For the damned | ✓

26

HER HEART WAS DISTRAUGHT as she stumbled out of the tent, Roshan and Theresa looking confused at her change in expression. She covered it up with a smile, telling them she had just been surprised by the fortunes, but the ease with which the lies had come out felt strange on it's own. White lies didn't exist, because in the end they all colored her heart black, whichever color they started as.

"Delilah."

The voice in her head alarmed her at once, causing her gaze to snap towards the window. She knew he hadn't deliberately caused their minds to sync, but the pained tone in his voice was enough to get her moving. He was downstairs, his presence somehow echoing across her mind, until she was standing in the backyard, the music quieter and only five other people spread across the large place. She didn't bother looking at any of them though, instead walking past towards the end, only trees lining the border, but when she pushed away a few branches she found him.

He was sitting amidst the bushes, but everything around him had died, opal-colored roses scattered across and withered. The only reason she recognized the color from the barren petals was because one lay by her feet, shimmering in the moonlight, seeming to have made it out of the radius of death around him. The silver mist which he always carried around him was more chaotic now, not able to hold a shape anymore as it instead whirled around, like a storm which wasn't ready to settle just yet. She could already feel the prickling of the lightning.

And yet, despite the fact that everything was black and burned, Helio looked so innocent sitting in between the chaos. His back was against a tree, the branches drooping down and the discolored leaves dissolving as soon as his mist passed by, the crackling quiet in the air. It wasn't any of that she was focused on though. No, it was the fact that he had his face covered with his hands, the button-up he had exchanged his usual cloak for revealing the way his tattoos were flashing electrically in gray and white. Delilah set one step forward and immediately was hit in the face with the whispers, all of them only audible when she was close enough to him.

Still, they were quiet, but each careful step she took in his direction made them louder, until they were shouting, so deafening it felt like they were pounding right on her eardrums. Helio pulled both his knees up, his elbows resting on them, lips moving in a silent murmuring, like he was trying to hold his sanity. His scythe lay beside his legs, abandoned, the reflection filled with ghosts screaming.

"How could you have let this happen to me?" one of them shouted, face taking a shape in the mist as the canines grew sharper and sharper.

"This is the price you have to pay," another said," the way you feel everyone's pain the moment they die, that excruciating feeling, I hope you etch it in that non-existent heart of yours. I hope you die with it."

"Look at what you did," one said with a smile too wide and a voice so shrill it felt like her ears would bleed," everything you touch withers. You are tthe cause of all misfortune, Reaper. Everyone would be better off without you."

The ghost took shape, stretching out her hand to place it on Helio's cheek, nails so sharp it seemed like it would cut his mouth open if the chance presented itself. Without any hesitation Delilah waved a hand through the mist, causing it to dissolve as she stepped right through it, going on her knees in front of Helio. She took his face in between her hands, but he didn't notice, the shrieking of all the ghosts haunting him so loud he had become dulled to any sensation.

"Helio," she said, softly as to not scare him.

"You vermin!" someone screamed," you are scum! Scum, you hear me?"

"Helio," she said, louder this time.

"You truly are the epitome of evil," a ghost smiled, fingers turning into claws as he sunk them into Helio's shoulders," do you think you're allowed to be happy when all you can bring others is death?"

Delilah pulled him into a tight hug, the mist dissolving at her touch. She didn't let him go nor did she waver, voice whispering into Helio's ear that he was fine, over and over again, until he would finally hear it. The mist tried to get close around him to form a shape again but failed this time, like the touch of a living thing alone was enough to scare it off. Finally it faded into the night, one collective whisper the last thing they left behind.

"Happy Halloween, Grim Reaper. Until next year."

Delilah pulled back enough to see his face, their noses brushing as she looked at him. His hands had lowered, but his eyes were closed, small wisps of mist clinging to his eyelashes. There was no frown on his face, but his lips were parted in quiet words still. Knowing him, he was most likely apologizing as well. He never had looked away from the heavy burden he carried.

"Helio," she said.

When he didn't open his eyes she leaned forward, gently placing her lips on top of his eyelids, the mist vanishing at her touch. With a fluttering movement his eyes opened, inches from her lips, the starry night they usually carried glowing silver for a second, before clearing up again. He looked at her, the way she was hugging him, the warmth of a kiss left behind, the quiet all around them.

"Your birthday," he whispered," did I ruin it?"

"Of course not, Helio," she smiled, back on her knees so they were eye to eye," you could never ruin it. Besides, it's not midnight yet."

A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he leaned back against the tree, her arms still around his neck. He was pale and tired, but for some reason didn't pay any mind to that. Why didn't he take care of himself?

"You shouldn't worry," he said," the ghosts are there all year round, they just get louder during Halloween. I was supposed to drown them out before they got worse at midnight, but -"

He stopped talking, the words not quite seeming to find it's way towards his lips.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she whispered.

He looked at her, that innocence he didn't think he carried so warm in his nebulae-dusted eyes, a hand gently cupping her cheek before he pulled it away again, like he was afraid she too would wither under his touch.

"Because it's your birthday," he said," because it's you. Because you somehow care for me and I didn't want you to have to think of my problems during your day."

"I don't mind your problems," she said," especially when they are regarding your mental health."

"It's nothing," Helio insisted," I'm used to it."

"Being used to it doesn't make it fine," Delilah said with a shake of her head," and that's not a problem, Helio, it isn't. Nor are my emotions the biggest priority here." She tilted her head to catch his downturned gaze, taking his hands in hers as she spoke. "It's not a sin for you to take time to place yourself first. You deserve that love, Helio, from others and yourself."

He stayed quiet for a moment, holding her gaze like it was the softest thing he had ever seen. Gently he raised their intertwined hands up to her face, pulling her closer, their legs tangling and breath hitching as she fell forwards, noses brushing from the close proximity. She looked up at him through her eyelashes, his expression clear even now, despite all the chaos. He always was that way, his morals more like a crown on his head than a chain around his neck. In the filtered moonlight he looked regal, but he also looked vulnerable, and that more than anything turned her lungs into butterflies.

"The only person I want that love from is you," he said.

She heard people start shouting all at once then, the clock having struck midnight, but none of that mattered when he kissed her.