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*
WE SEE WHAT YOU ARE...
YOU'RE A DEMON... A MISTAKE...
A MISTAKE...
YOU HAVE BEEN SINCE THE DAY YOU WERE BORN...
"Get away from me!"
Rumi backs herself on-stage, the crowds full of unlit faces shadowing silence and darkness.
"Don't touch me! Don't!"
IS THAT WHAT YOU REALLY WANT, RUMI... BE HONEST WITH US FOR ONCE IN YOUR SAD AND PATHETIC LIFE...
The demon looking like Mira grasps, strong, under a faintly purple-patterned chin.
Rumi's lips quiver, thinning together.
WITH A THOUSAND PERCENT... A GAZILLION PERCENT CERTAINTY...
CAN YOU SAY YOU WANT TO BREAK APART EVERYTHING WE BUILD FOR THE HONMOON...
"No. No, I don't want that. You know I don't want that for the Honmoon, or for the fans, or for us," Rumi whispers, tears leaking out of her brown eye slitting into a nasty, demonic gold. This isn't right. The International Idol Awards was supposed to be their time to shine, to win.
THEN STOP RUNNING...
The demon looking like Zoey nestles into Rumi's tear-stained face, cheek-to-cheek. Zoey wears perfumes. And there's a lack of smell entirely.
GIVE IN...
Without moving her lips, Demon-Mira smirks and voices this.
From inside of Rumi's own head.
She starts circling Rumi, and Demon-Mira's sharp fingernails warningly dig in before releasing Rumi's chin. As sharp as Mira's Gok-do weapon. A spill of blood falls from one of the crescent-shaped marks left behind. Demon-Zoey eagerly giggles, almost pressing her nose into it.
GIVE INTO US, RUMI...
THIS IS WHERE YOU BELONG... WITH US...
ALWAYS WITH US...
Quivering again, Rumi feels Demon-Zoey circle the same direction as Demon-Mira, Demon-Zoey's hand possessively on Rumi's exposed shoulder.
"I—" I love you. I would kill any demon for you. I would sacrifice my life in a heartbeat for you both.
The hatred inside of Rumi, forming for herself, glows pink.
She grimaces when Demon-Mira tugs at Rumi's dragon braid, forcibly untying with the golden silk daenggi.
"I—no, nothing can change until my patterns are gone," Rumi persists, speaking at a lower and more demonic frequency. Her words wuther.
THEN... WE WILL REMOVE THEM FOR YOU...
"N—no?" Rumi swallows out, gasping as Demon-Mira's fingernails sharply swipe. A glowing purple-pattern, on Rumi's forearm, bleeds. Her blood, Rumi's half-demon blood, glows too. Demon-Zoey and Demon-Mira gang up, on this big, lone stage, grabbing for a horror-struck Rumi fleeing.
She doesn't make it far.
They grab into Rumi's undone braid. They drag her back with laughter that resembles both sobs and shrieks. They claw Rumi bleeding open.
They—
*
They lean over her, Zoey's hand shaking Rumi's fleecy shoulder.
"Oh, no! Mira, we gotta help her! She's in trouble!"
"It's all in her head," Mira insists, reaching for the other woman's chin jerking away from Mira's grip. Deep asleep, Rumi fights whatever her conscious mind manifests. "Wake up! Wake up already, Rumi! C'mon!" Mira sternly demands. "It's just some stupid nightmare you're having! You're gonna be alrigh—jenjang!" she curses out, whacked directly in the face by Rumi's thrashing elbow. And every part of Rumi's body thrashing.
Zoey squeaks, alarmed, slapping a hand over Mira's hand when Mira clutches her own nose and groans.
No broken bones. No blood. Thankfully.
Lashing out, awakening from the violence with eyes closed, Rumi spiritually summons some kind of bright blue waveform energy. All around her. It blows out from around Rumi, mimicking the thrust of her saingeom-blade's power. And it blows Mira and Zoey to topple off of Rumi's bed.
"Whoa... did Rumi just 'energy slash' us?" Mira grumbles in disbelief, blinking.
Messing with her bangs, Zoey lets out a frustrated noise.
"Oh stop it! Rumi isn't even awake!" she cries.
"Yeah, well, now she is..."
Panic-breathing, Rumi glances around. Her eyes, one dimly glow-gold, disorientated. As disorientated as Rumi's tightening expression. For a beat, her patterns pulse, alive, across any of Rumi's skin peeking out of her clothes. In time with Rumi's inhales, exhales growing louder.
"We're here, Rumi. You're safe. I swear that you're safe." Zoey tries to get close, squeaking softer in rejection as Rumi lurches away.
Trying something else, Mira picks herself up.
She lowly asks Zoey for Zoey's jacket, with Zoey seeming confused but nodding in agreement. Mira straightens the black, hooded polyester and quickly drapes it around Rumi. Mira's hands barely touch her. Or the patterns lightening. It takes another long beat before Rumi's eyes focus.
"I—"
"Hey, you don't have to explain. You got scared," Zoey says comfortingly.
For a moment, Rumi ducks her head down into the jacket around her and holds it to her mouth.
Zoey's ELOREA-brand perfume. It's here.
It's not nightmares keeping Rumi trapped there anymore.
When the backs of Mira's fingers stroke a braided head, Rumi flinches while upright. She tucks her knees up, and Zoey looks so close to tears.
"Oh, Rumi..."
"She's gonna be okay," Mira decides. "After all, she's part demon."
Letting out an open-mouthed and agitated noise, Zoey stares up at Mira who innocently shrugging, finally crying.
"How can you say something like that right now? Rumi is freaking out!"
"You're not helping by freaking out and getting upset too!" Mira argues, raising her voice slightly.
"OF COURSE I'm upset, Mira! She's acting like we're gonna hurt her!" Zoey's crying turns to pure raging indignation. "And then you go and—!"
"It's true," Rumi interrupts, listlessly looking at her bedcovers. "I'm part demon... I'm a mistake that shouldn't have happened." She chooses to look up, to Zoey's and Mira's frowns. "It's true too that you would have had to kill me... if the other part of me wasn't human."
With a sharp breath in, Mira draws herself to her full height. She looks pissed.
"And what would you know—you didn't ask us. Or tell us the truth!"
"That's enough!" Zoey yells between them. "No more fighting!"
"You kept it from us because you didn't trust us, Rumi. That's the real truth," Mira says dully, leaving the other two women speechless.
It is true.
And it is the worst part.
Rumi doesn't know what to expect out of this confrontation... but definitely not Mira's arms suddenly pulling her in, as Mira sits. Her hug, warming. "That just means we're gonna have to give you more of a reason to," Mira tells her, also suddenly smiling into Rumi's wide-eyed look.
Bursting into tears once more, Zoey wipes at her eyes stinging-wet.
And, out of relief, she hugs them both.
*
"Soooo... how's your nose?"
"Eh," Mira responds, lightly touching around the bruising.
They watch from their apartment's living area entrance, hanging back, while Rumi talks to Celine on Rumi's phone. Probably asking for advice. Neither of them think they would ask Celine's advice, as an older Hunter, about what to do if they found out about being a half-demon girl...
(But Celine is family... Rumi's family. It's up to Rumi on what or who knows about her personal business.)
Zoey impatiently wiggles, arms crossed.
"Relax, Zoey. Everything will work out. It has to."
"But! But! But!" She complains. Zoey's eyes get wider and wider on each 'but!' blurting out. "But do you really know—what if it doesn't?!"
Catching the lip-wibble, Mira sighs and wraps an arm around Zoey.
She kisses the top of Zoey's head.
"I'm sorry I was being difficult earlier," Mira mumbles. "With you and Rumi. You know me... how I get sometimes... I know I shouldn't be argumentative when we need to solve a problem. I know I should calm myself down and think things through. I'm gonna try and be better..."
"You're doing better than you think. And it's okay, Mira. I understand." Zoey hides herself into Mira's side. "Now go apologize to Rumi."
Mira chuckles. "Okay. Got it."
They stay like this for a couple more minutes until Rumi notices, already getting off her phone. She watches, slowly smiling, as Mira eyes Rumi over Zoey's head and winks playfully. The giggle escaping Rumi lifts Zoey's head up. "Couch, couch, couch!" Zoey cheers, hurrying herself over.
She plops down, latching onto Rumi's side instead, and Mira snorts softly.
Rumi accepts Zoey's needy embrace.
"Celine says not to overthink it. Everyone has nightmares. She says she had a lot of nightmares about my mom after my mom passed away."
"Makes sense," Mira comments, the corners of her mouth smiling when Rumi's lips find the same spot to kiss Zoey's head. "You're good here, Rumi, you know? They're gone. All of the demons from the Idol Awards we fought. Even for some reason if they weren't, we would protect you."
As silence follows, her and Zoey admire how Rumi's pale-patterned face brightens.
"Thank you... I seriously don't know what I would do without you both."
"Crash and burn," Zoey says a little too truthfully, making the other two women snort.
"Wow. Jeez. Here I was expecting a love confession or something..."
"I thought you guys already knew I was in love with you?" Zoey asks curiously to Mira, and Rumi hides her blush into Zoey's neck this time.
"Um! Hello! I'm pretty sure that's brand new news to all of us, Zoey!"
"Oohhh..."
"Zoeyyyyyyy," Rumi groan-laughs, feeling more two sets of arms and two heads cuddling in.
"You guys love me too, right? Right? And you love each other?"
A monotone echoes into Rumi's ear of "obviously".
Rumi answers, truthful, "Yes, Zoey."
This, on this couch, is where she belongs for the rest of their three-month vacation.
*