//Just Don't Face The Nightmare//

[Kiyoshi Nikolai]

He was a mess.

Nik wouldn’t play dumb in not admitting at least this much to himself. That would be just pointless denial, in which he had been long past by this moment. It was degrading of himself if he continued to be like that, if he continued to try and push it off like it didn’t bother him.
Because it did bother him, severely so. He wouldn’t be human if it didn’t bother him.

Actually, he wasn’t. Human, that is. And this known fact was the root of all of his problems, he could stay. For the teen wouldn’t have to endure such horrid ‘nightmares’ if it wasn’t for the demonic genes that had been passed down to him. He wouldn’t have to be forced into playing the ‘observer’ of every hateful thought, action, and brutal slaying. He wouldn’t have to feel the sickening emotions of not only all of the victims, but the captors too. Sure, there were a few joyous emotions, some sunshine-filled nightmares, but never enough to leave such a memory that it erased the dirtiness he felt from all of the depraving madness that came with the populous dark emotions. And all of this had been passed down. This Post cognition ability of his, they called it. By his damning father, no less.
How he despised that man now. It was so easy to throw all of the blame on that one person, that man he would never consider worthy enough again to be called his ‘father.‘ Because it was all of his fault. Everything. His brother’s accident, his latent powers awakening and even the horrid kidnapping attempt that had been pushed upon his sister and then had stolen a year of his precious life away. A year he wouldn’t even try to recall lest it force upon him an awful, numbing despair he’d never climb himself back out of.

”Take your top off for me, love. No one’s watching.” “Please, just leave me alone. Take my purse if you want but just please, don’t hurt me.” “Bastard! How dare you expect me to just roll over and die while you gorge yourself on all of our father’s inheritance!” “You’ll regret ever saying that to me.” “Itai….Please, it hurts so much.” “Give me all your money old man and maybe I‘ll make it quicker for you in the end.” “No! Don’t let them take my baby!” “Just do what Daddy tells you to, sweetheart. Everything’s going to be just fine. I‘ll make sure it doesn’t hurt at all. I promise.” “Son of a bitch, I hope they fire his ass!” “You deserved what you got, you filthy whore!” “Someone…..I-I’m lost….Excuse me, sir, could you help me?” “Yeah, I killed the gutless coward. First, I made sure no one would ever recognize his face again and then I started cutting off his limbs one by one by one.” “OMG, did you hear the news? That stupid slut got herself pregnant again. I wonder if she’ll try to make it to full term this time before she kills the monstrous thing?” “Scream! Just keep on screaming! I love it when they make some noise.” “So what if she’s my sister’s wife? It’s not like she hasn’t been after me this whole time.” “No one will even notice if I suddenly disappeared. No one will miss me. No one will care. I’d be better off for everyone if I just died.”
“Stop!” “No!” “Please.” “Help!” “Quiet!” “God!” “Mother!” “Don’t.” “Damn.” “Thanks.” “

The words, the horrid scenes, every destructive human and demon thought or experience alike within the radius of where his being resided, homed in onto his cold, gray eyes, pecking away at Nikolai’s mind like vultures on carrion. They were stronger at odd times in the day and deafeningly still at other times, his ability came and went -charging into his subconscious and then fleeing moments later. His sanity hung within the balance at all hours, the ‘nightmares’ a reality only he could see. Only he was forced to face.

If he so chose to face them.

Tonight they were particularly bad for him. They always were in evening times and it was late -nearing past ten p.m. in the afternoon, the sun already a far memory from the shadowing sky that held only a few stars within sight of the cloudy purge of a storm yet to pass. He never stayed out this late anymore, if he could help it. He wouldn’t have tonight even. But he had waited for his sister outside the school-grounds as he always did and only later after hours of glaring at the other students that stared past him when they approached, did his phone decide to start buzzing a voicemail message. Apparently his phone had been out of service for the most part and his little sister’s call about being picked up by a friend, all of it going unvoiced until he’d hit the redial button. When he had been late in returning home, his mother had called worriedly too, for she knew what staying out did to him and she also still feared somewhere in the back recesses of her mind that he’d never return home again: a repeat of last year.

The stars were purged of sight thanks to the thick, hollowing wind that clutched heavily to the baggy, dark hoodie hiding most of Nik’s form and the streets were illuminated only by the ever-busy cars passing by as well as the few shop-lights beaming down on him and the occasional street lamp that was flickering out. Nikolai wore his school uniform under the dark hoodie, an odd mix of orange-red pants and a whole lot of white that little Aya had once told him made him look especially handsome. Right.
A clenching headache was starting to form behind his eyes, a side-effect he had grown used to that occurred only when he was using his gift for too long. If he knew how to unplug the power on that thing, he’d gladly do so. But sadly, he did not. Which was one of the main reasons as to why he was forced to go to the popular school of Hidamari High instead of remaining within the comfort of his old home schooling. Ignoring this thought for now though, a slender hand came across his pale brow as he tried to lessen the pain somehow by the feel of his cool touch, small eyebrows arching down into a pained scowl. He ran that hand gently through the mop of midnight locks that adorned his head, careful not to hit his rimmed glasses so as to keep the things firmly planted atop his petite nose.

It wasn’t working. Nothing was. Not the training, not the soothing and not the facing.

With nothing left to do, with nothing left in which to help him make the rest of this short walk home. He angrily set his eyes upon the ground as he continued walking, ebony tennis shoes scuffling upon the cracked cement below as he cursed inwardly and ignored everything he felt and everything he heard. Nik only needed to get home, then he could lock himself up in the confines of his warm, cozy room and not have to worry about it for a while. Until the next time.
He only had to get through it tonight, right now and then he’d be ready next time. He would. He just didn’t have to face every ‘nightmare’ that was thrown his way. There were far too many. Far too many.

Of course, with the way he was walking now: eyes downcast, attention wholly focused on putting one foot in front of the other, ears trained to the fast beating of his heart, he’d have a hell of a time getting home. How was he to know he hadn’t passed home if he didn’t look for it? If he didn’t raise his head? And how was he going to keep himself from walking into something, like a tree, a car, a wall, a lamp or……someone?

[Loven Nova]

I'm a complete freak.

At least, that's what the crazy old lady down the road kept telling her. That, and waving a cross at her, shouting 'Devil Child'. Of course, it didn't help that she had to stand this abuse all the time from the lady. However, at least she wasn't the only target of the mad woman. Any demon who passed by would be yelled at. Apparently her husband, who had been a demon, shocker there, had ran away with thier kid.

Didn't blame the poor bastard.

Anyway, slightly down in the dumps. Also, having left her brothers to thier own devices for two days, when she had come home, she had been told they had a new pet. A cucumber. First she laughed...But the cucumber was hairy, for gods sake. And the damn thing moved as she was watching it. It had to go, much to Rei's dismay. How the hell had he managed to mutate a dog and a cucumber? Idiots.

Looking around, it was pretty dark, so, raising her hand, she concentrated, trying to makes light, clenching her eyes shut. I can do it, I can do it, I can do it... Opening her eyes, a tiny bit of light was infront of her. And then it dissapeared. Sighing, she looked around once more, trying to make out something.

Hmm...Not really...Some hooded boy who seemed to be having a headache, or was just being moody, was out walking, but otherwise nothing much. Nova smirked. The poor bastard had probably just been dumped by his girl friend. Imagining the scene, she snickered, and glanced down, examining her extremely dull blue trainers, one step after another. Left and right, than left again.

Or was that right and left? Oh well. Each time she took a step, she could fele her dark brown jeans under her heel, but she was far too lazy to roll them up. Cracking her knuckles, a slightly worn out baggy brown sweater hid most of her forms, which made her easy to mistake for a guy. As she walked, her slight irritation and moody mood was visible from the deep green wings on her head, which flapped as if they could do no other thing, but attempt to get her to hover over the ground. In which they failed miserably in.

And then bang. Flying backwards, she had smashed straight into the other boy, as she had decided the gum on the pavement to be intresting. Using her hand to land on, she couldn't tell wether he had been knocked down or not, but could tell how her hand was bleeding. Lifting it to her mouth, she started to suck on the blood, wincing. Typical.

[Kiyoshi Nikolai]

And wouldn’t you bloody well know it, as soon as the thought of running into something or someone passed by his heavy head if it didn’t happen.
One moment he was trying to figure out how to say the word ‘goddamn you all’ in his father’s native tongue and the next second he was being knocked backward, his skill for balance being tested as a soft body plowed right into him.

The hard tone of the hidden build she had just rammed into oddly stayed right where it had been hit, the only thing moving on him being his head as Nik slowly brought his raging orbs up a bit from the ground to what he had just landed there by default. He’d somehow managed to retain his old, cat-like grace from the days of his early youth when he’d practice arts in his grandfather’s dojo. This was the only thing that had kept him standing however, for the figure really had bumped into him rather hard.
He was the picture of coy calm as he trained down his annoyance at the touch this teen had unwillingly given him and viewed the other’s fallen profile.

There was a street-light beaming a few yards away and that seemed to be the only bit of light able to glow enough of a glare in their direction for him to be able to make out the figure to be that of a woman. The slight-moon that had been his near-companion seconds ago was being washed over by the threatening clouds of storm, the fierce wind of that night’s pushing those puffs right atop the skylight and also serving as an annoying fan of air that was having his companion’s oddly-colored hair floating about her in something of a halo. He caught the flash of near-violet locks in this dark atmosphere, strands that fell as far as her shoulders and hiding the fair complexion of her doll-like face. Thin, rosy lips dipped to comply for her slender hand as she seemed to latch onto the limb as if it was hurting. Big, chocolate eyes she had, ones that were strangely innocent in nature and all but trained on himself.

His poker face slowly began to sour into a grimace though because as beautiful as this lovely young lady was, wrapped in some cloudy trainers and a long brown sweater that hid her figure from him perfectly; the first thing that had caught his eye upon noting her features had been that she was a demon. She had to be. The leathery, bat-like wings that were graced in tinges of a sea-colored green had wove about in the air above her head, brought upon them by the motions of the wind.
It wasn’t so much that he was prejudice of his own kind.
He just seemed to have far greater troubles with demons than he did with the humans that were usually prejudice of them. Of course, unless you caught him in one of his deep moods or had him actually focused into using his powers -the side-effects of those obscure tattoos growing about his pale flesh and the glowing beam of his eyes, you weren’t going to even be able to tell that he was of the demon population. He looked entirely human any other time and he wasn’t going to broadcast his father’s cursed genealogy.
No, but his own demonic genes had cause him so much suffering that he didn’t look well upon other demons save for his sister.

And this female was very much so a demon.

It was just her unlucky day then that not only had he already been in a terrible mood, but she had ran into him (whether whomever’s fault it happened to be) and she was a demon too. Usually, had he been in the company of his sister, he’d force a fake politeness, probably ask the stupid twit if she was alright. But he was alone. And his head was pounding.
So he was fairly cruel with his response.

“Watch it, bitch. Do you need glasses to go with that outrageous get-up of yours? Because I’m sure I can point you in the right direction and waste more of my precious time.” Actually, he was showing a bit too much emotion than usual. Even if that emotion was rage, he usually could keep it in balance behind his poker face. But the ‘nightmares’ were making him antsy to keep moving and the volume of at which they were belittling his mind was starting to turn up, the longer he had his feet halted. He was still ignoring watching the ‘nightmares’ physically though. No matter how close the voices sounded, he wouldn’t turn to them.
Never again.

[Loven Nova]

The suprisingly hard body she had smashed into remained perfectly still, untill she noticed his head rising. His eyes, that glowed with...Well, anger, rage...Call it what you like, but he looked pissed off. Genuinely. It reminded her of something...Like a tiger, about to strike it's prey. The cold wind hit her face, and lifted her hair around her face, to which she was at first oblivous about, untill the wind decided pick up the pace, which made her eyes sting. Narrowing her chocolate brown orbs, which could either be coded as anger, or just from the icy atmosphere which his face brought.

Human. She thought to herself, as his gaze was brought to the wings on her head. A Demon hater, most probably. He didn't seem to be glad over her race. Poor bastard, so cloudy eyed he couldn't see past those thick glasses of his. Couldn't see they were actually the same. Dim witted idiot, he need a boot up his arse...Or something. The gust of air suddenly stopped, but as she glanced up, the clouds were thickening...An odd red colour to them tonight, and the thin slice of moon that was visible was white, yes, but had an orange tinge tonight, although the stars remained in the colour people expected stars to be.

Then she started looking at the boy more clearly, when the streetlamp closest to them started flickering, giving her sharp, small glances of his formed face, as if lightning was storming down around them. He was a handsome boy, that she couldn't deny, but...He seemed so cruel. As if she was just a little drop of rain in a perfect sunny day, that had managed to destroy everything. Her wings started batting more furiously, with each flap whacking the sides of her head, and she tried to calm down, feeling as if she was completely boiling up. Rice, that was what she was, overcooked rice.

“Watch it, bitch. Do you need glasses to go with that outrageous get-up of yours? Because I’m sure I can point you in the right direction and waste more of my precious time.” Where did he got off calling her a bitch? And she had felt sorry for him? Staring at him, she was a bit suprised over his tone, not what she had expected from such a beautiful face. He sounded...You couldn't really describe it with words. Angry wasn't enough to describe how she felt right now either.

"Where d'you get off calling me a bitch? And you're one to talk, aren't ya? Who the hell do you think you are? God? Or maybe you think becuase you're taller than me you have the right to say whatever the fuck you want! Well, ya bastard, maybe you should use that brain that might be under that hair of yours, or wherever the hell you're hiding it, and look up a bit!" Sure, she hadn't been looking up, but that was beside the point right now. "And as for my get-up, I can wear whatever the hell I want, and thank you for offering to show me the way, but I know where I live, unlike some people! Can't someone go outside and look for someplace to eat without being knocked down and called a bitch?" Taking a deep breath, she stood up, annoyed over the fact he was taller than her, and felt herself almost shaking with rage. "Well then, GOD, say something, why don't you? Grant me some devine information on why just I am a bitch!" Wait, had she said all of that? Oh well, too late to go back now.

Straightening herself up, pushing a strand of her behind her eye, her eyes still narrowed, even if the wind had dropped once more, her face showing maybe the same rage that his was, even though somewhere she still felt sorry for him. Poor bastards probably miles from home. Maybe I should be a bit more apologetic...[/color]

[Kiyoshi Nikolai]

As soon as the girl’s eyes had changed on him, Nik had known he’d said the wrong thing. Sure, he was righteously pissed but he didn’t need to stick around here for longer either. And it seemed this woman was more in the nature of arguing with him than being frightened off by his words. He should have gone with the fake sweetness routine instead, silently cursing her in his mind while he bid her a goodnight and dashed his way back home before his stupid ability acted any more up than it already was.
Instead though, now he was looking at a longer time spending stuck by this woman’s side while they took turns mouthing off at one another. Because once he was started up, no challenge would have him ever backed down now.

"Where d'you get off calling me a bitch? And you're one to talk, aren't ya? Who the hell do you think you are? God? Or maybe you think because you're taller than me you have the right to say whatever the fuck you want! Well, ya bastard, maybe you should use that brain that might be under that hair of yours, or wherever the hell you're hiding it, and look up a bit!" The hostility hadn’t been envisioned inside of his head, he hadn’t at all expected her to have such a mouth on her. But Nik had insulted her poorly so he supposed it was possible Also, instantly he’d noticed another trait of hers he was severely hating. That accent. So much like his father’s English one.
He could very well say the same things though that she was throwing at him, but that’d be a petty argument. So it was both of their faults, he knew, but it wasn’t like he was going to admit to any such fault. As for calling him God? It was a fairly laughable concept considering his demonic lineage and if he wasn’t hurting so much right now he might have actually started laughing out loud.
But the girl wasn’t done with her tirade yet and it’d be rude to interrupt her.

"And as for my get-up, I can wear whatever the hell I want, and thank you for offering to show me the way, but I know where I live, unlike some people! Can't someone go outside and look for someplace to eat without being knocked down and called a bitch?" Wait? So this happened to her regularly? Nikolai eyed her with growing impatience to leave as she pushed herself furiously to her feet and stared up at him. A glare much like his usual ’death glares’ was thrown at him soon enough. "Well then, GOD, say something, why don't you? Grant me some devin information on why just I am a bitch!" Mistake number two on her part, right there.

“Gladly.“ He really shouldn’t have opened his mouth this second time either. But, well, she’d challenged him with that comment and he wasn’t going to back down when he was this pissed off. And with another wave of that headache reaching him, all thoughts on just backing away were firmly ceased. “First, if I had been forced to look up, you twit, I’d have had to look at your ugly mug for longer than I’m being forced to now.” He watched her movement with something of a cat’s scrutiny. “Secondly, I wasn’t showing you the way home, I was going to point you in the direction of the nearest psych-ward for the visually impaired. And what’s the problem, stupid? Can’t eat a simple meal at home? Your mum can’t even do that duty of hers after she’d already gone and bore you?” Unconsciously a hand had gone to his head again as he spoke and this time it stayed there as the screams and cries of those ‘nightmares’ began rebounding off the inside of his head all the more. His eyes were starting to burn already. Nik didn’t need to look in a mirror to know they were probably glowing crimson and so he centered them completely on this girl. Hopefully the added color would frighten her better than his words and she’d back off.
Well, hell, he really -really- needed to get off the street before side-effect number two started to rear its ugly head. Because after his whole body got tangled in those tattooed markings, the dark colors penetrating his body in burns that were as unbearable as the screams his mentality wasn‘t going to be able to handle for much longer; he usually fainted.

“And newsflash, girl, I didn’t call you ‘just a bitch’ I called you ‘bitch.’ There are plenty more of them out there besides you and most of them are smart enough to flee when they’re under matched.” He growled out these last words, knowing he was going completely out of character than usual but he couldn’t hide his emotions when he was feeling all of the others around the area with that cursed gift of his.