The Demons Inside Us.

[Skelo10]

In one leap, Kat had made it onto the first branch. She easily began climbing up the tree, making it to the top after a full minute. She perched herself on top, getting a good look around the environment. She turned her head back down to Selix. "There's a cave just north of here. I bet we could make it if we run!"


Donovan gripped her hand in reassurance. "It'll be alright. Don't worry."

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

A small smile broke over the shark-soul's face as Kit yelled down to him. "Head over there we'll follow you!" He called up, his hands cupped over his mouth. He then set off in a run, his speed picking up as if he was swiftly swimming in the ocean, his body becoming a grey blur.


Piper nodded to him, grasping his hand hard before taking off in a sprint with him, their legs working hard as they passed Raven and Sun.


The black-haired girl cursed herself in her head, her weakness ultimately being the loyalty she'd always assumed to be her greatest quality. Now she was falling behind, her shoulder bleeding but not fatal, and the muscles along her back ached from the exertion of energy trying to retrieve Donovan and Sun before all hell had broken loose.

 

[Skelo10]

Sun looked at Raven and frowned. "Need me to carry you? My sister runs really fast, and I don't think you'll be able to make it."


Kat lowered herself on a branch and began leaping from branch to branch with her tail, making sure she was still in sight. She smiled, knowing that Selix acknowledged her.

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

Raven ignored him for a few moments longer, struggling to lift herself over a downed tree, the old sodden wood spanning farther above her head then she would have liked. She pressed past him, letting her land rip away from the exposed flesh. She winced in pain for a brief moment, but quickly regained her composure. The small girl dug her sharp black nails into the rotting wood, the musty smell of moss and burning trees thick around her. She pulled herself up, arms shivering as she attempted to scale the sleeping giant. The bark, slick with rain from a few days ago, peeled from the tired plant. She barely had enough time to react, her grip slipping. Her chest heaved, the wind getting knocked out of her. Her back caked with mud and grass she lifted herself from the slippery mulch. She stood, her pale cheeks splattered with dirt, one hand pressed against the wooden obstacle, using it to hold herself up. "I don't need your help." She said with small quick breaths in between. She stared at him with persistence coating her thoughts. Why should she allow him to? His whole existence in her life had been spent in underlying bitterness and rage-inducing fights. All meaningless quarrels, but often enough to make their friendship nonexistent.


(( I want to focus on this scene right now. The others are just running.))

 

[Skelo10]

Sun rose his eyebrows, frowning again. "Uh, yeah you do. You'd probably rot before you'd make it to the cave. Raven, why are you being so stubborn? Just let me help you" Sun said, scratching his nose. He reached out his hands to aid Raven.

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

She shied away from him, her face still holding the empty expression, voice soft and low as she spoke. "Why?" She said, a tinge of anger and bitterness barely detectable in her tone. "You don't care about us."

 

[Skelo10]

Sun hissed and his hand recoiled, being offended from the remark. "Us? Why do you talk like I am not one of you? I care, I care about everyone." Despite what she said, he bent down and tried to pick her up. "..And I'm not letting you go anywhere without my help."

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

Allowing him to grasp her in his arms turning her head away from his chest. Her eyes were sullen, her body quivering gently as the wind ruffled her feathers. "Look at this place. I hate it- everyone is smiling and laughing when we should be training and sleeping." she quoted him softly and said nothing more, the sky sagging above them. She rested the back of her head along his arm, glancing into the black smudges above their heads. The clouds had rolled overhead, blocking the stars from peering down on the survivors. The smell of rain damp on their skin. It was obvious the world was distraught, the feeling of the untested souls wandering through the trees making her skin crawl. She shivered in his touch, the cold biting her, as well as the sight of the drifting spirits. Raven's spirit-animal, being the bearer of back luck and a natural sign of death, had given her the ability to see the unrested dead walk among them. She shrank into Sun's body involuntarily. A man with only one arm and his face carved into thick slabs of red meat had reached out to grasp her body, but was quickly moved through by the snake-soul.

 

[Skelo10]

Sun didn't notice the soul but he looked down at Raven with regret after she spoke. After that, his moves were more rigid and tense. He disliked the situation and what she said, but he did say it. His nose crinkled in frustration- not at Raven but at himself. When he passed a certain oak tree he shivered and bit his lip. "I'm sorry, Raven."

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

The oak loomed over them, its bitterness towards the humans known by the tension that could be felt in the thick air. The hands of the dead grasped her bare-arms, making her quiver. She kept her stoic expression, even though her bones refused to stop shaking in the other's arms. If anyone were to have seen her, they would have calked the behavior up to being cold and injured. "We'll speak of this later." She sighed into his clothing, her hot breath warming her nose for a few moments. She refused to take the apology. She couldn't bring herself to, not after the actions he'd shown to her. He would have to earn her trust, as well as anyone else's. "Can we please just catch up to my brother?" Her voice was small and powerless in that moment, indicating Sun had finally broken her, had finally managed to make her feel small.

 

[Skelo10]

Sun did not reply but his face cringed in regret. His feet began to move forward in a fast manner. His feet moved in an odd way, both of them moving at one rhythm while his feet barely touched the ground. He felt the cool damp air brush through his hair and through the sleeves of his clothing. He was cold, yes, but Raven deserved this treatment.. for all he did to her today. I see, my sins will not be forgiven so easily. He paused to taken a large left where the cave was in sight. He hopped over a fallen tree which he nearly tripped over.


By the time he reached the cave, he was tired but he didn't let Raven down. He stood a meter or two in front of the cave. "It is me, Sun. Are you guys in there?"

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

After running at the fastest sprint their legs could have possibly carried them, all four of the young souls had nestles themselves deep inside the cave, just as the sky opened it's large jaws. Rain had been pouring from the sky for an hour now, making the air harsh, biting their toes. Selix had gathered large slabs of wood and grass, and was in the middle of soaking the water into his skin. He handed a large bundle of dried wood to Donovan in hopes he had enough energy in him to create sparks with the stone around them.


"Just hold out a few more minutes." He said grasping sodden branches in one hand and slowly turning a ball of water above his other set of fingertips.


Piper had formed a large pit of sand in a section of the cave, burying herself up to her shoulders, her face poking out of a small blanket of minerals. Her hands were folded under her red-tattooed chin, her tongue flicking in and out of her lips as she watched the men work.


Selix's head shot up as something blocked the entrance. He felt his heart fall as he focused his pitch-black eyes on the small figure held in Sun's arms. Fearing the worst he held his breath, but soon relaxed himself as he noticed his sibling had been shivering in such a way he was familiar with. He faced the snake-soul, and held out his arms to take his sister. Something stirred in his stare, an aggressive bitterness at the sight of her festering wound, and the fact she was curled up in such a defeated state.


"What happened?"

 

[Skelo10]

"Nothing" Sun hissed as he carefully handed Selix his sister. Without looking at Kat or Donovan, he walked out, waving goodbye. "I'll find something for her wounds. I'll be back soon."


Donovan grunted and smashed the rocks together with a powerful effort and sparks erupted between them. He lowered them to the ground and laid them on a few leaves which were scattered throughout the cave. Donovan rubbed the rocks against each other and a fire started. Donovan got up and sat beside the sand that Piper and made and stared at Sun walking out the cave. What did you do now?





Kat curled up in a pile of thick leaves she made for herself in the corner. She didn't bother to open her eyes to look at Sun. Her tail flicked around her as she shuddered. ''When is Wren coming?"

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

Raven turned away from the snake-soul, catching his gaze for a moment. Her chest felt hallow with an unfamiliar ache. The dark-haired girl wrapped her arms around her brother's shoulders, letting the silence wash over them as the sound of Sun's footsteps became rinsed away by the rain. Selix carried her shivering body close to the fire, holding her in his lap as he hovered his hands over her dripping clothes, capturing the moisture in his grey skin. It was a trying exercise, one that required concentration and silence. Being a water-soul, his abilities became more pronounced near the ocean, or when the storm-gods blessed him with their tears. "You'll be okay." He said softly, but she just stared into the flames, breathing slowly as the pain in her wound became a numb sting.


Piper glanced sideways at Donovan. She quickly shot from her soft bedding and lay her head along his shoulder.


Selix glanced up at Kat, his mouth in a firm line. "I have no idea." He said in a calm voice, but the way Sun had stirred his blood made his expression look anything but. "He said he'd come find us. This means we have to train, eat, sleep, and just survive." He breathed a sigh. "We have no idea what we're dealing with, do we?"

 

[Skelo10]

Kat shook her hair and she sat up, looking at the footprints left by Sun. "He never intends to hurt people- he just does it. I wouldn't blame him either, he grew up thinking that he should be rude to everybody. To him, survival is the only thing that matters.. nothing else."


Donovan grinned and raised Piper by her waist, sitting her on his lap. He enclosed hiss hands around hers, glaring at Kat. "He was grown up that way? But you are nothing like him Kat." Kat shook her head and waved him off. "Father never talked to me, but he talked to Sun. He hated our mother at the time and Sun followed his example. When you are young, you look at your elders for wisdom."

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

"He's selfish" Raven chimed in, her voice soft. She was calm and collected, but her stare gave off a deeper emotion. Something she didn't quite understand. If he was so selfish, why did he bring me here? I was weighing him down. She let her words build in the back of the room, but recoiled the bitterness as she closed her thick lashes. "But he has a good heart. He could have left me to die... but he didn't."


Selix gritted his teeth, swallowing words he wanted to say. Harsh things that would hurt more then one of the siblings, but he didn't dare. Holding his tongue he glanced down at his sister's wounded shoulder, anger lacing his brow. "It will get infected if we let it fester like this." He grunted, making his displeasure known.


Piper shrunk into Donovan's arms, letting her clawed fingertips gently roll over his skin.


"Sun is how I use to be, before Papa came back from his journey with Ma. They were going to take a demon's soul to give me a baby brother. While they were gone I took care of myself, in the end being bitter and self-absorbed." She shifted, and kept quiet as Selix's sharp glare was shot towards her.


She understood his frustration, her being the reason Raven was in such distress. But the raven-soul was not bitter at the moment, she didn't seem to care about anything.


"Where is Sun? He must be cold." Raven murmured, regretting being so hard, for being so stubborn and unpleasant.

 

[Skelo10]

Donovan closed his eyes and sighed. "If you get to know Sun, he isn't really all that bad. I won't reveal his history, in fear of getting thrown off a cliff but he relies on his past too much and it is why he has trouble seeing things in a positive view." Kat stood up and poked her head out of the cave. Using her abnormal eyes and ears, she tried to concentrate on her surroundings to see if Sun was around. Sure enough he was walking towards the cave, his hair and clothes soak. The hair clung to his forehead, so she couldn't see his expression. He walked past Kat, his shoes making a squish squish sound. He pulled out several leaves and a bandage from under his sleeve. "The leaves will burn but the bandage will soothe the pain. The bandage I found from the outer part of the village." Without waiting for a reply, he sat towards the back of the cave, sitting sown awkwardly. He pressed his hands on his leg and winced but covered it up with a faint smile when Kat gave him a concerned look.

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

Selix pulled Raven up to the snake-male, resting her head in his lap. The shark-soul then began to suck the water from the younger male's clothing by slowly hovering his hand a few inches from his body. "Bandage her while I dry you off." He said coolly, his ability to keep the same stoic expression as his sister almost unnaturally eerie.


Raven allowed her head to rest on the snake's legs, her eyes fluttering as sleep threatened to take her under. She focused her faze on Sun's face, her pupils shrinking. "I'm sorry." She said quietly, their conversation being partially unspoken. Her head was swimming, unsure how she should be acting now. Her body felt foreign, mind failing to work properly.

 

[Skelo10]

"Do not apologize" he whispered. His eyes were oddly shaking and he had a hard time grasping the roll of bandage. Once he died he stroked her hair gently. "This will hurt." He placed the mint leaves delicately onto her wounds, letting the medicine in them do it's work. He quickly wrapped the bandage around the leaves, holding them in place. When he was finished, he cut off the end of the bandage by letting poison drip from his fingers which ripped the bandage. He ripped off the hanging threads which the poison still resided on. He quickly tied the end up, proud of himself.


Donovan looked at Sun with suspicion. He leaned into Piper comfortably and squinted. "Was it hard to find the leaves and bandages, Sun?" The blonde haired boy replied almost immediately. "No.. not too hard. Do not ask such silly questions, Donovan."

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

She felt a sudden wave of calm as Sun ran his fingers through her hair. She wanted to speak, but her breath was cut off by the sudden pressure added to the open gash along her shoulder. She bit down on her lower lip hard, trying to stifle a whimper as the medicine dripped into her exposed flesh, mingling with the blood. She gritted her teeth, staring into his shaking eyes. "What happened?" She asked through heavy breathing, one hand grasping onto the loose fabric along her belly. She noted the pain in Sun's face, and the effort he had taken to hide it. "Something's wrong." She said quietly, simple pointing out what the snake-soul would not admit.


Selix growled to himself at the sudden affection showed by the younger male, and the way his sister had been gazing at him made his blood boil. He just wouldn't simply allow such a foul-tempered person influence her in such ways. But he bit his tongue, finishing up his task by swiftly running his hand over the male's head, drying his golden hair.


"You can't hide injury from us. We can't afford another death." He spat in anger, but backed away as Raven's other hand reached up, her wound shifting with her movements, making a noticeable wince engulf the pale girl's features. Blood soaked into the bandages as Raven brushed her fingers over Sun's cheek, her eyes pleading.

 

[Skelo10]

"Raven, lay down before you bleed through the wounds." His face was rigid and his eyes were still shaking. "I don't want you to get hurt." He felt his body dry, including his hair and he winced again towards his leg as blood dripped from it. He quickly shifted his leg to hide it.

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

An even sharper growl erupted from the shark's teeth. He grabbed his sister, tearing her body away from Sun. She grunted, her arm burning as she collided into Selix's chest. His black hues turned down to the wound plainly noticeable along the other's leg, his brow furrowing.


"Where is the Spirit, Sun?" He demanded answers, his body shaking with anger. "You would keep this information from us? Put us all in danger like this?" His voice cut like knives, making Piper shrink further into Donovan's clutch.


Raven tore herself away from her brother, tears streaming down her face as blood seeped through the bandages.

 

[Skelo10]

Sun growled and he stood up, trying his best to hide the pain in his leg. "Can you not see the pain Raven is in? You do not treat an injured woman like that. Sometimes its hard for me to believe you're her brother!" He raised his voice at the last sentence and clenched his fists. Kat began to stand up slowly, noticing where the argument is going. "Both of you, please stop."


Donovan patted Piper's head soothingly and sighed. "You guys are going to attract more unwanted things if you do not lower your voices. If Sn says he is fine, he is fine." Donovan clearly knew what was wrong with Sun, but Sun positively did not like to be of others peoples worries.

 

[-.-.Lucifer.-.-]

Selix dropped his arms from his sister's body, her legs working quickly. She crawled to the farthest end of the cave, pressing her back against the stone, her wings outstretched so she could feel the cool rock against the skin between her shoulder blades. One hand was held tightly over the bindings, fingers stained scarlet, while the other hand was shakily wiping tears away from her tattooed cheeks. "You're both unbelievable." She whispered, her breathing slowly calming from the distance.


Selix stared into the flames, his jaw set. He wants to slam his fist into the snake-soul's chin, watch his teeth shatter, and inflict agonizing pain onto his slithery body. He loathed him, with a passion that was fearsome.


"Bandage your fucking wound, we start training tomorrow." He said, spitting into the fire to end the conversation.


After a few moments, the only thing that could be heard was the soft breathing of the injured female.


"We all need to rest. I'm sorry for stirring emotions." Selix muttered, splitting the silence before wandering towards the mouth of the cave. He sat down under the sagging sky, the water rolling over his skin cooling off his temper. He felt the gills along the his ribs open up, the new found oxygen making him close his eyes. The liquid felt cold, and familiar.

 

[Skelo10]

Kat did not reply, she just stared at Sun in horror. Sun slumped back down beside Raven, wincing. He looked at her bleeding wound in worry. "Do you want me to patch that up?" he whispered. Donovan raised his eyebrow at Sun. He was clearly too distracted to notice that blood seeped through his white tunic. He turned his attention back to Piper and swayed her side to side. He bent his head down to kiss her cheek and calm her down. "It's going to be fine. We just need to stay safe."