Worthless

Chapter Five

Midnight...

Ichimatsu squinted his eyes shut in anguish as Karamatu's bright car headlights shined directly into them. The priest was finally heading home after another long, tiring day at the church.

The demon flapped his wings a little, wanting to stay put on the cross gravestone, yet something deep inside of him also wanted to follow the pure man home.

"I'd be easier to kill him there, now wouldn't it?" Ichimatsu thought, raising himself off of the gravestone, flying as quickly as he could after Karamatsu's black car. If it weren't for his bright headlights, the car would be nearly invisible on such a dark night. "I have to kill him. If I don't want to be executed, leaving my soul to wander aimlessly for eternity, I have to kill the priest..."

Ichimatsu accidentally bumped into the back of Karamatsu's car as it drove the exact speed limit down the empty streets. Frightened that the priest would see him, the demon stayed back a few feet before he began to fly tiresomely after his black car.

Hunger gripped at Ichimatsu's stomach, painfully reminding him that he hadn't eaten in several days. Even though, in Hell, no demon ever grew hungry, on Earth, things were very different. Even demons had to eat at some point. Osomatsu hadn't told Ichimatsu this at all, and it started to nag in the demon's mind, causing him to grow very irritable.

But before the demon knew it, he found himself barely flying as Karamatsu parked his car in a garage, closing the garage door behind it.

"Darn it..." Ichimatsu thought angrily. "I stayed TOO far behind. This is what I get, I guess. Now I don't even have a place to rest for the night..."

Ichimatsu looked around, trying to gain his surroundings. But there was literally nothing at the small garden home that Karamatsu lived in. Not even a metal or concrete bench was there to rest on.

Sighing, Ichimatsu stopped flapping his wings, allowing his damaged body to collapse in a small patch of grass in Karamatu's front yard.

Looking closely, Ichimatsu saw a light turn on in the house, and there stood Karamatsu in what looked like a kitchen. He still had his special church clothing on, and he showed no signs of removing it. Reaching into his refrigerator, he pulled out a pitcher of what Ichimatsu assumed was water. He then began to pull out things that the demon didn't recognize at all.

"It must be food..." Ichimatsu thought, his stomach letting out a loud growl.

Inching closer to one of the windows in the front yard of the house, Ichimatsu continued to watch Karamatsu.

A single tear ran down the priests face as he cracked an egg on the edge of a pan.

"Why is he crying..?" Ichimatsu thought, "What does he have to be upset about? He has a much better body than I do, and I hardly doubt he's been locked inside a jail cell in Hell for years. Would killing him be putting him out of his misery? Surely...surely not..."

Finally, Karamatsu finished cooking. He turned around and pulled two plates out of the kitchen cupboard.

"Two?" the demon thought. "Who else lives with him?"

Karamatsu split the eggs up on both of the plates evenly, smiling as he set one plate down on his kitchen table, then began to walk towards the front door with the other. Opening the door up, the priest looked around for the demon. He let out a sigh of happiness when he set eyes on Ichimatsu.

"Why don't you come inside, my brother?" Karamatsu asked holding out the plate of eggs. "You look quite hungry, not to mention, tired and exhausted."

Ichimatsu began to tremble in fear as he failed to rise to his feet. It was his own fault for sitting down in the soft, cool grass.

"Can you not get up?" Karamatsu asked, setting the plate on the floor inside his house before he walked towards the demon. "Let me help you."

"Why are you treating me so kindly..." Ichimatsu rasped, speaking to the priest for the first time. His voice was scratchy and deep, sounding just as one would assume a demon would sound.

"Because you were once a person just as I am," Karamatsu replied, kneeling down to Ichimatsu's eye level.

Ichimatsu looked away, feeling more and more uncomfortable.

"I don't care what your intentions are, my brother," Karamatsu said softly, strongly grabbing the demons thin wrist. "But, if you don't mind, would you tell me your name?"

"Ichimatsu..." the demon hissed bitterly.

"Ichimatsu?" Karamatsu asked, his face going pale. If it hadn't been so dark outside, the demon would have been able to see the priest's expression of sheer fear as he face wen as white as a sheet. Quickly, Karamatsu shook his head, laughing a little as he pulled Ichimatsu to his feet. "You're welcome to stay as long as you'd like, Ichimatsu."

"His laugh just sounded distressed..." Ichimatsu thought, flapping his wings weakly as the priest pulled him inside his house. "What did I do wrong?"

"Here," Karamatsu said, handing Ichimatsu the plate of eggs. "I'm not sure if you like eggs, but it's all I have today. I should really pay a trip to the grocery store soon, but I always get home too late. The grocery store always closes before I even get home."

Sitting down at his kitchen table, Karamatsu began to eat his own plate of eggs while Ichimatsu ate his as well.

They weren't as warm as they could have been, but the demon didn't mind. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten food. It had to have been in years.

Greedily, the demon finished all of his eggs long before Karamatsu did. Yet when the priest saw Ichimatsu was done, he stopped eating his own food, stood up from the table, and pulled a small container of sliced pears of of his refrigerator.

"Here," Karamatsu said kindly, handing the container to Ichimatsu. "I think you'll love these."

And love them he did. Ichimatsu couldn't get enough of them! The way they tasted reminded the demon of a sweet faded memory he had of eating sliced pears with his brother.