Zelo clucked his tongue softly, holding out a trembling hand to the cat he saw creeping through the alley with him. It was a silvery white cat with a sleek frame.

Here kitty, kitty, Here kitty, kitty, , kitty, kitty, kitty, here kitty kitty,

The cat mewled softly. It's padded feet carried it over to Zelo, and it rubbed it's bony little face against his hand, smelling an almost iron scent...

The knife sliced through the cat's neck before it had even realized that Zelo had moved.

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Sulyeon walked silently home from work, her long hair swishing rhythmically behind her back. She hummed softly to herself, fishing a fry from the greasy bag. Anxiety twisted in her chest for a moment before she resolutely pressed it between her teeth. Salty, greasy, fatty, everything she had denied herself for years and years.

"I wonder how many calories are in this..." she sighed, turning the corner to her house. She shifted the food to her other hand, her thin fingers sliding far too easily into the tight pocket of her jeans to retreive the silver key.

Just as she began to insert it into the lock, she heard a metallic clash from the side of the house. Her heart hammering a little, she quickly finished unlocking the door and raced inside. She set the bag down before she crept out of the still open door and peeked around the corner. She heard whispering...

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you." there was a strange squelching noise. A scrape as if something sharp were dragging on the concrete. The voice was soft... it sounded far too familiar. She walked a bit more confidently into the alley, flipping open her phone to examine the dead end with the meager light.

It would have been better if she hadn't.

She saw her boyfriend, staring blankly at the wall. He was running his hands through something that glistened and slithered across the ground. Occasionally he would let out a little bark of laughter, or maybe, he would knock his head back against the grimy brick of the building, the sounds bubbling into a strange hiccuping weeping.

The source of his contention, Sulyeon soon learned, was the dismembered corpse of a cat... rather, several cats. Each one had been mutilated and disembowled, their eyes plucked out and lined up in front of the long, organized rows of entrails that still oozed from their slashed bellies.

Sulyeon was morbidly grateful that her own cat was not one of the mangled corpses littering the ground. God, this was sick...

"It never hurt me... why did I kill it?" Zelo began to lean forward and collect another round of organs, this time the heart, from each silent, still, twisted form oozing across the ground.

"Zelo?" He jumped looking at Sulyeon. His mouth opened in a silent scream, his eyes taking on a haunted and guilty expression.

"Oh.. God." she whispered, noticing the blood running down his arms. "What happened?" He stood up, backing away from her and into the far wall of the sepulcheral enclosing. She took a step forward, slowly lifting one hand to beckon him forward.

"Sulyeon..." he stood there, rocking from one foot to the other, eyes shifting nervously back and forth. He saw his conscience scuttling between his legs and began to slither forward towards Sulyeon. "I... killed them." He watched how the malformed little imp settled itself below Sulyeon, lifting one hand to caress her knee. It's bloodstained fingers began to creep up Sulyeons' skirt...

"Don't touch her! Stop... Stop... Stop it." His voice deepened and he gave a hatefull look at the creature as it leered back at him. It oozed blood from between the stitches and Zelo could hear Yongguk egging it on. "Sulyeon, move. Get out of here. Go away." His voice had fallen back to it's gentle waver.

The voice gave a strange noise and began to stand up, running its hands up Sulyeons' sides and slipping it's filthy fingers through her hair, press it's hideous face into her shoulder. He heard garbled words bouncing off of the stitches. His stomach heaved and he turned away as bile ripped through his throat and a violent retching cough brought him to his knees in the mess of death.

"Come here." whsipered Sulyeon, stepping over the corpses and gingerly touching Zelo's shoulder. He jumped, and she felt the tacky texture of dried blood scraping her pale palm. "Come inside."

She turned and began to walk, stopping once to look over her shoulder. Zelo was still staring at her... he didn't seem sure what to do. "Come inside." she said again.

He shakily stood up, walking through the gore he had left and turning walking just behind her as she continued on to the room. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw Yongguk, Kyungsoo, and a voice he had never had a name for eagerly cramming the "offerings" into their hungry black mouths...

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Sulyeon closed the door and locked it, walking Zelo to the bathroom and ushering him inside. He stood in the light, the gravity of his condition becoming obvious in the too yellow lights.

"I'm... you're... take a shower, okay?" Sulyeon stood there awkwardly, not sure what to do. "I'll get some things for the cuts, and I'll find you some clean clothes. My dad won't mind, I'm sure." the last part was more to herself than him.

Zelo nodded, seeming to look through her. His mouth was moving to a silent dialogue. "Zelo." he shuddered but his lips only began to move more quickly. "Zelo, look at me." his eyes flicked to hers and he seemed to relax a bit. "I love you, okay?" she was scared, but still. He was the same Zelo, she told herself, just unbalanced at the moment.

He stared at her blankly before turning his back on her and beginning to undress. She scurried away to avoid a massive invasion of privacy, but as she rounded the corner to her father's room, she knew she heard his voice slicing through the darkness.

"Do you really?"

Zelo sat silently at Sulyeons' kitchen table while she bandaged his arm. There had only been one deep cut, which meant that the copious amount of blood he had scrubbed off of himself was that of the rotting carion just outside her window.

The pensive silence was broken periodically by Sulyeons' gentle humming while she worked. Zelo watched the way her hands moved, feeling the gentle sting of the antiseptic as it cleansed the cut on his forearm.

"Sulyeon?" She had just finished her work and was beginning to stand up. She gave him a smile in response as she rubbed the circulation back into her reddened knees. "Are you... scared?" she shrugged.

"I don't know. Not really." She walked across the slick linoleum floor of her rundown apartment. Sulyeon and her father kept it in meticulous order, but time had taken it's toll on it. Almost every building in their district had met this fate, but people went about their days in perpetual and purposeful ignorance of the inexorable fate.

She picked up the bag of food that had gone cold from the table and set it on the microwave plate. "Why not?" asked Zelo, staring at his feet. They were tapping nervously against the floor. He was spelling out something in morse code with the force of the hit.

soft soft soft stomp stomp stomp soft soft soft

"I trust you." she was lying. In truth, she was terrified. But not of him, for him. "Would you like this?" she motioned to the buzzing microwave. She wasn't hungry anyway.

"Is that your dinner?" Dammit, why was he so smart?

"Yes... but you know. I can cook for myself." she smiled at him, wondering if he was going to drop it. He tended to get picky about her eating habits.

"If you cook something for yourself, I'll eat it." She cursed under her breath and began to pull out the necessary ingrediants for her own meal. An apple, and... ugh. She didn't want to make anything complicated. She pulled out a package of instant ramen, setting out a pot to boil.

The microwave was blipping with it's hyperactive vigor and Sulyeon noted how agitated the sound made her guest. She decided to keep the rest of the night quiet, for his sake.

Chewing on a mouthful of apple, she only halfway watched the pot and sat down beside Zelo. Her father's clothes were far too big on him, but they'd have to do while the grimy ones soaked in a cocktail of cleansing soaps. She'd had to change the water at least three times already.

He sighed softly, running one finger through his hair, and pressing the heel of his hand into his forehead.

She set down the apple and leaned forward, taking his hand in hers and pulling him to her chest. His warm breath settled in the hollow of her neck and she felt him wrap his arms around her hips. He looked up at her.

"I'm so sorry." she clucked her tongue, lightly cupping his chin in her hand.

"Don't be." she reassured. She noticed the way he glanced at her lips, and she leaned forward to kiss him. The kiss lasted, and Sulyeon pushed against him a bit. He was pliable and followed her movements, easily. As their lips parted, he gave an almost inaudible gasp, leaning forward again and capturing her lips.

She sighed into it, ghosting her tongue against his lips and feeling him respond with a jittery curiosity, his body suddenly tensing again. He let her go abruptly, leaning back and pulling his knees up to his chest.

"I think the water is done boiling." Sulyeon gave him a little smile.

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They lay together on the couch, Sulyeon leaning back into Zelo, both having eaten and spent a little time catching up.

"Why weren't you at school today?" she murmered, running one hand through his hair. He relaxed further, his body going slack.

"I... haven't been..." he bit his lip. No... no. Stop, stop, stop. No need to ruin this. He would neither provoke the voices nor worry his love. No need. No need...

"Haven't been what?" she asked, nonchalantly. She turned to face him. He shrugged, turning his face away. He saw a little black stain where he had kissed her, but he was certain that was in his own mind. "No, tell me." She turned to face him. He had tightened again, his whole body seeming ready to snap like a bowstring and propel him into the night.

She turned around, allowing her legs to lightly drape across his sides. "Come on," she leaned forward, kissing the scar on his forehead gently. She felt him relax a bit.

"'S not important." his voice came out mumbled. His eyes were slightly unfocused, but they were on Sulyeons' face. She pressed her lips to his for a moment, running her right hand down the side of his face and settling it against his collar bone.

"What's not?" He was having trouble keeping up his resolve. She ran a kiss down his neck, feeling him go liquid in her embrace.

"My meds disappeared..." she didn't let her concern show.

"Mm." she kept her face pressed to his neck, feeling how his breath hitched in his throat. "Do Daehyun and Himchan know?" He tensed up and began to sit up, lightly attempting to push her away.

"I need to go." she shook her head lightly, allowing her hair to fall off to the side, a white curtain of shampoo scented strands.

"No, you don't." She wrapped her arms around his neck, tightening the vice of her legs around his waist. He felt a pressure somewhere in his abdomen. "I want you to stay." His body began to sway back, a faint flush appearing at his cheeks. He wanted to stay. He wanted nothing more.

"Answer my question please." His eyes slid shut and he surrendered.

"I ran away yesterday... they probably know. I had an episode..." his mind was foggy, and his body was reacting to this foreign touch.

"How can I help you?" she asked, her eyes warm and concerned, gazing into his.

"Don't leave me..." he pleaded, "I know it's selfish, but I can't... I let them go because... I don't deserve them. I don't deserve you either, but..."

Sulyeon silenced him with a kiss, a movement of the hips, and cool fingers climbing underneath his shirt.

Movement, gave way to heat, and heat turned to pain, which turned to ecstacy which morphed into sound. Broken bodies, scarred and malnourished, twined together in a messy and uncontrollable dance.

Sulyeon looked up at Zelo from her place beneath him. Her small frame, and relaxed in the afterglow of their first encounter. Zelo felt that he had stained her. Black marred her where his hands had touched her and he knew that the voices had picked the lock and found their way into the house.

"Come back to me..." she cooed, her fingers bringing him back to her as they touched his face. "Let's go to sleep." His shoulders slumped with the effort of keeping himself awake, and the two dressed silently and walked hand in hand to Sulyeons' room where they both fell asleep intertwined in her bed.

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In the cool morning, Sulyeon opened her eyes slowly, feeling that something was wrong. Drastically wrong. The warmth beside her had vanished. She peered over, seeing a small piece of paper on the pillow.

Goodbye.

How was this? Tell me if I should change it to Mature... ^^

-Serenity