A/N: I think chapter updates after this one might start getting slower, due to stuff going on in my real life. But I do hope you enjoy it and it was worth the short wait. Thanks again to all those reviewing, reading, favouriting and following this fanfic. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Chapter 7: Scars That Won't Heal

The blonde girl was quick to move her right hand and place it over her empty eye socket, but the damage had already been done. I had seen horrific injuries before on the majority of deceased souls I'd encountered over my lifetime, but each one never failed to bring shock to my very being. I couldn't comprehend how and why these people lost their lives in such awful ways, and now was no exception. She was clearly not that much younger than me, and yet had somehow died due to a problem with her eye…

'Good lord…'

Still gaping at her despite having fallen quiet, I blinked in surprise upon realising how I'd just reacted and how the girl's own actions made it seem like she was very self-conscious of her injury.

I stood up straight and placed a hand near to my mouth, loudly clearing my throat and turning my gaze down towards the floor.

"S-Sorry!" I stuttered, feeling the heat rise to my cheeks from embarrassment as I tried to get my words out. "I-I didn't mean to react like tha-"

"Forget it." I raised my head when I heard the girl respond to me in a calm but icy tone, her brow furrowed. "It's expected."

"… Sure," I replied, scowling as I turned my head away to face the wall on my left in attempt to be considerate despite her rudeness.

We hadn't been in each other's company for long, but already I could sense the hostility towards me on the girl's behalf. Whether this was because she was a victim of the previous witches and thus held a grudge against that title, or because she was a little too mindful of her injury, I didn't know. But it wasn't hard for me to see her hostility wasn't against me personally. If a different person had been in my place, no doubt she would have treated them the same way.

"But yes, I am the one who has been trying to reach out to you."

I watched out of the corner of my eye as the girl started to walk away from the door, heading in the direction of the candle and bandages resting on the floor. She kept her right hand in front of her eye all the while, still making useless attempts to hide it.

"… Thought so," I muttered, huffing and turning around to face her fully as she stopped before the cluster of items on the ground.

I watched her get down on her knees and reach both of her hands out to grab the roll of bandages at one end with one hand, using the other to slowly pull the other end and stretch it across the floor, unravelling it.

"I'm sorry for what happened," she said without looking in my direction. "I don't know how he escaped his cell, but I had nothing to do with it."

I rolled my eyes at that and continued to watch as she lifted the unravelled bandage up with both hands, flattening the right end with her palm against the area just above her injury. I blinked in surprise when part of her fringe was pushed aside and I saw a small hole on her forehead close to her right eye, but I was quick to shake my head to prevent myself from saying anything on it.

"Considering you came to my aid, I didn't think you did. Not that I care." I shrugged my shoulders. "Still, thank you for the help."

"Mhm."

As I watched the girl try to reach the other end of the bandage around her head, I couldn't help but raise a brow at how she was attempting to go about this. She switched hands to hold the right end of the bandage against her right palm instead of her left once the left end of the bandage had already circled around the back of her head and draped against her neck and left shoulder – which was fine. But when she pulled the left end of the bandage round to the front of her face again, she paused and blinked in confusion the moment she appeared to realise she couldn't repeat her previous actions without letting go of the right end, which would fall away from her eye. The angle of the bandage also looked a little off, as it needed to be more diagonal to properly cover her eye and stay tied around her head. From these actions alone, it wasn't difficult to see that this was the first time she had attempted to do something like this.

"… Need some help?" I asked, deciding to be polite and at least offer my aid.

Without looking my way, the girl shook her head slightly and frowned, raising her left hand to pull the bandage across her cheek and eye. I thought I saw her cheeks flush a light pink from embarrassment, her lips pursing together. "I can do it."

My eyes narrowed at the venom in her tone, but I kept watching her try and fail either way. "Whatever you say. Don't say I didn't offer."

As the girl started to wrap the bandage around the top of her head again and pull it round to her neck, the force moved it along the bottom of her chin and caused it to slip, causing her to flinch as it loosened and unravelled itself again. I showed no reaction to the annoyed huff that followed from the girl as she went to try again, having expected it to happen due to knowing the bandage was at the wrong angle.

With every attempt she wasted I found myself getting more and more annoyed by the second, my hands and left eye twitching repeatedly as I resisted the urge to charge over there and do it for her. From my short observations I could tell she acted mature for her age, which was contrasted with childish behaviour. The girl appeared conflicted, like she was a child trying to be an adult. It was a funny juxtaposition, but one that would naturally be expected from a teenager. Her actions and appearance suggested she was probably within that age range.

When the bandage slipped from her head for yet another time, the girl finally slumped her shoulders with a sigh of defeat, lowering her head a little towards her lap. After a moment of silence and staring at her still figure my eyes drooped in dismay, being followed up by a huff of annoyance. Even though she wasn't doing this on purpose (given she was half-blind and thus would naturally struggle), the way she was going about this really annoyed me.

"This is painful to watch," I eventually said, starting to walk over to her just as she lifted her head and turned it my way with a confused blink at my words. "Here. Let me-"

"No."

I came to a sudden stop just in front of her when she glared my way and interrupted me, causing me to blink in shock as she leaned her body away and loosened her grip on the ends of the bandages, the latter slipping from her fingers and gliding down to hook around her upper arm and shoulder. Within the light of the candle I saw her cheeks flush a darker shade of pink than before.

"I said I can do it."

I scowled and placed a hand to my hip, staring down into her good eye with my own narrowing. If my anger was a flame, my entire body would have been set alight by now. But I restrained myself, taking a deep breath in and out through my nose before making my response.

'Be patient, Emilia. Getting angry won't resolve this. Remain calm.'

"Stop being stupid."

The blonde girl's brow momentarily relaxed as she gaped at my response, further leaning towards the wall and bringing her hands to her chest in a protective manner when I bent my knees a little and leaned forward, reaching out a hand towards her with my palm facing up.

"Just give me the bandage and I'll-"

"Get away!"

I retracted my hand back when the girl closed her eye and swiped her left hand towards me, attempting to swat me away. My eyes widened for a moment, but that soon changed when my brow creased into a frown, my teeth gritting out of frustration.

"You are really trying my patience, you know that?"

The girl opened her eye and scowled, her shoulders seemingly beginning to tremble with anger as she leaned her body forward towards me, stopping when she was about a small distance away from my face.

"And you're trying mine! Just leave me alone!"

"Says the girl who locked me in the same cell with her!" I paused as the volume of my voice raised a little, feeling the heat rising to my face just as I saw the girl's cheeks flush red. We were both losing our patience now. "Why do you insist on being such a pain?!"

"Because I'm thirteen now and I don't need your help, Daddy!"

Seconds after her yell of defiance had left her mouth I found myself blinking out of shock and taking a moment to process her words, completely taken off guard.

"… What?"

The girl's reaction was a little delayed, but her eye nearly bulged out of its socket when she realised her apparent 'slip-of-the-tongue', both of her hands slapping themselves over her mouth. She definitely hadn't meant to say that.

As the two of us stared at each other with silent shock I eventually saw tears start to appear in the girl's good eye, her body now trembling for a completely different reason this time. She was the first to break eye contact, turning her body away from me and lowering her head a little towards her lap, hands still over her mouth. The silence around us became filled with muffled sobs as she closed her eye, leaving me to watch in silence as the first tear came loose and slid down her cheek.

Furrowing my brow out of awkwardness I straightened out my back and stood up straight again, folding my arms across my middle as I silently watched the girl continue to cry and sob into her shaking hands.

'Great. What do I do now? Let her cry? Try and comfort her?' I closed my eyes and let out a quiet huff, tilting my head back and placing a hand flat against my forehead. 'If only she hadn't put up such a fuss…'

I paused to open my eyes and shake my head, lowering my gaze so that it locked with the trembling and weeping spirit of the blonde girl in the light of the candle. The muffled sobs escaping her was slowly starting to get the better of me, resulting in a flinch at the dull ache starting to eat away at my chest. … Was I starting to pity her?

'… I need to cut her some slack. She's just a kid. And she's clearly been through something traumatic. I'm sure if it was the other way around, I wouldn't want someone who I'd just saved getting all up in my face, either.'

After allowing a few more seconds to pass to listen to her muffled crying I knelt down on both knees in front of her and reached out a hand to grab the dangling bandage from her shoulder. The girl sniffled and raised her head from her hands by the time I was pulling the bandage away, her teary eye blinking in confusion and causing more tears to stream down the one side of her face.

"Hey," I started, holding the bandage up in front of me. "Do you still want the bandage around your eye or not?"

Her gaze switched between the bandage I was now holding and my face at least twice before she settled for staring me in the eyes, opening her mouth to speak and attempting to sound annoyed despite her stuttering.

"B-But I just said-"

"It's not a sin to ask for help when you need it, you know," I paused after cutting her off as she quickly closed her mouth, blinking at me in confusion. "You've obviously been trying to get me here for a while now, and all that's happened so far is you wasting both mine and your time over a bandage."

The girl tilted her head to the side slightly as I held out the bandage towards her with both hands gripping either end.

"I know what I'm doing, so just let me help, okay? It'll be quick and painless for the both of us."

Silence rang in the air around us as I allowed her time to process my words, waiting until she sniffled again and reached a hand up to her good eye to wipe away remaining tears before she finally nodded, her cheeks turning bright red.

"… Thank you," I said through a breathless sigh of relief, raising the left end of the bandage to the right side (my left) of her neck just underneath her ear. "In that case, hold this down for me, please."

The girl did as she was told without further objection, raising her right hand to hold the bandage down flat with her palm and turning her gaze towards her lap. From there I was quick to get to work, using my left hand to wrap the bandage across her eye and part of her forehead, and using the other hand to lift her fringe out of the way to weave part of the bandage through her hair when wrapping it around the back of her head. I made sure to keep the bandage at a diagonal angle so it wouldn't move once I'd tied up the ends, and I even took the liberty of covering her other wound across her forehead.

Whilst I went about doing this I decided to finally get some answers out of her, not just for my benefit, but also so she had a chance to forget about her recent blunder.

"So… care to tell me why you wanted to talk to me directly? Considering most of the residents in this house haven't bothered to speak to their new witch, you're currently the boldest one I've encountered."

"… If it were up to me I wouldn't have come to you for help at all," the girl muttered, only for a small huff to follow. "But it's not like I have anyone else who I could have gone to."

I turned my eyes towards her in a side glance when she paused with her words, the remaining hand in her lap clenching into a fist as she creased her brow.

"I hate this house and the last witch who lived in it. When I heard a new witch had come I was sure you were going to be the same as her." Her brow relaxed, her fist loosening. "Until I was pulled into your dreams…"

Wrapping the last layer of the bandage around the back of her head, I moved my right hand away from her fringe and to her right ear, tapping my index finger against the back of her hand to indicate for her to let go of the other end of the bandage without interrupting her.

"I could sense there was something different about you. There seems to be an upset in the balance between you and the magic of the house, something the last witch didn't have a problem with."

As the girl moved her hand away and allowed me to tie the two ends of the bandage together under her ear, I nodded in agreement with what she said, allowing a smirk of amusement to slip across my lips.

"… Yeah. I think that's because me and Cat are currently having harsh words with one another - to put it mildly, so the house and I aren't completely on the same side. I suspect that's why my new addition of residents tried to kill me a moment ago, since Mister 'fusspot' assured me the souls here wouldn't interfere with my business."

The girl shifted her head slightly to face me once I'd tightened the knot of the bandage and moved my hands away to my lap, a hand of hers raising to stroke her fingers across the covered part of her forehead.

"So it's true? You killed all of those people?"

I was quick to hold up both hands in front of me out of surrender when my smirk faded, having expected such a response to my words.

"You're free to judge me all you like. But I had my reasons for doing what I did. That's all."

I saw the girl frown at my response, but it wasn't a frown of anger or of condemnation or even judgement. It was a frown that indicated she pitied me, as if having recalled what I'd been shouting at those spirits in the passage earlier. For all I know, she'd probably heard everything since she was in the same vicinity as the incident the whole time.

"… But enough about me," I quickly added when the girl had opened her mouth in preparation to speak, a teasing smile making itself known. "I hope you didn't make me come all the way here because you needed help with that bandage."

The girl's cheeks flushed a bright pink when she scowled at my remark, causing my smile to widen a little out of amusement. Her embarrassment was fun to mess with, I would admit.

"N-No!" she stuttered, turning her head to the side to avoid my gaze. "But- But thank you for fixing it…!"

"You're welcome."

The girl paused to allow a moment for the colour to return to her face.

"I'm- I'm having trouble trying to figure out how to put this in a way you'll understand…"

"Take your time. It's not like I've got anywhere to be."

She side-glanced me and deepened her scowl at my attempt at a joke, resulting in me giving her a cheeky grin. After a moment or so, though, she eventually relaxed her shoulders and huffed.

"As much as I want to get everything off my chest, I'm having doubts about trusting you. The last witch used me, you see, so it's hard for me to open up to someone who comes from the same title…"

"Understandable," My grin dropped as I tilted my head to the side, reaching up a hand to brush a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "I suppose, then, you're considering testing me as a way of making sure it's the right decision to trust me, right?"

The girl's eye widened as she turned to face with me with a shocked blink, her mouth falling open slightly.

"H-How did you know that's what I was going to do?!"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, what other reason would you have for luring me up here if you want my help but can't bring yourself to trust me? It'd be pointless of you to do that unless you were prepared to give me a chance to prove you wrong."

Upon hearing this the girl reached a hand behind her neck to give it a quick rub, her body slumping a little in dismay.

"… It does sound silly when you put it that way."

"Exactly. Just tell me what I need to do and I'll do it. I'm all ears." I frowned and held up an index finger to point in her direction. "But if it involves killing or physical harm, you can count me out. I don't dabble into that unless that person/those people have wronged me personally."

The girl's eye widened a little in surprise, acting like she hadn't expected me to respond in such a way. "You… You want to help me?"

I nodded, leaning my body back so I could shift position and move my legs out from underneath me, sitting down on my bottom and crossing the latter one over the other.

"I might as well hear you out. Very few spirits like you are strong enough to communicate with the living." I paused to place my hands behind me and stretch out my back. "There's also the fact you'll keep disturbing my sleep if I don't at least try, so lay it on me. What do you need me to do to gain your trust?"

The moment her surprise wore off, the girl shook her head at this, placing a hand on top of the bandage covering her eye.

"… I can't answer that."

I raised a brow at her words and stayed silent for a moment, giving her a quick look up and down to ensure she was being serious with her response. "… Pardon?"

"I can't tell you what I want you to do."

Blinking in confusion, I straightened out my back so I was sitting up straight again, placing both of my hands on the knees of my tights.

'… Is this kid for real?'

"You can't tell me what you need me to do?" I repeated, with the girl nodding in response. My shoulders slumped in dismay. "… How does that work? How am I supposed to meet your terms if you don't tell me what they are?!"

The girl didn't answer me straight away. She was silent as she stared at me, leaving me to assume she was probably finding a way to summarise her thoughts in a way that made sense and that allowed me to understand her strange approach to this. After a moment or so longer she placed her hands together in her lap and turned her eye towards the back wall of this cell.

"… I know, it sounds stupid. But I have my reasons." She paused as I saw her good eye droop a little, her head lowering towards her lap. "The first is what I want you to do isn't likely to happen. And the second involves the last witch of the house."

I raised a brow at this as the girl's voice started to fall quiet and solemn upon reaching the second reason, lifting her hands from her lap and placing them to her chest.

"To get what she wanted she used her magic. She read my heart to see what kind of person I was and used it against me. Because she knew my thoughts and feelings she was able to trick me. And I don't want to make that same mistake again."

"… Ah, I see," I mumbled, causing her to raise her head and turn to look at me as I furrowed my brow in thought. "That's the real test, isn't it? You want me to gain your trust by showing my true self, and to do that I have to meet your terms naturally, not because you want me to, yes?"

For a while the girl with blonde hair stared at me in deathly silence, her lack of movement making her appear as if she was a life-sized doll. She had such pretty hair and eyes. The colours made me think of the sun and the greenery of the forest, which only furthered my opinion of her looks going hand in hand. Although it did make me wonder how this girl had come to be a victim of the previous witch in the first place. Her injuries didn't match with any of the traps in the house; however, the wound on her forehead seemed like a small enough one to match that of a gunshot. Was the toy soldier on the fourth floor the culprit who had caused her demise, perhaps?

"… You're sharper than you look."

I gave a smile of triumph, feeling as if I'd just won a game of hide and seek. "So, I'm right~?"

The girl nodded, finally allowing a playful smile of her own to slip onto her face. She had a lovely smile, and it helped to brighten up her look when contrasting with the bandage over her eye.

"Mhm. Are you okay with that?"

"Fine by me." 'I'd rather go with that than being a kiss up any day…' "Just don't forget to give me some kind of indication that I've hit the nail on the head when I'm done, okay?"

"I won't."

"Good. Now then…" I allowed my smile to drop as I turned my head in the direction of the bars of the cell lit up in the light of the candle, letting out a small sigh upon remembering where I was and the recent incident that had occurred a short while ago. "… how am I going to get back to my room without those spirits getting in my way again?"

Although it was currently silent in the passage outside of the cells, I didn't doubt for one second that the blacksmith was still roaming around and waiting for me to leave. There was a chance I could have used my magic against him this time without turning into a frozen mess, but I didn't feel like wasting my abilities just so I could get out of a corridor. Not to mention that the spirits connected to me were certainly persistent and would no doubt continue to chase me even after I'd left the room…

'What a pain…' I thought, my eyes drooping in dismay.

"… You're better off staying here for the night."

My brow raised when I heard the girl speak up behind me, my head turning back to face her just as she raised a hand to brush strands of messy fringe out of her good eye.

"I expect the cat will come to help you at some point, so you might as well wait here."

"… And you're okay with that?" I asked in a fake tone of shock, a teasing smirk appearing on my lips. "Are you sure that you want to temporarily share a cell with a currently untrustworthy witch?"

The girl smiled in amusement and shook her head, her distrustful façade seeming to temporarily dissipate under the guise of being unable to hide it any longer. "It's just for tonight. And I was raised to be kind to everyone, even untrustworthy witches~…"

My smirk faded in favour of having me mirror her amused smile against my will, leaving me to follow it up with a small bow of the head.

"Why, thank you~! I'm flattered~!"

I lifted my head the moment I heard a small giggle sound from the younger girl at my sarcasm, my smile widening as I watched her try to muffle it with a hand over her mouth. It was nice to see her open up to me a little bit despite her struggle to trust me. It was a more positive reaction than what I'd received growing up, and she did seem like a good kid who deserved a little light in her life. Compared to the other residents of the house, I felt as though she and I resonated on a mutual level, even if we currently knew very little of one another. It was the first time I had ever felt such a way around a complete stranger.

I waited until she stopped giggling before speaking up again, my smile dimming down a little bit.

"But in all seriousness, thank you. Hopefully I can pay you back by meeting your terms. Until then, all I can offer you as compensation is an introduction." Pausing, I placed a hand to my chest and tilted my head to the side. "You can call me 'Emilia'. And you are?"

The girl mimicked my actions and placed a hand of her own to her chest, but instead of moving her head she instead raised her shoulders and widened the smile still on her face.

"Viola. I'm Viola."

"I don't think we have much choice now. We need to take action for Emilia's sake. We can't let her go outside anymore-"

"But that isn't fair on her, Chad! She can't stay cooped up inside! What kind of a life is that for a seven-year-old girl?"

"You've seen how aggressive they've become as of late, Sophie. He's got these villagers wrapped around his little finger, and now they won't stop at nothing to harm a little girl who they've been tricked into believing is some- some witch. Do I need to remind you of the ten-year-old boys who assaulted her with stones today? She was lucky to escape with minor injuries!"

Sat beside the top of the stairs with her legs stretched out and her back resting against the wall, little Emilia listened to her parents downstairs having their heated exchange. Blinking in surprise upon hearing her Father mention her injuries, the young blonde subconsciously raised a hand to the large purple bruise in the middle of her forehead that she had sustained from the mentioned assault. She flinched and closed an eye at the sting that followed when her fingers touched her skin, keeping her gaze locked on the stairs upon hearing her Mother speak again, her tone hysterical.

"Even so, you know how much I've sacrificed to keep Emilia from living like that! I risked my life that day to give her a future! I've given up everything so she could be free of his influence! Have you forgotten that? Isn't that the reason you agreed to leave your old life behind and come here with me?!"

"I know that. I've done that too. But we have to face the facts. He knows we're here, Sophie. He's using the villagers to pry Emilia from you. It's too dangerous already to allow her outside alone if the villagers are going to resort to physical abuse, but he could snatch her at any time when no one's looking, and we'd be none the wiser! She's a sitting duck without us there!"

"Then what else do we do, Chad? Move to another village and hope he doesn't find us again? We can't spend the rest of our lives running!"

"Exactly!"

Emilia blinked in surprise when she heard her Father yell and then fall quiet, letting out a loud sigh.

"I'm just trying to help you keep her as safe as possible, Sophie. I care about her just as much as you do."

There was momentary silence before Emilia turned her head away upon hearing her Mother speak up, her voice calmer and quieter than before.

"I know. I know. But I can't bear it! I can't bear the thought of keeping her in the house all the time! She has a right to be able to do what any child is allowed to!"

"Of course she does. That's why I was going to suggest we don't let her go outside unless we accompany her. If you'd just let me finish we wouldn't have needed to yell."

Emilia's eyes drooped as she turned her gaze to her knees hidden under her nightgown, just as her Mother let out an irritated sigh of her own.

"I know- I know. I-I'm sorry. I-I just-"

"It's alright, Sophie. I know it's because you care about her more than words can say. Believe me, you don't realise just how lucky Emilia is to have a Mother like you…"

As silence rang around the area downstairs Emilia pushed herself to her feet and turned to start the walk back towards her bedroom, her hand still covering the bruise on her forehead.

'… I'm sorry, Mommy, Daddy. I'm sorry I make you yell.'

The moment I blinked my eyes open and found my blurred vision locking with a familiar looking ceiling lit up broadly, I thought I heard the voice of the cat address me in a mocking sing-song tone somewhere to my left.

"Rise and shine~!"

As I blinked a couple more times to correct my vision, it didn't take me long to realise where I was, but to confirm my suspicions I slowly raised my head and pushed my upper body up some, propping up my elbows on either side of me to give me some leverage. I glanced down towards my body when I felt the white bed sheets covering me slide down towards my lap a little, stamping out the remaining remnants of my doubt in an instant.

I was back in my room, and it was morning.

'So, the furball did come looking for me in the end, huh? Just like Viola said he would…'

Although I was able to recall the events of the night before and the exchange that had occurred between me and Viola, I had no idea at what point I had dozed off whilst I had stayed with her in that cell. But one thing I was certain of was that cat had probably come for me during that time and somehow moved me back to this room. Perhaps with some help from one of the demons in the house, given he could do little for me in his cat form…

"That was an ugly turn last night, huh?"

I turned my head towards the cat with drooped eyes when I heard him speak again, seeing him on his hind legs with his front paws placed on the side of the bed. But I decided not to say anything yet, letting him babble on whilst I pushed myself further up into a proper sitting position on the bed and grabbed the corner of the quilt with a hand to pull it off me.

"I had a feeling you'd let your curiosity get the better of ya and go poking your nose in there! Not that I care! It's your house, so you could have gone in there any time you liked!"

I let him go on as I turned my body around and hung my legs over the left side of the bed to place them flat on the floor, with the only movement the cat made in response being to turn his head to follow my movements. I was listening to what he was saying, but I pretended to act like I wasn't so I could get the drop on him when he least expected it.

"But I don't give out warnings lightly, you know! I did tell ya it wasn't like the others! I knew you were reckless, but-"

I cut him off halfway when I suddenly moved my right hand down towards him and grabbed at the fur on the back of his neck, resulting in a loud hiss escaping him and the flailing of all four of his paws as I pulled him up from the floor. Pushing myself to stand up from the bed I stretched my arm out as far as it would go and held the cat in front of me at face level, my brow creasing into a scowl. Cat eventually allowed his legs to fall limp and dangle in the air upon locking eye contact with me, blinking in surprise at the current expression on my face.

"… Did ya wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning-?"

"Ekimmu."

The cat tilted his head to the side out of confusion when I interrupted him with the strange term, staying silent and not saying anything to implore me to continue. He didn't need to speak up to tell me he didn't understand what I was trying to do. His silence spoke for him.

"According to Babylonian and Assyrian religion, they're departed spirits who rise from the underworld and haunt the living if they weren't properly buried or given the appropriate offerings when they died. You already know about all of that I'm sure, given that these are the spirits currently occupying this house."

"… And what's your point?"

My scowl deepened as I brought Cat a little closer to my face.

"… It was you, wasn't it?"

Cat blinked in confusion at this, straightening out his head so his yellow eyes could stare into my blue ones a little better.

"… Eh?"

"Don't play dumb with me, demon," I hissed, feeling the heat beginning to rise to my cheeks due to suppressed anger. "It was no accident that the blacksmith was the one wandering around the passage when I encountered that door. You let him out."

"Me? And what would make you think that?" Cat replied in a fake tone of surprise, widening his eyes and tilting his head to the side a little in attempt to give the saddest look he could muster.

"Put those eyes away, you scruffy fleabag!" I paused to tighten my fingers' grips on the scruff of his neck, causing Cat to meow in pain and jerk in my hold, revealing his claws. "I'm not stupid. I know you did that to try to manipulate me through fear. And do you want to know how I know?"

I narrowed my eyes and reached my other hand into the right pocket of my cardigan, grabbing my Father's ring between my index finger and thumb and lifting it back out to hold it up in front of the cat's face.

"Because of this."

Cat raised his left front paw to give the item in between my fingers a prod after retracting his claws, his ears twitching a little as he did so.

"… That old thing?"

"Yes. I'm well aware that you have the power to peek into my heart and read my thoughts and feelings. So, it's no surprise that when you did do that, you probably encountered a certain secret I've never told anyone, not even my own Mother."

I could see the fur of Cat's brow starting to become damp from the sweat beginning to form as I leaned my face closer to his, his eyes widening as I stopped within nose touching distance.

"But you also would have come across the fact that the blacksmith knows this secret too, considering that on that day ten years ago when I accompanied my Mother to the market shortly after my Father's death, I saw his wife with this ring stuck on her stubby finger."

Cat gulped and closed his eyes when sweat began to drip down the sides of his face from his forehead, morphing his mouth into a wide grin.

"O-Okay-! Okay! I get it! You caught me-! I-I was just tryin' to- to motivate you into giving me souls-! Demons have feelings too, you know! I'm withering away here-!"

As the cat continued to ramble on with his pleads for fake mercy on my behalf, I found my eyes turning towards the window of the bedroom on my left when loud tweeting from the birds outside drowned out his noise, moving my face away from his to focus my gaze better.

"-You should be grateful…! It's not like I would have let you die if you'd decided to give yourself up to those villagers-! I was gonna jump in and save you-!"

"Is that so."

Cat opened his eyes and fell silent the moment I spoke up and turned my gaze back to him, with him seeing me give him a small smile of fake gratitude and tilting my head to the side for added effect in trying to appear 'genuine'.

"Well, why didn't you just say so! I completely misunderstood your intentions! I hope you can forgive me!"

Cat blinked in confusion at my response, tilting his own head a little to the side upon picking up my overly saccharine sounding tone and words. He wasn't fooled. He knew I was up to something.

"Er… Emilia…? W-What's gotten into you-?"

Cat fell quiet again when I turned my body in the direction of the window and started to walk towards it, keeping him held up in front of me and his back facing the way we were heading so he didn't catch on to what I was going to do yet. His eyes went wide when my smile did, just as I came to a stop in front of the window and put the ring back into my pocket again.

"Here. Let me make it up to you."

I raised my empty hand to the window and used my index finger to flick the latch loose, causing him to turn to look back seconds before I pushed my palm out to cause both frames to swing out and open up in front of us. I kept my smile up as I reached my arm out of the window as far as it could go, with Cat crying out in surprise and turning to look at me whilst kicking his legs back and forth in a panic.

"Wait-! Wait-! Emilia-! Can we talk 'bout this-?!"

Without any hesitation I relaxed my fingers and released my hold on the scruff of his neck, leaning forward a little to watch as Cat yelled loudly and plummeted down towards the ground from the fifth floor. My smile dropped as Cat's shadow-like figure got smaller and his yell got quieter the further he fell, remaining silent until he disappeared under the canopy of leaves below and I could no longer hear him.

Reaching out both of my hands for the handles of either window, I yelled as loud as I could regardless of whether he would hear me or not.

"I HOPE YOU'VE LEARNT YOUR LESSON, DEMON! THE NEXT TIME YOU TRY TO CONTROL ME THROUGH FEAR AND MANIPULATION, I'LL THROW YOU TO THE GROUND FROM THE ROOF OF THIS VERY HOUSE!"

Deciding not to wait to see the demon's true form make itself known, I was quick to lean my body back inside and pull the windows closed, closing my eyes and huffing at the loud slam that followed when they connected with the frame.

'And that is what happens when you mess with the likes of me!'

A/N: As a side note, it hasn't been confirmed canonically where the two gunshots fired at Viola injured her aside from her forehead. Based on what I saw when re-watching the ending of the game, it looked to me as if she was shot through the right eye socket and her forehead, so that's what I went with regarding her 'death injuries' in this chapter. I'd also like to point out that Viola's shift in personality is something I put in as a result of the aftermath regarding her situation with Ellen. Although Viola seems out of character here, I believe that if she did resurface as a resident of the house she would have been affected personality-wise by what she went through in some way. This is just my interpretation of that.