Renegade

Ch. 26: The Ballad of Risus Schneid

"I—" (Y/n) paused. "I met Paps. I met Tyler. Through the time in the castle I was reliving his memories. I was him in my dreams and I was talking to this guy named Mark. From what I know it's Dark's human. It wasn't until my last dream that I wasn't him. I was — myself. He was fighting with Dark. Then it ended and Paps, he was — right there. He talked to me, Nana. He told me to come find you, that you were ill." She was on the verge of tears through her little speech, as if she could hardly believe the worlds she was saying herself. 

"What else did he tell you?" Rose inquired.

"That I'll be okay. I didn't get to ask him about the dreams, but I think I figured it out on my own.."

"Let me begin at the beginning then dear." She coughed briefly. "I met Tyler in the 9th grade. We were in the same homeroom together. From there we began our friendship. He soon introduced me to Mark. The three of us were irrespirable, that is until I moved away. That was right after graduation. It wasn't until three years later I ran into Tyler again, but it wasn't Tyler." She sighed. "I had moved into the area where he attended college. We began hanging out again, and it was very nice. That's when I started falling in love with him. That's when I found out the truth."

"That Paps was a demon?"

"That he wasn't really Tyler."

(Y/n)'s eyes grew wide.

"It took me a while to understand this myself, but I'll try my best. Over the years it had become harder and harder for demon's to live without a human host. Risus was the demon who had inhabited Tyler since he was twelve. They got along quite well, which was frowned upon in the demon community. Risus was a kind demon, and through his eyes, he saw me. Tyler had only ever seen me as a close friend, but Risus, he saw me as something truly wonderful." A large smile spread across her face. "When a demon falls in love with a human, they split. The demon develops their own body. It's rare in the demon community, but it happens. They refer to it as De uno suo" **

"It's not just rare — it'll get ye killed," Anti spoke up. "What demon's would do for their own body." He shook his head. "There's a few problems but the main downfall is that yer weaker in yer own body than with a human's."

(Y/n) hesitated. "So, Risus and Tyler split, then what?"

"I never found out until I saw him years later. I saw Risus." Rose let out another sigh. "Risus sat me down one evening to tell me all about it. He explained to me that Tyler had passed away due to kidney failure. When they separated, his kidney started declining, he was due for a transplant, but it was too late and he died. Risus knew how loved Tyler was and felt like it was all his fault, so he did something about it. He began posing in Tyler's place as Tyler. It was a secret only known by three people. Tyler's brother Jared, Mark, and myself. In the beginning that is. So he carried on Tyler's legacy, and it worked out. It took me a while to get a grip on the whole situation. Risus told me if I didn't want to talk to him again he would understand. He said I deserved to know the truth after all. So, I stayed. I was in love with him. He finished college, as did I and we — it was difficult. We went through relationship troubles, breaking up for a little, getting back together. We had gotten back together and a year later he proposed. This is when I found out about the others. Contrarium, Tenebris, and Mors."

"Anti, Dark and Die." (Y/n) spoke. She really couldn't believe what Rose was telling her, but at the same time it all felt right to hear. 

"Risus didn't want me to know about them. He wanted to keep me ignorant to the idea that they actually existed. There were dumb internet videos that were posted about them. Youtube was the website name. That's how Mark, Sean and Felix met. Their humans. It wasn't until I visited Mark one day that I found out about the others. I was supposed to meet Risus there, but I arrived early. I walked in on Dark in control of Mark's body, he had blood up to his elbows. At first I thought it was a skit, but it wasn't. It was real. Dark saw me and gave me a look that I had never seen before. A look I'll never forget. I was scared for my life. I rushed to the front door only to meet Risus there. If he hadn't come, I don't know what would have happened to me. He stopped Dark in his tracks. Talked Mark into pushing for control of his body. It worked."