122. In My Favour

"Your family suspects me Yeon. Elric's mother is no longer working with me but against me. All of you can pretend but I know an act when I see it. This won't be the first time I've been under suspicion. Seems just like it was yesterday that I was carrying out my daily routine, minding my own business and a meddlesome girl followed me. Of course I'd put her in her place quietly. Father told me to always remain hidden."

"You are unique. Your hobbies are peculiar and none of them will understand people like you and I. To them, we lack empathy, are evil or perhaps they consider you abnormal but to us, they are the weak ones therefore, do not feel bad about your bloodlust. I too find the sight of bloodshed extremely exciting."

"But why do they not like us if we are strong? Should they like us? Mother says like is good."

"We are built differently and different is good too. The world is just not ready yet for people like you and me. It's filled with majority of weaklings."

"Is mother like us?"

"She can never amount to this level of evolution."

"What about brother?"

"He is one of the normal ones but do take good care of him. Remember, they haven't evolved out of their own will. Weak isn't bad, it just means we are the superior ones therefore, you mustn't hurt family."

"Okay father."

"From now on, I'll train you periodically so do as I say."

"Father was wrong. Humans are like pets...

I love pets but they get in my way.

They are just as weak as everyone I've ever met. Dying from a little wound....or stab...or tear of skin.

I love how they'd whimper and look at me with eyes asking of mercy while I bind them up and tore at their flesh. It was satisfying nursing them back to health and repeat the same thing over and over again until they were written off.

But fur and blood mixed together was unsightly. They became ugly. Still, I never fully understood why everyone was afraid of the sight of blood.

I like blood.

It's density, warmth, smoothness, thickness as it flows and how it changers colour when exposed to impurities and oxygen. It's just magical how it thickens up and looks like hot lava flowing through and out of the body. How could anyone hate smething so facinating? Didnt they understand the concept of blood repacing itself back?

Couldn't they contemplate that level of beauty?

Then one day I saw my own blood. I got curious and cut myself. It hurt a lot than I'd expected and father was furious when he found me bleeding, waiting for him in his room. That's when I got my first pet. He was sedated when he was brought to me so it was easy to play with him but later on the poor guy died after he threatened to expose father. Oh well on to the next.

"Mommy, what is the color of blood?"

"Red."

"No. It's different depending on where, when and what it's exposed to. Some people think it's blue...perhaps blood is colourless since hemoglobin contains heme, a red compounded protein meant to carry oxygen throughout our body."

"What lies has your father been feeding you?"

"He trains me."

"You kill people?"

"No. Just animals. Technically, they all just die from pain because they are weak, but I do enjoy their slow death."

"Hey, if you want to play, play all you like but when you see an animal in a lot of pain, you must end it's suffering immediately. Do you understand?"

"What's the point then?"

"Point of what?"

"Putting it in pain just to kill it immediately?"

"My dear, I know your father will close a case before it is even opened. He was raised a rich boy and is used to his family covering up for him through money and influence but do not allow him to squeeze out the last form of humanity inside of you. If you continue like this, there will be no turning back. Once you have the life of someone taken away by your hands, you change forever. You'll be traumatized and soon enough, you'll end up scared and alone."

"I don't want to be alone."

"Your father is the director and the chairperson of the board of many phamarcetical companies. I have little power over him since he took everything from me. The only thing he hasn't touched are properties linked to my family. I badly want to save you from him but what do I have apart a few shares?"

"How is this related to being alone?"

"When I birthed you and you began to make sense of the world, your expression was always cold and astute...as if you felt nothing. I was lost since it's the same look your father gives me when he locks me up. My first instinct was to give you direction...an identity. You were a special child, unlike that brother of yours whom I'm hoping you are not mingling with."

"Brother is normal."

"He is not special like you are my dear that is why you shouldn't stick close to him."

"What makes me special?"

"A special child like you needs a special upbringing. Thats why you always have to attend your therapy sessions okay?"

"Turns out, there was not any real hope for me. I had been played by both my father and mother hence I had to pick a side. How could I have my own father prosecuted when I was his main perpetrator?

I tried to turn myself in but he stopped me, his lawyer informed me any investigations against him lie with the district attorney hence there was nothing I could do."

"Your father was groomed to grow up to be an elite member of the society. It's a dismal to think he carries out his obsession to dominate without regard to human life. My dear daughter, if you continue to listen to him and something bad happens, think about me. I wouldn't want you to turn out like him."

"Anyway, thanks to what happened to you Yeon, I finally find something that intrigues me. A prey I can't cage or predict either. He is this close to me yet rather than harming him, I harm myself instead." Mora laughed in a low tone.

"Dad..."

"Call me father. There should be no sentimental attachment between us whatsoever."

"Father, you spend so much time away. We hardly train these days. I'm beginning to forget certain emotions."

"I was at the morgue."

"Did you kill another help?"

"I'd advice you to watch your tongue."

"You know father, I'm really not scared of you."

"Really? Well then, I've been thinking about something you see, what and how you'd look like when you die."

"I'm not scared of death either."

"How absurd. Then I guess it's time we start looking for your moral compass. We can't have you talking like that out in public. No more homeschooling for you. I'll have you join the military. Your talents will be useful there."

"I enjoyed the place. My world has always been quiet and finally, I made human friends outside my family then that girl had to show up,but her blood was different... And why was she scared when she was the one who startled me? I barely acted in self defense.

Afterwards, father said to not speak to anyone and soon enough, I was diagnosed with aphasia. It was a lie of couese but father said it's a way to adapt and fit into the presumed normal society. 'Never take responsibility for other people's misconceptions of you,' father always said."

"An outcast, like me?"

"Yes Mora. Maybe you guys can be friends. My little brother is very friendly though recently, his moods have changed because of nursing a heartache."

"Can you introduce us?"

"Why not?"

"Yeon... you were a very confusing individual then as you are now. When I found you, you were already dating someone else, but that didn't last after my brother split up with Mijin. I should have met you before Niel showed up. Maybe you'd have liked me before him... Obsessing over your sister's boyfriend yet having a rebound at the same time? Were people always this hard to understand? Good thing you found her cheating on you and that became my opportunity."

Mora let out a low laugh, her head leaning on the door to Yeon's room. "Your reaction was adorable then as it was now. You didn't break. You still went about as if everything was fine. I concluded if you could withstand a pain such as an heartache, you'd withstand me indulging you in my hobbies.

I wanted to taste your pain. Perhaps you were like me and felt nothing at all. You seem to know you were already different from others but unlike me, you were oblivious to that difference.

Ever since I found out about you and studied your character, I kept thinking how I wanted to tie you up but whenever I was this close to befriending you, the image of your limbs torn apart with blood splattered everywhere put me off. Sooner, I found out it was your scent. You had this satisfying scent around you whenever you liked something. Every time you'd smell flowers, you'd let it out and it would calm me down a little. My thirst for wanting to possess your blood switched to understanding how you got satisfaction from the most insignificant of things.

Still, I wanted to inflict pain on you.

I wanted to see you broken, shattered, humiliated...

I may not be able to tear into your skin, but I don't think I wanted to go on living knowing you were slowly taking my attention away, to the point of inflicting less and less pain on my brother. You were a major distraction to me. I hadn't had blood for days of seeing you and my brother's wounds were healing fast."

"Father, how exactly do you choose a target?"

"First, I have my secretary make a list of all my competitors then narrow down on those who get on my nerves. The final two, I set a meeting and if they refuse to show up, I threaten them. The one who gives me an audience, I find their weak spot and use it against them. The point is, you can never trust an opponent. They are all a threat and threats must be eliminated.

"Noted."

"You see Mora. I have a passion for business, and my need to dominate fuels me to greater success."

"So, what is your moral compass?"

"My moral compass is what allows me to act normally around people and blend in."

"Wat is it?"

"It's no concern of yours."

"What is mine then?"

"You still haven't found it?"

"That day I got frustrated thinking over what father said, and Mijin hadn't given me my reward...to introduce me to you. So I set up a plan. For the first time, I was full of rage, a feeling I hadn't known before and needed to channel it. The previous day, I had attacked my brother and he almost died so I had to let off steam in another way. Father said not to kill family. It was then that the plan came to mind. Brother is the best person to do my bidding and he executed everything as should have.

You see Yeon, I get attached to things I'm interested in, like you. I only told them to mark you briefly but your scent was something else, more than the drug I gave you. I felt nervous... and anxiety become my second feeling."

Stepping inside the room where Yeon slept, Mora watched the rise and fall of his chest and smiled. "These feelings were new to me. I was always in control and when you scent manifested, you humiliated me and my well executed game. For the first time, I laughed without thinking about it. My laughter wasn't trained nor thought of as father instructed. It came out naturally and it was perfect.

...But I could have eliminated you easily yet I couldn't. Was it how your eyes involuntarily changed colours to the same one as blood? I couldn't tell, but I found it fascinating how it constantly switched without your knowledge. You didn't even notice it changing colour to luminous red as you held my wrists in panic tonight. It reminded me of how you used to reject Stan.

I was enjoying the battle between you and your fated. I watched him stalking you, watched his reactions, him using his scent on you while you slept in the library.

He was fascinated by you, or so I thought.

What it love then?

I've asked myself this many times. I wanted to study you two and by the time I'd begun to comprehend it, you were already his and no longer within my reach.

Yet here you are now, alone with me. Your skin glowing underneath the bedside lamb. Stan must be taking care of you well.

Is this what it means to be scent nourished? I'd love to know how it feels." Mora trailed her hand across a sleeping Yeon's cheek. "Will you teach me Yeon?

If I ask you nicely next time, will you?"