I Fell In Love With A Girl Who Died Before I Was Even Born

I ran my hand over the left side of my face where Ken had punched me, and I couldn't feel my skin.

Instead, my fingers glided over slick, smooth, alien-feeling scales that covered the left side of my face from the top of my forehead to my chin.

Straight away, I gagged as I struggled to interpret what was going on.

Behind me, I could hear teachers yelling at Ken, students crowding the gym floor, Yuki's concern, but I had no clue what was happening to my body.

But the scales, I could suddenly feel with fierce intensity, and I wondered why the hell I hadn't before.

They felt thick, like the worst beard I've ever had. I could feel them around my eyes. Every single movement made them bristle against one another.

And beneath my scales, my soft, pink, human skin seemed like it was suffocating trying to breathe, but that could've been from the entire noisy atmosphere in the gym.

"Yuki," I said, trying not to panic.

A moment later, her reassuring coldness returned.

"I've got to get out of here," I muttered.

Then, for a second, I felt something brush against my face.

The side that was still human.

And I wondered if it were her lips.

"Got it," she said. "I'll find help. I'll be right back."

I kept my eyes shut.

"Please hurry," I said.

If I opened my eyes, I knew an abundance of noise would flood in.

And right then, I just wanted everything to shut up and quiet down.

Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, something warm touched my side.

Not cold like Yuki.

Warm. Enveloping. Fragrant, lemon and ginger, but sad, like they'd been left too long in a rainstorm.

Murasaki.

She put her arms around me, and at that moment I didn't care.

I let her hold me as I stretched my right leg out, feeling pins and needles all across my ankle.

"Oh, darling... oh my, oh no," she whispered.

Her voice caught in her throat like she was trying not to cry.

"It's okay. You're with me. I've got you. Oh, what did he do to you?"

I felt her hand glide across my face, the scaled side, and I had to fight squirming because the feeling was so alien to me.

She wasn't brushing, though. And she didn't recoil.

Instead, her hand explored the scales along my jaw.

Intimately.

Gently.

Like she was reading braille, and the story was me.

I didn't know what she was doing, but I sensed her, not her touch, but her presence. Thoughts, maybe. But definitely emotions.

She was in my feelings, curling around them like ribbons in water.

"Shhhh," she told me, right inside the storm.

"You're so overwhelmed right now. I can feel it too."

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Slowly, I opened my eyes. I saw her violet eyes, like calm pools, looking into mine.

"You're not ugly, Ryu," she said.

Her hand rested on the scaled side of my face.

"This is a part of you too, and it's okay. I'm here. I can help you through this."

I could feel the warmth of her hand through my scales. Somehow, knowing they were there, feeling them, sickened me.

But the way Murasaki, of all people, simply rested her hand on me.

Solid. Still. Unafraid.

And something changed.

The scales began to pull back.

They didn't pop, crack, or fall off.

I felt them squirming through my skin, slowly, curling inward like a cat retracting its claws into its knuckles.

They weren't just around my eyes, or even my face.

I realized, then and there, I had scales under my skin everywhere.

My body shuddered—a full-body tremor—and I clenched my jaw so hard it clicked, to keep from gagging.

And then, Murasaki hugged me.

"It's okay, Ryu-chan," she said, stroking my back reassuringly.

It was good, and I brought my hand up to her back.

I didn't hug her then.

I was afraid. Afraid I'd hurt her. Afraid I'd fall apart again.

But I let her hold me, and that was enough right then.

"Thank you," I managed. My voice was so small it didn't even feel like mine. But she heard it. She always heard me.

Then a voice, sharp and cold, sliced through the warmth Murasaki and I had created between the two of us with the feeling of steel wrapped in contempt.

"Drop my damn dragon, you succubus bitch."

Shion.

Oh no, I thought, still not ready for this. No, Shion, not now. Please not now.

But the air had already changed.

And Murasaki's voice came next, no longer soft.

"What the hell did you just call me?"

Murasaki's body tensed, and I felt her hand on my back tighten. Her fingernails, long, beautiful, stretched into lethal, sharp claws.

"Murasaki," I choked. "Please… Don't. Not now. For my sake."

Even through my fog, I could feel her emotions in the back of my mind like a whisper.

She didn't want to do this, and then I felt it: Murasaki knew I couldn't take it right now.

She was possessive, yes, but she chose to help instead.

"You heard me just fine with those pretty little ears of yours," Shion said. "It'd be a shame if someone had to rip them off."

I could feel the fury ripple through Murasaki like a broken harp string vibrating too fast.

But she let go of me.

And her eyes met mine once more.

"For you," she said stiffly. "This one time only."

Murasaki stepped back.

"Shion," she said, so steady it shook me. "This isn't about us. It's about Ryu, okay? Please. Take care of him."

Shion didn't speak.

I saw her tilt her head, the way she did when she was confused.

"Oh," Murasaki added, cool as frostbite, "I think you're an insufferable bloodsucking parasite on my dragon, and I can't wait to be there when he shakes you off like a flea."

Then she was gone.

And I was with Shion.

Yuki floated to my side, staring daggers where Murasaki had been.

My left eye was swollen shut now, the skin tender and raw where scales had been.
I opened my right eye and looked at them.

"…Hello, girls," I croaked.

Shion tilted her head and smirked, that smirk she used when she really wanted to say something worse.

"I'm not calling you Charlie."

I grinned, at least I think I did. My face was just like a balloon animal someone sat on.

"That's okay," I said. "No one gets that reference anyway."

Now it was Yuki's turn to look confused.

"What's that?" she asked. "Sometimes the two of you don't make any sense to me, but I try my best to keep up."

The three of us just stood there for a second.

"Yuki," I began. "I don't know if I thanked you or not. But thank you too."

Yuki blinked, puzzled.

"Oh, I didn't get Shion," she said. "I got Namazu."

Before I could say anything, I felt strong arms picking me up and carrying me, gently, away from the gym.

His hands were cold, clammy, like a fish, and he smelled of pondwater.

I didn't care one bit. He was safe.

"Hey, Ryu," Namazu said, looking down at me with his watery eyes. "Nobody's going to hurt you now."

"Where're you taking him?" Shion asked, stepping in front of Namazu.

He stood just outside the gym, carrying me as students, teachers, and everyone else filtered out and headed towards second period as though they hadn't just watched an orc fighting a dragon.

"Where else? To the wellness center," Namazu muttered as though it were obvious.

Shion ran in front of him and blocked his way.

Yuki floated beside her, unsure of what to do.

"No," she said. "Take him to Obie's lodge on the edge of campus."

Namazu tried to step around her.

"He needs to go to the wellness center," Namazu said.

Shion flung her arms out and continued to block his path. Some kids stopped to stare before moving on.

She gave them deadly side-eye.

"Bollocks," she said. "Oh, gods, I've been hanging around Inego too much. Still, take him to Obie's or you'll regret it."

Namazu stopped. I could tell he was quickly losing patience with the vampire.

"Namazu," I said. "I'm sure she's got a good reason to want to take me to Obie's lodge."

I could see a plain look of concern on his face.

"You sure? It could be that she wants me to take you back there so she can drain you dry."

I scoffed.

"She's had plenty of chances to do that already."

I heard Shion make a dismissive noise.

"Don't believe him," she said. "You're right about me, Namazu. All this time, I've just been leading Blondie into a false sense of security."

I just wanted to shut my eyes and let all this play out like a bad fever dream.

"That's not even funny right now," Namazu said dryly.

I could hear the gym crowd thinning.

"Namazu, please," I said. "Take me to Obie's."

He sighed, but he started walking away from the John St. John Long Wellness Center.

"And you know what," Shion said. "I'm funny all the time."

I heard Yuki cough.

"Once," Yuki said. "You were funny once. And that was before we met."