Like most burials that I've witnessed over the years, there is silence. The crowd of humans gather around the hole in the ground, some wearing black, while others do not care about tradition and stand in petite, colourful dresses. I seem to be the only one shedding tears. Even though they knew Wendy, and liked her, they wouldn't have been able to open themselves up to being close to her. It's how the nanneries operated too. We comforted each other but we never formed close bonds, it just made saying goodbye harder.

Cain is here, watching us from a safe distance across the field. He stands beside a big oak tree with his arms folded. Having his eyes on them is making the others nervous, especially the slaves. They haven't even looked at me during the burial, while the girls glare so hard that I can feel their envy from feet away.

Jackson stands close to me but I do not touch him. I do not give away any indication that he is important to me or to the King. Christian stands at his other side, also keeping a distance from me. Every time he moves he has to hold his ribs, the creature really hurt him and I haven't had the chance to apologize. It was a different slave that escorted me from the room today, like Cain is deliberately keeping us apart.

I am so tired. I hardly slept last night, if at all. It was my last chance to do so and I gave it up because it didn't seem right. I cast my attention to the sky, watching the dozens of guards sweep through the air, bending around the towers and dropping onto the roof.

I'm grateful that I can finally be outside, finally breathe in the fresh air of the world before I die for good today. It just hurts that it has to be because of Wendy's death. I flick my eyes down and they meet Hector's across the field. He quickly looks away, a lump in his throat.

"Back inside," Bella commands. "We are hungry."

"I'll see you soon," I whisper to Jackson.

The slaves go back inside, following Bella and her group of pure souls like dogs. Some of the other girls remain though, the ones that Cain saved. Gianna meets my eyes and moves around the plot to stand next to me.

"She was so kind to us," she whispers. "We couldn't have gotten through this last week without her. I heard her owner took off after consuming her, that he just left his other humans behind. They are confused." Gianna flicks her eyes to two girls across from us, they keep their eyes down, as though they're praying. "What will become of them?"

"New ownership," I say.

Gianna sighs. "She deserved better."

"Yeah," I say, agreeing. "She did."

"Is he waiting for you?" Gianna flicks her head towards Cain.

I nod.

She bends down and places a hand on top of the raised soil. "Goodbye, my friend."

She turns to leave, the other girls following her back into the palace. I take a deep breath as I wipe my cheeks. My eyes meet Cain's across the field but he doesn't move. I make my way over to him, my boots crushing into the fallen leaves of the trees.

"Aren't you worried about the creatures seeing us together?" I ask quietly.

"There is no reason to worry after today," he says. I shiver at his meaning, a noise of amused disbelief leaving my mouth. "Come on, let's go for a walk."

I'm not in the mood for a walk but he doesn't give me a choice. He starts pacing down the path and I sigh as I follow him. He slows down, allowing me to catch up, and our arms graze each other when I reach him. I fold them, keeping them tight to my chest. He acts like it never happened.

"I've never seen so many of the humans gathered for one burial before," he says. "She will be missed."

"Cain, where are we going?" I groan, turning back to glimpse the palace that is becoming further and further away. "You said I could see Jackson, that I could say goodbye."

He stops and turns around, an expression of confusion flashes in his green eyes. "You think I'm leading you down here to kill you?"

"Aren't you?" I whisper.

"No. It's just a walk. I want to show you something."

"Okay," I say.

The path is so long that I wonder if it'll ever end. It leads down a steep hill, and through some trees I can just make out the outline of buildings in the distance. I don't know what he's doing but I play along, pretending as though his presence doesn't make my heart race every time his direction moves a little closer into mine. We walk through a forest with beautiful, red-leaved trees. I stare up at the dozens of birds gathered above, singing tunes to each other.

"So many curious species on this planet," Cain says. "What was your favourite?"

"Like you don't know," I mumble.

"Dog," he says. I nod. "Loyal species to the human. We moved some of the domesticated ones into most nanneries and breeding centres, it helps the souls stay purer."

"Fascinating."

We reach a high gate and he helps me to climb over it, catching me on the other side. I slide down his body, my face planting into his chest, and he keeps his hand on my arm for an extra second before pulling away.

I back away from him and I stare at the small town in front of us. The buildings look old and unkept, some of the roofs missing pieces, but it adds a deep sense of character to the abandonment. We pass a church first, the doors still wide open, and then many shops of the high street. Pet shops, supermarkets, pharmacies, game shops, even an elementary school. It's been so long since I've seen this, a glimpse of the old world. It reminds me that it even existed.

In the far distance, I see rows and rows of townhouses. This is farm country so most of the locals probably raised and slaughtered animals to nearby communities. All the cars are still here, just left wherever their owners were last. The different types of cars are mesmerising; some small cruisers, some trucks, some are expensive looking with a shine to them even after eight years of being uncleaned. I pass a green car and I take a curious look inside, seeing the baby seat in the back, surrounded by toys and baby bottles. I gasp as I look into the front of the car. The skeletons of a decomposed couple sending my body trembling backwards.

"Yeah, don't look at that," Cain says, he takes my hand and leads me away. "I'm sorry, I thought they removed all the bodies."

I carry on walking down the street, following him around a bend that leads into the bar strip. He enters through a door to one of the bars, holding it open for me as I cautiously step inside, looking around hastily.

There's no one else in here, and by no one I mean bodies. The place is empty. Half-empty glasses filled with a disgusting bacteria left on every table along with dozens of coats, bags, wallets and phones. In a sheer of absolute curiosity, I charge towards a table and I pick up a cell phone in my hand. It's dead, of course, but I haven't seen one in so long that it stuns me.

"That invention impressed me," Cain says. "The way you humans communicated to each other was anything but normal."

I laugh as I place the phone back down. "Believe it or not, the world was once obsessed with them. I always thought it made their lives less meaningful. Conversations between the eyes were very underrated."

"Would you like to try some alcohol?" Cain says, grinning at me as he jumps over the counter.

"From eight years ago?" I say. "I thought you weren't trying to kill me. Surely it'll all be bad."

Cain smiles as he brings out a bottle beneath the counter and pops the cork off with his fingertip. "Not wine."

"Oh."

I sit in a swinging stool at the counter, tying my hair back as I watch him observe some of the glasses that have dried liquid at the bottom. He brings them up to his eye level, and then places his mouth around the edge, I watch as the tiny pieces of bubbles around the edge begin to get cleaner. The glass somehow gets shinier as he blows into it. He sets the glass down on the counter and pours the wine into it.

"Cain," I say. "Did you just consume bacteria?"

"Yeah." He grimaces and shakes his body. "Not my favourite specimen, but everything alive has some form of energy."

"You're crazy."

He hands the glass over to me with a smirk. "Take a sip."

I smell it first. My nose crinkles as I cringe. I bring it to my lips slowly, forcing the sour taste down my throat. I've never tasted alcohol and it's definitely not the right incentive for me to want to try it again.

"Well?" he whispers.

"It's disgusting," I say. "I love it."

He laughs and picks the bottle up, tipping it into his mouth. I watch him curiously; the only other time I've seen him drink was after he fed from me the first time.

"Can you even taste that?" I ask.

He nods. "I like drinking alcohol. It doesn't affect me like humans but there's something amazing about it."

I take another sip of the wine, a bigger one, and I wipe my mouth as my face scrunches up. "If you say so."

"Wine was actually one of the humans' favourite beverages," he says. "A lot I consumed-"

"When will it happen?" I say, interrupting him. "This afternoon? Tonight? The moment Jackson leaves my room? I'd like to prepare."

He drops the bottle on the counter, wiping his lips. "A lot that I consumed preferred it over water sometimes," he continues, ignoring me.

"You said you'd be honest with me."

"I can't tell you when, Aurora because I haven't decided yet. Most likely tonight while you are asleep."

I widen my eyes angrily. "You won't even give me the privilege of doing it while I'm awake?"

"It'll be more peaceful for you. You won't even know the difference."

"Or you're doing it that way because you know if I am awake then you won't go through with it," I blurt out. "You couldn't kill me before so what makes you think you can now?"

He lowers his eyes, thinking about that, frustration takes a hold of his expression. He knows I'm right and he has no explanation for it.

"Do you know what this place was?" I say, spinning off the chair and pacing in the centre of the room. "What it really was? It was a place where people came to socialize and laugh and drink and dream. After a hard day's work, this is where the day took them. To somewhere they felt safe among friends, somewhere familiar and happy. And then that door opened one day and their entire lives became less. But they were not less. They were as completed as I am, they were as important as I am. They didn't deserve what happened here."

Cain folds his arms. "What is your point, Aurora?"

"If you don't understand then I'll make you understand." I run over to a table and I grab the bags and wallets from it, dumping them in a line along the counter. I lift the bags vertical and I watch as multiple objects drop out of them. From phones to photographs to medical bills to keys and spare change. I go into a wallet and I extract a man's driving license. "Edward Porter," I say, flying the license across the counter. "He was an organ donor." I move on to the next license. "Jessica Longley, twenty-five-years-old." I pick up a picture of her two babies, they look like twin girls. "A mother to two beautiful toddlers." I throw the card in front of his body. "Jerry Longley," I say, rooting through his wallet. "He was a cancer survivor. He was just enjoying a drink with his daughter."

"What are you doing?" he says.

"They all had names!" I cry. "Families, lives, stories."

Cain reaches over to the counter and picks up a card, staring at the photographed face. He places it back down, meeting my eyes softly.

"But the creatures wouldn't have cared that. . ." I read over the license. "Adina Gomez was a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl that brought her school work to a bar to study." I glance over the contents of her bag, picking up a letter. "Or that she was pregnant."

"Stop," Cain whispers. "I get it. I get it, okay?"

I glare at him as I throw another license down the counter. "You will never get it."

"I brought my species here and ended their lives, is that what you want me to say?" he demands. "Do you expect me to apologize? Do you expect me to feel something?"

"Brandon Smith," I whisper, reading over the contents of the letter in what I assume is his mother's purse. "Fourteen-years-old and released from hospital that very day after spending weeks on dialysis from kidney failure. The transplant was successful." I wipe the tear from my eye as I show him the photograph in her purse. Of a smiling and life-filled Brandon waving from the hospital bed. Cain takes it from my fingers, staring down in sadness. "He was a child, Cain. He thought his life had just been saved, that he beat it."

Cain moves backwards into the wall, rubbing his chin as he looks over that picture. "Maybe we are evil," he mumbles.

"Now you finally get it."

He looks at me over the picture. I swear his hand is trembling as he places it back to the counter. "There is no other way for my species to survive, we have to consume lifeforms. Just like your species killed millions of animals to survive. It is the natural order."

"No," I whisper. "Because this is our world. What we do here is our choice but you invaded it. If my fate is to die then so be it but I am begging you, after you consume me, ring that bell and set the rest free."

He moves forwards and picks up the wine bottle, drinking the last of it before he places it back and jumps over the counter, grabbing my wrist and yanking me towards the door. "Time to go."

"Get off of me," I growl. "Are you scared I'm right?"

I manage to pull my wrist free as he charges me outside but he turns and shoves my back into the side of the building, placing a firm grip of his hand at the centre of my collar bone. He's never given any indication that he'd physically hurt me but I'm suddenly not so sure. He looks over my face and calms himself, stepping away.

"I own you," he says. "You do what I say. Walk!"

I shake my head. Maintaining my defiant stance against the wall. "You don't own me, Cain. I own you. And that absolutely terrifies you."

He comes close to my face again, his teeth snapping aggressively. "I cannot wait to finally end your life today. I would rather die right now than ever be controlled by a human."

"I thought I was more than that? You thought I was more than that when you were kissing me."

"I've been feeding you things you wanted to hear since the moment I touched you," he says. "When you're relaxed, your soul is relaxed, it tastes better. Did you actually think I could feel for you in that way? That I'd ever sacrifice my chance of consuming a completed human soul for the sake of some meaningless desires?"

"You are so far out to sea that you cannot even recognize the land anymore."

He narrows his eyes. "What does that mean?"

"It means the only thing leaving your mouth is bullshit."

"Believe what you want. Stay here for all I care. I'll hunt you later." He turns and starts walking away from me. I glare after him, shaking my fists with anger, before calming myself and following him around the bend.

My run turns into a slow jog and then I stop in the middle of the street. "That tingling in your stomach that feels like you're flying when you're grounded, that makes you feel like you're being tossed and turned and catapulted around a roller coaster track, that isn't bullshit," I shout. "I know you feel that whenever you're close to me, just like I do."

He comes to a stop.

"I don't believe it was all a trick," I say, walking closer. "Saving those girls at the dinner party wasn't a trick. Releasing all those humans from their cages and suffering. Setting those souls free. Giving a flash of life back to me these last few weeks wasn't a trick. Your species is evil, Cain but you are good. I've felt your soul too. I've felt how warm it is, how understanding and patient and kind. I hate everything about you, just like you hate everything about me, but not you. Never you."

He starts to turn around. The anger is gone from his face, there is only a moment of clarity that could end at any second.

"You brought your species here and I still care for you. My parents are dead because of you and I still care for you. You are going to take my damn life and I still care for you. All I ever wanted in return was for you to understand." I glance back to the bar. "To understand that we are so much more than being owned or fed on. I will never stop fighting for the humans, I will never stop trying to set them free. So I offer you the choice once more. Kill me. . . or kiss me. Stop the confusion, stop the tricks, the games and the spontaneous trips away from the palace and get it over with!"

He twists his head as he stares at me, hanging on to every word. He considers my ultimatum for barely five seconds before he charges towards me. There's a deadly glint to his eyes, I freeze in place, knowing this is it. I hold in my last breath as I close my eyes. His hand grabs at my face, rough and uncontrollable.

"Just do it," I say. "What are you waiting for?"

I open my eyes to see the lime green staring back. He's fighting with it, and I'm not sure which side is winning. His choice shocks me. My heart races as he kisses me, crushing my face against his in a moment of powerful desire. My hands slide around his shoulders, forming an arch at the back of his neck as I reach up on my toes to keep our lips level. It's out of our control once again. My emotions are all over the place. He picks me up and I straddle my legs either side of his waist as we move towards a building wall. His back hits it and we slide to the ground. I sit on top of him, tasting every part of his soul through the kiss. I smile as I withdraw my head, my fingers softly grazing the side of his jaw.

"Is this usually how humans behave?" Cain chuckles as he touches my face. "Fighting with each other one moment and then. . ."

I nod. "Peculiar, isn't it?"

"Everything about you is."

I laugh. "Right back at you."

"I can't hurt you," he whispers. "I will never hurt you, Aurora."

"I won't hurt you either."

That makes him smile. "I think you are the only one that could."

I bring my lips back to his for one last kiss before our hands entwine together and we rise from the floor. Peculiar doesn't even begin to describe this. There is no word for it, no justification, no explanation, and I am through with searching for one. We walk back to the palace, hand-in-hand, our skins glowing with a serene light of other-worldly adoration. It's only when his hand slips from mine and his gaze lowers with a panicked snarl that I see what he sees at the other side of the path; a group of visiting creatures, waiting for us.