Chapter 12: Bloody Hands

 

       Haven was the first one to wake up the following day. His head was resting on Lucifer's muscular chest, listening to his calm heartbeat and breathing. A small smile slowly came onto his mouth as he remained laying there. Feeling the chill from not having any clothes on, he scooted a bit closer to the older male for warmth.

       The brown-haired boy just laid there for about a couple minutes before he felt a hand caress his cheek. He moved his head a little so he could look up at Lucifer while still keeping his head on his chest. Lucifer smiled before kissing Haven on the forehead.

       “Mornin',” Lucifer greeted a little softly.

       “Morning,” Haven repeated.

       Lucifer kissed the younger male on the forehead again before looking up at the sky through the barrier of leaves and branches overhead, thinking a little.

       “You know, we ain't got much longer until we reach the docks,” the spiky-haired man said a few seconds later.

       “Really?” asked Haven. “How much longer?”

       “Oh, I'd say about two days.” There was a pause. “Hey, you won't be leavin' me when we get across the ocean, will you?”

       “Of course not.”

       “Good.”

       “Well, we should probably get going then,” Haven said as he sat up.

       “Aw, but can't we wait a little bit?” asked Lucifer as he sat up too. “I was enjoyin' layin' with you and I was kinda hopin' we could maybe – well, you know – do it again.”

       “Don't you think it's a little too soon?” Haven murmured. “I mean, we just did it last night. Besides, we'll have plenty of time to lay around once we get off this continent.”

       “True.” The dark-haired man sighed. “Alright, let's get going then.”

       The two slipped their clothes on before they began making their way out of the forest. It only took about a minute to reach the exit of it and they stepped out into the open plains that stretched on before them. As soon as they did so, Haven caught something at the corner of his eye just off to the right of them where the river was. He stopped in his tracks and looked over to see Lucas standing on a rock that protruded from the somewhat rough currents.

       “I figured I'd find you two here,” the blond said sternly.

       “Hey, don't even think about botherin' Haven!” warned Lucifer as he stepped in front of the brown-haired boy.

       “He's not the only one I'm here for,” replied Lucas.

       The blond quickly unsheathed his blade before leaping forward to land on the bank. He charged towards Lucifer with great speed and swung his blade at him when he was within striking distance. Lucifer shifted to the side to evade it before throwing a left hook to the enemy's face. Lucas shifted backwards to get out of the fist's reach.

       As soon as the fist was being pulled back, Lucas was about to thrust his blade towards the criminal when his old friend's staff was jabbed into his side. Haven quickly followed up with a few whacks of his weapon to make Lucas stumble away from Lucifer before trying to thrust his staff into the blond's gut. However, Lucas shifted to the side and, before the staff could be pulled back, he quickly aimed a slash towards Haven's head. The brown-haired boy tried to tilt his head to the side so the blade would miss him, but it still managed to give him a real small cut on the cheek.

       Right afterwards, Lucifer managed to get behind the enemy. He tried to slam his fist into his head, but Lucas jumped to the side and landed at the bank of the river. As soon as he did so though, Haven finished the chant for Flash and the blond stumbled backwards into the shallow part of the river as he shielded his eyes from the blinding light.

       By the time the effect from the spell wore off, Lucifer was already in front of Lucas with his fist going towards the male's face. Before he had any time to react, he was hit and he stumbled backwards, going deeper into the water, but he was able to keep himself from being swept away by the strong current. Lucifer tried to close in the distance once more to throw another punch, but before he had the chance, Lucas swung his sword at him. The spiky-haired man saw this and he tried to step backwards to evade it, but the blade managed to cut him in the stomach a little. Lucifer winced from this before Lucas followed up with a couple more slashes, which Lucifer was unable to dodge in time.

       Afterwards, Lucas was about to thrust his blade at the criminal, but Haven managed to get in between them in time and use his staff to block the thrust while trying to push the enemy backwards. However, when doing this, Haven slipped on one of the rocks underneath the rushing waters and he fell forward afterwards, losing his staff in the process, which was swept downstream. Lucas had also been knocked into the water and the current started to carry him away too, but after going down a few feet, he managed to stop himself from going any further.

       Unfortunately for Lucas, he had dropped his sword, which was lodged a bit into some rocks by Haven. However, he still had one other weapon. He took out his dagger from his boot before lunging towards Haven, whose eyes widened a little.

       “Stay back!” Haven yelled as he naturally grabbed the sword next to him and held it out in front of him.

       His eyes widened and his jaw dropped as a few drops of warm liquid hit him in the face. He sat there, frozen in shock as he stared at the glassy eyes that stared back at him. The youth slowly let go the sword's hilt and the corpse began to fall forward. Haven scooted backwards to keep away from it as it fell completely into the water before being whisked away by the current.

       Haven remained frozen where he was, his eyes still wide in shock. His mind replayed over what just happened and his body began to tremble. Lucifer slowly walked over towards him, but it didn't break Haven's trance.

       “Come on, let's get you out of the river,” Lucifer said quietly before he picked Haven up bridal style. He carried him out of the river and gently set him down on the ground just a few feet away from the river's bank.

       “I-I killed him. . .” Haven muttered, his voice shaky. He broke out of his trance and looked down at his hands, which were trembling almost violently. “I killed someone. . .”

       “It wasn't your fault,” Lucifer told him a little soothingly as he tried to caress the younger male's cheek.

       “Get off of me!” snapped Haven as he smacked the hand away from him before trying to pull away. Before he was able to though, Lucifer threw his arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. Tears began cascading down Haven's cheeks as he buried his face into Lucifer's chest and hugged him back.

       “Calm down. You didn't do it on purpose. It was only an accident. He was tryin' to attack you and you were just tryin' to protect yourself, that's all.”

       “It still doesn't make it any better,” Haven said in between sobs, his voice a wee bit muffled from Lucifer's chest. “I took someone's life!”

       “But if you didn't, he would've taken yours. You were only actin' naturally to survive. It's not like you purposely killed him. I'm sure anyone could understand that.”

       Haven couldn't bring himself to say anything else. He continued to cry and Lucifer kept his arms wrapped around him, kissing him on the side of the head every so often. After several minutes, Haven had finally calmed down and the crying ceased. He remained in the older male's arms for about a minute longer before slowly pulling away and standing up.

       “Come on, let's keep going,” he said quietly.

       “Alright,” Lucifer said in the same tone of voice as he got up and began to follow Haven.

       The two didn't say anything the entire time they walked. Lucifer wrapped a comforting arm around the younger male's shoulders, but it wasn't enough to break his trance on the grass beneath him. The spiky-haired man sighed, wishing he would've been able to stop Lucas in time before the blade impaled him. If he would've been able to, Haven wouldn't be like this.

       When night came, they were still in the vast grasslands. The two didn't bother making a fire since it would only draw unwanted attention to them during the night. Lucifer decided that he would keep watch for the first half of the night and Haven nodded before laying down on the ground, falling asleep about thirty minutes later.

Author's Note

Is the dialogue okay and is Haven's behavior after the incident believable enough?

Reviews

[Eidolon Michael]

Yep, everything's spot on ^_^

[Amund Schofield]

Behavior and dialogue are believable.