Modern Reaper

To Believe In Each Other

"The dragon killed my brother Aglos... I didn't have a choice." It was a husky voice that spoke while my eyes were closed and while my mind was enveloped in the darkness. The voice of the giant drew nearer, and I began to hear his disgusting breathing. "She... she ate him! That bitch ate Aglos!"

Slowly opening my eyes, I realized the worst case scenario had come to pass.

Linc's naked human body laid on the floor some feet away, a dark puddle of red blood near her blonde head and her curved brown horns.

"Linc?" I said, my voice shaking. The giant turns his eyes to me and growls.

"You! You're her partner! You're the reason Aglos is... is dead!" I shriveled up, being unable to move myself. He stomped closer and I bit back a scream when I received a close up of his red skinless face. "It's all...all your fault! I didn't want to fight the dragon king! But she... you made her... m-my brother!" Within a second, my body was dangling in the air, two large hands enveloping ny throat; strangling me. "I'll kill you." He said as if it was a new idea. He smiled revealing a row of brownish yellow teeth. I cringed in his grasp. "If you're dead... the dragon king will go away... and I'll be able-"

"Linc!" I cried out loud to her still body. His eyes opened in suprise then narrowed in disapproval.

"Shut up and die!" He screamed, beginning to shake my body by swinging me around from my neck. I used all the energy I had to grab onto his huge hands to prevent myself from being strangled to death.

"Linc!" I sobbed uncontrollably. I clenched my eyes shut and began to scream when I felt his grip on my neck was tightening to the point where he was on the verge of crushing it.

"Always save me Linc!" I yelled, realizing that it could have already been too late.

Crunch! Snap!

The darkness that closed eyelids brought made me mistake it for the darkness death brought. Believing that it was my neck that had been snapped, I fell to the floor from the hatted giant's hands in shock. Hesitatly opening my eyes, I looked up above myself to see the giant on his knees, his neck twisted and his eyes lifeless.

Above him stood Linc, her eyes dull as she held the hatted demon's head in between her two hands. She looked down at him disgusted and grunted before ripping his head off, spinal cord and all. Blood sprayed from the headless body as it collapsed towards me, and Linc threw the head into the air before kicking it to oblivion.

Shoes becoming soaked in his blood, my shivering intensified despite the fact that I could now breathe in clean air. The piece of glass at my back had dug deeper when I fell back down from the enemy's grasp, and my lungs and body still hurt from the burns that were caused from within. But Linc only glared at me without the slightest inclination to what she could have been thinking.

"You saved my life." I gasped, desperately breathing in the clean air. She watched me in her naked glory with the sunset at her back before she rolled the dead body away from me with her foot. She took a seat beside me on the bloodied floor.

"You hate me." She stated monotonously. Her statement caught me so off guard that I held my breath, suddenly forgetting how to breathe. We held eyes for a moment after that, both of evaluating the other in the search of clues from body language. I was eager to hear her go on, but I realized that if I wanted this conversation to go anywhere, it was going to be my time to man up and apologize for those harsh words.

"I'm sorry Linc." I apologized as sincerely as I could. She looked at me startled.

"Why are you apologizing?" She asked confused. "Isn't that how you feel? Don't you really hate me?"

"Of course not!" I retorted, realizing how badly we understood each other in the days that we had spent together. I sighed, and felt a pang of pain in my right side. I grimaced but ignored it. "How could I ever hate you? Sure, things have become different ever since we've met. And sometimes, for me, I'm not sure how to react to different. I get scared. I don't think. And I say things like 'I hate you' without a second thought. But Linc, I don't hate you. I'm... sorry for saying that I did. If anything... I'm grateful-"

"Hero!" Linc cut me off, catching my swaying body in her hands. I looked up at her worried face and smiled a bit as I looked up at her bloody face.

She's alive. Thank goodness.

"Let's try to be friends Linc... let's believe in each other."