Strays: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure

“We’ll be in Naddenly in the morning.”

Zero didn’t respond, his attention completely consumed by the moon in the night sky. It had been this way every night since the first time he saw that bright glow in the dark and heard the soft melody that accompanied it. Like a moth to a flame, he would instinctively be drawn to it. He would have to watch it, have to listen closely. There was no way to escape its pull.

Not that he would ever want to.

Zero had asked Ren a few times what the sound was, but the man would only look into the sky and claim to not be able to hear it, but tell the boy to keep listening, that maybe it would tell him something or lead him somewhere. That if he could hear it, then there was a reason for it.

It was always there, but never had it been so loud. It was like a whisper, beckoning the devil closer so that he may hear it more clearly. He wanted to reach out, to touch it, to make it his.

But it was still so far away.

If only he could get closer.

“Hey!” The voice broke through the song and Zero looked down at the angel. “You’re spacing out again. You still hearing that noise?”

“Yes.” The boy nodded. “It’s louder tonight.”

Ren looked towards the moon, straining to hear anything other than the sounds of the forest around them but coming up with nothing. He shrugged, leaving well enough alone. “Louder, huh? Did you hear anything I said through all that noise of yours?” He scowled lightly as the boy shook his head. “Of course you didn’t. You’re always ignoring me. We’ll be in Naddenly tomorrow. Is that alright with you?”

“Yes.” The devil always responded this way, not actually having an opinion either way. But tonight, he did. He wanted to go. He wanted to follow the song. See where it would lead him. Find what would be at the end of the melody that had pulled him along for all these years.

“We’re going to find her tomorrow.” Ren was confident, as he always was before entering the next town or city. It would carry him through his search until they would finally leave, empty handed, before the disappointment would set in, and the moping would begin. It was always short lived though. He always had a new plan, a new strategy, and surely this time would be the one. “Then we’ll head back to Hollis and you can live with your dream girl while I live with mine.”

The boy didn’t like that idea one bit and he swallowed down the lump of dread that had jumped into his throat. “Please don’t make me live with Maggie. I don’t like it there.”

The man found his subtle but nervous response hilarious, and he laughed for a good while as he continued scraping at the small figure in his hand. The amusement died away as he finished, holding his work high, examining it in the light of the fire, before tossing it to Zero.

The devil caught it and turned it over in his hands, running his fingers along the tiny door and windows and shingles on the roof. “It’s a house.”

Ren sheathed his hunting knife and laid back on the ground, his hands supporting under his head. “When we get there, you can help me build one. I’ll teach you how to do it. I don’t need you always poking around my house, getting in my way, being a distraction. Sakura and I will be busy doing more important things, and you don’t need to be there for that. But we’ll build it close enough, and it’ll be yours. Something that you can work on that’ll keep you busy.”

“So, I don’t have to live with Maggie?” The boy really didn’t want to.

“You can if you really want. I won’t stop you.”

“I don’t,” Zero insisted, the slightest hint of panic in his tone.

The angel closed his eyes with a smirk. “Then we’ll build you your own, and you can keep helping me when you want. Or do your own thing. Whatever makes you happy. You’ll have a home. Does that sound okay? Do you want to do that?”

A home.

A place for him to belong.

“Yes,” the boy agreed.

“Get some sleep then. We’ll head in early.”

Zero looked at the carving one last time before tossing it into the fire, watching the flames eat away at the wood. He didn’t need that one. He’d have a real one someday. Ren had told him so, and the man had never made a promise he didn’t keep. He laid down, staring up at the moon and let the song lull him to sleep.

The next morning, Ren had overslept, as he often did despite having grander plans. He had cursed and griped but still continued on at his leisurely stroll, explaining to the boy how they would chop down the trees and cut the logs to length, set the foundation and build up. How they’d create the roof and the options they had and how’d they place the stone for the chimney. Brainstormed the different types of flooring they could put in and what kind of furniture they’d place atop it.

The devil tried to listen, but the song was only getting louder the closer they got to the town, making it impossible to pay attention to anything else once they were finally there. It wasn’t loud in the way that noises normally were, but it buzzed in his brain, becoming the only thing that he could focus on.

The only thing that mattered.

They walked through the streets, the song ebbing and flowing, growing in volume and then getting softer. Up and down, in and out, teasing the devil with every step. Zero stopped and waited behind the angel, like he always did, while he talked to a merchant about the elusive fox demon. The boy would normally wait quietly, his eyes downcast, until the man had finished, and he’d continue following along.

But the song.

It called to him, telling him where to go.

Inviting him.

Commanding he follow.

And so, he did.

“Hey.” Ren turned, watching him walk off with interest as it was something the boy had never done before. “Where are you going, boy?”

There was no response, and for the first time in their years together, the angel followed the devil.

Zero walked with his head high, carefully observing everything around him, as he chased after the song that led him through the streets and past the crowds of people until he was opening the door to a shop of which he had no idea what goods it sold. He stepped inside and looked at the girl with mouse ears at the counter, her friendly face turning to fear as she peered wide-eyed into his eyes. He went on by, unconcerned, wasting no time on her while the angel’s voice picked up behind him as he talked quietly to the girl, soothing her, convincing her that all was fine.

The song lured him down a narrow aisle and he froze, unable to push himself forward to follow it further.

He watched the body concealed beneath a black cloak lift onto their toes, a willowy arm escape its cover, and slender fingers reach for something just out of reach. Her small, lovely voice called out quietly, just barely there.

A voice that had never spoken to him.

But that he had heard before.

And he knew.

It was her.

She was the song.

That which called to him day after day, night after night.

He had finally found what he was searching for.

Zero went to her, wanting to wrap himself around her, to bring her into the void that was screaming out from within. The emptiness that had always been there. The part of him that was missing, so close to becoming whole. It demanded that he take hold of her, not let go, keep her forever.

Control it

Ren had told him so many times before.

But he could only hold back so much.

His hand reached for hers, claiming it.

The song disappeared.

But he felt the warmth seep into his fingers.

Travel through his veins.

Settle into his soul.

The realization that he was finally where he belonged.

That he was home.

With her.

At long last.

A shrill yelp came from under her dark hood as her body jerked and fell back away from him.

But he couldn’t let her get away.

Not after he’d finally found her.

He grabbed at her, watching the hood fall from her enchanting face, amethyst waves cascading down her back, as he held on to her, afraid to let her go.

To lose her.

Again.

He stared in awe at her, nothing else existing. Feeling the weight of her petite body in his arms. Taking in the softness of her face, the curve of her nose, the rosiness of her lips.

But her eyes were shut tight, refusing to look at him.

She seemed afraid.

And he had made her that way.

Just as he had so many times before with people on the road and in different towns. How he just had with the shopkeep when he first entered. How he did every time he raised his head long enough for those around him to catch a glimpse of the crimson of his eyes.

What was he thinking?

Why ever did he think that this time would be any different?

Zero pulled her up, feeling the void growing deeper and deeper, wishing it would swallow him whole. He had so desperately wanted to find the song and now he had. But it was rejecting him, trying to send him away. To leave him on his own once again.

What was he supposed to do?

Whatever could he say to make her stay?

“Are you okay? I didn’t mean to scare you.” The boy found what words he could and offered them to her, certain they wouldn’t be enough. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

He knew he should go, leave the poor girl be. Disappear from her life as quickly as he had come. But he couldn’t. The pull in his chest kept him there, his body heavy as a stone. As if it would kill him to leave.

Her head slowly tilted up and violet eyes gazed into his.

The warmth forced all oxygen from his body. He had gazed into the same light before. Time and time again, every night he searched for it, disappointed any time it wasn’t there, lonely for its company. He had longed for it, chased after it, hoping that one day it would be in his grasp. And now it finally was.

Her eyes were bright.

Like the rays of the moon.

Ren had told him to control it.

But as he breathed in; the scent of everything he knew, everything he didn't, everything he had wished for, everything he desired filled his entire being.

It was uncontrollable.

He had to take it all.

His body leaned closer towards hers, the pull impossible to resist.

She was the song.

The missing piece.

The warmth.

The light.

Everything.

“What are you?”