Hongbin never wanted to hurt anyone. He was brought up to be gracious, well mannered and sociable. A great kid loved by all his neighbours and friends. He went to school, participated in sports, went to school camps and even came in first in class multiple times. Everyone loved him. Then puberty hit and they started to love him a little too much.

Teachers were all over him, he was attracting too much attention. A couple of male students had ripped his uniform in an attempt to get fresh with him. He was terrified by their ardent pursuits. Then it got worse, nearly everyone who saw him wanted a piece of him. No amount of surgical mask coverage helped. No amount of clothes could keep suitors at bay. Then they started dropping like coconuts the more contact they had with him. Life drained through their brief skin contact and he finally figured out that he is the cause.

Weird purple veins would appear on his skin every time someone touched him. He is terrified of himself. Clothes helped but keeping them on proved to be a challenge. As long as there is no direct skin contact with his suitors, they will be fine. He wore only long sleeves and jeans from since the discovery of his weird ability. He finally knew why his mother would never touch him. She loved him and he could tell, but she would keep her distance and that was hurtful. Now he knew the reason for her treating him so.

He blamed his exquisite appearance initially, but he knew his face was the least of his worries. He went to the doctors but nothing worked. Moving out into the most desolated building he could find in the city, he lived off the radar. It is lonely but at least he couldn’t hurt anyone else. No one has died as a result of touching him and he intends to keep it that way. However, trouble it seems, is his middle name. Hongbin had only just moved in a day ago when he was awakened abruptly from his sleep by a pounding headache. He thought some aspirin would help, but the pain worsened the moment he hit the streets. It got so bad that he hadn’t even noticed the hulking man who was tailing him all the way from his residence.

He got sloppy and the store owner became inherently attracted. Hongbin was in no shape to care about other things aside from the agonising headache. Never in his wildest dream did he expect anyone to witness what he could do and condemn it so much that he had to start shooting at him with a real gun. The searing pain in his side quickly overtook the one in his head. He was bleeding profusely and despite knowing that he needed medical attention, he chose to head back to the safety of his home instead. The man probably wouldn’t know which floor he is residing in and he was counting on that.

Collapsing onto the floor, the young latter checked out the wound on his lowest rib bewilderedly as he bled. Grabbing the nearest towel he could find, Hongbin staunched the bleeder carefully. It hurts very badly but he barely has enough time to wallow in his suffering when the pain in his head returned. He could hear the sickening footsteps of his pursuer as he lies with his left ear pressed to the floor. He is being chased. There is no doubt about it. He knew he is far from normal and even dangerous but to be worth the hunt, he must have done something terribly wrong that he has no recollections of.

“BAM!” The hinges holding his front door in place could not withstand the heavy leather boots ramming at it with such high velocity and the wooden barricade gave way.

Staring into the stranger’s eyes, Hongbin’s own guileless one clouded with immense fear as he backed dramatically into his bedroom, locking it behind him. “Leave me alone!” he hears himself begging amidst his pet pooch’s barking, but to no avail. With his consciousness weaning every passing second, he out prematurely.

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Taekwoon is stunned. He hadn’t never met an incubus who would run from humans. Incubus and succubus alike are promiscuous creatures. Always out for some hanky panky. This one is weird since he literally ran from a human. As if he was allergic. Like their vampiric counterparts, this type of demons live off the life force of humans, just not in the plasma form. Energy would be a more appropriate term.

Taekwoon had shot him with the holy water cartridge and that would definitely be sufficient to kill him. The holy water would seep into an incubus system and dissolve the creature almost instantly. Yet this one managed to walk it off. He may be human and that would mean Taekwoon had been a terrible judge for once in his life. Hurting a mere human is unforgivable but he is sure this particular one is no human.

Taekwoon had to be sure, hence the relentless pursuit. He had barge into the building after ripping out the alarms. Tracking down the creature with the bloody trail he had left behind. He was led right in front of an apartment with a very pleasant door front. Shoes lining the corridor in a neat row on a new shoe rack, a doormat still in pristine conditions. Even some potted plants which seem very much alive.

An incubus would absorb the energy of any living thing. Animals, plants and mostly human beings meaning that they are harmful. They may appear to be just frisky and playful but are just out to feed most of the time. Taekwoon hadn’t had a lot of experiences with these creatures but he knows enough about them to allow them to roam free. Treading with caution is a must.

Following the now half crawling creature into his room, the hunter is met with an unfathomable sight. A pet dog circling it’s injured master defensively. Photos of him with a woman whom he assumed is the mother. Books, a basket ball, a stereo with CDs and a nicely made bed. The room is nothing like a demon’s nest. Perhaps this creature is human after all. Yet Taekwoon’s runes have never been wrong. What is he exactly?

Raving on towards to the cowering individual and ignoring his pathetic pleas, Taekwoon held onto his hood and lifted him up as soon as he was out cold. Studying the now silent creature dangling from his outstretched arms, the hunter took off his gloves and placed a palm on the exposed skin of his neck. The milky nearly translucent skin there immediately glowed with the contact, veins beneath pulsating purple. Taekwoon is intrigued as much as he would hate to admit it. Running a finger up to rest beneath the latter’s ear lobe, Taekwoon waited but nothing happened. No energy was drained from him and dread washes over as he takes in the possibility that he may have made a mistake.

Quickly lying the limp being supine, Taekwoon lifted Hongbin’s top and inspected the wound closely. The blood is purple and the wound is already healing around the point of penetration. Digging his finger in to extract the fragmented bullet, Taekwoon watched curiously as the skin close around what was previously a cavity, after having drawn a tiny bit of energy from the hunter’s finger.

This person isn’t human, but he isn’t demon either. He may be a rarity in its rarest form. Taekwoon may have been taught about hybrids but he has never seen one in the flesh. Taekwoon had to be sure and there is no better way to find out than to bring him back to his headquarter. If he is truly demon, he is doomed. If he is human then he will be released. If he is neither, Taekwoon will decide what to do with him. Eventually.

Placing the still unconscious creature onto his back, Taekwoon brought Hongbin back to his car. Hitting the roads back to his headquarter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following evening...

The howling wind was smacking violently against the dirty windows of the lone building standing in the middle of a hill side. The rain pouring in torrents washed the tainted glass panels in waves creating enough noise to wake anyone sleeping within. Rainwater seeped in through the loosely fitted panels while more spills in through the small opening, splattering and wetting everything in its path. A soft curse followed by a loud creak jolted Hongbin awake as he lay by his side.

Eyes wide open as he tries to adjust his vision to the dim environment, he became acutely aware of the puddle of water soaking through his shirt and pants. He spots a person hovering above him in an attempt to shut out the rain that is currently drenching him. Shifting slightly and regaining more of his sense, Hongbin froze on realising that he is not supposed to be expecting another presence. Not if he is in his own home.

Dread washes over and he sits up abruptly. The ordeal he had experienced prior to passing out invaded his memory almost instantaneously and he lets out the cutest squeak his naturally baritone voice could make. The person stopped whatever he was doing and looked right at him. It did not take long for Hongbin to realise that he is in a cage, staring right up at his captor.

The cage is big with sufficient leg room but that is the least of his concerns right now. The bars are littered with scratches and adorned with words Hongbin have never even seen before in his short lifetime. They would lit up whenever Hongbin brushes past them but nothing drastic. The man wore a perplexed expression as he watches Hongbin fiddle with his torn goodie while seated cross legged within the cage.

“I don’t have any money. No one is going to pay you ransom.” Hongbin mumbled.

The man snorted and looked away. Running his hands through his thick black tresses with his endlessly long fingers, the man paced around in front of the cage for a couple more minutes before finally heading back up the steps he had came down from earlier. Loud creaking as the rusty steps sink a little under his weight.

“Hey! What do you want? You can’t keep me here!” Hongbin spoke up at last, hoping the man would at least reply. He briefly wondered if he had been kidnapped by a lunatic from a cult of sorts and the myriad of possibilities scared him. Having no idea what all this farce is about is as mind boggling as it is scary.

“I didn’t do anything wrong! Let me go!” Hongbin raised his voice a little more and that didn’t illicit any reaction either. A sob escaped as soon as he was done imagining his own violent end. The man did shoot him after all and he sure looked like he is more than willing to do it again.

The man returned shortly with a box. Dragging a chair over to sit by the cage, the man settled down comfortably in his seat, even crossing his extremely long lower limbs. He then proceeded to rummage through the wooden crate he had placed in front of him. Fishing out a small tattered book and muttering the content of the pages under his breath, the man tapped his fingers against the cage. The bars immediately started to heat up slightly but instead of torching up like any other demons would, the young incubus within simply stared back with a confused expression.

Clicking his tongue, the man picked out a stake like metal crucifix with many intricate carvings and opened a wide flap at the top of the cage. Sticking his bare left hand in and seizing Hongbin by his longish brown hair at the crown, the man pushed the younger latter’s head downwards brusquely and plunged the stake into the thin shoulder with his right, barely missing the cervical spine nearby. Hongbin was stunned into silence at first but the pain quickly set in. Crying out in agony and writhing violently beneath Taekwoon’s grasp, Hongbin’s widened eyes glowed a bright purple and the hunter’s grip immediately weakened with a bout of his energy being depleted. All innervations within his muscle fibres momentarily inhibited leaving his left arm almost flaccid.

“Incubus. Abomination from hell.” The tall man retracted his hands while cursing softly. His once poker face now twisted with an eerily handsome but equally daunting frown. Determined and incensed at the same time, the hunter threw the bloodied stake back into the box and reached for something more sinister looking.

Snivelling while the punctured flesh heals up almost immediately with the help of the energy he had just unintentionally drawn from Taekwoon, a terrified Hongbin inched away from the advancing man circling the cage. Clipping on the various wires to the steel poles, the exasperated man connected them to an electrical source nearby. Flipping the switch while staring intensely at Hongbin, the man watched as the runes etched onto the thick metal bars fluoresced with an eerie blue colour. The prickling pain was immense as they ate into Hongbin’s skin, but still not enough to cause death. Any demon would have died but not this one.

Taekwoon has finally reached a conclusion based on his findings. Hongbin cannot be destroyed since he is not a real demon. Yet he cannot be killed since Taekwoon does not wish to murder a living breathing human being, which he had sworn to protect. There is only one thing left for Taekwoon to do.