1001 Cranes | ✔

Step Seven

Stephen faints from a death combo of malnutrition and exhaustion.

     He should've expected it. He couldn't remember the last time he had devoured any souls, nor did he recall the last time he had shut his eyes. After grasping this revelation and coming to terms with reality, Stephen sits up from his bed with an agonized groan. It used to be Alice's bed.

     "I thought you were dead." Griffin's voice startles him.

     Stephen turns to his side, facing him. "How-"

     "I was the one that found you. You blacked out." Griffin was the one to stumble upon his collapsed body. The humiliation of the situation floods Stephen's face with flames. A boy like Griffin shouldn't have to care after someone like Stephen.

     "Shit, sorry." Stephen clutches his head, forgetting the fact that he's a priest and priests are not supposed to curse. His hands rake through his disheveled hair, grazing his purple horns-

     His horns.

     "You don't have the ugliest hair in the world." Griffin states this in a matter-of-fact fashion. Stephen has no words. He's too dumbfounded to have words. The boy continues speaking. "So you're a demon."

     "You can't tell anyone." Stephen blurts it out without thinking.

     "Okay," Griffin says quickly, much to his utter disbelief.

     "What?" Stephen's jaw unhinges. "How are you okay with this?"

     "I don't care that you're a demon, so long as you don't try to eat me. You've had so many chances to eat me, yet you never acted on any of them."

     "I quit devouring human souls a long time ago. I eat the souls of animals now."

     Griffin cocks his head to the side. "So, you're like, a vegetarian demon or something?"

     "No, just - never mind that." He shakes his head before hauling himself out of bed. "I haven't gone hunting in a while and I'm hungry. If you want your questions answered, stay here and wait for me until I come back with a full stomach."

     "Yeah, I have a lot of questions that need answering," the boy babbles, erupting with words like an active volcano. "For example, why are you a priest when you're also a demon? It makes no sens-"

     Stephen raises a hand as a gesture of silence. "Don't. Not now, not yet."

     Griffin shuts up and nods.

     Stephen steps out into the world during the darkest of hours. The crispy cool air nips at his skin. He soaks in the chilling winds, embracing the thrills they bring. Then, he takes off. Half an hour later, he returns with red stains on his wrinkled button-up.

     "Are you sure you didn't murder anyone?" Griffin questions, half-joking. He's currently toying around with some of the cranes Stephen mass produced.

     Stephen rolls his eyes before stripping off his shirt. He flings open his closet in search for a non-bloody one. While scanning his options, he says, "I'll answer your questions."

     "What is the wish that you want to make come true? What's making you so desperate?"

     His shoulders slump and he hesitates, just for a second. "I want my best friend back."

     "Where'd she go?"

     "If I knew, I wouldn't be so desperate." A fire ignites inside the core of his chest, a fire that refuses to die out.

     "She won't turn up if you keep pushing yourself to the extent of fainting." Griffin caresses one of the cranes in his hold. "You should know better than that."

     "I hate admitting how right you are."

     Stephen and Griffin spend the rest of the night talking about everything.