It's my mission... I have to do this. Our eyes stared each other down, waiting for the other make the first move. Our gazes were cold yet held burning fire. I could hear the echo of his high pitched growl amplified by his unholy features. A purple glow danced around his fingers and up his arm, his pupil in that purple eye constricted in a blade thin slit.
After I returned home from my failure to assassinate Grayson, I had asked the magi guild to enchant my armor with the most powerful protection spells that they could. I was excited to see it at work now...
The hybrid used his magic against me, a wave of pinkish purple energy hurtling towards me. I stood my ground, and while I still flinched from instinct, I smiled beneath my mask with confidence. As if the magic in my armor was sentient, the runes within the metal glowed as the hybrid's attack draw near, and as I closed my eyes from the bright light, my ears began to rattle painfully from the sound of impact. My eyes opened up to witness the results, a magical shield cast around myself dispersing, and the hybrid laying on the ground in pain from the whiplash of his attack turned against him.
It was almost painful to watch him hiss and groan as he picked himself up, bleeding wounds surrounded by sizzling red skin from the burns his magic had inflicted. With his demonic half turned away from me as he picked himself up, shaking in pain, the world seemed to pause for a brief instance. My knees buckled but I stayed standing, my fingers loosen around the handle of my sword. Collin...why does he look like Collin?! I was confused, I was enraged...I did not want to care. I wanted to ignore it all and get the deed done with. It's just some coincidence, a trick! I had my doubts scratching at the back of my mind. Deep down I knew that it could not be true but I could not find a rationale explanation. I did not want to accept that what stood before me was my old friend. Collin is dead...he was taken from me and if he were still alive, he would not allow us to fight on opposing sides without reaching out to me. This hybrid is not him, a coagulation of impulse and bias. Then again, Collin did have a temper, and besides, isn't that what I have fallen victim to?
In my moments of distraction, the hybrid charged at me with a sword, accepting that using his magical abilities was futile. As I held up my blade to deflect his offense, our wrist rattling in their places as we pushed the other at bay, I could see the fear and doubt in his eyes. He knew that without his magic, his chances were slim. Call it ego, but I had high hopes that this time around, I would not fall to this imposter.
With his tall stature, it would be easy enough to overpower me, so I felt him beginning to push my arms back to my chest, a blade close to my head, I slashed and jumped out of the way, only reviving a minor cut along my jawline while I was able to get a clean hit as his side. As he screamed and tossed a hand over the wound, barely grasping his sword, I took the advantage to dash his hands, nearly severing them as I hit his knuckles instead, but it still worked. His blade fell, and the second I saw it fall, I went in for the kill, cleaning the anxious thoughts in my mind to a clean slate.
My blade punctured is chest, almost exactly in the middle of his chest cavity. I winced as I felt the iron rip muscle and bone, feeling the final beat of his heart before the tip of my weapon severed and shattered the disks of his spine. I did not want to look him in the eyes. I could not bare to look up and see Collin in those orbs, those orbs now deprived of life. My eyes burned. Was I crying or..?
His wound was glowing purple, the blinding light like a crack running up and down a pane of glass. A horror overtook my entire system. The hybrids body appeared as if it were melting, a sickening sound of flesh ripping and boiling.
He began to scream, one voice splitting into two; a demonic screech and... My eyes widen. I know that scream.
In a burst of light, I was tossed back onto the grass. I groaned as I laid there, my head spinning, dazed. My eyes opened, immediately closing them as I was blinded, like looking at the light after being darkness for too long. My ears rung, but I could hear a muffled sound that shook my core. I did not know what it was, but I had a clear idea. A demon.
After several moments, I finally began to pick myself up from the ground. My eyelids fluttered to clear the burning white, shapes then colors slowly coming back into focus. As I recover, the sudden incoordination of my thoughts coming to pass, I turn back to the hybrid, still on my knees with my shaking arms elevating my upper body.
Out of the corner of my eye, something tall and dark as the shadows loomed over a lump of blue. My skin began to tingle, my stomach becoming heavy. My eyes formed tears, feeling disoriented and stiff.

  "C...Collin?" My voice shook, halting.

Laying on the ground in tattered blue clothing, appearing to be unconscious, was a boy. I began to shake so much that it was painful. Collin...h-how? How? My mind went blank, unblinking as my mind struggled to process what I was seeing. That hybrid...he...
My eyes slowly averted from Collin to the demon standing over him, staring down at him. It's jaws unhinged, long, sharp claws poised. My chest felt tighter and tighter, vision blurring in and out. I was confused, astonished, in disbelief. I was worried, I was scared...and I was angry. I clenched the handle of my blade. No one will take him from me again. With a new hatred and need to preserve the life of my love, I sprinted for the demon with my sword to my side, ready to lunge.
It was all a blur and by the time I realized that Collin now stood before us, I could not stop in time. My heels dug into the soil but my body continued to move forward. When I finally stopped, his hands ran with blood, crimson running down the silver of my iron blade. He huffed and panted, growls reverberating in his throat.

  "Luke, stop!" My heart skipped beats. I did not know what emotion I felt, but there were many swarming inside of me.

He push down my sword which his hands were clasped around, the sharp edges cutting his palms and fingers. I did not understand he would put himself in harm's way to protect a filthy demon. I did not even fight back against him. I was too stricken by the sound of his smooth voice, the sight of his gorgeous eyes, the vibration still running down my arms from his shaking running down my weapon. Getting knocked back by that blust must have knocked me out cold. Not of this can be real...
His eyes were glistening, lip quivering as he took in shaky breaths of air as if out of breath. He turned, eyeing the towering monster before his eyes settled on his hand, then his other. He started to laugh and cackle and cry, his fingers entangled in his hair. I had never seen him like this...I had never seen him look more psychotic in my life. It was painful to say the least. It concerned and scared me.

  "Why am I still here?! I-I...I shouldn't be here!" He screamed, each word tearing at another of my heartstrings. "Why...why am I not dead?! I shouldn't exist with these memories..."

He broke down into sobbing, his unsettling laughter dying out to leave him in sorrow, tears running down his rosy red cheeks. His eyes were wide as if he had seen a ghost. I sure felt like I was.

His voice became monotonous, suddenly devoid of all emotion. "I shouldn't exist..."

I felt frozen. What was I supposed to do, supposed to say? I had seen Collin cry, I had seen him depressed, but I had never heard those words slip from behind his lips. I wanted to say something but my throat closed up when I opened my mouth. I was still dizzy, still discombobulated from him standing here before me. I felt like I could not function, my knees on the brink of giving out beneath my weight.

  "Collin..." I could only say his name in a quiet, shaky breath.

He slowly lifted his hand, glowing in a light blue. My breath was stripped from my lungs, oxygen unable to enter my body as I suddenly felt paralyzed from what I was not witnessing. At first it seemed as if water was running down his arm but I was quick to realize that this was not the case. His skin was melting from his body. He began to mutter then scream that if he could not die, then living on as Drake was all he had left. I came to realization of what was going on. I could not bare to lose him again.

  "Stop!" I lunged forward, grabbing his arms and forcing them back down to his sides, pressing them tight against his body as he thrashed around, screaming for me to release him. I refused to.

The demon let out a blood churning cry before vanishing in a blur of swirling purple light, stopped us both from any moment, halting all focus. Only two massive clawed footprints and a dissipating aura of light were left in its wake. I stared in awe, distracted long enough for Collin to free himself from my grasp. He screamed and begged the monster to return, crying as he fell to his knees.
With a glare of raging fire, his eyes snapped back to me, scampering to his feet to stomp towards me in undeniable rage.

  "Why did you have to stop me? You should have let me do it! You shouldn't have have f**king done anything!...Luke..."

I could barely hear with the sound of my heartbeat pounding in my ears, my blood rushing, running cold. His scrunched face relaxed, falling into a sorrowful expression. It was painful. His tone was quick to shift from anger to somberly. His mouth opened, my entire world feeling as if it had stopped with two, then three little words.

  "Kill me, please."

My sword finally dropped from my hands, falling to the ground with a clang. How was I to cope with this? I could feel the tingling of tears and sweat running down my skin, still finding it difficult to breathe. What did he just ask me? No...h**l no! I growled, moving forward and grabbing his arms to get him to stay still so he would listen to me. He struggled at first, eventually staring into my eyes, his own blue orbs turned red, his lip shaking and lips chapped.

  "Collin, please tell me what's going on! I'm not going to hurt you! Just talk to me, we can figure everything out!"

He shook his head and finally pushed himself away. I stumbled backwards, almost falling over but I regained balance just in time. He continued to hyperventilate, crossing his arms over his chest, hugging himself as he continued sobbing, louder now. He kept mumbling, a panicky spark in his eyes.

  "I...I killed them, Luke. My parents, Jacob...thousands of innocent people...they're dead because of me. I nearly...nearly killed you and Grayson too."

I took a step forward with clenched fists. I could not stand him blaming himself, spitting out this blasphemy. I screamed that none of it was his fault, that his body was under the control of another entity, not his own conscience. He laughed, arms lips and shoulders slacked.

  "But I'm the one who allowed myself to be possessed...You should have just forgotten about me Luke." He muttered beneath his breath. "You were supposed to forget. Just like Grayson and Armen did. Why didn't you?"

  "How could ever forget what we had?" His head lifted, taken by surprise. I continued. "I could never forget, especially when I've had a piece of you with me this entire time." I tugged at my hat. His eyes lit up, not just from the tears but with the realization that I still wore the hat he made me.

  "L-Luke...you..."

He seemed to be calming down, his breathing stabilizing, at least for a moment or two. Water continued to roll down his red cheeks, sniffling and wiping his face down with his arms. His brows furrowed with fallen lip corners. His fists balled until his knuckles turned deathly white.

  "Why did I ever make that stupid deal?...So many people would still be alive...Armen would still be alive..."

I flinched as he fell to his knees, looking up into the sky, the light of the sun twinkling against the streaks of tears. He mumbled for forgiveness, then began to say that he did not deserve him, that he did not deserve to be alive while "he" was not. I took a step forward, hesitant as I thought up of what to say or do without making the situation worse.

  "I may not understand what you're going through," I cleared my throat. "But you still have me. I still love you just as much as I did back then."

He scoffed. "Don't...don't lie to yourself. You seem to have been living...just fine without me."

I took in a deep breath before I walked forward. He did not move as I sat beside him, only looking out of the corner of his eyes as I began to speak.

  "Collin, listen." My voice cracked, my cheeks warm, tickling from tears. His mouth hung open, taking in my sorrow as his lips moved to sound out my name.

  "Ever since I lost you, I lost a piece of myself too. I couldn't feel anything and I pretend to feel something for so long. I did horrible things, killed many people. I got Grayson's family killed...not a day goes by that I'm not haunted by what I have done, not a single bit of rest without the nightmares of what I did."

  "You...that was you? You turned Grayson in?" Collin starred with a mixture of expressions twisting his face. Baffled, shocked, and confused.

I turned away but gave a gentle nod before my eyes met with those of lapis blue. "You're not the only one who has made mistakes." The image of those nooses tied around bruised and bloody necks flashed across my thoughts. If only I had known. I gently took his hands and pulled him up with me as I stood.

I pushed aside my thoughts and brushed my thumb against his cheek to wipe the tears and feel his soft skin. "And never think...that you're mistakes will ever make me stop loving you. I love you with your flaws, I always have. As long as we learn from our mistakes, then it will be okay. I will always be here to listen and try to understand."

Once more he burst into tears, his tan face turning a strawberry red. I flinched, taking in a sharp breath as his body collided into my own, arms constricting tight around my torso, pulling me in tight. His face buried into the crook of my neck, his warm tears running down my skin. His body jerked up and down as he sobbed, holding me tighter than ever.
I had forgotten what it was like to be held. I had forgotten what it was like to feel like someone depended on me...like someone needed me. I forgot what it was like to feel love like this...not greed, or a pit of nothingness. I felt happy to just have him with me again.
My arms wrapped around him, pulling him as close to me as I could with taking away his breath. I remembered holding him like this back in the day, comforting him in his time of need. He was warm. He was alive.

Something came to my mind, recalling the white eyed demon that used his body to massacre others. I had to bring it up,discreetly as to not alarm him. "Others may not accept you, and even if no one does, I will. You're friends, Grayson,...I can't make amends with, but just know," My body leaned back while pushing Collin away, lifting his chin so our tearful eyes locked. "No matter what happens, I'm here for you. Okay?"

Collin choked, barely able to breathe with the feeling of his throat closing up. He had to gasp and force his head up in order to take on a proper amount of oxygen into his lungs. He began to hiccup, moving around in my grip.

  "I-I love you. Th-Thank you."

He tossed his arms around my torso to pull me in tight against his body, crying into the mask which covered my neck. He sniffled as his warm tears bled through the fabric, touching my skin. I rubbed his back to calm him as I put my arm around his waist and pulled him closer for comfort, feeling him trembling against me as my quivering soon matched up with that of his own. My eyes burned, left sore from the falling waterworks, my cheeks aching as we both found it difficult to breathe. I could feel his chest rising and falling at an inconsistent rhythm, slowly easing as I whispered into his ear to calm him.

  "It's okay. It's okay. I'm here for you Collin." For a moment I pulled back, pushing him back to look me in the eye. Slowly I leaned in, our quivering lips connecting for as long as we could without the need to take in a breath.

This was our first kiss in so long, a kiss I never thought would ever graze my lips again, and like h**l would it be the last. I could feel his body ease, his breathing becoming slightly more soothed. I had only been able to dream of this for years, to hold Collin in my arms like this again, to hear his voice, to know that he was alive. The warm tears ran down my face. I can't believe it...he's here with me, alive. As I pulled away, both of us gasping, all I could do was stare into those heavenly eyes and whisper promises to never lose him again, to never let anything separate us, even if it killed me.

Collin buried his face into my chest, sniffing with the occasional hiccup. "What....what about...about Grayson, and...and Mia...I can't leave them, but..."

  "Where are they now?" I asked, running my hand through his hair, which he leaned into.

He paused, a cracking but low voice once he finally spoke. "I don't know. I don't know." His grip on me tightened as he repeated his words, scared for his friends and perhaps...feeling abandoned.

I wrapped my arms around him and nuzzled my face into his shoulder. "We'll find them, together."

The boy's chin moved between my neck and shoulder pad. "What about...what about your job? Your home?"

I had to be cliche. The cliche version was how I felt after all. I straightened out and looked into his watery eyes once more, my arms falling back to my side until I took his chin, the sorrow becoming joy as our eyes met the words flowed past my lips.

  "You are my home. And forget about my job. For now on my only job is being there for you. Got it?"

Finally, he smiled. I missed those bright teeth, the shimmering of happiness like diamonds in his eyes. I never forgot that face, the face I fell in love with. I had smiled like this in years myself, my face aching and sore but I welcomed it and urged it to remain. I could not remember the last time I felt like this; joyful and feeling blessed to be alive. Collin nodded and rubbed his face clean of the moisture, giggling muffled and held back by his chokes from the overwhelming hurricane of emotions.

"No more crying." I giggled, too happy to have my love back with me to feel any other emotions. "Come on! Let's go look for your friends." I held out my open hand, palm facing upwards for the taking.

That beautiful smile grew, his giggles morphing into a heartwarming laugh that I praised. His reached out and fell over mine, my gloved hands entwining around his frail, boney fingers before I pulled him in closer, not sure if I wanted to hold him by the hand or the waist as we walked along no the forest path. As we moved forward, I promised him that when the snow fell, that we would make snowmen and have snowball fight just like the old days.

He laughed. "If only we could have hot chocolate too." His head leaned against my shoulder, barely reaching as he was a bit short. I smiled and giggled.

  "I missed you." He pushed closer, disturbing my balance minimally, hands on my chest and back. I could not blame him. He probably could not remember what it was like to hold and be held, at least not him fully.

  "I missed you too." I grabbed his shoulder opposite from the side I stood, placing a gentle kiss on top of his head.