CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE | EMOTIONS

When people don't express themselves,
they die one piece at a time.

• • •

"You're not a toy. You're a human." Mark stated, lightly shoving her arms away from his ray of vision. "You have feelings- well, I guess had feelings."

Somehow his perspective on his victims have changed and that all thanks to Chae Dallia. Every single human that had feared him – had feared death was normal to him, and yet he meets someone who had provoked the ego that grew inside of him. He wanted to understand why, just why he couldn't kill her like he was supposed to. What's so special? What's hindering him from taking his knife and using it on her? Maybe they got it all wrong. Maybe Papa and himself got it all wrong.

What if... what if Chae Dallia actually is dead.

That she's nothing but a haunting past everyone around her is suffering. A memory that couldn't be removed for how awful they had treated her. What if she was an innocent being who had suffered from her own self – drowned in the thoughts that everyone hated her, that she should be dead and that she has to be dead.

But then why? Why does he have to kill her if she's already dead?

Dallia looked away, "And you're the grim reaper not my counselor."

Mark ran his tongue against the bottoms of his teeth in annoyance, to think that the girl really had just said that in front of him was enough to spark a blaze of irritation. Running his fingers through his sleek styled back hair, an eyebrow raised up in a challenging manner. "Are you really testing my patience right now?"

"I just- If you want to kill me- then just do. What's stopping you. I told you, I'm dead. Always have and will be." Dallia blurted out, giving him a stern stare, "Or maybe you're just a liar and you're no different to Jaemin."

"I'm not a fucking liar you little bitch. I hate liars and the fact that you have the audacity to lie that you're dead in front of my face for weeks just annoys me." Mark pressed, glowering down at the young girl. Maybe he thought wrong. Maybe she actually is crazy and needs to be taken back to the hospital. The fact he almost believed that she was innocent suddenly disgusted him.

"Then you hate yourself."

"What?" Her sentence caught him off guard. The male squinted his eyes, "What did you just say?"

"You said you hate liars- then you hate yourself." Dallia remarked, not one bit afraid of the gaze being sent down on her by the grim reaper. "You may think I'm crazy for stitching myself up and being friends with 'dead' animals but to me they are alive. Stitching myself up is the only thing that makes me think that maybe I could be alive too."

"Maybe you could be alive?" Mark quoted before scoffing, an indescribable smirk tugging up the corner of his lips as he dawned on her in disbelief. "Maybe if you stopped babbling nonsense then you would feel alive."

"You lack emotion, apathy- heck sometimes I wonder if you even are human." He took steps towards her, the distance between them soon closing in. "You're right. You're as dead as death itself and maybe that's the reason to kill you."

Mark held her by her jaw, bringing her face closer to his as his other hand pulled out his knife. "Stitching your animals or stitching your brother in hopes of reviving them?" He pressed the tip of the blade onto her neck, dark eyes glinted madness.

Dallia kept silent, not because she didn't have anything to say, but she chose not to say anything. It has come this, where Mark has finally gone over his limit and decides to kill her. Closing her eyes to accept the fate that lies for her today, somehow it felt assuring for her.

As Mark was about to slit her throat open, something in him felt bothered to do so. He furrowed his brows together, seeing as how she had her eyes closed and prepared for him to kill her, and that's what hindered him to do so. Gritting his teeth, he hissed, "You're still not scare of me?"

Silence.

He scoffed and let go of her. Stumbling back, she reopened her eyes and placed her hand over her chest, rather stupefied after what she had just felt.

"Well?"

"I am not afraid to die. What's the point of it if I'm already dead?"

"Bullshit, Dallia. You're just repeating everything! It doesn't make sense." Mark exclaimed, tightening the grip around the handle of his sacred knife.

Dallia looked down, "Then look at it in a different way. I'm sick- I'm crazy, that's what everyone says because that's what they see." She murmured, her fists clenched and what surprised Mark next was when tears began to fall from her eyes.

Sadness. Mark couldn't believe it, he didn't expect her to cry, after all human emotions never really seem to be apart of her.

"If only... people understood what I see. Then maybe it would make sense."

Mark's mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. With everything that had just happened, he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. Forcing them shut and sighing harshly before disappearing into thin air. He reappeared in his own abode, the male quickly flopping onto his bed.

"What is there to understand?" He whispered, hair slightly disheveled as he tossed and turned in his bed.

Mark sat up from his bed, tilting his head a bit to the side before opening a gate to Papa's office.

"Seirus."

The old man hummed profusely, turning around with the same old cup of wine he always had. "Mark, I think you mean't to call Pa—"

"What is there to understand? Why do you want me to kill her?"

"I didn't ask you to kill her, Mark. I just gave you a suggestion." He pointed out calmly making the reaper shoot him a glare.

"Are you crazy!? You know what happens when life and death aren't balanced- there are people who's death are already planned and you're telling me now that Chae Dallia's death isn't!?"

"Chae Dallia is still your job, Mark. Whether you end up killing her or...not."

"Oh I'll definitely kill her." He pressed, recalling the argument he had with her awhile ago.

Seirus grabbed a book from his drawer, sliding it across his table and towards the reaper. "Dallia is different- Dallia doesn't fear death and is most likely attracted to death itself. She believes she's dead, quite absurd for other humans but that's why I suggested her to you."

"I am not her fucking counselor or whatever."

"I never said you were," Seirus retorted, flipping the book open and scanned through the pages before stopping at a page. "Have you even understood her?"

"I have- lead me to nothing but hours of preventing her from sti—" he paused, just as realization pricked him. Looking up to see Seirus smiling widely at him, "Dallia's attempting suicide...and here I am stopping her..."

Seirus shrugged shamelessly, "Emotions keep a person alive, without them they seem dead. Why do you think Dallia believes she's dead?"

"People neglect her for her illness. They think she's crazy." Mark mumbled and Seirus nodded along. "She believes because that's what she sees, because she's sick."

"And what caused that sickness?"

"The car crash...?" He answered in an unsure tone. "But why? If so- why can't I kill her?"

"Why are you asking me? You ask yourself, Mark. Why can't you kill her?"

Maybe because...

because she's the only one who
could understand me.

• • •
lmao what if a life reaper's controlling dallia that's why she think she's dead 👀

what if-