Pleasedon'tkillme D:

I know I've been a horrible authoress. And I've got dozens of excuses. I'm just too lazy to write them out.

Good news is, I found the outline I had been missing for quite some time, so now I hopefully won't get writers block near as bad anymore. I may even start to do weekly updates again. :3

For now, enjoy chapter seven! TwT

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Chapter 7

Absence

The following day was nothing short of hectic. Upon realization that Chrno's little 'outburst' had caused thousands of dollars worth of property damage, Rosette's already tangled state of mind was promptly ripped in half three times over. Though she felt responsible for causing so much destruction and injury that soon followed the quake, she knew there was nothing she could do… well, she could reprimand the demon like a dog that just tore up a leather sofa – but who the Hell would want to get in the direct line of fire of his already sour mood? If his simple state of riled emotions could cause an earthquake, she wasn't sure she wanted to test him limitations of rage.

And of course Joshua came running home the second school let out, nearly tearing down the front door as he bolted in, both relieved and ticked to see his big sister sitting in the living room watching TV, safe and sound. After a few moments of Rosette's shaky and obviously fishy excuses for not coming to school, the younger sibling already leapt upon the incident of the earthquake.

And everyone knows Rosette Christopher absolutely sucks at lying to her little brother.

So the following scene with her trying to break the news to Joshua that yes, she had a bit of a quarrel with her 'ghost' (She still refused to tell Joshua she was contracted to a demon – the poor boy would have a heart attack), and that whenever he gets mad, stuff will probably blow up. Of course she worded it a little nicer than that, but that still left Joshua with worry written all over his face, along with the possible manifestation of an ulcer. And thus began the very hesitant recollection of everything that happened in the past few days, earning Rosette another headache. It wasn't long before she finally gave up with her brother's pestering and begging for her to tell him exactly what's been going on with her – and she stormed off to her room, practically slamming the door shut. It wasn't like she was mad at Joshua (Though her actions stated otherwise)…. She just needed time to think. A lot. And probably angst a little since she was already going through the trouble of inner turmoil.

With a long, strained sigh, Rosette fell face-up onto her bed, brows furrowed in deep thought. Absentmindedly she looked over towards the window that sat above the end of her bed, thankful to see that the sun was still out. The last thing she needed was Chrno creeping her out again…. Which seemed to happen at night more often than not.

Her gaze slowly moved across the ceiling, breath irregular as she recalled different emotions, different struggles that she was currently dealing with, or ones she knew she would have to in the not so distant future. For one, Joshua mentioned that police had already filtered into school that day, asking for her. No doubt she'll be interrogated before week's end over Eric's death…. And just what was she going to tell them? She couldn't lie and say she had no idea what happened, and she couldn't tell them she did know what happened. That would go over real well.

Another issue would be her brother. He lives with her, so it's going to only get more and more difficult to keep her already loosely kept 'secret' from him… should she go through the risk of telling him? Chrno had said once that he understood she loved Joshua, and that hurting him would only cause her pain.

She blinked, remembering the demon's exact words. He said that after she cried her eyes out for Eric. Maybe she was right…. Perhaps Chrno really was trying to understand her. 'Trying' being the key word…

But even if it was safe to tell Joshua, what good would that do? He'd worry about her even more, if he knew the morbid reason the for the existence of a contract… though there was the chance he'd be relieved if he knew Chrno wasn't simply a mindless, vengeful spirit he's labeled him as. But was that even really worth it?

"You've made my life a living Hell." She mumbled, eyes melting into a half-hearted glare at the ceiling. "Isn't there anything you can do to make it a little more manageable?"

Silence.

Of course – he shuts up whenever the occasion arises that she asks him for a favor. Wonderful. Well, fat lotta good that did.

"Neesan?" Joshua's timid voice carried through the cherry wood door, muffled lightly by his soft knocking. "Are you okay? I'm really sorry I pried… please don't be mad…."

Rosette sighed again, brining up a hand to cover her eyes and forehead, feeling another headache coming on. "The door's open, Joshua." She replied simply. "Come on in. I'm not mad at you."

Her gesture was replied with the soft creaking of the door, and she felt her little brother's blue eyes fixate on her. "Neesan….." He whispered, before walking over solemnly and sitting beside her at her bed. "You can't keep sulking like this."

"I'm not sulking." She replied back as her hand drug down across her face in an irritated manner, before she placed it uselessly at her stomach. "What do you need?"

He was quiet for a moment, obviously searching for the right words. "You need to come to school tomorrow. You can't just run away from your life, you know."

"….. I know that." She admitted softly. All she had been doing lately was running away…. Most of all, she tried to avoid Chrno. At least now she knew running away wouldn't do any good…. "I just don't know what to do. I feel like my life's been turned upside down these past few days…. Nothing's been the same."

"Well, how about this?" The blond boy smiled as best her could, and squeezed her leg reassuringly. "Tomorrow after school, we can go look for an exorcist! We'll get rid of your ghost problem for you."

He offer was met with silence, as if Rosette was waiting for something. "No comment, smart ass?" She blurted out.

Joshua blinked. "Wh-what?"

She looked up, cheeks a little red as she realized she asked that out loud. She turned her head. "N-Nothing. I just… don't think that would work."

"Why not?"

"M 'ghost'….he's not….." She bit her lip fighting left and right in her mind for a few moments before deciding to change the direction of the conversation. "That's not what we need to be worrying about right now. I'll probably end up going to the station in the city with the police tomorrow. You know, for being Eric's murderer and all." She felt as though she was going to puke, to be able to say that so easily.

Her little brother blinked again. "Murderer?"

"You don't need to rub it in Joshua…" She whispered, feeling herself lean on the edge of tears again. But if she cried, she'd show weakness…. She couldn't.

"Eric's not dead." Joshua replied simply.

Another uncomfortable silence passed through the room.

"Wh-what?" Rosette practically scared her brother to death as she rose up, blue eyes as wide as dinner plates. "What do you mean he's not dead?!"

Baby blue eyes met darker cerulean ones. "D-did…. You want him to die?" He asked quietly.

"N-no! Of course not! It's just…. He wasn't moving, and…. M-my ghost said he wouldn't bother me anymore and…" Her gaze moved almost frantically from her brother, to various objects around the room, her mind spinning. Wait a minute… 'Does his death still haunt me'? 'Why do I care if he's dead'? Chrno never actually stated strictly that Eric had died! That rat bastard!! All this time she had assumed the worse, because that was just the nature of her luck…. But he wasn't really dead!

"He was knocked unconscious for several hours, but they announced today at school that he's just suffered minor head trauma and a fractured wrist that apparently helps cushion the blow. Thankfully it wasn't his spine." Joshua pondered for a moment. "They said he took a blow to the…. The cer..curv…. Right here!" He pointed frantically to a part of his neck. "The Vulcan Death Grip!"

Rosette stared at him dumbfoundedly. "Joshua, for the love of god that's not even real."

"Yeah but it's kinda the same 'cause you know that one episode in Star Trek where Spock uses the Vulcan Death Grip on the captain – but it doesn't really kill him, it just made him faint or something, and-"

Rosette slapped a hand over his mouth, eye twitching. "That's enough Joshua, I understand. Don't start babbling to me about your unhealthy obsession with sci-fi movies."

"But that wasn't part of a movie! It was Star Trek, the original-"

She muffled his mouth again. "I don't wanna hear it." She said with a bit of a smile.

Eric wasn't really dead…. Thank god…..

Joshua pulled back and grabbed his sister's hand, looking determined as ever. "You're still going to school tomorrow you know!"

"Sure….whatever Joshua." She shook her head, shoving him off her bed with her feet. "Leave me alone. I'm going to take a shower."

Joshua laughed, but left without another word. At least he had gotten through to her, if only a little bit….

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The next few days passed by without any serious incident, much to Rosette's surprise. She indeed was confronted by the police the moment she set foot in school, and questioned briefly. Thanks to the security cameras in the hallways though, she wasn't accused for Eric's injuries since it was as clear as day that she hadn't touched him the moment he careened into the wall - funny, there were still people trying to patch up the numerous cracks and chipped plaster. Maybe if she walked down that hallway enough, she could induce some guilt in her suddenly mute demon.

Like guilt had ever worked with him before. At least, as far as she's seen. He was still harder to read than her brother's AP calculus book.

Though over time, she began to noticeably worry when Chrno hadn't contacted her in three days. Anxiety got the best of her in many instances, her mind wandering to dangerous depths – after all, she had no idea if demons acted any different if they were about to take the life of their Contractors. But she kept her fears to herself, and never allowed her brother to worry about her. Well, more than usually anyway.

Returning home from a rather long work day, Rosette leisurely made her dinner, watched a sci-fi show with Joshua (Though for the most part she had no idea what was going on), and took a shower.

'It almost feels like… I kind of have a normal life again.' She thought wistfully to herself, knowing that her hopes would only leave her more disappointed than before. Walking into her room to change into her nightclothes, she laid down atop the covers of her bed, looking up at the ceiling as if she was intently searching for something.

"Hey…Chrno…." She said quietly, laying in complete silence for a few moments; but no reply came to her. She grumbled a bit, worry rising up in her chest again. She couldn't let this upset get the best of her…… maybe this was a good thing…

'Yeah, wait a minute….' The blond teen sat up straight, a look of sudden realization striking her features. 'If he's really not here…. Then he can't stop me from contacting Yuan….'

She paused for a moment, wondering if she'd get herself in even deeper shit if she tried that.

"Well, the next best thing would be…" She looked around her room for a moment, as if readying herself for a reprimand – before she made her way to her dresser, and lifted up a few notebooks to find the book Yuan had given her during their visit. Picking it up slowly, she gently ran her fingers along the leather bindings, admiring it. "Daemonology…."

She walked over and sat back down on her bed, carefully opening up the first few pages of the old book, surprised that she didn't hear a protest from her demon. Chrno must really not be here… maybe the book would say something about it….

"Oh great." She grimaced, reading the contents page of the heavy book, immediately noticing her setback. "Some of this is Old English. At least I can read most of it…"

Flipping to a random page, she noticed that there were many inked drawings, depictions of demons, priests and relics that included captions and information. Something about sub-races of demons… creatures called "Legion", as well as blessed crosses and holy water that could rid them. Among the earliest drawings showed a hideous creature with multiple eyes along its large, deformed body that loomed over a man. "Most demons are ghastly creatures, with animal-like frames, and sometimes possess more attributes than normal – such as eyes, limbs, or even heads." She read aloud, cringing at the thought. For a moment she was glad she'd never seen Chrno… he probably looked something like the ink renderings in the book…. And they weren't pretty. Ah, wait… there was something else here…

"Though only in theory, demons are thought to be more powerful the closer they are to having a human form." She fumbled with the words, having to re-read some of the text now and then from the dated spelling. "Legends tell of a handful of demons that could nearly pass as humans in appearance. These few were said to terrorize entire lands for hundreds of years, and destroy entire civilizations." She paused, squinting at the words. "God, and I thought Chrno was bad. Next thing this will be telling me is that they all came from outer-space…"

For about another twenty minutes, she quickly scanned pages, stopping to read a few in detail if a handful or words caught her attention. Most of the content contained comprehensive information of the same basic concept Yuan had already told her, along with myths and legends that went with every theory humans could come up with – most of which lingering along the lines of tall tales.

"The Rebellion Age?" She whispered, tracing her fingers along the text, a sort of religious seal burned into the paper beside the title.

Thousands of years after Pandemonium had sealed its reign over earth, a war began to rage within the depths of their world. During this time, the number of Contractors declined drastically… and soon, we, of the human race, learned of the bloodshed – and inevitably, the deaths of quite possibly, millions of demons. And since we are of no power against the hellspawn, only a handful of theories were anyway near logical. Either a pandemic raged within their species…. Or demons were killing their own kind, but for what reason?

Needless to say, my research met endless dead ends. The only reliable amount of information I received over my years of excavation was about the Primoris Prognatus, the first generation borne from Pandemonium herself. These are of the most powerful of their kind… and the only ones with enough strength to defy their mother, and their world. But if this legend would lead us to the answer we seek… the human race will have little hope. Even with the declining number of demons, bloodshed will climb ten fold if the fabled First Borne are indeed here upon our earth…

- Edward D. Hamilton

"Hamilton…." Rosette repeated softly, flipping back to the introductory page. "He's one of the authors… didn't realize some of his original notes were in here. Is this a journal?"

Scanning the next few pages, she realized that there were indeed quite a few detailed records that Hamilton had written down himself; some of them half-written notes of flawed theories, but others clearly held an air of confidence. Either this man thoroughly thought these stories out, or he heard them from a source of than himself.

… Though know one knows just who has been host to the harbinger twins over the thousands of years, the fact that demons in England – and quite possibly in the entire world – have been diminishing still is proof enough they're still alive. Mæl, the eldest, has been thought to be behind the fall of many ancient civilizations, while his younger brother feasts upon the life force of humans, and grows ever stronger… horrifyingly so. I have fear that not even our gods could stop them if they dare bring upon us our own apocalypse.

The Rebellion Age had been mankind's last glimmer of hope. But if Sæl is indeed out among the last remaining demons, our fate has been forever sealed.

"Lest Time cease, the Age ahead may be the scythe that will forever seal the earth."

"Mæl …Sæl… Are those names in Old English?" Rosette pondered out loud, fingering the page at the right. She had no idea that people actually knew names of some of these demons… granted they were more infamous than the rest supposedly, but it still was amazing in its own sense. Yuan had told her that a demon will refuse, and avoid practically all contact with their human host nowadays – and one speaking to a human was unheard of. So how did this author know all of this?

"Maybe he's off his rocker…" She mumble, and turned the page – before a deathly chill ran up her spine, and the temperature dropped to a dangerous low within her room. In an instant, the book she was grasping was flung out of her hands and across her room, making a loud cracking noise as the wooden spine broke against the wall.

"What have I told you…." Came the familiar, deadly tone of the demon that haunted her. "About affiliating with that priest…"

"I was just reading a book!" Rosette gasped, her voice coming out as barely a whisper due to her shaken state .A part of her was relieved that Chrno had made contact with her, after three days of silence… but the fact that he reacted so suddenly, even after she had been reading for quite a while, meant that he really wasn't with her during that time. "I'm curious about your kind….what it was like hundreds of years ago…"

"That information will serve you no purpose." There was a deep, threatening growl beneath his voice, making needles crawl along her skin. "Do not touch that book again. I won't be so forgiving next time."

Silence was her reply, arms and legs quivering as she pressed her back against the headboard of her bed, the familiar feeling of hopelessness drowning her thoughts again. She wanted to be more defiant… she wanted to defend herself more… but every time she hears his voice, feels the chill of his anger, she feels her resolve vanish right before her. Words got caught in her throat as she tried to speak, and soon, she gave up trying altogether.

But much to her surprise, the temperature slowly returned to normal, much quicker than she expected.

"Chrno…?" She whispered quietly, slightly startled to hear her own voice.

"Go to sleep, Rosette." Came his reply, the tone bordering along an order. "I did not mean to frighten you."

The blue-eyed teen slowly lowered her arms back down to a comfortable position, no longer needing to hold herself for warmth. He was doing it again…. Lashing out in anger, then retreating back as soon as he wounds her. She couldn't tell if he was honestly trying to understand her, help her cope, or if he was simply toying with her again.

"You were gone for three days, weren't you?" She asked quietly.

No reply.

"If you were here, you would have stopped me from picking up the book altogether."

"That is none of your concern." His velvet voice hissed, but it was obvious his anger was being held in check.

"Chrno, this is my life you're toying with." She replied defiantly, gritting her teeth as her hands gripped the comforter of her bed. "It's damn well my concern. Not to say I wasn't relieved to live three days of somewhat normalcy, but I want to know what you were doing."

Again, no reply. He always does seem to shut up whenever she wants him to talk.

"Were you killing people?"

"Rosette…"

"Don't you dare try that with me again. I want an answer." Cerulean eyes glared towards the ceiling.

"Rosette, go to sleep."

"Chrno, I want-!" She was cut off abruptly as something grabbed hold of her arm and neck, turning her around and pushing her down on her stomach as the light on her nightstand flickered out. She breathed in a horrified gasp, startled so bad she froze, feeling the cold, invisible pressure along her back, pinning her down. "Ku-…"

"I do not wish to be forceful with you, dear heart." The demon's voice growled in her ear, firm and deadly as it had been before. "But I do believe you're beginning to forget your situation… I am not your pet, I will not give into your whims. Your life is held so delicately in my hands… I suggest you rethink your demands before you raise your voice to me."

Her jaw quivered, tears stinging her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She hated the fact that he could frighten her into submission so easily…. Rosette Christopher bent to no one's will…

"I hate you." Came her defiant reply, but her words were dripping with surrender.

"Of course you do." The pressure along her body lifted, allowing her to move. "Now go to sleep."

She pulled her comforter over her, and did her best to obey his words, closing her eyes though her heart beat faster from anticipation. How could he do this to her, and simply order her to sleep…

After minutes of silence, she felt a warm sensation along her arm and back, like a comforting wave.

"Do you wish for me to help?" His voice was oddly timid, as if afraid to scare her yet again.

"…. Like the way you forced me to sleep the first night you talked to me?" She asked quietly, eyes half lidded, still feeling helpless despite his effort to comfort her.

"Yes."

She paused for a long moment, before silently nodding, closing her eyes. Before she felt herself slip into unconsciousness, she felt her hair being brushed back from her cheeks, and a warmth on her forehead.

"Sleep well, my dear Contractor." His voice carried a tone of regret, as if his thoughts wandered elsewhere for a brief glimpse in time.

"Sleep well."

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Yeah, this chapter probably left you with more questions than answers. And no, the last line there is not supposed to be in italics. ;D

Hopefully I'll update faster now that I've found my outline. But who knows... I'll do my best. :3

Gawd it's late here ToT

Zoey