In Flames - 6. Chapter 6

The inside of the house was red. No. That’s not even close to describing it. It was RED.

All over.

Everywhere.

It was as though someone had opened up a can of paint and thrown it everywhere until nothing else remained. Red splattered the floor and walls, the insides of the windows and all the furnishings. There were… bits of flesh around, ropey sections of intestines and chunks of unidentifiable meat, the shiny ends of bones.

Atoki turned from the view, caught the glint of half a skull, bits of brain and bone and the partially recognisable features of Aris. The boy barged past Vruuaska and threw up over the steps and onto the small lawn.

The big horned demon followed him out of four paws.

*

Atoki had wanted to come. After their bath, he had dried off, gotten dressed and decided that he wanted to go to wherever this ‘Hell’ place was with Vruuaska. There was nothing left for him in town. He had no idea where he might go and the idea of staying with friends, or to go crawling back to his parents made his stomach flip.

The demon obviously wanted him to go there, although he said that he would go wherever Atoki went, and during that kiss something had changed inside him. Atoki had no idea what he would do without the demon in his life.

In a way, he’d forgotten how to have a life. Even if he successfully managed to rid himself of Aris, he would have to start dealing again with normal life. Get a job, find a place to live, pay rent and go shopping for food. Right then, he’d had no idea how to get one or do any of that. The idea of one day dating again made his skin crawl. To go to a club and go home with a stranger? Never again.

So Atoki had told the demon that he wanted to go back to Hell with him.

“But I have to go back first.”

“What?” Vruuaska, feral shaped and preening, grooming his thick mane with his paws in a very lion-like manner, had stopped and stared at him, “You wanna what now?”

“I need to go back to the house.”

The demon’s tail that thrashed angrily, destroying a small bedside table.

“No!”

“I’m going back. I need to make sure that he knows that I’m not coming back.”

“He won’t come after you,” The demon had seemed adamant, “And I’ll get you whatever stuff you want. Don’t go back.”

Atoki had clenched his fist and stamped his foot, knowing that he was acting like a petulant child. Then he’d just shaken himself and wrapped his arms around the fluffy neck and shoulders, burying his face in Vruuaska’s fur.

“If I don’t go back, I’ll be looking for him over my shoulder for the rest of my life. I don’t want that.”

Vruuaska had wrapped his big wedge shaped head around him and rumbled softly. The boy stroked the big horns and sighed into the soft pelt.

“I don’t want you to go back there Sire. But I’ll come with you if that’s what you need.”

“Yes please.”

So back they had gone.

*

Just when Atoki thought that there was nothing left in his stomach to throw up, the end of his cracked rib bones grated together and his stomach flipped again. He upchucked nothing but bile until his guts were empty and his throat was raw. Finally he straightened up at looked carefully at Vruuaska without looking back inside the house.

“Did you do that?”

“Yes.” The demon looked equally proud and guilty.

“Did he suffer?” Atoki’s tone was hard.

“Yes.”

“Good.” The boy nodded, his jaw firm. “Good.” He turned to look inside the house again, and this time, he didn’t feel sick.

For a moment Atoki wondered if something in his brain was broken, because now all he felt was glad that Aris was gone. He would never be the boy on his knees being degraded again. He stepped into the house and spat on the mess that had once been the man who had once been his boyfriend.

“Fuck you.” He turned to his demon companion, “Let’s go.”

Vruuaska rubbed against him, his whole long body drawing against him, thick prehensile tail circling his waist.

“Anywhere you want Sire.”

“Call me by my name.”

“Sorry Atoki.” The demon hung his head, and Atoki rubbed a hand over his thick horns, “Where would you like to go?”

“Take me to this Hell of yours.” Atoki dug his hands into the thick fur and felt all the fight go out of him. Aris was dead, but he wasn’t happy or sad about that as he looked at his demon, he just felt a bit numb.

He wanted to be somewhere else far away from his past.

He stroked Vruuaska’s head and scritched at the fur above his eyes where the short hairs were darker, like little eyebrow dots. The wolf-lion made a happy noise.

“Take me home.”

“Get on.” The beast dropped his shoulder and crouched. “Come on.”

Atoki stared at him for a second, then took a big handful of the fur and dragged himself over onto the demon’s shoulders. He hooked his legs either side of his neck and found that the only sensible place for his hands was right at the base of each horn. Even though Vruuaska’s eyes were fire from edge to edge, somehow Atoki knew that the demon was looking at him.

“Don’t try and steer OK? Just hang on.”

“Alright.” Atoki settled into his position with a smile. “Lead the way big guy.”

*

Vuuraska took a route that lead the quickest way out of the little town, going pretty steeply uphill past the little bookshop and up the cobbled street to the golf course. It was deserted this late in the evening, and in the further fields, the cows were all lying down, asleep or chewing the cud, and took no notice of them.

“Wait, can people still see me?”

“There’s no one around Atoki,” Vuuraska swiped his tail along his own back and found the boy sitting in his shoulders, dragging the tip over his spine, “Just cows.”

“No, I meant,” The boy who was his Master ruffled his mane with a flat hand between his ears, “If there were people here, would I be floating right now?”

“No Sire. The human brain doesn’t like to see things that it can’t explain. We’d both not be here. A really perceptive mind, or maybe an empath, would perhaps see you walking with a large dog, maybe.” Vuuraska took the narrowest and steepest path leading up the side of the rolling chalk hills, “I can force people to see me though. It’s not hard.”

“Is that what you did to Aris?”

“Yes.” Vuuraska was too proud of what he had done to hang his head about it. The man had abused the boy who had called him, hurt the man whom he called Master and tried to break the person whom he loved. He’d deserved to die a most horrible death. Vruuaska only wished that he’d been able to find someone who could have been crueller and more vicious than he was. “Among other things.”

The ash coloured big horned demon, with smoke rolling softly from his fur, paced up the hill, going ever skywards, through little cuts and channels in the chalk, through little copses of twisted and stunted trees.

Vruuaska enjoyed carrying Atoki on his back. The boy weighed practically nothing. His master was warm and the boy legs around his neck and shoulders felt comfortable and well fitted. Whenever Atoki had his balance, he would let go of the demons horns and rub the fur on his head. When he scratched behind Vruuaska’s ears, the demon couldn’t help but make a happy purr.

“You like that huh, Vru?”

“So I only get one syllable then?” Vruuaska rolled his shoulders, which had the effect of making Atoki wrap his arms around his neck with a cry of surprise. That was nice. “You got a short version of your name?”

“When we are in college, my friends used to call me ‘Nami’. There was this sushi place we used to go to. Oki-Nami. So cause my name is At-oki, we used to call it ‘At Oki-Nami’s.’ I became Nami.”

“I like that. So Nami, you ready?” Vruuaska stopped as they reached the crest of the hill, the highest point for miles at the top of the range of hills. The mound was an old burial site and at the top Vruuaska could sense that the world was thin, “This is the place.”

Atoki slipped down from his shoulders as he lay down.

“Really? It looks just like any other place.” The boy stared around at the panoramic views, “It’s pretty though.”

“Grab some wood, we gotta build a fire.” Vruuaska sat up and curled his tail around his paws neatly, “Time to go travelling.”

The fire didn’t need to be very big, a few old branches and twigs were enough thought Vruuaska to himself. Atoki piled them up in a little wigwam and sat back against the furry side of the demon.

“Now what?”

“Now we light the fire.” Vruuaska inched forwards on his belly, laid his jaw on the ground and grinned, “My specialty.”

He blew softly on the assembled fire and the ash that left his mouth became sparks, and the sparks grew and took hold of the dry wood and suddenly the fire burst into life. Vruuaska smiled.

“Kiss me.”

Atoki smiled, stroked the short fur above the demon’s black and pink mottled nose. He kissed him and Vruuaska placed his paw in the fire, and then the world around them melted away.