Young Writers Society

All of them jumped at Leader’s voice. Sako tried to move as far away as he could from Leader without getting out of the cot.

Leader looked at them all and walked forward with two tall, strong muscular men behind him, “I’ve come to see Sakuro. I didn’t expect to interrupt a party. What are all of you doing here?”

“We’re visiting.” Yagi answered flatly.

Branson cowered behind Victor with his eyes to the ground when Leader looked at him. Victor held his head a little higher and stared at Leader. Leader scoffed and walked forward. Yagi protectively stood in front of Sako, “What do you want from Sakuro?”

“To do a test. Move aside.” He said as he waved his hand to gesture for the half angel to move.

“I won’t move.” Yagi said firmly. He braced his legs and put his arms out. "I won't let you hurt him."

He sensed everyone looking at him in shock for disagreeing and arguing with Leader, but he still did not move. Leader slapped him across the face and shoved him to a wall. Yagi crashed into it and fell to the ground with a painful grunt. “You will do as I tell you.” Leader snarled as he stood over Yagi. He looked at Sako who fearfully looked back at him. ”Restrain him”

The two men behind Leader moved forward and restrained Sako to the bed even though Sako fought them the whole time. He tried as hard as he could to pull out of the belt like restraints that held down his arms and legs but they wouldn’t release him or even budge.

“Leader! You can’t! He’s not well enough!” Doctor shouted over Sako’s yells for help. “Please! You have to give him more time.”

“Shut up!” Leader yelled at Doctor. He took a deep breath and straightened his poster and ran a hand through his hair to compose himself further. "For those wondering, this won't hurt Sakuro. He's well enough for this." Swiftly he pulled out a small knife and pointed it at Saruko’s neck, “And if he screams again and I’ll personally make him mute, understand?”

Saruko gulped and nodded, “Yes…sir.”

Leader grabbed Yagi’s arm and went to cut it. Yagi yelped in surprise and flinched away. Victor stepped forward, “Wait no! He’s never tasted it before! Leader, it’s not safe. He needs to be in a confided place.”

Leader glared at him and paused, “Let me remind you, Victor, that you and Branson are already being punished for your last mistake. Do you really want to add more to that?” he looked around the room. "That goes for all of you. The next one to intervene will be punished."

Branson grabbed Victor’s wrist when his friend took a step forward, “Victor, just let him do it. He’s right.”

Victor stayed where he stood and Leader turned back to Yagi, “If you don’t move, the easier this will be.”

He cut Yagi’s arm quickly, drawing a thin river of blood from it. Victor turned away and walked towards the door with his hand under his nose and Sako groaned. He coughed and black blood came. Without his hands to hold back the flow it began to drip down his lips and chin. Panicked, he quickly wiped the blood away with the shoulder of his shirt.

Leader collected Yagi’s blood with a small, thin glass vial and turned to Sako.

“Hold still.” Leader ordered. "This will be much easier and faster if you cooperate." Sako didn’t move and he didn’t open his mouth either. It kept it closed as tight as he could. Leader frowned, “Open your mouth. You think you hate me now but you’ll thank me after. Demons crave angel blood, you fool.”

Sako shook his head. He had no intention of drinking his best friend's blood.

Leader grew annoyed, rolled his eyes and grabbed his knife again, holding it to Sako’s throat. “Do you really want this to get difficult? All you have to do is be a good little demon and open. Your. Mouth.”

Sako looked at Yagi who was frozen in fear as to what was about to happen and then looked at Victor who was watching them with intent. Yagi realized that he wanted Yagi’s blood and he was fighting himself to not drink it.

Sako swallowed hard and reluctantly opened his mouth. Leader poured a couple drops into his mouth and took a step back. Doctor backed away as Sako’s eyes started to fade to black. With the restraints on he reached as far as he could to get the vial and growled darkly.

Leader smiled, “Amazing. Saruko, listen to me. If you want the rest of it, you have to obey. Stop moving and hold still.”

Sako obeyed immediately and Leader gave him almost the rest of the drops of blood. Sako didn’t let one drop go to waste. Leader pulled the blood away and looked Sako in the eye. “You will obey me, correct?”

Sako was breathing hard and nodded. He kicked his lips as he looked at the vial eagerly.

Leader looked at Doctor, “Release him.”

Doctor did and Sako jumped at Leader and reached for the glass that Leader held away. Leader fell to his back and kept Sako away as the demon reached for it. “Sako! Get back! Obey!”

Reluctantly Sako obeyed with an angry growl. With the growl, Yagi could see the bloody canines that had changed alone with his demon appearance. Victor started growling but he cleared his throat to cover up his struggle. Doctor looked around nervously and moved over to Yagi to give him some kind of protection from his friend, “Leader, you can't do this here. You have two angels and two demons. One demon of which has never had to train himself before. It’s too risky.”

Leader stood back up and looked at Sako as he held the vial as far away from him as he could, “Stay there. Obey.” He ordered Sako.

Sako tensly stayed back and Victor came up behind Leader and snatched the small glass vial. Sako growled angrily and both half-demons fought on the ground, attacking one another for the blood. To anyone else it would have seemed like such a pathetic thing to fight over being there was maybe ten drops of blood left, but they fought over it like wolves over meat.

Victor kept fading out of his demon phase with his eyes going black and then back to normal when he blinked while Sako was completely focused only on that blood. Victor finally kicked him away and finished the last of the blood and then dropped the glass, “There! Sako, it’s gone! See? There's nothing left."

Both boys stood panting. Victor licked his lips and wiped away any black blood left as he went completely back to normal. Sako stayed in his demon phase angrier than before. Yagi -who had a hand over the cut the whole time- felt blood drip off his fingers drop by drop, slowly one right after the other.

Sako and Victor looked at him. Victor looked at him fearfully as to what he knew would happen and Sako looked at him like his friend was prey. Sako went at Yagi and Victor tackled Sako. After a minute of wrestling on the ground, Victor was on top of Sako with Sako’s hands pinned behind his back.

“Saruko! You have to control it!” Victor told him. Sako growled and thrashed to get free. He even tried biting but nothing worked. Eventually Sako’s hard breathing slowed and his anger faded as he retreated out of his demon phase. He looked at Yagi and met his friend’s terrified eyes. Sako froze. With one blink, his eyes were back to normal.

Grabbing a fistful of Victor’s shirt, Leader pulled Victor away and then yanked Sako to his feet and lifted Sako’s lips to see his teeth. He scoffed. "Figures they would have stayed a little longer."

He pushed Sako away, making the half demon stumble and then stormed out of the room with Doctor behind him yelling at him for his poor decision and putting the kids' lives at stake.

Sako fell to his knees after standing in shock and covered his face as he shook with sobs. Victor walked over to him slowly and wrapped an arm around his fellow half-demon’s shoulder. “Saruko, it’s okay. It’s completely normal. For now on, every day you and I will train so that we won’t crave blood anymore, okay?”

Sako still shook with sobs even though they had quieted down. Branson walked forward, “Hey, it’s okay. Victor tried to attack me. It’s just instinct. Everyone here understands. Victor cried too.”

“Oh shut up,” Victor snapped. “That’s not helping him.”

Yagi still sat in shock and he remained seated on the ground. He wanted to comfort his friend but he also wanted to get far away from him as possible at the same time.

He looked down at his cut arm and headed towards the door. He didn’t feel safe being in the same room with the cut he had.

“Yagi, don’t leave. You should stay to help Sakuro.” Victor said. He took his arm off Sako and gestured for Yagi to come over.

Yagi shook his head and turned his eyes away from the three as he tiredly opened the door. He needed to rest. Maybe sleep would help him feel better too.

He also didn’t want to be around Sako. Not since he was uncontrollable right now.

Yagi paused and put a hand to his head as he became lightheaded. 

Branson stood up and walked over to Yagi. “Yagi…Do you feel okay?” Branson asked uncertainty.

Everything went black as Yagi suddenly fainted once again and fell to the floor.