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Chapter Text

In hindsight, maybe MK should have expected this. 

Demons. They weren't always on the better side of the story for as long as the world had been constructed. 

From the beginning of time, they were known as a long list of things. Things that were much less savory in the past. 

Cruelty that knew no bounds and an insatiable hunger for power. 

MK didn't know what he had expected. 

Maybe he wanted to believe in the better part of their kind. 

Maybe he wanted to hold the misunderstood and the hurt, telling them that they weren't at fault for the way they were born. 

Maybe somewhere inside him he believed that only such a faulty existence―only such a gushing wound―could love him who lacked everything that would make him enough. 

Maybe it had always come from that small part of him who whispered sweet oh so sweet encouragement to help, to save, and to sacrifice. 

As he laid there in his own bloody mess and watched as Macaque cried even when he couldn't stop eating MK's insides, he could only smile and think this was meant to be for a fool like him.

Maybe it was just how it would always end. 

From the moment he fell in love with a demon. 

No one could have been saved. 

He could only love and love and love and hope that his taste would be savored as a permanent scar into the other’s tongue and the other's cursed heart. 

He hoped. 

And to be saved, for either of them, could only be a hope ungranted. 

Chapter Text

"How is it? Does it hurt?"

The pieces of glass from the shattered cup laid scattered around the floor from when it had broken from the fall, its content―sugary sweet cocoa―spilled all over and dried into a sticky mess. The heat that was meant to warm the heart had long cooled over into betrayal. 

A cup of offering that was meant to be kind. Only to be filled with poison.

Macaque's sight blurred over at the edges, fraying at the limit, threads snapping from waves of pain and the numbness that started to settle into his bones. 

MK straddled him, an unwelcome weight that made his world tilt even more shakily. The smile that the hero had on seemed to be stitched carefully like a pretty doll. 

Cold palms cradled his cheek like a lover would, like a hope would. 

MK tilted his head cutely. A facade of innocence that tasted like charcoal on his tongue. 

Ngh!

MK smiled wider at his struggle. "Ah, I'm glad. It actually did the job."

Macaque panted, straining to utter a question―a simple one―just one―"Why?"

MK frowned in a matter of seconds. He sighed as if it was an utterly dumb question, as if Macaque should have known better. 

MK looked forlornly at him before he opened his mouth slightly, red tongue peeking out with its color almost alluringly inviting him into further defiling, "Because you wouldn't choose me."

MK's expression was filled with a flood of sadness that threatened Macaque to be drowned in it. 

"It's your fault." 

Guilt attacked his already weakening body.

"It's your fault. You should have only looked at me."

He felt his consciousness flickering like a candle almost at its end. 

"It's your fault."

He couldn't breathe.

MK didn't seem to realize his condition or ignored it blatantly because he then smiled brightly again before continuing on with his monologue. 

The weight atop Macaque increased as MK leaned his hands on Macaque's chest then, a force too heavy as if trying to break and collapse his ribs along the way. 

His eyes half-shut in tender gaze that spoke of something else entirely. "It's okay, I forgive you." 

A part of Macaque was relieved to hear that. 

Even now, he craved to be accepted. 

MK's sweet voice infected him thoroughly. "I won't kill you. Even though you deserved it. I won't, even after you refused to take responsibility for breaking me."

"It hurts, right?" MK asked softly. "It hurts me too."

Crack. 

Ah...

A fracture. 

MK beamed. "If we make it fair between us, then you'll understand what I feel, right? Right?"

Pain painted his vision black and white. 

Macaque slipped into the darkness. 

The last thing he saw was MK who kissed him so gently, muttering the words 'I love you' so reveredly.

"This way, you can only love me."

"Because our pain will be the same."

Chapter Text

Unseeing eyeballs laid cluttered across the expanse of the ground, ripped out of their sockets and rolled around in aimless misery―some with dilated pupils from right before they were taken and cruelly discarded. 

It made a wet crunchy sound as it was stepped on, the tip of a heel stabbing through and leading it to be crushed whole under giddy feet that slid on the grotesque scene. 

A giggle echoed in the open air that smelled like burnt meat and hopeless rot. 

MK let his partner lead him into the rhythmless dance, steps not in accordance with any music―only to the silent weeping of the moon. 

Squashed organs that got trampled on even after they had already been left to wither outside of its original body, heart that beat no longer, horrified expression carved permanently out of lifeless faces. 

"You really like this, hm?" MK mused. 

"Which part?" 

Macaque tugged their intertwined hands, pressing their bodies even closer to a slow waltz of a long gone sanity. 

MK let his other hand grasp the other's shoulder even more tightly as Macaque gripped his waist with tentative drums of his fingers against crimson-painted robe. 

Wandering―

"The part we're doing right now. I think a lot got stuck to my heels," MK chided.

"Hm, are you not having fun?"

"...I am. Terribly so." 

A part of him sobbed as the most part of him keened in thrill. 

It had always been like that since the first time that Macaque had roped him into this, had taken his hand and guided him to a feeling unlike any other―lives that were so easily extinguished and the warmth that came from fresh blood. 

He wouldn't ever forget it. The day that they confessed their love to the very universe and promised a future where these horrible instincts of his wouldn't ever be wrong. That he was allowed to accept it―accept who he was, a monster. 

MK let his gaze fall to almost a closed one. 

His lover―partner in crime―His demise softly smiled at him as the colorful ears of his glowed brightly and pulsed in time with the ray of moonlight―almost hynotising, almost too deceiving. 

"That's all that mattered, MK." Macaque lolled his head to the side and spoke so alluringly, "As long as we're together."

"As long as it sets your heart free." You're mine, it spoke. 

Mine. 

"Give in to your desire and let me see your worst."

Mine. 

The steps yanked into a particularly strong one, leading directly to land on top of a victim that appeared to have been pretending to be dead. 

A crack and immediately ribs collapsed to pierce the lungs that had prayed to all gods for it to not be heard. 

Tough luck. With the Six-Eared Macaque as an opponent. 

MK made a face at the splatter of blood while Macaque chuckled almost too happily. 

MK's heart flowed over with sticky warmth from just that. 

Mine. 

MK would like to think that the loving expression directed at him after that was genuine. 

Horrible as they were, the worst version of themselves as they were, 

If they loved each other, then...

This man who was his,

Would stay only as his, even if karma caught up soon enough to them. 

"I love you."

The night dispersed. 

And none remained.

As if there were no lives that were slaughtered and danced upon. 

The evidence of their crime would always be inside their palms. 

Chapter Text

Notes of a piano swam along the quiet that was reserved for the dusk of the night. 

In an empty classroom.

The crooked 'Music Room' sign stood guard on top of the door to the hallway that held darkness at the far corners. Only the windows that allowed the dying light of sunset to filter in that helped with his vision―abnormal heat coloring the sky in a gradation of red orange and dark blue following at the far distance. 

MK stood at the doorway as the other kept conjuring a gentle melody, certain verses repeatedly brought back into life and keys were made to accept the constant onslaught of fingers playing them without permission. 

It was nostalgic. 

They had always used to do this together. Making music together, discreetly using the instrument that was provided in the school's music room, ditching class and sneaking in when no teacher was near or it was left vacant during the class hours. 

They had used to sit together on the bench and played simple songs on the piano, trusting each other to play their part without any words exchanged between them. Elbows sometimes knocked together in their routine, a slight miss here and there, but they were mostly always in sync even without looking at each other. 

It had always been the same thing for a long while. None of them had bothered to put a label on what they had. 

But MK wondered if he should have―he wondered if it would have changed anything. 

Would it have changed what had happened?

On that day when MK had found the other hanging by the rope around his neck, swaying gently from the wind that had poured in from the wide open window―Would it not have happened if MK were to have confirmed their feelings and been able to understand him more?

Would they have smiled together even now, if only he had made a different decision?

Would they be able to play the piano together once again?

"MK."

The phantom ceased and looked back at him with a smile that was reminiscent of the other when he was still truly here―breathing and alive. 

"Play one song with me?"

It invited MK. 

And by the time MK realized what it would mean to accept that hand, he had already stepped forward into the room that shut on its own. 

The naive wish that it would be just like before. 

Shackled and dragged in, it was swallowed. 

DATE : 30TH OCTOBER

A STUDENT HAD GONE MISSING 

ANY INFORMATION WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED―

Click.

Chapter Text

There were just things that weren't meant to be. Things that if crossed would be the same as rejecting the world itself―rejecting life and its cycle, fate and karma alike pulled out of its course. 

To fall in love was a wonderful thing. No matter where and when. It should have been a wonderful thing. Always. 

But even when it came to a concept that was meant to be free such as love, there were unwritten rules. Boundary, you could say. There were just some things that could be forgiven no matter what. A taboo that no one dared to speak of yet always knew. 

For it seemed to just be logical―naturally there.

That was how it should be for the two. 

The Red Riding Hood and The Wolf. 

Like how the story went. Always. 

The wolf sat with his back to the tree, his tail limp by his side. His own fur that shielded him from the cold felt suffocating at this time. His too sharp teeth. His pointy big ears. Everything about him was too sharp, too unruly, too dangerous. Made to be a predator and nothing else. His instinct itched to tear. 

The red riding hood sat at the opposite side of the tree with his back scraping against the wood through his thin red hood―useless and vulnerable. A perfect prey at any time. Harmless and pretty. The red already waited for it to be smeared with more and for every inch to be drenched in the color. 

They almost sat back to back, touching, if not for the tree that stood as their separating wall. Their gazes never met each other. It saw much too different, saw too far of everything else that didn't remind them of each other. 

Their hands laid on the ground, touching the meadow that they at least sat upon at the same time, placed too close to past the tree where the other was. A desire to reach―to be forgiven for yearning for something that could never be. 

How foolish. 

Because the story wouldn't change for them. 

The moment they touched, came into contact with each other, the wheel of fate would once again move. 

And they would be forced to live through the same ending once again. 

For when the actors were already on stage, the story would play out in a search for the audience's applause. 

They would never change. 

The moment they held each other, The Wolf would devour The Red Riding Hood. 

When those hands finally intertwined with each other, what followed would be a scrunching bite and the smell of rotten meat stuck between those fangs. 

Fairytale End. 

The end that had been written since the beginning. 

MK wiped the tears that spilled from Macaque's beastly eyes even as his claws dug too deep in him. The blood that kept pouring out of him was lost in the blurry haze that attacked them two. 

MK wished that Macaque didn't have to be the one to end him. 

Macaque wished he wasn't a monster. 

They loved and ended in the same way no matter how many times. 

Fate was cruel. 

Even if not like this, somewhere out there, the fairytale would speak of revenge and have The Red Riding Hood kill The Wolf next time. 

Meaningless

Chapter Text

Squelch. 

The wet sounds vibrated within Macaque's ears, sinking deep into his skull like a bullet to the head―utterly killing him in a different way than what they were trying to do. 

A deep connection drawn to pull each other in and imprint it into what parts left of them that weren't tainted by despair. 

His veins felt like it was on fire as well as unnaturally cold at the same time. A fast working effect that took no pity in the damage that its roots caused and circled around. 

Macaque wondered how it felt for MK right now. Did it feel the same? Was MK starting to feel the dread that snuck in below their skin? Have MK come to regret it yet? 

Choosing what he had chosen, would MK even get to regret it? 

Regretting this... choosing to be with Macaque until the end...

"What is this?" MK had asked quietly then―even when he had a suspicion of what it could be. 

Macaque remembered that he had immediately given the honest answer despite its cruel nature. 

"Poison."

"Poison...?" MK drawled too slowly as if each letter shattered him ever more. 

"...Not exactly but something similar." 

"Why do you...." MK held the bottle in his hand carefully, the glass decorated with ancient carving. Something of the celestial realm. 

Something that could kill even an immortal. 

"I'm gonna die," Macaque declared so lifelessly, like it was futile to even deny it. "Either way. I'm going back down there."

MK's eyes widened before he looked so sadly and so caringly to someone as dirty as him. What a waste. 

"Because of Lady Bone Demon?"

Macaque would say he was surprised. Or not really. Maybe it was obvious with the way that he had desperately become that woman's dog. 

"You got it, kiddo." Macaque chuckled humorlessly. "You could say, I want to end it with my own hands if it will happen either way."

"..."

MK seemed to think hard on it and Macaque let him, his gaze downward. There was no point in trying to hide it anyway. Nor was there any point in trying to run from it. It was a dead end. 

"You can't undo it?"

"In the first place, I was dead." Macaque snickered from the sheer irony of that question. "This is the 'undo', bud."

MK stared at him for a few moments too long in quiet steers of the time. He opened his mouth and his next words startled Macaque so very alarmingly. He said, 

"Can I go with you?"

"Huh?" 

"I'll die with you. Is that okay?"

'Is that okay?' What the hell was this guy thinking?!

"You can't be―"

"Please." 

Ah. Those determined eyes. 

He couldn't refuse him even if he wanted to. 

He hadn't been able to. 

He was always weak to MK. 

"Nh."

The wet sounds continued as their saliva mixed together in a deep kiss that neither refused to back away from. The poisonous fluid mixed in with the saliva exchanged, being fed to each other, tongues exploring and sucking each other as they swallowed both saliva and poison.

The passionate kiss only broken whenever the poison in their mouths had been fully consumed, one of them always snatching the bottle right after, chugging them and kissing the other again to share what would be their demise. 

It felt both long and short, only a blip in the universe. Their harsh and desperate rhythm quickly turned sluggish as the poison started to circulate through their body. 

The last warm embrace painfully turned cold, and their dance quietly called for a close as they laid in each other's arms, breathing the same final breath. 

The breath that was kept together until the end. 

Shattered into pieces, the bottle had once been labeled,

A SINNER'S END

Chapter Text

The pitter patter of rain outside slightly calmed the tunes of Macaque's heart, driving the erratic notes into a sense of hollowness that rejected the harsh storm. 

Macaque laid in bed, his fingers tracing the ghostly sensation of chains that clung around his neck, a restriction made special for a pet who wouldn't do what its master said. 

The brightly lit room―a contrast to the dark sky littered with clouds outside―flickered with each pause of Macaque's breaths. Thoughts swirling in a spiral as his mind struggled to even register how they ended up like this. 

"Thinking about something?" 

The voice of his partner beside him pulled him back. Not lovers but something close, something desperate that they both couldn't help falling into, something meant only to bury the void in their hearts, built out of deception laced with loneliness―his partner gazed at him sharply, eyes trying to see through him without his consent. 

Macaque smirked lightly, taking a good look at MK whose hair still stuck to his forehead from the sweat that he had racked up from their activity earlier. "Maybe I'm just thinking about you, darling."

MK raised a brow. "We know that's not true."

"Shame, you wouldn't even pretend, huh?" 

"You know we aren't like that." MK sighed exasperatedly, his voice jittery and ragged from overuse. 

"Said someone who begged to be made into a mess." Macaque's eyes crinkled in mirth, the edges of it smushed in the horrible urge to pick and tear at MK's insides once again. 

MK glared at him right away from the reminder, most likely also knowing what the look on Macaque's face meant. 

Macaque smiled placatingly. "Don't worry, don't worry, I'm not gonna take you and eat you whole―" He cooed mockingly before a sly smirk took on―"unless you want me to?"

MK sighed long and drawled out, crushing the pillow he was lying on with a squeeze of his arms. His cheek pressed against the soft bedding that was much too gentle for the likes of their rotten bonds. MK peered at him with a curiosity that was adored to be a trait of people his age, trying to futilely figure out a truth that could never exist within a liar like Macaque. 

He seemingly found his answer as he followed where Macaque's fingers had traced, touched, and caressed as if remembering and regretting. 

"Something wrong with your neck?" 

An innocent enough question with no ill-meaning. 

Answered by a meaningless chuckle. 

"Who knows? Would you console me if I told you? Would you swear revenge for my sake?" Macaque knew he wouldn't. Just for example if it were any other scar of his, even if MK learned what Wukong had done, he wouldn't have taken his side. 

That was just how it was. MK wouldn't choose to take his side if it were up against his idolized person. And for the case of this one―

"You already killed her so it doesn't matter though." 

Macaque hummed to himself, his fingers again wandered the expanse of his skin hidden under his fur that remembered the shape and feeling of the chains that held him up in the air and stole his breath. The body always remembers, huh. 

MK frowned, slowly getting up to peer down at Macaque, trying to get a better look at his whole body. "Lady Bone Demon?"

"Lady Bone Demon." 

"It hurts?" MK asked so tenderly. What a lie. 

"It's hard to forget chains digging into your neck, bud." 

"I see..." MK murmured, an unreadable look taking over like a fog settling in around a sunflower field. 

Macaque tried to decipher it but before he could, MK silently straddled him, making Macaque gawk at him. The hands that always saved the Megapolis city immediately shoot out right after to circle around his thin neck. 

"Huh―"

"I'll overwrite that memory then." MK smiled. 

It took barely a moment before those hands squeezed Macaque's airway, quickly tightening as if trying to crush his poor throat, choking him instantly. His feet kicked in reflex but it reached no one and his high-pitched noise of reaction tipped off into pathetic wheezes. His own hands immediately latched their claws onto MK's arms, scratching red and angry lines that didn't seem to barely affect the other. 

"Gah―"

"Shhh."

He struggled and struggled but the hero did not even budge from his effort―smiling darkly. What is this? 

Macaque felt his vision flickering with black dots and his strength quickly waned. His consciousness was fighting with the lethargicness that infected his breathless mind.

MK decided then to release him, allowing him to frantically cough as his lungs and body tried to inhale as much oxygen as it could, wrecking his body with harsh trembles. 

MK's hands still circled around his neck even if not choking him. It caressed the place and soothed him with loving coos as Macaque panted in the aftermath. Cruel. 

MK smiled again. "Now you'll remember me instead as your collar, right?"

Macaque was forced to realize it.

He really was caught by the worst predator. 

Chapter Text

"You will stay with me?" Macaque asked.

His voice shook with helplessness and desperation, hand gripping the fabric of his hanfu right over his chest, a pitiful thing that squeezed its own heart. Pathetic and utterly lonely.

Beautiful

MK smiled patiently. "I will."

"You won't leave me?" Another question in the same vein. 

Fear it was this time. Terror-filled memories and the emptiness that came with death painted his voice this time, soaking with the red of his blood and the blue of his chains. It didn't matter where he was, Macaque felt like tragedy always followed him―tragedies that he convinced himself weren't of his own making. Truly unsightly. 

Delightful

MK still didn't waver, his hands outstretched to grab Macaque's hands and hold them tight. "I won't. But if I ever did―"

The touch deepened, familiarized, and then pulled to bring the pitiful demon towards him―closer to his smile that only seemed to shine in kindness. 

The kind expression and hands was then contrasted by the owner's next action―an action that had even Macaque who didn't dare to flinch when graced by MK's affection just widened his eyes and trembled slightly. A ragged breath was exhaled as Macaque processed the fact that MK guided his hands to wrap around MK's neck. 

MK's smile stayed the same. 

His voice remained gentle even when he continued on, "―you could kill me. Just like this..."

MK encouraged Macaque to tighten his grip around his neck, coaxing Macaque's traitorous hands to obey his whim. "Kill me if I ever try to leave you."

Macaque panted as if oxygen had stopped existing in the air. "....I would actually do it."

"I know." MK smiled comfortingly this time, caressing the knuckles of the hands that circled around his neck in soothing motions. "I'm saying this because I don't mind. If that is what it takes."

Somewhere inside Macaque's heart, he felt relieved and strangely out of it―like put under a spell. 

MK's eyes crinkled in fondness. "This is a love confession, after all."

I love you. 

This is what love is. It told. 

Now Macaque can't ever leave

Chapter Text

Hope was fragile. 

Useless. Meaningless. Pointless. Futile. 

What did MK hope for when he went into the pillar? That his sacrifice would mean his loved ones would be able to live on? 

Did he really believe the world would be so kind? That fate would be so kind? That what laid ahead really was anything but pain like what Lady Bone Demon said?

Did he think he could actually fix it?

Did he hope that he could?

The silence answered nothing, its lip sealed over the white empty space. Nothing accompanied him in a loyalty that should have been imprinted in his soul, to wait for the right time, to be the sacrifice. 

But he had gone against it, grabbing a fate that was not meant for him, trying to live amongst others who weren't meant to be his. And it retaliated by rejecting him, rejecting the sacrifice needed to reset the world. 

His action caused the rules to have been broken and the world doomed with everyone in it.

The people he thought of as parents, the ones that he could never thank enough. His best friend. The new friends he had thought he might learn more about in this new exciting adventure he had gotten a hold of. His very idol who he had dreamed to stand beside since so long ago. And the person who he had the worst first meeting with but ended up being the one to share a piece of his heart....

"There could have been other ways... you dummy."

"Macaque..."

A person that couldn't have been there. A product of his imagination perhaps. A horrible attempt from his hazy mind to comfort him. Or maybe even this white space that only echoed his whimpers finally took pity on him.

He couldn't be real. 

He couldn't be here. 

Still, MK's voice strained as he cried into the other's chest, clutching the fabric that was more red than black if he had the mind to look closely and that the edges of Macaque's appearance flickered as if his very form was crumbling into ashes. 

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry―" 

The repeated apologies poured out of MK's mouth, his pale lips cold and gasping, endlessly trying to convey words that could never reach anyone again.

Macaque cradled him closer and can only whisper in between MK's frantic chanting,

"I wish you weren't the hero."

Chapter Text

"Why...?"

An aimless question, faintly uttered in a small voice, shaking with fear. Sobs wrecked his shoulders as he clung to Macaque, clutching the fabric in his hands and wrinkling it into a wet mess that was caused by his face shoved onto Macaque's chest. 

The tears that soaked Macaque's front wasn't something that could say that he hated. He couldn't deny that even this part of MK was lovely. Even the ragged crying sounds and the too sharp clutching by MK who glitched in and out of his monkey form. 

Everything of his was too enticing. 

He had always thought that seeing MK cry would be the greatest experience ever. 

He had felt a certain glee when he had caused him misery back then when they first met and a few times after that. 

It didn't stop even after MK had claimed that he was actually a good guy and started helping to make him better. 

It hadn't stopped when he thought he might finally be something worth caring about.

It never stopped. 

He wanted and wanted.

Wanted and never granted. 

The tears that made his dead heart thump like mad and made his blood pump faster than ever. 

The exact feelings that he was feeling now as MK cried in sorrow, enveloped in Macaque's arms as his sole comfort. 

The only one left out of all of his loved ones who had died one by one in different manners. 

Accidents, Murder, Suicide...

What a tragedy to fall onto one young nonhuman. 

Macaque whispered sweet nothings and reassurances that only leaked worry and nothing else. MK seeked him out even more, running him into a corner of the room and just simply collapsing into him. 

"Don't leave," MK said repeatedly. 

It echoed in MK's attempts to bury everything else. 

Macaque hugged him tighter so MK would know he didn't have any intention of leaving. 

Looking up at the ceiling painted with stars, Macaque thought in regret. 

You couldn't change me, MK. 

The tears that he had wanted to see were all his and the detailed plan―smeared with blood and evidence―had already been burnt down. 

Chapter Text

On an unfortunate day, a certain guest had arrived at his door. MK still couldn't forget the fear in his heart back at that day. He had answered the door to find police waiting to question him, to drag him away from the place he had always called home. 

All because his fingerprints had been found at a murder scene. 

He had never gone to that place. Not once. Not even after everything. 

He didn't even recognize the victim. 

But the traces of him had been so clearly left at the bloodied room, so much so that even MK doubted himself as he was forced to hear the accusations over and over. 

No alibi to prove that he hadn't been there. No argument to say that he couldn't have done it.

The pieces of the puzzle were so conveniently placed and forcibly matched to point at him. 

Maybe he should have realized it then. Realized what was missing from the puzzle. Realized how easy it was for a certain someone to flip the pieces over and made it fit for their narration. 

He should have realized. Yet he was too overjoyed that someone still believed in him even when he couldn't believe in himself anymore. Too comforted by the hand that reached out and told him it was okay to run away. To leave everything behind. Assured him that the person wouldn't mind throwing all his life away for MK's sake. 

The person being his lover. 

The only person who had always stuck to his side even after he was labeled a murderer, even when the eyes around him stared at him cruelly and disgustedly. The only person who knew everything MK had done and couldn't have done.

The person who knew where MK was at all times...

The only person who could have done the murder exactly when MK would have no alibi and littered the scene with his fingertips...

MK panted and hiccuped, his breathing erratic, his hand holding a plastic case containing bloodied surgical gloves. 

It had been one year since and he couldn't have forgotten even if they had already run this far away.

Round and round it went in his mind.

Endlessly it bothered him.

Round and round it led him into cleaning their belongings to distract his mind. 

In this small cottage, he found something he shouldn't have. 

Finally it all fitted into a tragic conclusion. 

He should have realized. 

He should have realized. 

He should have realized. 

He should have realized Macaque had framed him. 

"Ah, you found it."

He should have realized Macaque was right behind him at this moment. 

"I guess keeping it as a souvenir was a bad idea, huh?"

MK shivered as those usually loving arms embraced him. 

"It's okay though."

Cold.

"It's not like you could go back anymore."

The door was shut for the last time. 

He shouldn't have realized.

Oh how unfortunate

Chapter Text

Macaque groaned pitifully, the image of a cunning nobleman shattered into pieces from the venom that coursed in his blood. 

MK licked his lips, a smile beaming as the bite did its job to his favorite prey, relaxing the nerves and affecting the level of attachment Macaque would have to him.

MK giggled to himself. 

"Does it hurt?" MK opted to ask gently after he managed to calm down, wiping the blood still oozing from the puncture wounds while admiring the pretty color. He brought it up to his lips to lick clean, humming pleasantly at the sweet taste. 

Macaque's hazy eyes tried to follow MK's movement but to no avail, nothing of his body was following his command. The edge of his vision was decorated with black dots, his consciousness on the verge of flickering out if not for the raging adrenaline and sharp aches on his neck. 

MK looked to be more giddy as he grabbed Macaque's jaw and forced the other to have his sight filled with MK's bright smile. The tears that started to escape Macaque's eyes from the rough handling and plentiful amount of blood loss was met with gentle cooing, sweet nothings being whispered over the throbbing of his head. 

Macaque wondered―not for the first time that night since he was held down and sucked for all of his worth―whether the being in front of him was truly a cruel one. 

The answer was obvious. 

The amount of force being used to hold him in place helped to remind him that he never asked to be here. Never asked to be food. Never asked to have his lifeforce bleed out of him. 

Does it hurt? What a joke. 

Still, his weak state wouldn't allow him to complain as much. 

The last thing he heard as the monster licked his tears was a terrible, terrible confession:

"I have always wanted you."

Always.

I'll take care of you from now on.

Macaque hated the message that made its way into his head without permission.

Macaque hated. 

And hated. 

And hated. 

And hated.

He knew he couldn't get away. 

Chapter Text

"If I had known what made you suffer so, would it have made a difference?" MK asked quietly, even if the ghost beside him wouldn't ever answer honestly. 

"What do you think?" Macaque answered back with another question, just as MK had expected. 

The wind caressed MK's cheek, bringing along a sense of living that he barely felt these days. The sun that shone down on him past the clouds felt too cold for his own comfort, even when he was directly under it on a rooftop like this. The smell of burning never left his nose after that fateful day, the end that Macaque had chosen being a blazing finality. 

MK couldn't ask if it was because Macaque was tired of being cold. He couldn't ask for he wasn't sure if the ghost of Macaque were even the real Macaque he knew. Or if he were merely a product of his wishful thinking. 

An anomaly that only served to ease his heart and the deep hole of loneliness that was carved out inside him. An anomaly that would only give the words that he wanted―

"You might find out if you follow my steps." Macaque smiled at him so serenely he might be a different version altogether.

―ah, they really do give the words I want...

MK smiled back, reaching for the other's hand to hold and to guide him. "Take me."

Away from this world that couldn't grieve for you. 

Away from the people that told me it would be okay. 

It would never be okay. Macaque had told him that and he had cried, relieved and hypnotized by the words that affirmed his darkest thoughts. That thought it was fine if MK remained just the same. 

The arms pulled him into its caging embrace and without looking, he knew the edge was near. 

Just a few steps. 

Forward. Forward. Forward. 

Maybe the owner of this building would regret later that they had no safety measures built around the rooftop. Maybe they would hate the hero that horribly ruined their reputation with a blooming red splattered over the ground. Maybe people would mourn him for who he was not, only a pillar of positivity. 

Still, MK couldn't care less. Not when he finally was falling down, freely in Macaque's arms.

He closed his eyes and finally,

Finally he would be able to stay by Macaque's side.

The crack of a skull echoed in the midst of people's screaming. Red spreading over gray pavement.

Chapter Text

Macaque gripped the fabric in front of his chest so tightly that he was risking a tear into the clothing. If it had been his own skin, he most likely would have torn into his heart in flesh and ripped it out. It was a terrifying thought but for Macaque in this moment, maybe it would have been equal to mercy. 

His heartbeat ran a mile while his breathing struggled to get back on the right rhythm, both always pulling his leg under him, making him sink into the hopeless feeling, the blood seeping through his hanfu making his wounds known and etched into his senses. 

But still, it was nothing compared to what the horrible being in front of him had planned for him.

The figure in front of him took on the appearance of the one person he had irreversibly grown fond of despite his best efforts and all the walls that he created between them. He had failed to keep the other away. And failed at keeping his heart safe from a key that could open all of his defenses. 

That was why there was nothing that could have stopped him from suffering through this. From having to face it. From having to watch as his weakness was read so thoroughly.

'MK' smiled―all crooky and wrong, his pupil blown and taking over all the colors with its black void. It reached for Macaque's crumbling figure and soothingly caressed his cheeks as if it were as kind as the real one, form glitching at the edges as it spoke, "You are such a weak, weak thing."

Macaque flinched even when he knew it wasn't him. The voice resembled MK's too greatly. He couldn't help but shiver from the touch. 

It was not real. This was not real. 

Macaque chanted in his mind as the phantom smiled even more widely, almost ear to ear, looking like it might split its face if it were to smile any wider. A difference that told of its identity but the fact that it wore MK's face would not allow him to reject or fight it. 

Oh how far had he fallen. 

'MK' seemed to agree with that, leaning closer while pressing one of its hands onto Macaque's wound, pulling a whimper out of the poor monkey demon. It hummed and experimentally applied different levels of pressure just to watch Macaque's reaction. It was frustrating, it was― "Pathetic, aren't you?" 

Macaque widened his eyes at its sweet voice, 'MK' knocking their foreheads together, leaning closer to look him in the eyes. 

The words spoken kept slithering around his neck and squeezed it like a toy meant to be destroyed.

Who was he lying to? He was exactly that to this maniac. He didn't know if he preferred this or the usual chains. 

He didn't know. Maybe he should have known.

"Here you are, still wishing his my hands on you."

'MK' giggled as he traced a sharp nail down Macaque's face, leaving red lines that bleed thin. "Think about it."

He didn't want to hear it. 

"Why would he I even love something like you, after everything you did?"

Something really did tear apart inside him right then and there. He felt the noise it made as it broke. 

And 'MK' laughed and laughed. 

Ah... 

I wish she had killed me instead.

Chapter Text

MK buzzed with happiness as he hummed a tune, digging in into a piece of chocolate cake that Macaque had made for him. The sweetness melted on his tongue upon contact, a fuzzy feeling colored the pleasant time around them as it tasted too good for MK to think too much about it. 

Macaque gazed at him fondly, hand cradling his chin as his elbow was placed on top of the table. His other hand reached to the other side and was placed on top of MK's hand, a point of contact in the middle of the table.

It should have been embarrassing in a way but MK was busy squealing all the while carefully tasting the fruit of Macaque's hard work. It took almost all of his attention span and Macaque himself huffed at MK's sweet-obsessed state. 

It really tasted too good. MK could confirm that. He would even suggest this dessert as a menu item in Pigsy's shop if he could. But he knew well enough Macaque wasn't one for that kind of thing. So just receiving this was enough to pamper MK with the addicting sensation of being loved. 

MK could tell it was special. Besides the fact that Macaque even learned to make this for him, he could tell there was something special in it from the taste. It was really different from anything else he ever tasted. He wondered what it was. 

Each bite made him drool for more, the melting substances he felt inviting him and blurring his sight―for a second, something raw seemed to be peeking out of the sweet heaven.

It just might be his imagination.

It didn't matter.  

He needed more. He needed more. More. More. More. 

Across from him, Macaque smiled satisfyingly, fingers mindlessly scratching the bandages wrapped around his arm under his sleeve. 

Eat up, MK

Until you will only want me

Chapter Text

Did you know?

Things that died once could never be alive again. 

Even if you rewrote the rules or flipped the board of life, it wasn't something that could be changed.

You live once, you die once. 

The truth of the world laid in that. 

Even if somehow you managed to, it would not be as simple as resurrecting a corpse. What you would be doing was going to be 'a sacrifice'. For someone to be awakened once more from death, another soul was going to be eaten for it. 

It was fair. It was just. It was to be expected. 

That was why he should have realized it would lead to this. 

The blood splattered all around below his feet, the open gash on his victim's throat, being bitten and ripped apart. 

The hunger was not satisfied even then. Not until Macaque swallowed MK whole. 

Macaque was dead. 

Macaque had been dead for so long. 

He forgot the rules of the world. 

He forgot that he would hunger so badly for another soul if he were to be fully resurrected. 

He turned his head away, acting blind to the fact that eventually he would succumb to the devouring hunger.

And that the person he would hunger for the most―

His jaw ached as he was made to maul and chomp on the remains of MK's body, bones breaking easily under his bite pressure, crunching noises , instinct flaring to urge him to keep eating and eating. Until nothing was left. Until another was exchanged for his life. 

―would be the one nearest to him.