Status: You can't kill the devil, but I can dream.
Playing God
I'ma pull this trigger off,
"You hate him, don't you?"
The words fell from lips coated in lies, thick with the tone of sadistic enjoyment. They fell on her ears like a curse and tore what was left of her innocent, childish heart to pieces. Ragged breaths shook her chest as she dragged air into her lungs between incoherent wails of anguish.
She tried to find the words to answer the question, but her mind was consumed by the bloody scene before her, nausea overtaking her stomach. Her knees buckled and her body shook as she fell to her hands and knees into a puddle of her own mother's blood.
Sour, sweet, and hot, vomit rushed up her throat and out of her mouth, spilling onto the floor and mingling with the bloodied mess. She closed her eyes and sobbed, dark bangs falling across her face. The muscles of her back tensed as she felt a heavy hand settle there.
"I know you must be devestated. He deceived you. Took advantage of your naïveté. You trusted his lies and now look..."
A hand grasped her chin and she stiffened, pulling her shoulders up and bracing her neck in an attempt to stop the upward movement of her face. The hand left her face and tangled through the locks at the back of her head, pulling harshly, causing her scalp to burn and her eyes to snap open, tears streaming from them as her body shook anew, the sight of her mother, father, uncle, and grandfather torn apart and bleeding met her senses.
"Look at this massacre. Torn to pieces and desecrated. Left here to rot as if their lives had no value at all. This is who he is, Akane."
A harsh, maniacal laugh punctuated the end of the sentence and her head was released with a forceful push, knocking her off balance. She swayed on all fours before turning her head away from the scene, thick mucous running from her nose and meeting her tears at her chin.
"Shizu-nii really is what I told you he is, isn't he?" His tone grew taunting as he moved his face before hers, brown eyes glinting mischievously as they gazed into her scarlet ones.
Somewhere in the pit of her stomach, a new feeling began to stir as she held his stare, studying his face and reading the delight written across his features. At ten years old, Akane Awakusu had only experienced so much of the world and the people in it, but she knew enough about Izaya Orihara to know that he told more half truths than whole ones and he told twice as many lies as truths in general.
Despite knowing this, she had always trusted him to protect her and her family through the information he gave her. After all, he had given her everything she needed and looked after her when she had run away from home two years ago. He had warned her about the "dangerous hit man" who was planning to target her family and provided her with the means to protect them.
That "hit man" bit had been Akane's first experience with the kind of lies Izaya was capable of. He had relied on her childish instincts and manipulated her devotion to her family, using that to convince her that a certain man by the name of Shizuo Heiwajima was hired to kill them.
That "hit man" saved her life more than once during the entire ordeal. The feeling in her stomach grew the more she studied Izaya and the more the memories of her time away from home came flooding back at her and she began to realize what it was she was feeling.
Deep, burning rage.
"You're wrong." Her voice was came out as no more than a squeak, her lip quivering as she fought back another round of tears.
A callous laugh met her ears and Izaya shook his head, dark brown locks swaying in a carefree fashion, and something within her broke, shattering into a million pieces as the weight of his cruelty landed on her.
He held a hand out to her, beckoning her to get up.
"Use your senses, Akane. Who else would be capable of such an atrocity? No one in this city comes close to being able to exhibit such inhuman animosity."
No one?
His words and actions danced along to her own fears and suspicions. Her vision blurred as the rage grew along with his words, her chest constricting painfully as she studied his outstretched hand. For a moment, she considered biting it, spitting on it, or slapping it away.
But something within her exercised restraint and she reached for him, her small hand sliding into his. Her eyes cleared and her breathing stilled, an extraordinary calm overtaking her as she realized that mourning her family would do them no good.
He smirked down at her, everything about his features telling her he believed he had won, as he always did. He was so certain that he had her enraptured. Trapped in the palm of his hand, eating his lies by the spoonful.
In fact, his actions and words had done nothing but inspire her to see the truth. All along, the person with the worst intentions had been him. And he had relied on the trust of a child to worm his way closer to his targets.
But he had become too comfortable with this arrangement. And now he had tipped his hand and revealed himself without even realizing.
Akane knew, or rather, she felt, that the only way to beat him was to play his game for now. After all, if she could earn his trust, as he had hers, perhaps she could turn everything upside down.
Regardless of whether this was an achievable endeavor, she was determined to try, for the sake of her family. Vengeance would be hers.
Tossing her head back, she adjusted her own features to mimic his, if only for a moment, before steeling herself and drawing her emotions in, turning away from the corpses of her family and following him out of her home and into the waiting darkness of the night.
The words fell from lips coated in lies, thick with the tone of sadistic enjoyment. They fell on her ears like a curse and tore what was left of her innocent, childish heart to pieces. Ragged breaths shook her chest as she dragged air into her lungs between incoherent wails of anguish.
She tried to find the words to answer the question, but her mind was consumed by the bloody scene before her, nausea overtaking her stomach. Her knees buckled and her body shook as she fell to her hands and knees into a puddle of her own mother's blood.
Sour, sweet, and hot, vomit rushed up her throat and out of her mouth, spilling onto the floor and mingling with the bloodied mess. She closed her eyes and sobbed, dark bangs falling across her face. The muscles of her back tensed as she felt a heavy hand settle there.
"I know you must be devestated. He deceived you. Took advantage of your naïveté. You trusted his lies and now look..."
A hand grasped her chin and she stiffened, pulling her shoulders up and bracing her neck in an attempt to stop the upward movement of her face. The hand left her face and tangled through the locks at the back of her head, pulling harshly, causing her scalp to burn and her eyes to snap open, tears streaming from them as her body shook anew, the sight of her mother, father, uncle, and grandfather torn apart and bleeding met her senses.
"Look at this massacre. Torn to pieces and desecrated. Left here to rot as if their lives had no value at all. This is who he is, Akane."
A harsh, maniacal laugh punctuated the end of the sentence and her head was released with a forceful push, knocking her off balance. She swayed on all fours before turning her head away from the scene, thick mucous running from her nose and meeting her tears at her chin.
"Shizu-nii really is what I told you he is, isn't he?" His tone grew taunting as he moved his face before hers, brown eyes glinting mischievously as they gazed into her scarlet ones.
Somewhere in the pit of her stomach, a new feeling began to stir as she held his stare, studying his face and reading the delight written across his features. At ten years old, Akane Awakusu had only experienced so much of the world and the people in it, but she knew enough about Izaya Orihara to know that he told more half truths than whole ones and he told twice as many lies as truths in general.
Despite knowing this, she had always trusted him to protect her and her family through the information he gave her. After all, he had given her everything she needed and looked after her when she had run away from home two years ago. He had warned her about the "dangerous hit man" who was planning to target her family and provided her with the means to protect them.
That "hit man" bit had been Akane's first experience with the kind of lies Izaya was capable of. He had relied on her childish instincts and manipulated her devotion to her family, using that to convince her that a certain man by the name of Shizuo Heiwajima was hired to kill them.
That "hit man" saved her life more than once during the entire ordeal. The feeling in her stomach grew the more she studied Izaya and the more the memories of her time away from home came flooding back at her and she began to realize what it was she was feeling.
Deep, burning rage.
"You're wrong." Her voice was came out as no more than a squeak, her lip quivering as she fought back another round of tears.
A callous laugh met her ears and Izaya shook his head, dark brown locks swaying in a carefree fashion, and something within her broke, shattering into a million pieces as the weight of his cruelty landed on her.
He held a hand out to her, beckoning her to get up.
"Use your senses, Akane. Who else would be capable of such an atrocity? No one in this city comes close to being able to exhibit such inhuman animosity."
No one?
His words and actions danced along to her own fears and suspicions. Her vision blurred as the rage grew along with his words, her chest constricting painfully as she studied his outstretched hand. For a moment, she considered biting it, spitting on it, or slapping it away.
But something within her exercised restraint and she reached for him, her small hand sliding into his. Her eyes cleared and her breathing stilled, an extraordinary calm overtaking her as she realized that mourning her family would do them no good.
He smirked down at her, everything about his features telling her he believed he had won, as he always did. He was so certain that he had her enraptured. Trapped in the palm of his hand, eating his lies by the spoonful.
In fact, his actions and words had done nothing but inspire her to see the truth. All along, the person with the worst intentions had been him. And he had relied on the trust of a child to worm his way closer to his targets.
But he had become too comfortable with this arrangement. And now he had tipped his hand and revealed himself without even realizing.
Akane knew, or rather, she felt, that the only way to beat him was to play his game for now. After all, if she could earn his trust, as he had hers, perhaps she could turn everything upside down.
Regardless of whether this was an achievable endeavor, she was determined to try, for the sake of her family. Vengeance would be hers.
Tossing her head back, she adjusted her own features to mimic his, if only for a moment, before steeling herself and drawing her emotions in, turning away from the corpses of her family and following him out of her home and into the waiting darkness of the night.
