WTBFCY Chapter 8

Bang!

Noah dodged the creature's jaws as they snapped toward his throat and pulled the trigger. Thunk. The monster's shoulder exploded. It didn't slow down.

Bang. Bang. Bullets tore through the creature's body. Where they hit, the flesh scattered like mist, then reformed with terrible speed. The monster reshaped its claws into serrated edges and slashed at Noah's shoulder and legs. Noah evaded or deflected the strikes with his gun barrel, backing away step by step.

He was losing ground. But his expression never changed. He kept firing.

Bang. Bang-bang!

"Foolish! You think a human can kill a faerie?"

The creature—calling itself a faerie—sneered as it slashed horizontally. Noah leaned back to avoid the strike aimed at his throat. The black faerie's hand split into two branches. The lower one shot upward toward Noah's eyes.

Screech!

"Kgh!"

Noah jerked his gun up. The barrel caught the claw inches from his face.

Crash!

The force dented the side of the pistol deeply. Noah deflected the claw upward. The faerie grinned and swung again.

Clang!

The descending black claw met the gun barrel with a harsh sound. They locked together. Metal scraped against claw with a grinding screech.

"How pathetic you are, struggling like this! Let's see how long you last!"

The black faerie laughed and swelled its body. It grew larger to press down on Noah from above. The weight on the gun barrel increased. Noah's arm trembled slightly.

The faerie stretched its mouth wider, delighted.

"Ahaha!"

The faerie thought Noah would collapse any moment. It extended its neck and brought its face close to Noah's ear to mock him.

"You know what? Human weapons can't destroy me!"

Noah clicked his tongue in annoyance. With his free hand, he drew a small revolver from inside his coat and pressed the muzzle against the black faerie's forehead.

Click.

The new gun was smaller than the one he'd been using. It had a strange red tint.

"...Yeah. I suppose human weapons wouldn't work."

Before the black faerie could respond to finding a gun barrel against its head, Noah pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Crack. Half the creature's head scattered like mist. The form collapsed and poured to the ground—but it wasn't liquid.

Black powder rained down in a continuous stream. It tried to pull itself back together, rising toward the main body. Then it lost strength midway and fell back to the ground.

"Wh-why...?"

It wasn't regenerating.

The panicked black faerie tried again to gather its scattered pieces. The black powder on the ground didn't move. The faerie stumbled backward, half its head gone, and screamed.

"Why won't I regenerate?!"

Bang. Bang!

The answer came in gunfire. Each bullet that pierced the faerie's body turned limbs to powder. Legs and arms scattered. Finally the supporting legs vanished. The faerie collapsed to the ground with a thud and stared up at Noah in disbelief.

"What are you...?!"

The faerie's remaining eye widened with the question. Noah aimed the small revolver at the faerie's heart and pulled the trigger one last time. He smiled faintly. Sharp fangs showed between his lips.

"What does it matter?"

Bang!

A hole opened in the faerie's chest. With the head and heart area emptied, the black claws flailed weakly in the air. Then they collapsed to the ground with a thud. The black form twitched and trembled briefly, then stopped moving.

"Even a lower-tier... regular bullets aren't enough."

Noah frowned. He'd wasted ammunition for nothing. He swept his disheveled bangs back, holstered the revolver, then plunged his hand into the fallen faerie's chest near the collarbone. His fingers dug through the black sand and lifted something out.

It looked like a small pearl at first glance.

"Just as I thought. Not long after molting. The orb is too small."

Noah pulled out a small leather pouch, stored the orb, and turned toward the mansion. No reason to stay here now. He'd pack his things and leave. In the silence, only Noah's footsteps echoed. Small lights followed him, bobbing in his wake.

"...Now what's this?"

He stopped suddenly on his way to the mansion. He'd spotted Regina sitting behind a garden shrub, trembling violently. Noah's blue eyes showed interest.

"...Wh-what?"

Regina had been staring blankly at Noah, lost in shock. She stammered, confused.

She'd witnessed a horrifying monster and gunfire for the first time in her life. Somehow she hadn't fainted. Now she'd come back to her senses. But she didn't understand Noah's question and stared at him blankly.

"You definitely breathed in the faerie powder. Why aren't you asleep?"

Noah asked with an intrigued expression, though he didn't really expect Regina to answer.

"Uh..."

Regina suddenly realized how quiet everything around her had become. She looked around. Pale mist surrounded the entire garden with small lights drifting through it.

And in the middle of it all stood the platinum-haired man, looking down at her.

Beyond the strange man, she could see people collapsed on the ground. Everyone except them had their eyes closed.

"...Wh-what is this?"

Panicked, Regina tried to stand quickly. Her legs buckled and she collapsed back down with a thump. She'd stayed in the same position too long. Her legs had cramped and given out. She supported her upper body with trembling arms. Then she spotted Emma lying nearby and crawled toward her urgently on her knees.

"E-Emma!"

Regina held her hand near Emma's nose to check her breathing. Weak but steady. Emma was simply asleep. Relieved, Regina shook her urgently to wake her.

"Emma! Wake up!"

No matter how hard she shook Emma's shoulder, the woman didn't move. Regina crawled closer and gently cupped Emma's face with both hands. She patted Emma's cheeks lightly and called desperately, but Emma remained limp, eyes closed.

"Emma, please wake up!"

Thud.

Behind Regina, Noah took a step closer.

Regina's body froze at the sound of his footstep. Thud, thud. His shoes approached and stopped near her. Her fingertips twitched.

She looked back. Noah's shoe was stepping on the hem of her dress as she knelt. Regina stared at it with fear-filled eyes, then slowly raised her gaze.

Noah looked down at Regina's tear-filled purple eyes and touched his lips as if intrigued.

"Interesting. Regina, was it? Are you not human either?"

Noah's shadow fell across Regina's face. The backlighting hid his expression, but a sickeningly sweet scent came from him standing so close.

It felt like dripping honey coating her tongue and nose and choking off her breath.

"N-no. No."

Regina answered in a trembling, shrinking voice. But Noah didn't seem to care. He drew the revolver from inside his coat.

The small revolver that had just killed the monster.

"Now that I think about it, you said I smelled sweet when we met before dinner, didn't you? Black fairies seem to find my blood quite sweet."

"I'm hu-human. I'm human..."

Regina's gaze followed the revolver's movement involuntarily. She forced words through trembling lips, insisting she was human. But Noah continued his explanation in a flat voice.

"That creature was a black faerie. They usually live in forests, eating animals or insects. But if they eat a person even once, they can never return to the forest. They suffer terrible hunger after that."

"Wh-what?"

He pointed the gun barrel at the black mass that had been the faerie and took another step forward. Regina instinctively pushed at the ground with her heels, trying to get away from him. But her dress suddenly pulled tight and wouldn't move. Her struggle ended in futility.

Regina's gaze went to Noah's shoe stepping on her dress hem. The clean shoe gleamed on the fabric crushed into the dirt. Her face went white. She clenched her trembling jaw, leaned her head back, and looked up at Noah.

"And this gun doesn't work on humans. It only kills fairies."

He stood right in front of her now, looking down. His eyes were chillingly blue. His expression was indifferent as he continued.

"So whether you're human or not..."

Click.

The cold, hard muzzle touched Regina's forehead. She trembled at the metal's touch and stared up at Noah with wide eyes.

"I'll know when I see."

He gazed quietly into her shocked purple eyes. Then he smiled faintly, habitually, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.