A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing, favouriting, following, and generally reading this story. I apologise for the long absence. Real life has been keeping me busy as of late, but with the Witch's House manga now surfacing around the internet my muse for this fanfic has since been ignited once again. Due to recent and unexpected circumstances, however, I am most likely going to be slow in keeping up with this fic, so don't expect me to post anything else any time soon. I do hope you enjoy the next chapter, though.

Chapter 4: All Roses Have Thorns

Standing in front of the dining table with my arms folded, I held up the small rectangle shaped piece of paper in between my index and middle fingers. My eyes were focused on the cat, who had decided to curl his legs and tail up to his middle and back and lie down in front of the middle of the table. I raised an eyebrow.

"Really? You call sticking a note on the table that reads 'Taste Poison' a trap?"

Cat didn't show much of a reaction. He blinked at me a couple of times before tilting his head to the side.

"You'd be surprised at how illiterate these village folk are! Some of 'em don't even know how to read!"

I placed my empty hand to my hip, my eyebrow raising higher. I could never get a straight answer out of this demon, and sometimes I questioned why I even bothered to ask him about certain matters in the first place. Although I wasn't planning to lure unsuspecting victims to the house myself, I still felt it necessary to have a quick check of the traps within it every now and again to make sure they were still effective to a certain degree. One of the traps I had come to question was one specific trick in the dining room that involved 'green soup', which was actually just poison served in a skull-shaped bowl.

"Okay, but did you ever stop to consider the possibility of one of your visitors knowing how to read…?" I pressed, raising my empty hand to gesture towards the bowl and the poison. "And what about the bowl's design, huh? Doesn't that make the whole thing even more obvious? I mean, who would be stupid enough to drink 'green liquid' out of a bowl representing death and decay?"

Cat responded to my rant with yet another blink, keeping his head tilted. After a while of silence and the two of us staring at each other I rolled my eyes and turned them away to stare at the faded wallpaper, placing the note back on the table.

"It's a joy to talk to you, as always."

"Aw, come on, Emilia! You love me really-"

Cat was cut off when the sound of smashing ended our conversation, leaving me to raise my head towards the ceiling. The tingle that moved down my spine caused my shoulders to shudder, my hands lifting to grip at my upper arms.

"Ugh! I felt that. That was definitely from the house."

"It came from the second floor." I turned my head to Cat when he spoke up to see him on his feet and facing the open doorway to the kitchen, his ears twitching back and forth. "You should probably go check it out. Could be a new soul for ya to feed the house, eh?"

My eyes narrowed as I turned my body around and started to walk towards the kitchen doorway, bringing both my hands back to my sides again.

"Keep dropping hints. It won't make me try any harder."

I heard a small thud against the carpet from behind me, indicating that the demon was following me and probably wanted to come and see what all the fuss was about. But that didn't stop me from heading towards the stairs. On my way through the kitchen I turned my gaze towards the stove and chopping board, seeing no sign of the headless chef who often lurked around in that area. It made me wonder if the noise from upstairs had scared him off, but I was soon shaking my head at the irony of that same thought.

'Ha! Yes, as if a headless chef would be scared off by noise! Don't be ridiculous, Emilia! He doesn't even have ears anymore!'

When I reached the top of the stairs I came to a stop and looked ahead down the corridor, squinting against the sunlight shining in from the front of the house. I could see that one of the windows (the second one down to be exact) had glass shards lying across the red rug, with a small distorted shaped hole now placed in said window in the bottom left corner. Lying amongst the glass shards was a small, grey rock, which, in comparison to the window, had made it inside completely unscathed.

I scowled and walked forward towards the rock when I heard Cat reach the final step of the stairs and tut, bending down and picking it up with one hand before standing up straight again.

"These humans are already a nuisance as it is," I heard him say, turning my head to look back at him as he looked towards the wall. "But apparently they've found a new way of being so without actually having to show themselves! Such cowardice!"

I saw Cat's ears start to twitch when loud laughter sounded, causing his head and mine to turn towards the partly smashed window.

"Hey, guys! Look! There's someone in the window!"

"Do you think it's the witch?! Are the rumours real?!"

"Let's find out. Hey! Old hag! You up there?!"

"… Dammit," I hissed once I'd registered the sound of voices from below, leaving me to stagger back a step from surprise and drop onto the floor on one knee away from the window and behind the bit of wall that separated each one.

I heard Cat chuckle behind me as he walked forward to join me, stopping at my side as I turned my head to peek around the wall a little and through the partly broken glass once I'd put the stone back on the carpet.

"Oh dear. Did you not want them to see your morning face-?"

"Shush."

I focused my gaze towards the dirt path that led towards the house, my brow furrowing at the sight I saw from below. Standing on the dirt path were a group of boys dressed in long sleeved shirts and shorts of varying colours, standing in a strange formation. The tallest boy with raven hair was stood at the front with his hands in his pockets, with two shorter boys with brunette hair standing behind him. They each were holding the restrained arms of what appeared to be the fourth and final boy with them, who in comparison to the others wore long, black trousers and boots and had rope tied around his middle and chest, accompanied by a small sack over his head. Whilst the other three boys were smirking in amusement and staring up towards the window they had smashed, the fourth boy was wriggling his body around and kicking out with his legs in attempt to free himself from their hold. It was difficult to see much else from my current vantage point, but I'd seen enough to know that what was currently going on probably wasn't good.

My brow furrowed further just as Cat moved forward and pushed himself up onto his hind legs, placing his front paws on the windowsill to follow my gaze down towards the scene happening below.

"Well, this is new," I heard him mutter, keeping my eyes on who I presumed to be the 'lead' boy as he straightened out his back. "Never thought I'd see the day that the humans decided to hand over sacrifices to the house personally. They're really cruel, aren't they?"

The tall boy reached his hands up to cup around either side of his mouth. "Oi! Don't bother tryin' to hide from us, witch! We know you're there!"

I stayed silent and continued to watch as he turned his body to the side and moved a hand away from his face, holding it out towards his two companions and his squirming victim.

"Come out and show yourself! If the rumours are true then we have a nice offering here, just for you! Looks mighty tasty, doesn't 'e?!"

I rolled my eyes at the remark and started to hear muffled and inaudible screeches coming from the mentioned 'sacrifice', giving him further reason to increase his squirming.

"Well, it looks like you were wrong," I whispered, my eyes narrowing as the two boys holding their hostage threw their heads back and laughed at his useless attempts to free him. "Someone has clearly been giving me publicity, even if I haven't been here for that long."

"And for free, no less! How generous~!" Cat added, leaving me to catch him ducking his head down as he sniggered in glee out of the corner of my eyes.

"With that being said, I agree with you that they're 'cruel', but they're also recklessly stupid." A smirk of amusement appeared. "I feel like they need to be educated in why you should never knowingly approach and taunt a witch in her own home~…"

Out of the corner of my eye I could see my smirk being mirrored on the cat's face as he turned his head back to face me, his sniggers ceasing. "Finally embracing your role, are ya~?"

My smirk faded. "Calm down, furball. Your main course isn't ready yet." I paused and turned my gaze away from the boys down below at the sound of loud cawing, glancing up above the trees into the sky just as a murder of crows glided their way by, their wings stretched out wide against the sudden turbulence of wind that blew through the forest. I smiled faintly. "It wouldn't hurt to give this place some more publicity, don't you agree~?"

I saw the cat turn his head to follow my gaze as the flock of crows began to fly over the group below, my eyes making eye contact with the lead crow. I wasn't a big fan of bloodshed, but that didn't mean I couldn't use other means to instil fear into these foolish bullies…

The 'lead' boy down below started to yell again to try to get my attention, but I was no longer listening. His obnoxious words were unable to penetrate the telepathic link between me and my temporary feathered ally.

"Yoo-hoo! Witch! Aren't old hags like you ever told it's rude to ignore people?!"

'Chase those three away, will you? They're giving me a dreadful headache.'

Seconds after I'd spoken in my thoughts, my faint smile morphed into an amused one at the sight of the lead crow tilting its body down to change its direction and fly around the group below it in a perfect circle. Its friends were quick to follow suit and copy its actions, resulting in a thin line of crows circling around their current prey like a pack of vultures, their wings flapping up and down in sync to keep themselves in the air.

I turned my gaze to the boys and saw all three of them had lifted their heads up and were blinking in confusion at the birds currently swarming around them. I also took note that the victim had momentarily stopped his feeble attempts at escape and fallen silent in favour of looking up towards the scene before them, even if he probably couldn't see what was going on.

However, after a moment of staring, the lead boy's eyes widened when the lead crow suddenly tilted its body downwards in his direction beak first and flew down diagonally towards the top of his head, briefly raising its head back and then forward to wedge the beak's sharp tip into his scalp. I started to chuckle in amusement as the three remaining boys focused their gazes on the leader, with the two lackeys watching on with wide eyes and gaping mouths upon hearing his screeches of agony, my shoulders shaking as the boy stumbled backwards and raised his hands above his head to swing them around in a frenzy, making panicked attempts to swat the threat away.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! WHAT'S GOTTEN INTO THESE CRAZY RATS WITH WINGS-?!"

My chuckles started to turn into full blown laughter when the rest of the flock followed suit and dived their way down and split themselves between the lead boy and his lackeys, the latter two being too slow to turn their attention away by the time the birds had descended upon them and started pecking at every inch of their bodies. The moment I heard the lackeys' screeches join their leader's and watched them let go of their hostage and unintentionally push him to the floor as they swatted their hands around in front of them, I was laughing even harder, wrapping my arms around my stomach and leaning back in my knelt position.

I was laughing so much that I ended up falling and landing with a small thud on my back on the carpet, my eyes filling up with tears. This was the first time in a while that I had laughed so much, and it felt like such a release.

"Yeesh! You're easily amused!" I heard Cat remark, but chose to ignore him and instead close my eyes as the tears streamed down my face, my laughter starting to die down a little.

Before long I heard the boys yelling amongst themselves in between screeches:

"OW-! AH-! I- I HEAR LAUGHING-! AH-!"

"YOW! IT'S THAT WITCH-! OUCH-! S-SHE DID THIS-!"

"LET'S GO, GUYS-! OW- OW-!"

"B-BUT WHAT ABOUT OUR PLAN-?!"

"FORGET THE PLAN! THAT OLD HAG IS TRYING TO PECK US TO DEATH- AH!"

My laughter started to calm down into chuckles as the sound of retreating footsteps against the dirtied path entered my ears, leaving me to take deep breaths as my trembling shoulders slowly ceased their movement.

"Ha… Ha, ha… Finally…!" I said, breathing out a sigh of relief as I reached up the sleeve of my cardigan to wipe my eyes, the sounds of the fleeing boys' cries and the cawing of the crows slowly beginning to fade away. "I thought they'd never leave!"

"I wouldn't look so relieved if I were you. You work isn't done just yet."

I moved my arm away from my eyes and scowled at the cat's words, turning my head his way to see him still on his hind legs, his front paws on the windowsill and his tail flicking up.

"… Why…?" I asked, putting emphasis on the word to voice how suspicious I was of his remark.

Cat turned his head to face me with a blink.

"They left their gift for you on the path."

My eyes widened the moment the words left his mouth, forcing me to roll over onto my front and use my hands to push myself up onto my knees. I shuffled forward towards the windowsill and looked down through the hole in the glass, only to see the fourth boy with the sack over his head lying face down on the ground. He was kicking his legs out and wriggling his body around like a fish knocked out of water, yelling out muffled sentences that were hard for me to hear from inside the house.

As realisation slowly dawned on me I found my shoulders slumping, my eyes drooping in dismay. "Oh yeah. I forgot about that one…"

"Why don't you accept their gift to you? It would be rude to refuse, right~?"

I raised an eyebrow in the cat's direction when I saw his bright yellow eyes light up and widen, a hungry look being evident. How hungry is this demon?

"… Not going to happen," I paused to push myself up onto my feet again, reaching a hand down to brush the front of my skirt. "I might as well scare the poor boy away. But if any of those other boys come back, I'll let you have dibs on them."

I heard cat chuckle as I turned around and started to walk away back down the corridor towards the stairs, not looking back even when he gave me one final cheeky remark.

"How hypocritical~…"

He wasn't wrong, but I'd long since passed the point of caring. Humans are flawed. We've always been that way.

By the time I had pushed open the front door of the house and stepped outside onto the dirt path, I found myself stopping and turning my gaze up at the blue sky above me, my eyes squinting a little at the sunlight beaming down. This was the first time I had voluntarily left the safety of the house in favour of being outside since I had first arrived here, and although that wasn't long ago I had almost forgotten the warm feeling of the summer air on my pale skin. It was certainly a refreshing change of scenery…

The boy's muffled screeches soon brought me back to reality with a blink, quickly reminding me of why I had stepped outside of the house in the first place. My eyes drooped as I watched him continue to wriggle around in desperation to escape his bonds, shaking my head and starting to walk towards him without a second thought. I didn't even bother to try and conceal my presence, allowing my footsteps to sound as I made my approach.

From his next reaction I could tell he could hear me, because he stopped moving around and raised his head from the ground in my direction, even if he couldn't see me. As I got closer I frowned upon hearing him wheezing, his breaths heavy and quick. I started to wonder if he was beginning to panic because of my presence, but instead decided to find out for myself as I stopped before him and knelt down in front of his head, reaching out my hands to grip at the top part of the rope restraining him. I neglected to bring any sharp tools on hand, and I was well aware of the fact I wasn't able to manipulate specific spells outside of the house, but I was sure I could easily free him by pulling the rope over the top of his head.

The moment I started tugging on the rope to pull it over him, I heard the boy let out another set of muffled screeches, causing me to scowl out of annoyance. He really was a noisy one…

"Keep still, will you?" I said through gritted teeth, pausing to grunt as I managed to pull part of the tightened rope over his head. "I'm helping you, stupid!"

Apparently, my words of attempted reassurance clearly brushed over his thick skull, because he continued to screech and tried to pull his upper body away from me to fight against the tugging. This proved useful, however, because his brute force against mine was weaker, making it easier for me to give one final tug and force the rope to slip over his head. At the same time, though, I also pulled the sack off too, and as both the latter and the rope dropped to the ground with a light thump, my eyes were left to widen when the boy pushed himself up into a sitting position the moment he realised he was free and shuffled backwards on his bottom away from me a little, giving me a better view of his body and his face.

The boy's face looked sunken, his chin-length blonde hair gathered together in a tatted mess across his forehead and sides. His shirt looked a couple of sizes too big and his sleeves concealed his hands, the ends covered in light brown dirt patches. His trousers were clearly being held up by the black straps on his shoulders, and the skin on his neck exposed his collarbone a little too much. A white handkerchief was tied around the back of his head and in his mouth, which explained why he must have been wheezing and the noises he made were muffled. In comparison to the other boys he looked so much skinner.

My body started to tremble as I remained silent and continued to stare into the boy's wide and frightened hazel eyes, being overcome with paralysing shock for what must have been the first time in a long while. My plan to frighten him away had completely backfired, but based upon the fear I could see in his eyes he must have been quick to assume that I was the witch of the house, despite not resembling their stereotypical 'old hag'.

However, it wasn't long before the boy broke away first, pushing himself up onto his feet and turning around to face the forest. He started running as soon as he was on his feet again, eventually straightening out his back and reaching up his hands for the makeshift gag around his mouth.

I was quick to stand and open my mouth to call out after him, my body moving of its own accord and against my thoughts, but no words made themselves known. Instead I could only watch the boy's back retreat into the forest until he vanished under the shade of the trees, leaving me standing there alone in the company of the house and the silence that engulfed the area.

As I continued to stare at the spot where the boy had formerly been I reached a hand up to place on my chest, my fingers gripping at the front of my shirt.

'… Forget it, Emilia. He did the right thing. You're the villain, remember?'

Taking a deep breath in through my nose and turning around so my back was now to the forest, I started to walk towards the house without another word, allowing my shoulders to slump and release it through my mouth.

'You're not the same weakling you were that short while ago, after all. Not anymore.'