Chapter Text
A wooden stage was set in the middle of the courtyard, a glorified way to describe the patch of dirt where ceremonies and shows were to take place. However there was never any ceremonies on that stage as far as Cherry could remember. The man stood on the stage with two of her own kind. Their eyes were wide with fear, bloodied bandages on their hands and forehead showing all defenses had been forcefully pulled out. Their shirts had been removed, with the female having a few bandages for “modesty”. A cruel joke really.
The man between them had blond hair and blue eyes, a charming man if he wasn’t smiling like a lunatic. A wide ear to ear smile with lips that leaned inward, as if the very act of what he was going to do made him rabid. The two demons were forced into chairs by masked assistants, tied so tight they could barely squirm in fear. The woman cried and pleaded, every word she spoke falling on deaf ears. The man held out his blue gloved hand. An assistant handed a cleaver to him, one already stained with dried blood. The woman cried and screamed as he walked closer, raising the cleaver above her right arm.
“Hold still darling, it’s easier when you don’t move.” He spoke in a taunting voice, sickeningly sweet with lies and propaganda.
“Cherry?” A familiar voice asked
Cherry blinked, looking up at the one talking to her. Blue eyes, blond hair. For a moment she saw that man again, dressed in a long lab coat with a light blue shirt and formal black pants. His smile stretched from ear to ear, taunting her with the scalpel in his hands. He tossed and twirled it in his hand with an unnatural efficiency only he had. It was as if the tool was another part of his body, sitting in his tool belt until it was ready to be used again. The image flickered to reveal the real blue eyes and blond hair that stared at her. Rough and worn hands made a soft snap sound. Tired blue eyes looked at her with annoyance.
“Cherry.” He said again, sighing with exhaustion, “At this point you should start paying me as your babysitter.”
Cherry put on her practiced smile, normally reserved for when she was at work. With a giggle she replied with a soft “sorry”. Lexi sighed and rolled his eyes, hand rubbing at the temples of his forehead.
“How do you even work like this?” Lexi sighed.
Cherry smiled in reply, earning a scoff from him as he muttered something about her being stupid. She just giggled at the muttering, causing him to roll his eyes again.
She looked out the window, staring at the same city streets where she watched her father march. His loud and demanding voice still rung in her ears. The vision of him marching down the streets, microphone in hand as hundreds followed after him with homemade signs of their own. It would be the last time he walked those streets. Streets that betrayed him with apathetic gunshots that buried the protests before they even began to be seen. Though, that was the point. Wasn’t it? Every part of the city was just another reminder of the horrible events that transpired. People whispering horrible things in her ears as she walked past them. People who looked at her with disgust. People who refused to answer her at work. Humans blinded by the scientist’s sweet words of propaganda. Propaganda that played them like a fiddle and casted himself as the hero. Though she knew that sadistic man was anything but a hero.
The city was cold and lonely, cruel to whoever didn’t fit the standard of human. The standard of white, skinny, human. It was a concrete jungle constructed of hate and bias. Nothing like the forests full of life her mother had told her about. Then, an idea hit her. She stood up and slammed her hands onto the counter. It was a polished lopsided spruce wood counter, blending in with the aqua green walls that mocked the wood for what it had once been. Lexi jolted, looking at her with wide blue eyes. Eyes filled with a shock rarely seen in those eyes and not another’s.
“Let’s go to the forest!”
“What!?” Lexi exclaimed, “Cherry that is a horrible idea!”
“And?” Cherry replied with a smile as she leaned over the counter, “I know your coming with me, aren’t you?”
Lexi sighed, knowing she was right. He groaned with frustration, mumbling something about her being stupid.
“How are you even alive!?” He grumbled, “And I’m the human here…”
Cherry giggled with a smile, one she noticed made Lexi’s cheeks light up with a tint of blush. She ran toward where she kept the keys, swiping them up and running down the stairs of her apartment building to the parking lot where her car was.
“Cherry what about the rest of the stuff?!” Lexi shouted.
Cherry stopped and looked at him innocently, “Well, go get it.”
Lexi groaned again but grabbed the supplies they’d be needing for such an impulsive trip. Fruit, sandwiches, water, and a few blankets just to be safe. He ran after her, barely able to catch up to her as she turned the keys in the car’s key hole. The engine roared to life, as if just as annoyed as he was. He threw the supplies in the back of her wrangler and put his seat belt on, scolding her to do the same no matter how she protested it wasn’t needed for a demon.
“Doesn’t matter, you’re putting that seat belt on so long as you continue your impulsive trip.” Lexi scolded.
It was Cherry’s turn to groan. She remembered how her mother would smile and say she acted just like her father when she did that. Cherry sighed at the memory. She hardly knew her father, except from the few memories she had of him. Strong. Loud. Determined. All the perfect qualities of a husband according to the whispering of her ancestors. She sat up, changed the gear to reverse, and put her foot on the gas. Cherry switched the gear to drive as she drove out of the cramped apartment parking lot. She paused at the gate, handing the guy her card to prove she actually owned an apartment in the building. He scoffed and handed her card back with a racist comment. Cherry snatched the card back from him, muttering an insult in latin. A language she had started to learn during her free-time in a desperate attempt to ignore her thoughts. With that out of the way, she pressed her foot onto the gas against Lexi’s multiple warnings which continually included the word foolish or stupid. She only pressed the break faster, ignoring the red lights as she drove past the cars full of judging eyes. Eyes that only glared harsher as she sped past, some shouting more racist comments. She’d put the fines on her credit card later anyway. The city streets gave way to the highway. Highways surrounding by greed tainted wineries and all their trapped grape plants. More shouting and car horns were ignored as she parked off to the side, taking a deep breath. She could hear Lexi shouting, telling her just how stupid she was.
“Lexi.” She spoke softly.
Lexi went quiet, only whispering to ask a plain “yes?”.
“Can you hand me my phone?”
Lexi nodded and leaned down, grabbing the phone from where it had fallen underneath her seat. Cherry looked at her hands, shaking and staining the plain black-grey wheel with sweat. A trait her ancestors didn’t have but now she did from their years of marriage to humans. And humans never stopped taking. Take, take, take. Kids, power, money. It didn’t matter. It never ended.
“Where do you want to go?” Lexi asked, snapping her out of her spiral with a uncharacteristically gentle voice.
Cherry jolted, turning to look at the rude human who was ironically being kind to her. The one who understood her, no matter how many times her coworkers said not to trust him while he stole handfuls of food from the company parties she brought him to. The food would be tossed anyway, and the company didn’t seem to care so long as he didn’t bother with the actual work.
“Les Bois Arides forest. Please.” She replied, far too tired to even bother with the act.
She heard the click-clack of the phone keyboard as he typed it into the GPS, with a automated voice saying to turn right in three-point-thirty-four miles. She turned to smile softly at Lexi, muttering a small thank you.
“Do you want me to drive?” Lexi offered.
Cherry nodded her head, “No, just tell me where to go.”
“Alright.” Lexi replied.
Cherry turned the gas on and drove back onto the highway, listening to the soothing voice of the GPS system. If she was truly delusional, she could pretend it was her mother’s soft and gentle voice. One that had grown more hoarse over the years after her father’s death.
Lexi snapped his fingers again, pretending as if he didn’t do it intentionally. Cherry blinked, looking back at the dirt road in front of her. Miles and miles of grape trees continued to decorate both sides of the road. A few stray grapes getting crushes under the car’s weight like unlucky victims of an experiment. Gentle music was turned on by Lexi, though neither of them spoke. Hands on the wheel, her thoughts would continue to swirl within her mind. Though they were ignored in favor of the gentle music, similar to the tunes her mother used to play. Tunes her mother said were her husband’s favorites. He was a man of his culture, so she heard. It was cruel really, how such a beautiful culture — a society — killed her father without batting an eye to his death while they dragged his name through the mud. A culture that continued to haunt her as it put her at peace. The ghost of her parents whispered from almost every thing her eyes could see. Flashes of him or her, whichever it more closely related to.
Dirt highway turned to grainy brown dirt littered with the dead leaves of trees and plants. A path that crunched under the weight of the wheels and soon, her feet. The sun peeked through what the trees didn’t cover, dancing in front of her like little faeries in the forest, blissfully unaware of their presence. Sunlight reflected off the crystal clear blue lake where animals took a quick sip. The birds chirped, singing a song that welcomed her into the forest clearing where she parked the car, taking the key and putting it into her pocket. The GPS announced their arrival in the distance, ignored as Cherry jumped out of the car without a second thought. She took a deep breath of the forest air, closing her eyes as she imagined her mother sitting in a chair and watching her with a soft smile. The memory was quickly brushed off as she turned to Lexi, who was shouting at her not to leave him behind. Cherry giggled in reply, looking at him as he sighed with annoyance.
“Your child will be a pain to catch if you ever have children.” Lexi grumbled.
Cherry blinked but still giggled, “That’s a random thought to mention.”
Lexi didn’t go in depth about his random thought, offering a shrug. He sat down on the ground, making sure there wasn’t any animal corpses or feces before patting the spot next to him. Cherry smiled and sat next to him, looking at the lake with a smile. A frog hopped out of the lake, catching her attention. Lexi jolted, immediately knowing what Cherry was going to do as she got up and ran toward the frog.
“Cherry! CHERRY!” Lexi shouted, though his shouting went ignored as always.
The frog was a muted dirty golden color with relish colored spots. As it hopped, it became apparent it was missing a limb. Yet, it still hopped away with a surprising amount of speed. All be it, lopsided with every landing. The ground crunched under Cherry’s feet as she ran, only scaring the frog more. Lexi muttered curses as he ran after her, wondering why he even stayed with this girl besides the supplies she gave him. The forest sped past them in their vision, so quickly the hole covered in spider webs went unnoticed. The frog was first, ribbiting as it realized it had made a mistake. Then it was Cherry, who yelped as she fell in after the frog. Lexi stopped and stared at the hole, sighing before he voluntarily fell in after her.
“Got you!” Cherry cheered, holding the shaken frog in her hands.
“Cherry!” Lexi shouted, dusting himself off despite what little use it had.
Cherry looked up at him, frog still in hand. She blinked, as if she was a child attempting to hide the vase they had broken. Lexi sighed, staring back at her with pure annoyance.
The air smelt of rust and oil. In fact, it was in the air more than whatever he breathed. Lexi wasn’t sure if Cherry breathed oxygen like he did. The floor, made of scrap metal that moved when an object heavy enough fell onto one of the mountain sized hills of scrap. There was also the slight smell of rot and blood buried under the rust and oil never to be found again. A smell both him and Cherry knew very well, from equally unpleasant but different experiences. Yet both of them said nothing about it. Cherry stood up, having a few cuts on her legs from falling onto sharp pieces of scrap metal in pursuit of saving the stupid frog.
“Bandages, gauze, and disinfectant please.” Lexi ordered.
Within the blink of an eye, the items appeared in his hand one by one. Perfect condition, unopened as if to really tell him they weren’t tapered with. Despite the fact they both knew she could summon the items with them opened, which would take less energy than making sure they were sealed. Yet, she made sure they were sealed. He sighed and offered a silent thank you while opening the packages for use.
“Stay still.”
“Lexi you don’t need to do this, I’m a demon.” She reminded with a giggle.
“And I’m not letting you go around bleeding. Now stay still.” Lexi snapped back.
She simply smiled and stood still as he disinfected the cuts. It stung slightly, a tingling sensation she didn’t seem to mind. Most would flinch, however, the more she stayed still the better. He put the gauze on her cuts, sealing it in place with a bandaid.
“Where are we?” Lexi finally asked.
“I don’t know.” Cherry replied truthfully, “I’ve been to this forest many times and I have never seen this.”
She stared at the piles of scrap metal. Bronze, silver, and some small pieces of gold. Rust showing the years of neglect like the rings of a tree. It was like staring at a pit or corpses. Standing on them as you weren’t sure to mourn or run away in fear. The metal shuffled and crunched under her feet as she walked, putting the frog on her shoulder.
“What are you going to name that damn thing anyway?”
“Takashi.” Cherry replied with a smile, watching as the frog tried (and failed) to eat her fingers that held a worm she had summoned.
And for a moment, it didn’t matter where they were. It didn’t matter what the foolish girl had gotten them into. Her smile, in the moment, was enough for Lexi. And so, he decided to wait a moment before taking the lead once more. The lead in a mission to get out of whatever this damn place was.