The Soul of a Bird Never Flies {boyxboy}

Chapter One

~Saturday 16th June 2018~

Pain was just an illusion to Eryll by that point. It had no hold over him, no effect, whether it be broken bones or bruised knuckles. The sensation barely phased him. Ten thousand years of enduring constant agony, enduring the recurring nightmare that was his never-ending life, it numbed one to such trivial aspects. Both emotional and physical, Eryll had learnt long ago how to lock them away in a tight box and throw them deep into the pits in the recesses of his mind.

Trouble was, it wasn't the pain that had ever bothered him, it was the predecessor to that. The little flashbacks that would weasel their way to the forefront of his mind and jump out whenever they pleased, sending him in a downward tailspin for sometimes even days at a time. Sometimes they would be so vivid, Eryll could convince himself his torment was nothing more than a nightmare and he would wake up with his sweet lover in his arms on their wedding night.

Of course, that was never the case. No, that would be far too easy, far too nice to Eryll's fractured psyche. A considerable contrast to what he had become accustomed to. Instead, Eryll had to simply force the images out of his head, take a deep breath and try to stem the flow of insanity threatening to burst the barely stable dam in his mind.

During these episodes, Eryll spent a lot of time in his home gym, with that being the only way to work out his frustrations. Other than killing, although that wasn't an activity he could indulge in very often, he had to keep up public appearance, after all, couldn't be labelled a serial killer. Vivek told him that wouldn't be good for business, he was probably right. That was usually the case anyway, Vivek had a far more rational head on his shoulders than Eryll in the long run.

"Olha, sir, my name is Olha," Eryll's fist missed the punching bag as his mind rocked with another snippet of conversation, another image of Olha's bewitching smile. For once, Eryll allowed the memory to play in his head, concluding maybe it was for the best to suffer through a few, if only to justify wallowing in self-pity later on.

"Olha, sir, my name is Olha," the dialogue repeated in Eryll's mind, punctuated by the man's fists hitting the punching bag at an amplified speed. Eryll didn't need to focus, nor did he need to close his eyes, to see Olha stood before him, that bashful little smile on his lips, the day they met. Eryll and Vivek, or rather Lucifer and Syon at the time, had merely intended to breeze through the little village as they often did. Of course, when Eryll had met Olha, that had all changed.

He was the son of the leader of that village and seemed to be the heart of the community. If Eryll were to pick one word to describe that boy, it would have been innocent. A virgin, not only in body but in mind, Olha was everything that Eryll was not. Naive, shy, and yet he could still be so forward, so outgoing. His mere smile was enough to make Eryll drool, and that laugh, God, he only wished he could have recorded it, could have listened to it over and over until he had memorized every fluctuation. Maybe then his sanity wouldn't be in tatters.

"I'm sorry for staring, sir, you just have the prettiest eyes," everything about that particular memory just made Eryll want to grin, and then sob. Despite how many times he had informed the boy, Olha had still called him sir for a lot longer than required of him, not that it bothered Eryll all that much, it was quite the turn on.

He could still picture those big, intrigued eyes that would fill with such wonder whenever Eryll would show the boy another hidden aspect of himself. His natural eye colour, however, wasn't something he kept hidden, simply something that Olha had always remained in awe of. It was never something that disconcerted Eryll, he was well aware his eyes were the first thing people's attention caught, it was just far more entertaining to watch Olha attempt to stem his constant staring.