A/N: I'm back! And Taiwan was wonderful :)

You fed it, kept the monstrous mimicry of humanity alive. It had only been ten days between when Lyon – no, the Demon King, had left and when your master returned. Yet those days stretched painfully into long hours.

What bothered you most wasn't its incessant mumbling, the cracking of its stiff joints, its unblinking red-eyed stare. It was the way it leered at you, a disgusting parody of how your late lady used to smile so cheerfully.

Its movements were mechanical, its red eyes empty and devoid of warmth. It took it five seconds to react to any external stimuli, and you had to prod it mouth with the spoon and wait for a few seconds before it would unhinge its jaw and allow itself to be fed.

You tried your best to avoid it, only visited it three times each day for those scant ten minutes you needed to feed it, but that grin it had…even when you were far away, on the opposite side of the castle, it floated on the edge of your thoughts, mocking you.

For the first three days, each morning you woke up screaming and covered in perspiration. You dreamt of nothing else but that leering eerie face. On the fourth night, you could have sworn you heard the sound of bare feet, slowly being dragged over the tiled floors. You did not sleep at all that night.

"After a bit she should be able to walk on her own…" In the morning, you recalled the words the Demon King had said to you. What if…you ran to the room where it lay like a broken pile of limbs, and tied its legs together.

You could only hope that once your master returned, he would recognize the perverse corruption of his wife's body and bring an end to this insanity.

The days dragged on.

By the fifth day, you had started talking to yourself.

You hadn't even realized it until you were halfway through your sentence.

"I wonder when Orson will return," you had said.

And it wasn't really talking to yourself, you rationalized, it was merely speaking your thoughts aloud. You would do anything to break the eerie silence that set in when you left the lady's room. Even though all she did was mumble, barely coherently, about her "darling," and how she loved him, it was better than the pin-drop silence that afflicted the rest of the castle. On windy days, you could imagine that the wind was trying to talk to you, and it was slightly better. But on a weatherless day like today, something had to fill the silence, or else you would go insane. So you continued to voice your thoughts aloud, praying that your master would return soon and end this.

By the eighth day, you had almost begun to delude yourself that lady Monica, was, in fact, alive. Perhaps not in possession of all her mental faculties, but alive - like poor Thanos,the village idiot who had gone dumb after falling from a tree and hitting his head.

After all, Lady Monica could speak, breathe, and move. And you would rather pretend she be alive than spend another second feeling so utterly and wretchedly alone in that godforsaken castle.

You untied her legs, feeling guilty and foolish for being so disrespectful to your master's beloved. She smiled at you, and you knew that she has forgiven you for your rudeness. After all, lady Monica had never been one to hold grudges. You wondered why you had been so frightened of her before, and mentally berated yourself for your lack of judgment. Lady Monica was gentle and warm and soft spoken. She would never harm anyone!

Coincidentally, it was the tenth day when you asked her when she thought her husband would return. She turned to you, eyes blank, and whispered, "darling..."

That one action reminded you that she was a puppet, only capable of speaking those four words that the demon king had given her. You reeled back in horror. Had you truly fallen so far that you had begun talking to a monster?

"You have been forsaken," the wind mocked you. "Your master shall never return, and you will go insane."

The castle groaned. "No escape..."

You could have sworn you heard deep, guttural, laughter but you could not identify its source.

You shook your head violently, trying to rid yourself of the voices.

Fresh air! That was what you needed. You slammed the door shut, locking it, and stumbled outside blearily, blinking your eyes furiously as the afternoon light flooded your vision. The wind howled. The castle creaked.

You sank to the ground in despair. Covered your eyes, hugged your knees to your chest, and rocked back and forth, moaning.

The sound of hooves broke you out of your misery. Glancing upwards, you spotted a palomino steed wearily treading towards the castle. Sitting astride it was a familiar figure in green armor...

Your master had returned.

A/N: OH JANX YOU POOR KID I'M SORRY I MADE YOU GO CRAZY