure why she fought. Weren't the horns just another monstrous thing about her? Well, her demon liked them, adored them, and she can't resist something that lives in her body with her.
Celine was furious about it, but Rumi held her ground. Celine left, but she also left wounds on Rumi's face.
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It was somewhere after Celine announced that she'll start searching for the hunters, since they were already chosen. She would have them in her compound in about a year. This meant for Rumi only a few things – one meal a day, and in the middle of the night, and that she had to be quiet and pretend she doesn't exist unless Celine says so.
The girl just nodded, afraid of the woman now.
Celine found an electric collar, one that injected electricity into her by a remote.
She put it on Rumi a few days after her horns grew, and she was using it ever since. And she was enjoying using it. sometimes, she even compared Rumi to her father.
Rumi hated that. She could've dealt with the treatment she was getting from Celine the past nine years, but this was a whole new level.
She wondered if she'll get the ability to teleport. It would come in handy, she could teleport out, hide and if hunters found her, she would get spared of this miserable life.
Instead of teleportation, she got a fucking tail.
Rumi didn't want to believe that, she just couldn't have a tail.
Well, she got one and it was growing. And not quickly either. It was and open wound bellow her spine, where the spine met pelvis bone. New vertebras were growing, lengthening her spine. Each one smaller than the one before. The skin and muscles grew with the bones.
It took about two weeks, give or take, until the tail finally grew arrow-like tip.
Rumi had a tail. She just hoped that Celine wouldn't chop it off. She was prepared that she would shock her again, like she always did, but she really didn't want to go through the pains and the process of regrowing.
Maybe the hunters would do the thing Celine should've done when the first marks appeared on Rumi's skin.