~Moon's POV~

Mali...

Mali...

Mali...

It's the bright light of a hospital, of rebirth and the fluorescent shade of the neon gods overhead of the city, the small dot at the end of the ever stretching tunnel. My lashes brush against one another, each individual strand of hair catching onto another, stuck together with the painful glue of morning sleep.

The first face I see isn't the one I crave, with its softened lips and dimmed eyes to extinguish the burning flames of the lamplight. "Mali." My blood chills at the sound, ice crystals traveling to my chest until it freezes, hand flying to save it as my eyes flash open and rapidly focus. Dots travel from the corners to the center, blocking his features from me.

But it isn't enough to stop wandering eyes and trembling hands, the curiosity and fear of a virgin at my touch as I stroke him, gliding my fingers across the harsh stubble of his strict jaw, soft at the lips just like his son, the honey of his skin melting beneath me.

Sitting up, the harsh waves hit me, body crashing into his as he holds me steady, heart pounding faster until it travels to my head in one swift movement...

though I'm not sure which one.

My smile is forced to fade, watching eyes gathering around as I push him away, what little butterflies I had breaking through my fingertips. "My n-name's Moon." But even I don't sound too sure, his thick brow raising up as if to question the blatant fact of the statement. I don't know which feeling to push back into the pit of my stomach, his touch melting into my thigh and shoulder as he pushes himself up, godly in his stance with his shoulders back, a new sense of power overcoming the room.

Drunken I stand, Kaiien at my side until he's pushed away by my flailing arm, balance failing at the burst of dizziness. Our hands clasp together, Kai leading me down the staircase and into the sitting room, fingers tightening around my knuckles until they fade to a snowy white. The house stays at the stairs, all eyes on the pair that shouldn't be here, an abyssal brown deep enough to drown in, the reflection of a young boy crying out into them, imprisoned and etched into both our minds.

"Moon..." The crack in his voice keeps me alert, dragging my head back by the clatter of a shaky jaw. "I'm scared..." Absentmindedly he claws at his wrist, guilt heating my cheeks at the habit I've formed in him. He speaks low enough for only us to hear, his words carried on a gust of wind barely there, only enough to drift across the aging couch to my reddening ears. "I don't want him to hurt us."

It's amazing how a slight sniffle, buried deep in the back of his throat can break me, body melting into the couch as I grab hold of him and hold his frail body tight against my own. "I won't let him."

Kai's tears roll recklessly down the side of my cheeks as if bleeding from my own wound, a bony thumb flicking them away with one swift sweep. "I want to leave this damned house Moon, please."

I'm blinking away the flashbacks before they even start, the film burning before its even been reeled, their contents lost as I give a quick nod. "Run away you mean?" There's a silence that follows, the same pause as five years ago, dreams lingering on our lips like stale beer, excitement hidden beneath the surface of each word we breathlessly whisper, hushed up in our bedrooms suitcases already at our sides.

"We could fly away...leave this place behind and never come back." His lips roll back in anticipation, fingers curling into a fist around my collar, pulling me tight against his protruding ribs and sunken stomach, the ghost of his tears curling around his bloated cheeks, lacing between his lashes and coursing between his lips.

But the way his eyes glaze over, caught up in a thought of his own, has me worried, fear settling deep inside my bones, an ache oozing from my core at his spaced expression, his delicate features morphing into his mother's.

The sight is enough to startle me, chest caving in on itself at the sight. My mind finds itself back at the stairwell, absentmindedly clawing at the spot where our skin had touched once more after almost four hundred years apart. Kaiien lessens his grip, both our minds gone until we're called back by authority crisp on a strangers tongue. It's foreign to our foggy minds until a tussle of blonde hair peeks around a doorway, bags already under his ever youthful eyes from company.

"Boys, I've been calling you for a while now are you alright?" Kaiien's quick to answer but my reply sticks to my drying tongue, arms crossing in an attempt to get something across.

"If you still feel that way I need to know." Oblivious to the starting conversation, Kai plays at the tearing strings of my sweater draped over his skeletal frame the fabric burying him, draping over his knees and flowing over his wrists.

"Andrew..."

"Please be smart, Moon that's all I'm asking. I know he's charming and I know what he'll try to say and do to get you close to him again but-" Somewhere during his lecture my arms found their way around his waist, face buried into the scent of musk and woods, a dash of spice combined in every other whiff. His hands entwine in my hair, pulling me into his neck though he shakes at the thought, his scar leveled to my lips as he kisses the sides of my cheeks and temples.

"I felt something when he touched me." It comes out hoarse, barely a whisper slipping through my chapped lips into his skin, melting against his body and soaking into his clothes.

The arrow of my words has struck him, his body doubling slightly as he chokes back his initial thoughts, breath stilling for a moment almost gone unnoticed. "Moon." His lips draw out my name, arms pushing me away so we're eye to eye, Kaiien plopped down in the corner of my eye out of harms way. "As much as I hate to say it that is normal. You were taken-"

"N-"

"You were stolen from your home Moon, you needed a way to survive. Were those last years not the easiest?" I look away from his stares, not able to concentrate on his words but the rhythm of his voice, how it stills to a rippling calm and bubbles to a boil all in the same breath, how his lips soften and his body relaxes to mimic his perfected state of mind. "Your brain adapted to the situation, I've seen kids abducted for three days develop Stockholm it happened and you aren't to blame."

I loved him before. I can't bring myself to say it, voice failing me before my lips even have a chance to let them spill out. "Andrew...I-" I think I still do. "Why can't I see him as the man who took our lives away? When I think of him I see that bed distorted in my mind and my chest closes up until I can't breathe. But when I see him in front of me all I can think of is all the good he's done for us both."

He doesn't answer me, dark eyes melting into puddles of color at the corners where his lashes kiss the other's tip and intertwine. "Lets..." With a staggered breath he pauses, hands rubbing up the side of his pants as he attempts to silence his falling tears. "dinner is ready."

His hands lead me to the dining room, Eden and Matt absent from the affair. Kaiien's hand snakes over my own, fingers slithering into the cracks of my fingers, pouring into them as his body blends into mine, face shielded from the man at the table. "Why are you here?"

The silence rings out like a bell, rippling through the room in waves until its washed out by the scooting of a chair, Niko turning to face me at the head of the table, Kaiien shrinking further into my body as he rises. "You know why I'm here."

The chill of his tone has its desired effect, an almost unnoticeable shiver running the course of my numbing spine, legs trembling at the almost sudden change of temperature.

"But does everyone else?" He adds, brow raising up the slightest as his lips curl up in a smile.

"I don't keep secrets, I'm nothing like you."

"Moon, if you were nothing like me," His fingers wrap themselves around my chin, yanking it up in one swift movement so our eyes meet, a hatred burning in the both of us. "I wouldn't be haunting you."

"I didn't do anything." I bite back my tongue, the only thing I can do to keep my voice from quivering.

His lips move to my ears, breath hot against my skin as it was so many years before. "The scars on my chest," The silence hurts more than his words, the piercing stab of his pause and the ache it leaves engraved in my chest, as if my ribs have broken into my lungs at his upcoming words, at the threat they carry in them. "beg to differ."

"I-I"

"You killed me." In an instant he's calm, drawing away from me before slamming his glass to the table, the shattered cup reflecting the light of the moon across the room, shadowing Niko's face though his anger shines through. "Moon the wonderful!" Another glass is shattered, fragments buried deep in the rough skin of his working palms. "The talented!" Sweat beads his face as his rush ends, bloodied hand smearing itself across my horrified face, body trembling as I still with his touch, years of training beginning to kick in. "Wears the blood of his kill like a badge from the gods."

"I'm godless." It's barely a whisper, throat too dry to let anything attempt to escape.

"Even godless men fear someone." His hands fall to my chest, ignorant of the crowd as he undoes the first button of my shirt. My body stills, eyes wandering the dining room laying in ruins, at the eyes of a father and master who already know, at those of a friend who lived it, and the downcast faces of those who didn't. "You fear me." The side of his lip raises in a malicious smile, body falling back into its creaking chair as his features fall, a calmness returning to him. "You shouldn't, Mal-"

"Don't." Andrew. His teeth grinding against one another until he spits blood, body trembling in anger as he pulls Kaiien into his chest, pressing his head against his body until he's no longer as scared. "Don't speak to my sons, don't even fucking look at them. You aren't some high and mighty guest you're the scum of hell and you know it. You deserved the death of a thief and a killer and you know it. I know what you've done to my boys and how you've tortured them. I want you out of here."

"The devil himself has released me from hell to follow my killer until he dies from madness and grief. I'm not leaving until I've completed that quest. And besides," He adds, smile returning as he faces me. "I'm sure you'd want to know about your family, you were so young when they so unfortunately passed."

"N-"

"Moon." I pause mid speech, face flustered with anger at the man ahead of me, both our chests heaving as I take a step towards Andrew, broken glass crunching under my boots as I walk. Andrew draws me near him, lips tickling the side of my face as he whispers. "We leave at dawn." The blood flows from my cheeks to my quickening heartbeat, a type of fear coming back at the thought of escape, my hands shaking in anticipation to rid ourselves of this beast. I have enough on my mind without him adding to it.

The just risen moon mocks me, a good eight hours between night and growing day, eight hours of my worst nightmare reincarnated, his smile etched into the back of my mind as my eyes meet the painted black of the sky, eyes squeezing shut as I wish on the fraying deep blue on the horizon.

Please come soon.