Chapter Text
Mystery’s eyes fluttered open, and the first thing he registered was a pounding headache, and a crick in his neck. His hands flew to his neck, feeling for the wound, but there was nothing. His skin was smooth, unblemished. Sitting up, he saw Romance next to him, and Abby a few metres away. He shuffled over to Romance, shaking him by the shoulders. His eyes snapped open, and he sat up with a gasp so suddenly he clonked Mystery in the head.
Mystery leaned back, jaw clenched, headache rapidly intensifying. “Hnnngg!” He whined in pain.
Romance was clutching his forehead, rocking back and forth. “Ow. Ow. Ow.” He repeated, finding solace in the words. “Ow.” Eventually he looked up, and made his way to Abby.
“Abby, wake up!” He hissed, shaking the demon. Abby opened his eyes, and blinked bemusedly a few times.
“Wake up!” Romance said again, pulling him to his feet with some difficulty. Abby looked around, squinting slightly, “Where’s Baby?”
“Oh shit.” Romance whispered under his breath, hand to his mouth. “He’s not here.” He ran back to Mystery and pulled him up too. “We’re missing Baby.”
Under his curtain of hair Mystery’s eyes widened, “Shit.”
“We need to find him. ASAP.” Abby chimed in, face set in determination.
“How?” Mystery cried in desperation, and Abby put an arm over his shoulders in comfort, “We can’t even call him, he won’t hear us.”
Meanwhile Romance had already wandered off, “Baby! Baby!” He started yelling, running around in zigzags. Mystery and Abby exchanged glances in the universal feeling of watching an idiot at work, rolling their eyes affectionately. Abby ran after him, calling his name, “Romance! Come back you idiot!”
Mystery rubbed his aching forehead, trying to think of a way they could find Baby. They’d just have to look really hard, and hope that Baby found his way back to them.
Abby and Romance returned to him, slightly out of breath and sweaty, “I forgot.” Romance huffed, bending over and resting his hands on his knees. Mystery rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to explain his plan when Gwi-Ma cut him off, talking in their minds.
“All three of you to the altar, now.”
When it came to Gwi-Ma’s commands, they were powerless. As one, they slowly began walking towards the altar, dawdling and dallying for as long as they could to delay the inevitable.
“I can’t believe Jinu abandoned us.” Mystery said, breaking the silence that had settled between them.
“I know right? And for a Hunter too.” Romance scoffed, “I mean don’t get me wrong, they were all hot, Mira particularly. But I’d never betray you guys for her. Or any of them!”
“Maybe he just got carried away?” Abby said, though it sounded more like a question.
“Carried away my arse. He was in love with the girl. In two weeks too!” Romance shook his head.
“Can you even fall in love over two weeks?” Mystery asked, voice breaking into laughter towards the end. It was his peculiar hiccupy laughing that set the other two off.
“I don’t know, but he certainly managed it.” Abby spluttered in between the chuckling. “He was so invested in his two week situationship he didn’t even notice Baby’s deaf.”
“Really?” Romance blurted, voice going high with surprise.
Mystery sighed, shaking his head good humouredly, “Romance, sometimes I swear you’re more oblivious than Jinu.”
Abby tailed on, “I mean, half the time when he was talking to Baby he didn’t even bother to catch his attention. How the poor boy was meant to lip read I have no idea.”
Romance shrugged, “I thought he was being lazy.”
“Even laziness gets to a certain point.”
Gwi-Ma’s fire hit them like a furnace to the face, blasting them with heat and they flinched. They edged closer and closer until they were at the edge of the stairs. In single file they climbed up, Romance at the front, Abby in the middle and Mystery hidden in the back. They lined up in front of him, and each one of them bowed.
Gwi-Ma spoke, heavy with judgement, “You have failed.”
Mystery’s back trembled slightly, though the rest of him was stock still.
“Rise.” They straightened out of their bows, Romance stretching his back with a sigh.
“For your crimes against demonkind-” Gwi-Ma was cut off as Romance asked, “Crimes? What did we do?”
Gwi-Ma’s fire smouldered, and Romance clutched his head, pupils shrinking as the pain overwhelmed him. Mystery winced in sympathy.
“For your crimes against demonkind,” Gwi-Ma continued, voice loud, “I banish you from the underworld. You are broken tools, and ones I am finished with. Begone!”
Their demon bodies fell like puppets with their strings cut, crumpled on the ground.
_________________________________________________________________________
Romance opened his eyes blearily, and was instantly attacked by sunlight. “Agh!” He yelled, swishing the curtains shut. Slowly coming to his senses, he looked around. They were in their own apartment.
Furthermore, for the first time in eternity, his head was clear. No voices, no whispers, no background flame crackling. Just silence. Was this how Baby felt?
Mystery’s loud groaning filled the air, “My head. Oh god it hurts so bad.”
The pain from earlier had multiplied, making it feel like a metal band was being tightened around his skull, crushing his brain. And the voices.
“Useless.”
“Worthless.”
“You don’t deserve to be loved.”
High pitched, sweet and utterly cruel giggles echoed in his mind, driving him up the wall.
“You aren’t human. You aren’t even worthy to be an animal. You’re nothing.”
Mystery clamped his hands over his ears, trying to silence them. It was so excruciating even breathing felt like a challenge.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
Mystery whined, clamping his ears tighter and swaying on his feet. It couldn’t cut through the pain.
Undeterred, Abby and Romance rushed over to him, pulling his hands away from his ears. They came away sticky with blood. Bright red.
“It’s jam.” Mystery slurred, sniffing his fingers. He swayed on the spot before falling into Abby’s arms. Warm, safe. His eyes fluttered weakly a few times before closing.
Abby and Romance looked at each other, eyes widened, thinking the same thought.
Oh shit.