CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO | FROM HOME

'Cause I'm not alone
You became a warm home for me
Yesterday and now

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"He- He didn't have to do that!" Mark exclaimed, shock filling his whole body as he watched Jeno slowly take Dallia's soul. He shot the boy a look, "What are you doing?"

"We're taking her to the house of reapers. Where she'll be turned into an actual Soul Reaper. Don't worry, you'll see her soon enough." Jeno assured him before carrying the girl's body – bridal style.

Mark kept an eye on him until he disappeared from his view. When Jeno was out of the place, he drew his gaze towards Seirus who stood with the same face that screamed 'You had no idea' and Mark wished he could punch him straight up in the jaw for it.

"What's with the face?" He drawled out, eyebrows furrowed together as he glowered at the old man. Seirus laughed at this, ridiculing Mark's expression. "Did I shock you once more?"

"No, you asshole! Don't you know how hard it is on me!? Okay, I'm glad you spared her life but you took Jaemin's like that so easily! How- How could you be so cruel?!" Mark burst out, pique bubbling within him.

"He begged for it, Mark. I just gave him what he wanted, if you're really sad about it, why don't you go fetch his soul in the Underworld and sell another soul in return." Seirus suggested making Mark scoff and roll his eyes at him.

"No. You know what, just leave us alone."

"She works for me now, you do know that, Mark."

"Piss off."

Mark waited for hours – hours than soon turned into days – and during those hours of course he continued his job, despite the constant memories that popped in here and there, he still held a strong form to continue.

After a few more excruciating hours for Mark, Jisung had appeared in his place, in search of the death reaper himself. The young soul reaper timidly knocked on Mark's door earning a soft, "Come in." from the death reaper. Jisung walked in, his head slightly lowered before clearing his throat, "Dallia's a soul reaper now, you can go see her, although she's not at the house."

Mark stood up abruptly at the news brought to him. His golden eyes the circled in hope, holding in his breath as he waited for Jisung to continue. The younger boy noticed that and he added, "She's at the human world- you know... visiting."

The death reaper nodded, grabbing his coat from the rack before draping it over his shoulders. He ruffled Jisung's hair as a friendly gesture, sending the soft boy a smile, nearly shocking him. "Thank you." He told the Jisung before disappearing into thin air. To Jisung, it was a surprise to see Mark acting like that since the last time Mark acted like that was probably years ago.

Mark sauntered into the cemetery with his hand full of Dahlias. He scanned the parameter, looking for a specific girl with dark brown hair and wore sheer white clothing. His search stopped when his gaze landed on the said girl, a smile played on his lips and he made his way through the little pathways.

Wordlessly, he stood beside her as she stared at a gravestone. "Your grave is not here." Was what escaped his lips resulting in the girl to look up at him, the same curiosity that she always had laid in her eyes when he first met her.

"I know..." she whispered, tears brimming on the edge. "I just thought, that maybe, at least a little, my parents could've at least buried my body."

"Maybe they cremated your body?"

"I wanted to be buried." She murmured, looking down at the gravestone that read: Chae Duri; her little brother. "Beside him, and then maybe I could feel like I'm with him."

"You are with him, Lia," Mark spoke, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and letting her rest her head on the crook of his neck. "In your heart, you have that now, remember?"

The male grabbed her hand and laced it with his, seeing the scars from her past made him wince and bring her hand close to his lips, placing a soft kiss trailing over the scars.

"Poor Angel, she's all alone. Who knows what my parents did to them, my friends, I mean."

"Do you want to visit your home?"

"It's not my home, Mark." She chuckled, shaking her head in disagreement. "You are my home."

"And you are mine." Mark brushed away the stray strands of hair away to stare into her eyes. Getting lost for a split second before smiling, "What do you say, Lia? Do you want to say goodbye to your parents or anything?"

"Of course."

≫≫≫

Dahlias. There were a ton of Dahlias at the Chae's house. It was true, they did have her body cremated instead. A whole shrine was built for her and around the shrine was the taxidermies that she had hidden a long time in the attic above her room. Dallia got teary-eyed, gnawing down her bottom lip as she suppressed the urge to cry. Her grip around Mark's arm tightened as she felt suffocated in the household they were in.

Memories flashed back into her mind – both bad and good. There were ones wherein she and her brother were seen playing in the living room, ones wherein she watched a movie with her whole family, ones wherein her brother woke her up from sleep, and ones wherein she sew blankets with her mom. However, recent memories made her want to shout at herself, for not fighting back and believing that everything they do to her was okay.

Such memories revolved around both parents abusing her. Every slap, every push, every throw of the bottle. It just kept repeating. The shattering sound echoing in her mind, little bits of pieces falling into the ground with a shrill resonance.

Dallia stood in front of her mother who sat still on the couch. She then eyed her father, who sat beside her mother, drinking a bottle of beer; typical. Dallia gulped, clenching her jaw as she stared at them. "Mum? Dad?" She tried calling out, but of course, they couldn't hear her. She was now a Soul Reaper after all.

With an outstretched arm, she pointed towards her shrine. "At least pray for me? I wanted to be buried, beside Duri, you know that. I told you that before."

"You know how much I love him! I- I tried to bring us back together... with- with the sewing! I'm so sorry... I ruined our family, I ruined it." Mark heard his heart crack as he silently watched Dallia persist in blaming herself.

Dallia was about to continue when her father cut her off. "We finally got rid of that little piece of shit." He cackled, chugging down his beer. Her mother smirked widely, using the remote to change channels, "I know right, just like how we wanted."

Her father glanced at the shrine, raising his bottle at it, "Dallia, dear, now you got what you wanted- to be dead. And we got what we wanted."

"N-No..." Dallia stammered, curling her fingers into a tight fist.

"You deserve it you fucking brat- for ruining the whole family! I preferred Duri more than you, you should've just died first. Maybe we could've been happier."

Dallia pressed her lips together into a thin line, taking a deep breather, and began walking towards her shrine. Her eyes went wide in an instant and she gasped out loud, seeing nothing but Angel in front, but bloodied and dead.

She crouched down, wanting to touch her. "Lia, you can't touch Angel." He stated, crouching down to rub her back.

"I want to bring her back, Mark. C-Can I? I could- I could stitch her up. And then maybe, maybe she'll be brought back to life again." She sniffled, her hand itching to cradle the black cat in her arms.

Mark couldn't stand it anymore. He reached out to carry the bloodied cat in his arms, which was possible since he was a death reaper. "You didn't deserve this. They are fucking animals for killing Angel."

He brought her back to his place where he leads her into his hut. "We shouldn't have gone back, I'm so sorry."

"It wasn't your fault, Mark. I was the one who wanted to go... I just thought-" she choked on a sob, "That may be... maybe they cared for me at least a little."

She gazed down at Angel, watching as Mark slowly propped her on top of the table. His face contorted in disgust, "What kind of fucking game do they think this is? Killing a cat, that's animal cruelty."

"I swear, the day Seirus mentions their name to me, I won't hesitate to stab their hearts out."

"Calm down now," Dallia gently patted his shoulder to ease him down.

Mark sent her a faint smile before grabbing a metal box from below his bed, placing it on top of the table. "Here, your first ever sewing kit."

"H-How did you find this? Last time I remember... this was confiscated from me... the mental hospital." She uttered out, completely baffled. Nonetheless, she grabbed the kit and opened it, admiring the old tools she once used as a kid.

"Jaemin. He took it from the hospital's possession and gave it to me." He mumbled, taking off his black coat, leaving him the dark red button up and the black strapped harness. Mark brushed his hair up with his fingers, letting his bangs fall loose, hovering just above his eyebrows. Arms crossed in front of his chest, he watched as Dallia cleaned up Angel and gradually turn her into taxidermy.

"You know, you could've been a great surgeon." He murmured after seeing her stitch up the cat carefully.

Dallia hummed, glancing back at the reaper. "I never really thought of what I would have taken, I just- I was too focused on being dead- and here I am... dead."

"You're not dead," Mark shook his head, "You're alive, I'll keep you alive."

"You're not alone now, I'm with you and you're with me... it's forever."

"I love the sound of that."

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