Fiend and Friend

Who: Reiz and Amy
Where: that one old shack in the woods
When: morning time

The sky was pretty coming through the trees, all blue and bright, crazy pretty. If the cold wasn't so cold, Amy would've liked to spend a lot of time outside, she hadn't been able to spend much time out in the daytime, she was starting to feel practically nocturnal. The wind was getting uncomfortable though, it couldn't quite get through her windbreaker-sweater-turtleneck layers, but it was cutting through her winter pants so even the back of her knees were freezing. She would be taking the sidewalk back to the Lamplighter, and she had been but the road had been too perilous there without any cover to take off the sting of the wind. This was a shortcut anyway, a path that was still kept fresh, probably by high schoolers who used it just as she had when she was in high school. Back when everything was simpler. She shouldn't be out at all, she should be at the Lamplighter being warm, drinking Pandect's hot chocolate. But the thought of someone being able to control ghosts made her think instinctively of Baby Robbie. Poor little Baby Robbie and she and been halfway to the cemetery before she had even thought what she was doing.

The 'Leaving Dawn,' or whatever they were calling themselves, should be shot.

There was a sound off to her left, a high startled sound like an animal, and Amy jerked instinctively. Her ankle caught and twisted over log at the side of the path with a pulling ache and she was rolling down a little rise before she knew what was happening.

It wasn't smart. Not really. Not at all.

But Reiz had been through worse weather before, and he got out alright. He just wanted some fresh air, and it was nice, really. He had to bundle up a bit, wearing all the clothes he had--which wasn't much, but he was at least wearing one of his hoodies, his second one tied around his waist. If anyone asked, he just had a weird fashion thing going on.

And 'least his right hand was kind of sort of warm with the bandages covering it. The silver lining to ascending. It was there. Very minor, but it existed.

He walked through town, with his head down, and his hands in his pocket. His face was feeling all funny and numb and sniffley and... bleh. He stopped for a moment, rubbing his nose with the back of his sleeve--but a sound nearby caught his attention. It... sounded like a cry? A yelp? Did something happen to someone?

He ran over to the noise, seeing someone going down a hill-- wait--!

'Amy?'

He slid down on his feet with his right hand down to keep his balance.

Amy hit someone full tilt and bounced off into the little bit of snow and fallen leaves that were left over. She could feel the sort of stingy sensation on her knees that came from scrapes, and her palms stung as well through her mittens, but not as bad as her ankle. Her parents had taught her basic first aide, she knew better than to take her boot off, she'd never get it back on, but the urge to do something to make it feel better was strong. Wincing she checked out who she had run into and blinked, "Reiz? Are you alright?

As Reiz neared the end of the slope, he came to a stop, his exposed fingers numb, and his bandages and shoes covered in snow. He lost his balance, and fell backwards into a sitting up position.

"Um. Yeah. A-are you?" He stumbled back onto his feet, walking over closer to her.

"I don't know," she couldn't tell anything with her boot still on. "I hurt my ankle." Amy reached up with one mittened hand and tried to smile, Reiz was her friend, "Could you help me up please?"

Frowning with worry, Reiz reached out, firmly grasping her hand, his other arm offering support as he slowly pulled her onto her feet.

Amy squeaked at the two hot points of contact, one on her ankle the other in her hand, "Ow, ow!" She pulled her hand free gently and yanked her mitten off, the cold air biting down into her palm. The slide down must have been worse than she thought, she wasn't bleeding a lot, but the skin off her had was pink and lightly scraped. "Sorry, it looks like I got my hand too. Oh! Look at your fingers!" Amy momentarily forgot about her hands when she saw Reiz's chapped bright fingertips. "Don't you have gloves?"

At least the cold was numbing the pain.

Reiz let go of her hand as she pulled it away, and steadied his other arm around her shoulder to keep her up. He shook his head. "No. I'm okay." Kind of. The numbing feeling would go away later, that he knew.

"Can you walk?"

"Don't know," she said, leaning on Reiz. She slid her free mitten carefully into Reiz's hand, "It's only half of a pair, but its better than nothing. There's an old wood shed up ahead a little ways, used to be part of a cabin or something. It should still be there," Reiz was taller than her, and warmer even though she knew he must be freezing. "Shall we hop along?"

Reiz smiled as he felt the soft fabric of the mitten in his hand. 'course, he wasn't gonna put it on. He wasn't even sure if his hand could fit into her glove. He just held onto it, at least he got some warmth from it.

Err... hop? He took a tentative step forward, before... well. Scooping her up. That's what you were suppose to do, right? She couldn't walk well if her. Er. Foot? Was hurt? It seemed normal. People did it on TV and stuff when people were hurt. And Smith said that you were suppose to help everyone when you could, so that's what he was doing.

Amy giggled at being lifted up, Reiz was a big guy (bigger than her at least) so it wasn't really surprising he could lift her, although she wasn't exactly light as a feather. "Thanks Reiz, its right up ahead," she pointed with her bare hand. She wished Pandect had a cell phone so she could call him, get him to come get her. But Reiz would take care of her until she got her land legs back under her. And besides, it was kinda fun to be carried. For a moment she thought she had miscalculated, it looked like she had pointed Reiz in the wrong direction, but then the little wood shed appeared between the trees, almost grey with age. Through the empty doorway she could see fifty years of 'Donna loves Andy' and 'class of 76 is groovy' she couldn't help a sigh of relief, "There it is. Should get us out of the wind while we take care of our game plan."

Reiz didn't really feel burdened by her weight, after all, he's carried heavier things. They weren't generally people though, he didn't really carry people. He carried things like big boxes or couches or tables or things like that.

Seeing the cabin in sight, he walked towards it obediently.

There were convenient wooden crates inside the shack and Amy looked down at them from where Reiz was holding her. "Thanks Reiz, you're an awesome friend." She pulled on the legs of her jeans where two brownish red spots were appearing and stuck out her tongue. "Looks like I scraped my knees up pretty bad on the way down too. I guess I was really clumsy," Amy didn't much feel like giggling, or smiling, but she did anyway. It was the best thing to do. "Pick a carton and let's see what we can think up."

Most things in the world were black and white to Reiz. He couldn't see what colors giraffes were, or what color clothes he wore, he couldn't talk about the pretty orange sky, and he doesn't really know any colors. Except for one that he's incredibly familiar with.

He set her down against a wall, glancing down at the scrape on her knee, that... was more of a wound than he'd have wished.

At the sight of the blood, he felt an anxious feeling in his chest, he could feel his palms sweating, his breathing getting faster.

'No, no. Amy's a good person. She's a good person. She's a good personshe'sagoodpersonshe'sagoodpersonshe'sgoodgoodperson...' The words were repeated in his mind, like a mental sponge that was trying to scrape the vision of red that'd been splattered inside.

"Er. ...Yeah?" Was all he could say in between his breaths as he walked over dazedly to the other side of the cabin, facing the wall.

Something weird was going on, maybe it was a tail person thing, but Reiz had gone all funny. Swaying with his eyes all big, she had been close enough to see his pupils get huge before he set her down and went to the absolute opposite side of the cabin and... faced the wall. Now Amy was pretty amiable to odd forms of self expression, such was life. But facing the wall? That was a bit of a stretch. "Are- Are you okay Reiz?" she asked, easing herself down on a carton, and arranging her legs in front of her. He still had one of her mittens in his hand, and he was worrying it in between her fingers. She was starting to get a woogly feeling.

"Fine," he choked out, trying to keep his panic down. Reiz's fists were tight, he had to keep swallowing, it was like he was sweating in his mouth too. But that wasn't it, that wasn't it at all, and he knew what it was.

He could smell iron. He loved that smell--'NoIdon'tlikeit--no, no, why was there iron? Was it in the building? Was there metal some place nearby? No, it was blood, but why didn't he smell it earlier? It was just now, it was his imagination, his sense of smell wasn't that fine tuned anymore, this was just him screwing himself over.

Reiz wanted the smell to go away. He wanted something else--what else was there?

Flowers.

He was trying his hardest to remember what that was like, in between all the instincts and urges, and how he wanted to break things, how he wanted to fee--

He took a solid step forward, pushing his head against the wall, his fingers pushing and gripping against the wall so that they turned white.

Reiz wasn't fine, it didn't take a genius to see that, he was shivering shaking. It looked like his skin was crawling. His hands were squeezed tight against the side of the wall so his knuckles looked like knobs of bone. She pulled down her hood, struggling briefly with the way her scarf was wrapped, getting a face full of purple knitting that smelled like her lavender laundry detergent before getting free of it and standing up unsteadily. Reiz was her best friend, all her other friends, even the ones who didn't know about what had happened with her mother either didn't want to hang out with her any more or they were off at school or work somewhere far away. Reiz had made her feel happy, and like she had made him happy.

When someone gives you a gift like that you don't let them hurt, you don't let them feel bad. She briefly considered letting things lie, he obviously didn't want to talk about it. But he was hurting somehow. Hissing his breath in and out. Almost muttering to himself. Struggling to her feet with her scarf in one hand she hobbled over to Reiz, still giving him a foot or so of space, before laying a careful hand on the center of his back. "Let me help you Reiz."

The pressure against his skull, the weird numb-pain in his fingers, these were barely helping. His forehead would probably be raw later, but Reiz didn't care. He just wanted the thoughts to leave, it felt like he was going to be stuck in his current state of mind forever. It hurt so much not being able to eat, it hurt so much trying to keep it all in, it wasn't going to end, the only way he would get out of this was if he just dropped dead, he knew it.

He wanted something else to concentrate on--he wanted to break things, he wanted to run, he couldn't stand still, he needed to work it out--why wasn't he being left alone?

The hand. The hand--'she'sinjuredshe'sweakshe'spreynonobadbadbadbadthoughtsbad,' he stiffened at the touch. He didn't know what to say, he wanted help so badly. Make her take it all away.

But that wasn't possible, and the thought of the impossibility, it made everything worse.

"You can't," he sobbed quietly.

Amy reacted instinctively to his pain, Poor baby don't cry. Amy's arms went automatically around Reiz's middle, her scarf still in one hand, holding onto him. By the time she realised she was hugging him, her head was already resting on his backbone. She couldn't think of any jokes, nothing to laugh about. She sniffled against his hoodie, absently noting it needed a wash. "Don't cry Reiz. Please, its okay," she spoke softly and gently the way she would speak to a crying child. "I'm tougher than I look. You're my friend, don't cry."

In the end, Reiz was a demon. Demons didn't have friends, not Fiends, her body wrapped around his, it made him think of a fresh kill he was carrying back to his home. How easily meat tore, how warm it was...

He shouldn't have helped. Then he wouldn't be here, she wouldn't be in danger, someone would've found her eventually, she must have people who cared about her who weren't bad.

His hands went up to the side of his head, pushing into his skin, trying to crush the thoughts in his brain. He didn't want to stand anymore, he didn't want himself to be all spread out, so he started to sink down to his knees in an attempt to keep himself all together, gathered into one core.

"Woop," Amy said as she toppled down behind Reiz. She had been attached to the man and the man had dropped, curled, scratched at himself, drawing blood. She eased her injured ankle out behind her, easing back from him. She might be smallish, but she was a Marquette girl, farm bred. She had been around distressed animals before, it was odd to think of Reiz as an animal, he was a man. But he reminded her still of a dog drove crazy by a bone in its throat. Before he could dig holes down to his skull Amy took her scarf and shoved it between one clawed up hand and his head, his hand grasped into it, squeezing it. One hand down, one to go. When it came down to it, Reiz was simply much strong than he, especially half panicked like this, there was no way she could stongarm his other hand to her scarf instead of his head. So she pulled off Reiz's extra sweatshirt and used it on the other side of his head. At least this way he wouldn't be hurting himself.

What could he do? Reiz couldn't give in, and he couldn't not give in. If he gave in--then he'd hurt Amy, and he wouldn't let that happen, and if he didn't gave in, he'd be stuck here forever, he just wanted to tear something apart, and right now, it looked like his only options were her, or himself.

His peaceful little black and white world in his mind was being pierced by bright reds and memories attached to the color, the tastes, the feeling, the sight, the smell, he was being swallowed in it. He wanted, needed fresh air, he didn't care what it was, an ice cold wind to the face, the smell of fish, the smell of flowers...

There. There.

He took deeper breaths of the smell, trying to air out the memories of dirty red iron.

Amy let Reiz curl in on himself sitting resolutely by her friend, she wasn't touching him now, no more than her hip against his back, waiting out his pain with him. She remember people who cried like that, when she went to visit her Mother at the hospital. They had scared her, she had stuck close to her Daddy's side when he had come and the nurse's the rest of the time. But it was different with Reiz, she had invested interest. He wasn't just a random face, a huddled figure with only their back showing through the windows of their room. This was Reiz crying.

The red was bleaching out of his mind, turning back into the everyday, normal black and white he was use to, Reiz's breaths slowed down, the force of his fingers lessened, the feral look in his eyes faded back into a dazed over brown... he... He felt spent. He was tired and sleepy, but there was something nagging him at the back of his mind, and that was how he owed Amy an explanation.

"...I. ...I. Don't. Like. ...blood," he said slowly and softly.

Amy wiped her nose and cheek as inconspicuously as she could, no need to let Reiz know she had been sniffling too. She shivered a little at Reiz's soft voice, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you're scared like that." Laying her head on his back, Amy closed her eyes for a moment. "Are you alright now? Can I do anything for you?"

Reiz just laid there, he didn't really know what to say. He was too tired to think of something to say. His tail didn't have the care or energy to keep itself conspicuously wrapped around his waist, also choosing to lay there limply.

"...I'm... okay." He tried not to think back, he tried to stay focus on the then and now, the smell of the lavender.

Amy felt Reiz's tail snake out and around his waist, it was kind of hard to think of Reiz and his tail as a single piece, right now it was acting like a baby that wanted comfort. She patted it gently with her bare hand, trying to soothe it, "Okay Reiz." She was pretty sure he was trying to inhale her scarf, but if she wasn't really one to argue, if he needed to hold a sparkly purple scarf to his face she'd make a whole bushel of them for him. "Can we just sit here for a little while?"

Reiz gave a small nod, holding onto the scarf like a little toddler would hold onto their blanket. His tail gave a small thwump in response to the pat. He... felt completely helpless right then, helpless and open.

"Reiz," Amy said softly, she sounded so young to her own ears. She probably sounded ridiculous to Reiz, ridiculous and childish, but she needed to say this. "You know you're my friend right? You know I love you?" Amy rested the side of her face on the worn fabric of Reiz's hoodie, he needed to take better care of himself. Her face was tingling with her blush, but she had gone on her gut instinct, she didn't want him to be afraid.

If Reiz was going to be completely honest with himself, the answer was going to be no. In fact, he was always under the impression that no one loved him, and he wasn't really upset at that, it was just a way of life. He traveled, he ran, he fought, he was a danger. He didn't have the time to make connections to other people. This would have to be the first in a long while.

His tail flopped up and down a few times during his silence, before he shook his head once.

Amy stroked his tail absently with one hand, not really paying attention to what she was doing, she was too sore and tired to pay attention. "I do Reiz. You were nice to me. And you make me happy. I want to be your friend Reiz and I want you to be happy like you made me feel happy because that's what friends do. Its in the friend handbook, page eleven. Paragraph three. I checked," she wiped her cheek again absently. "I don't want you to be afraid and upset like you were today."

There was a Friend Handbook? Reiz wanted to read it, even if he didn't have many friends, it might be a fun way to pass the time. But he might be able to guess the content, he was pretty positive wanting to eat a friend wasn't in the Good Friend qualities list.

"...M'not good for being friends." If... there was a time to tell her, then this would be the time. He couldn't let her get in this position again.

Amy looked up at the back of his head from where she was leaning against his back, she could feel him take a big breath, like he was getting ready to say something big. He was so tense and still. "Yes Reiz?" she said encouragingly.

Reiz's breath was more calm and drawn out now. He had to think of what to say. He wasn't exactly the most eloquent speaker, he didn't have tact, or subtlety. If he had to say something... then all he could do was say it.

He owed her the truth.

"I'm. ...a. ...demon."

Amy's eyebrows came together, "What do you mean? Like you used to do bad stuff or something?" Reiz wasn't a bad man, he was her friend, he had carried her, and he had held her hand and walked her to town. He was nice, a little foggy sometimes, but nice all the same.

...Sort of kind of?

Reiz was bad. That's just what he was, he was a demon. He always would be, the bandages, the mark on his hand, he would always be targeted as a bad person. It didn't matter if he was ascended or not--that was just his weak attempt at trying to break out of his behaviour.

"...It's. What I am." His tail swished back and forth on the floor.

Amy moved slowly so her back rested against the wall so she was facing Reiz. She used her sweater sleeve to dab gently at the places on the side of his head where he had scratched himself. She didn't get it. There weren't such things as demons. "What, so like... what because you have a tail?"

How else could he say it? Reiz knew there were people who didn't know about the supernatural, but... She'd said a ghost broke her mousey's home, right?

There was one thing that came to his mind about what he could do... but he didn't want to go that far.

"...no... I. ...I'm not a human."

Folding her arms across her chest she looked at him with squinted eyes, if a scaly tail was the worst he had they were still in business. Goodness she had even touched it with her hand. More than once, and on purpose too. "Well, you're the nicest demon I ever met. I'm not scared of you Reiz." She set her jaw as mulishly as she could, it made her look like a stubborn chickadee more than anything remotely formidable.

No, no, no. She didn't understand. And it was because she didn't know the whole truth. Okay, Reiz was a demon, why was that bad? Oh, right, because that's what made him want to eat her.

"You... don't get it...." He didn't say it accusingly, he said it pleadingly. "...Hurting people. Is. What I am." He breathed out shakily. "I. It's. Hard not to. I. I wanted to hurt you."

Amy sucked in a breath, her eyes going wide and dazed for a moment before her brain fumbled for something to keep up her perpetual cheerfulness. She settled on the theme from Sesame Street before she came back to herself. She looked down at his hands, where he had wrapped his scarf around his hands tightly, like it was a security blanket, in some ways he was so like a child. "Is that why you wanted to be my friend? Why you walked me to town? Because you wanted to hurt me?"

No, that wasn't it.

Reiz was torn between the two parts of himself, the part that believed he was a demon whose purpose in life was to perpetuate chaos, and the ascended part that even despite that wanted to be a good person.

"No. You. Were nice to me."

Amy very carefully reached out, one hand mittened, the other pink with the cold and gently put her hands on either side of his face like she would a spooked animal. She leaned in slowly and kissed Reiz in the middle of his forehead, like she would have if Baby Robbie had been crying. If Baby Robbie had lived. "You are my friend Reiz."

There was a part of Reiz that wanted to keep pushing her away, and if he really thought about it, that was the right part of him. But... at the moment, in his foggy mind, he craved the caring, craved it more than meat and blood and chaos, so he gave in. He gave in and said nothing, accepting her words and actions.

"Everybody has a scary inside them sometimes. Something that makes them want to be angry and mean and hungry for stuff that's not theirs. Maybe you've got that all extra strong, but you've also got some good stuff. Some nice friendly stuff. I know I can trust you to be nice to me. To stop yourself like you did today. You still want to be my friend right?"

It was true. There was good and bad stuff in everyone, even if it was hard to tell sometimes. People like Smith or Amy, for example. Reiz couldn't think of them having anything bad. Maybe some people had less bad and other people had more bad, so it all evened out in the end. Maybe Reiz had more bad so that someone else could have less bad and more good.

He nodded.

"Okey Dokey," Amy said and made another nonchalant swipe at her face before clapping her hands and giving Reiz a brilliant smile. "Are you okay to help me walk a little bit? To the Lamplighter Motel?" Demon or not (and she was going to have to devote some time to thinking about that later on, she had always gone to church, it was just what you did, but she had never really thought about the nitty gritty of it) Reiz was vulnerable, wide-open hurting, he needed a little smile and sweetness. "You can see Buster's new house! If you want to that is. Its orange."

Reiz was a little shaky still, but he wanted to help Amy. But before he got up, he had to make sure...

"The. ...blood." He didn't want it to happen again. He didn't want her to see him like that again.

"Oh," Amy looked down at her knees and rested her chin on her hand to think. "If it really bothers you I can probably get back safe by myself, Pandect will probably fuss all over me, I could probably even convince him to drive me over to see Jamie." sigh, Jamie. Amy blushed and fiddled with the top of her boots, "I could probably use a hand up though."

She smiled hopefully in Reiz's direction.

Useless. Reiz was completely useless. He couldn't even help her walk.

He nodded, stumbling onto his feet, leaning against the wall to keep his balance, doing his best to avoid the sight of the blood, whilst holding out a hand for her. He tried to focus on black and white, a field of snow, an ocean, whatever, he just didn't want anymore color.

Reiz had gone droopy and Amy wasn't going to have a droopy Reiz. She levered herself up with a strong grip on Reiz's hand and leaned forward slowly to lean her head against his shoulder for a quick one, two seconds. "Thank you for helping me Reiz. You're so kind to me." Taking her purple scarf from his hand she gently wrapped it up around his neck and face the way her mother used to for her and pulled his hoodie up over his head. "There. All warm."

Purple wasn't the manliest color, but Reiz didn't seem to mind.

Her thanks wasn't deserved at all. Really? Reiz was nice? Even after he said he wanted to hurt her? He didn't understand, what had he done that was nice? He'd tried to help her, but. Anyone would've done that.

He just stood there as she wrapped the scarf around him--letting her do whatever she wanted, not that he minded. He liked the scarf. It was warm. It made him feel safe, which was nice even if wasn't completely logical.

"...thank you."

Amy melted with a big melty smile, and looped her arm in his, "You're welcome. Up, up, up and away then."

Reiz nodded, closing his eyes, taking careful steps to lead her outside the little shack.

That was the least he could do, really.