By the time Mick, Linda and Wimzy had finally made it to their destination, the sun had completely set and hardly a single soul was left in the area. On the plus side, that did allow all three of them to speak more freely.
"This the place, Wimzy?" Linda asked, feeling a little in awe at how the fountain's water glowed from the lights situated in the base while still keeping a vigilant eye on the area.
"Yeah, this is the fountain alright," Wimzy confirmed with a positive nod. "Your friend can't be far now."
That being said, one issue still seemed to remain.
"Which way could she have gone though?" Mick muttered before quickly snapping his head towards the Cherub in their party. "Alright, Wimzy, take to the sky and observe the area. If we can pinpoint where Octavia's going, we can-"
Arf! Arf! Arf!
The moment that familiar little bark sounded in his ears, Mick's voice instantly halted in his throat before a hopeful gasp followed it.
"You two hear that?" he asked, earning a small nod from Linda and Wimzy, albeit a more confused one from the latter.
Turning their attention towards the left side of the fountain, all three of them pondered whether or not they were just hearing things until all of a sudden, a familiar small ball of fluff dove from behind the corner and tackled Mick to the ground.
"Oof!" Mick blurted out before looking down at his torso to see a certain Kitsune pup wagging her tails and nuzzling her face against his chest. "SNOWFLAKE! Oh, my baby, are you alright!?"
The instant that Mick picked himself up and started enveloping the little fox in the biggest hug he could muster, Wimzy's eyes immediately grew to the size of dinner plates while little hearts and sparkles appeared to float all around her.
"That… is the cutest thing ever!" she exclaimed, unable to resist placing her hands on her cheeks in awe of the diabetically sweet reunion, much to Linda's amusement.
"Wait till she gets YOU with the Snowflake Snuggle," she commented with a giggle, almost breaking into a full laugh upon seeing Wimzy's reaction to her words.
"They have a NAME for it!?" the Cherub cried, her heart fluttering even faster than her fluffy wings. "Awwwwwwwwwwwww!"
Alas, the sweet moment couldn't last forever. After getting his fill of snuggles, Mick's gaze quickly turned serious and he lifted Snowflake up to look her in the eye.
"Snowy!" he said. "Do you know where Octi is?"
Smirking, as if she had been waiting all day to be asked just that very question, Snowflake let out a loud yip and gave her master a firm nod, not even bothering to question why there was some fluffy pink cat due to the urgency. Putting Snowflake back down on the ground, she immediately pointed her little paw in a certain direction and ran ahead, ushering the others to come along. Seeing this, Mick instantly smirked from beneath his mask.
"Girls… follow. That. Fox!"
After mere minutes of running, Snowflake led the others to the area just outside the same restaurant she had run past earlier to find them. Eventually reaching the edge of the parking lot… they saw her. There, looking under the cars, likely in search of a certain two-tailed fox Mick was currently picking up and placing on his shoulder, was Octavia. Finally, after hours of searching, they had found her!
"There she is!" Wimzy exclaimed with a giddy smile.
"Oh, thank Satan," Linda added, letting out a sigh of relief.
Even though she was still a small distance away, upon seeing Octavia's face again, Mick's heart instantly began to drum in his chest. As happy and relieved as he was to see her again after worrying for so long, now comes the tricky task of trying to convince her to come home. As Linda had stated earlier, the Goetia Princess can be stubborn at times, and if she had already spent this long up on Earth, then it was probably going to take a bit of effort to make her see reason. However, Mick quickly had to push such thoughts aside once Wimzy suddenly pointed something out to her Demonic companions.
"Hey, who're those two?" she asked, pointing towards two guys in cook uniforms making their way over to the unsuspecting Octavia.
Having seen these types of scumbags more than he cared to count during his time in Hell, Mick knew instantly what was going on and as such chose to act accordingly.
"Not good," he uttered before looking down at the Imp standing next to him. "Linda, take Wimzy, find a secluded spot and open a portal, I'm going after her."
Linda may not have known what Mick was about to do, but nonetheless, she knew him well enough to trust his judgment by now. As such, she didn't even hesitate when she gave her friend an understanding nod.
"Be careful Mick," she said before she and Wimzy turned around and ran down the street, leaving Mick and Snowflake alone to deal with the issue at hand.
And that just about sums up how Mick and Snowflake found themselves dealing with the two idiots who thought they could try their luck with a vulnerable goth girl. The moment Octavia kicked one in the balls in self-defence, sending him collapsing to the ground as a result, it took no effort at all for the Sinner to grab the other scumbag by the neck and toss him into the nearest car. After that, Mick quickly grabbed Octavia by the hand and pulled her away from the scene.
"Mick? What are you DOING here!?"
"Talk later!" Mick retorted. "Just run!"
Before Octavia could even open her mouth to protest, however, a loud noise suddenly brought their small exchange to an immediate halt.
BANG!
SMASH!
Seeing the window of the car ahead of them shatter after that loud explosion rang in their ears, both young Demons snapped their heads back around to see the greasy-haired thug Octavia kicked in the groin painfully stagger to his feet with a smoking pistol in his hand.
"Okay, seriously, does EVERYONE in this town have a fucking gun!?" Mick exclaimed, barely resisting the urge to rip his hair out in frustration.
BANG!
"GAH!" he yelped, narrowly avoiding the second bullet that was shot at his leg, only for it to narrowly miss Snowflake's ear and ricochet off the nearby lamppost. "Oh, you fucker!"
Unfortunately, between all of the stress, adrenaline and unbridled anxiety he had built up over the last few hours alone, Mick's reactive impulses were now at a point where he acted without thinking. Now that Octavia was finally within reach, the Cat Sinner was now acting purely on instinct. As such, the moment that bullet came remotely close to hitting any of them, he in turn retaliated with a small ball of fire from his palm.
FWOOOSH!
BOOM!
One regretful act of impulse later, and the van behind the greasy-haired thug blew up in a blue inferno, sending both cooks flying across the parking lot, slightly burnt and beaten up but thankfully alive.
…
"Run."
Not even needing to be told twice, Octavia quickly followed after Mick as they both fled the parking lot in a state of panic. There was no way in hell they were going to be able to explain any of this when witnesses start to flood the area. Making their way back onto the street, both Mick and Octavia searched frantically for a way to avoid detection. However, Mick's eyes in particular were in search of something a bit more specific.
"Mick, over here!"
Hearing the sound of her sweet voice, the Sinner smiled beneath his mask as he saw Wimzy a short distance ahead, waving him and Octavia down from the entrance to yet another alley.
"Is that a fucking CHERUB!?" Octavia exclaimed, understandably confused over seeing Wimzy being so familiar with her friend.
"I'll explain later, just-"
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Alas, just as Mick and Octavia managed to reach the alley in time to see Wimzy and Linda standing in front of a familiar shimmering portal just a few meters away, the sounds of sirens rang in the air, drawing their attention towards the two dark blue and white cars donning red and blue lights speeding toward them, likely due to the sudden explosion Mick inadvertently caused.
"Shit, it's the cops!" Octavia exclaimed.
Needless to say, the sight of those vehicles gave Mick great cause for concern, to say the least. Closing in at a rapid speed, it wouldn't be more than a mere 20 seconds before they pulled up in front of the alley and saw what was shimmering within it. And if those cops see the portal, getting into trouble back home would be the LEAST of everyone's worries because getting exposed like that would more than likely draw the attention from both above AND below. Knowing that, Mick quickly pulled Snowflake off his shoulder and did what he had to do.
"LIDDY!" he cried out, drawing his friend's attention. "Go long!"
That would be the last thing Linda would ever hear Mick say in the Living World before the Sinner suddenly threw Snowflake like a football directly towards her, forcing the Imp to suddenly jump up and catch the little fox in her arms before the momentum suddenly caused her to fall backwards, crashing into Wimzy and sending all three of then tumbling into the portal. As he had hoped, as soon as someone passes through it, the portal of an Asmodean Crystal automatically closes itself up, thus eliminating the strange phenomenon for the cops and sending both Linda and Snowflake to safety. With the task done, Mick once again grabbed Octavia's hand and pulled her away.
"Come on!"
Unable to argue against him, Octavia swiftly complied with the Sinner's command and ran as quickly as she could. However, even after they ran through the alley and onto the street at the other end of it, it was clear that the cops weren't going to give up so easily. Once those cars circled around at the next turn, they will be on them again like flies around a toilet bowl. Unless Mick and Octavia managed to find a way to disappear, they were screwed… thankfully, such an opportunity literally came rushing into them just after they crossed the street.
"Oof!"
"Hey, watch where you're going, you goth lolita hoodlums!" the stranger snapped. "I'll have you know, public eloping ain't allowed here!"
Taking a quick glance at the stranger who charged into them, both Mick and Octavia flinched in fright. Not that either of them would ever say it to her face, but this was the most hideous woman they had ever seen! Red curly hair, thick black glasses, gapped teeth, and WAY too much makeup for just one person should use… in fact, her attempts to beautify herself only seem to make her even more horrifying. Hell, the lipstick alone seemed to make her look like a nightmarish clown. In fact, the only thing worse than her looks was her attitude.
"Fucking teenagers," she uttered. "The only thing worse than kids."
"Look, sorry, ma'am, but-" Mick tried to say, only for the woman to quickly cut him off.
"Gimme your details, I'm calling your parents," she snapped, only for Octavia to raise her eyebrow at her.
"You can't be serious," she said, giving the woman cause to smirk.
"Oh, a pair of runaways is it?" she asked, suddenly pulling a small megaphone from her handbag. "Well, we'll see about that."
And then the woman did what could probably be the worst thing she could have given the situation… she tried to get everyone's attention.
"POLICE! PARENTS! CHILD SERVICES! I GOT TWO RUNAWAYS TRYING TO ELOPE! HURRY AND GET YOUR ASSES OUT HERE BEFORE THEY END UP INSIDE-"
POW!
Alas, the woman's ranting was immediately cut short due to Octavia throwing a hard punch to her jaw, thus sending her banging her head against the nearby stop sign and falling to the ground unconscious.
"Owowowowow!" the young Goetia yelped, waving her now-sore hand after feeling the backlash from that punch.
"You okay?" Mick asked, his voice filled with concern.
"Yeah, I'll be alright," Octavia answered reassuringly before blowing on her knuckles to cool them down. "How the hell are you able to do that so easily?"
"Meh, you keep punching long and hard enough, you eventually become numb to it," Mick replied casually. "I mean try hitting someone when your hand is on fire, then tell me-"
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
"-Shit!"
Whether it was the woman's shouting or their own lack of self-awareness, Mick and Octavia had been delayed long enough for the cops to get closer to their current location… and they were getting closer by the second.
"What now!?" Octavia exclaimed, gripping her beanie in a state of panic, obviously NOT looking forward to seeing the inside of a Human jail cell.
At first, Mick's initial instinct was to start running again… however, after taking another look at the woman's unconscious body slumped against the stop sign, a devious idea suddenly popped into his head.
"Hmmmmm…"
By the time the cops managed to arrive at the stop sign and step out of their cars, they suddenly found their jobs a lot easier than they expected them to be. After dispatch told them to chase down a man in a hoodie and a smiley face mask, never in their lives did they expect said man to be slumped up against the pole in a daze. More than likely the idiot didn't look where he was going and ran into it during the chase.
"Alright, book 'im!"
That was the last thing the man in the guy in the smiley face mask would hear before their hands were pinned behind them and a pair of handcuffs were thrown over their surprisingly bony wrists.
"Helen Brownstein, you're under arrest for arson, disturbing the peace, and assaulting a police officer,"
Shortly after the smiley face mask was pulled off her face, the loud woman, Helen, who had rightfully earned her punch to the face from Octi, was now being forcibly escorted to the nearest police car while wearing a hoodie that wasn't even hers. Needless to say, she didn't take too kindly to being falsely arrested.
"I keep telling you, it weren't me! It was those two failed abortions in the shitty costumes!" she protested, her nasal voice piercing the officer's eardrums as they forced her into the back of the car. "Besides, you can't pretend you didn't like that love bite, sweetheart!"
Upon hearing that last one, the cop reading Helen's rights cringed in pain, disgust and a lot of unease as he continued to wipe down the bleeding bite mark on his arm. Even if this crazy bitch was innocent, he was definitely going to enjoy throwing the book at her anyway. Before long, Helen was safely sealed into the police car, and everyone began to disperse.
"You think this can hold me!?" Helen shouted, hoping to get the final word in. "I was once held hostage by Bobby Woooooooooooooooorst!"
On that final note, the police cars immediately drove away, hoping to put Helen away as quickly as possible, none of them ever knowing what happened to the real culprit.
It was tricky, but after a good few minutes of running, the two young Demons had finally managed to gain a fair distance away from where the cops found Helen. After hearing the sirens fade into the distance before ceasing entirely, both Mick and Octavia finally found themselves able to relax as they both found their way back to the fountain where the Goetia Princess took her last Sinstagram photo.
Thankfully no one saw their faces during the chase so Mick's idea to dump his mask and hoodie on Helen turned out to be a roaring success. Now back in his usual metallic mask and a simple T-shirt, he finally allowed himself to take a breather as he sat at the edge of the fountain.
"That… that was WAY too close for comfort," he said through heavy breaths. "Were people ALWAYS that gullible or was that after I died?"
Octavia, however, didn't give a response to that. Now that the immediate threat had passed, her mind was free to become riddled with questions about her masked friend. Why was he here? HOW was he here!? Such a thing shouldn't be possible!
"Mick…" she tried to say, only for her words to turn silent in her throat.
After everything that has happened in the last 12 hours, the Goetia Princess had no idea of what to say to Mick. On the one hand, he did risk a lot by coming here to the Living World, on the other, part of the reason why SHE was here was because she wanted to get away from him for a while. Now that the Sinner was here in front of her, she quickly found herself at a loss.
"Just... just gimme a second," Mick stated, still trying to catch his breath. "Once I've had a small breather, we can get you home, okay?"
The moment Mick said that last part, however, Octavia's gaze immediately hardened.
"Forget it," she said firmly, suddenly turning away from the fountain and trying to walk away. "I'm not going back."
Needless to say, as soon as Octavia said that, Mick quickly stood up in a panic and wasted no time in standing in front of her and blocking her path.
"Whoa, whoa, where are you going?" he asked instinctively, only to get a defiant glare for his trouble.
"I came here to see Asethoth's Tears, and I refuse to have come all the way up here for nothing," Octavia retorted firmly, trying to walk past the Sinner only for him to immediately grab her by the shoulders to stop her.
"Where are you even gonna go?" he argued. "Between the smog and the lights, there aren't even that many places you'd even be able to see them in this place, let alone any that are nearby,"
Alas, much like she did with Snowflake throughout most of the day, Octavia seemingly refused to listen to reason.
"Just leave me alone!" she snapped, brushing Mick's hands off her and pushing forward.
As soon as she started to walk away, however, Mick immediately lost all patience and pulled her back by the shoulder.
"REALLY!?" he exclaimed, looking Octavia dead in the eye with an irritated glare. "Do you have any idea of what I've been through just to find you!? All the bullshit I had to endure just to make sure YOU were okay!?"
"Let me go!" the Goetia Princess protested, trying desperately to pull Mick's hand off her while trying desperately to avoid eye contact. "I never ASKED you to come here!"
"And yet here I am!" Mick retorted, refusing to back down. "So why don't we both stop acting like kids and deal with this."
Now it was Octavia's turn to start losing patience. Why the hell did the Demon she liked have to be so… kind?
"There's nothing TO deal with!" she tried to deny, not even believing her own words.
"Bullshit!" Mick instantly refuted, knowing an attempt to avoid an issue when he saw one. "You and I both know that you wouldn't have run off like this without a reason, and I think I might have a rough idea why."
The more Mick pushed the issue, the more angry Octavia seemed to get. So much so, in fact, that any sense of hesitation quickly dissipated when she suddenly shouted in his face.
"You don't know ANYTHING!"
"Then talk to me, damn it!" Mick snapped back. "We're supposed to be friends aren't we!?"
The moment Mick said those particular words, Octavia ceased her struggles and hung her head so that she was looking directly at the ground. Seeing this, Mick couldn't help but wonder what he could have said to have caused such a reaction.
"Seems like you've already got new friends to talk to from what I hear," the Goetia Princess stated, her voice calmer and quieter than before, much to Mick's further confusion.
"Huh?" he uttered, understandably taken aback by his crush's words. "What are you talking about?"
Hearing Mick seemingly oblivious to what she was referring to, however, only seemed to make Octavia's anger grow.
"I heard all about that 'country girl' of yours," she elaborated. "The one with the amazing ass?"
The moment those words registered in his head, Mick's eyes immediately grew wide with realization. He didn't know HOW she had heard about her, but there was only one Demon Octavia could be talking about.
"Ember?" he spoke aloud, quickly taking note of how the Goetia suddenly tensed up when she heard the Wrathian Imp's name. "THAT's what this is about?"
At those words, Octavia let out a sigh and turned her back, wrapping her arms around herself without even realizing it. Whatever answer she could have given at that moment, her silence was all that Mick needed to put the pieces together.
"Wait… are you mad at ME!?"
Hearing those words leave Mick's mouth, Octavia tensed up even more, thus confirming the latter's suspicions. He may not have known how, but somehow Octavia found out about Ember, and given her current behaviour, she clearly had a problem with her. But surely such a revelation wouldn't cause her to run away, would it? No… There had to be more to this situation, and the Cat Demon wasn't going to rest until he got to the bottom of it.
"So this is what it all comes down to?" he exclaimed. "Jealousy?"
Secretly Mick wished he could have worded that better. However, his intended goal was to get a reaction out of her… and boy, did he ever get such an explosive result.
"NO!" Octavia snapped, finally turning her head back to the disguised Sinner with an irritated glare before her face instantly falters with uncertainty. "Yes? Maybe… ARGH! I don't even know anymore, Mick!"
Upon that declaration, Octavia let out an exasperated bird-like shriek and sat down on the fountain's edge, burying her face in her hands as she leaned against her knees and allowed all her emotions to overwhelm her. At first, Mick was unsure of how to respond to such an outburst, but then he found himself somewhat frozen as Octavia continued to speak.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, no longer able to keep everything bottled in. "I know you're just trying to help… it's just that everything in my life has been going to shit and I just don't know how to cope anymore!"
"Octi…" Mick uttered, unable to find the right words to say and simply allowed the Goetia to continue.
"I've spent years of my life living in denial, always telling myself that I can handle whatever came my way," she said, fresh tears threatening to flow from the corners of her eyes as she spilt her guts without any hesitation. "But lately everything seems to be going wrong all at once. I thought that if I came to see the meteor shower on my own I could just forget about it all… even if it was just for a day… But even THAT didn't even work out! And now it's all just- AAAAAAGGHH!"
Seeing Octavia break down like this… it practically broke Mick's heart in two. In all honesty, he had his suspicions about how badly the young Goetia was taking certain events as of late, but he had hoped that it wouldn't be this bad. Between her parents getting divorced, everything happening with Linda, her father's broken promise, and now this discovery she made about her best friend, sparking some kind of jealousy? Taking all that into account, perhaps her running off wasn't that big of a surprise after all… Sometimes it was still easy to forget that despite her maturity, the Goetia Princess was still only 17, an age that more often than not, was a time where emotional outbursts were always the go-to response.
Allowing everything to sink in for a moment, Mick let out a heavy sigh and sat down on the fountain's edge a mere two feet away from Octavia, near enough to show emotional support but not so close that she didn't feel suffocated.
"I suppose there HAS been a lot to deal with as of late," he admitted. "Too much for ANYONE to handle if I'm being honest."
"Oh, you think!?" Octavia snapped, clearly not seeing any comfort in the Sinner's words.
"But… why didn't you just talk to me about it?" Mick asked, his need for a straight answer quickly racing to the surface. "Why run off on your own on some high-risk venture? Come on… you know me."
The moment the words left Mick's mouth, however, Octavia paused. It wasn't as if she didn't know how to answer the question, of course… but to do so felt more painful than if she had simply drank a shot filled with Holy Water. Still… as upset as she was… she just couldn't deny the Sinner the truth.
"Yeah, I know you… and that's why I couldn't talk to you,"
Alas, Octavia's answer only seemed to perplex the disguised Sinner a great deal, so much so that he just had to make his confusion known.
"You're not making any sense," he pointed out, practically begging the Owl Demon for an elaboration.
"You always try to make me feel better about whatever problem I have, Mick," Octavia explained, finally raising her head to look Mick in the eyes, giving him a full view of her tears. "But what could you possibly say to make a problem like THIS go away!?
Once again, her words only seemed to confuse Mick even further.
"I still don't understand, Octi," he said. "Is it because of me and Ember?"
"It's not that," Octavia quickly denied. "Whoever you fuck is your business,"
"Then tell me, damn it!" Mick snapped, his frustration growing by the second. "Tell me what the hell's wrong so I can help you!"
"I'm SCARED, okay!?"
…
"Wait… what?"
Slapping her hands to her beak, Octavia immediately regretted letting her last sentence slip out the way it did. Seeing Mick stare back at her with wide eyes through the holes of his mask, she could only imagine what was going through his head right now. As silly as it sounded, at that very moment she immediately wanted to just throw herself into the deepest hole she could find and stay there…Alas, there was no point in hiding it now. Now that she had basically admitted to something she never wanted anyone else to find out… Mick especially, she had no choice but to allow the floodgates to open.
"It's… it's not just that everything is happening all at once, Mick," she elaborated, anxiously bringing her knees to her chest just so she could bury her face in them. "Years ago, I would have probably just acted like I usually do, pretend the situation doesn't bother me and act out if it got too much… but now… now I'm just terrified. I'm terrified that everyone is actually leaving me behind… and I can't even give them any good reason not to!"
Hearing that, Mick's shock was once again replaced with a surge of confusion,
"What the fuck are you talking about?" he blurted out, only to be met with an angry glare for his trouble.
"Mick, look at me! I'm not exactly the most approachable of Demons!" Octavia snapped, rising to her feet and gesturing towards herself as if she were showing off someone who had just been thrown into the stocks. "I'm moody, dreary, I hardly connect with people, I collect weird taxidermy, for fuck's sake! Growing up, all anyone my age ever wanted was to use me for my status or barely acknowledge me with empty words! And now… now I'm driving away the only people I ACTUALLY care about!"
Needless to say, as soon as Octavia let that last sentence escape her beak, Mick found himself more shocked than he had ever been throughout the entire day.
"What!?" he exclaimed, completely baffled by the Goetia's apparent self-loathing. "That's bullshit!"
"Is it!?" Octavia argued, once again giving the Sinner a stern glare. "Let's look at the facts, shall we? My Mum is an intolerable bitch who gets off on making everyone around her miserable, especially her own husband. A woman who felt NO hesitation or even bothered to say goodbye to her kid when she finally moved out, I might add!"
At those words, Octavia almost broke down once more, however, she managed to clench her fist, grit her teeth and continue despite the painful memory.
"And I, being so afraid of seeing my parents split apart ever since I was five years old, was naive enough to spend almost my entire childhood trying to make her happy by enduring her lessons in how to be a proper member of Hellish Nobility," she blurted out, feeling the need to kick herself for being so idiotic. "Well… clearly, some of that cruelty and arrogance must have seeped in at some point, because I'm obviously turning into someone no one wants to be around! I mean, for fuck's sake, Linda hates me because I treated you and her like a pair of objects just because Googoo pushed my buttons. And I don't even blame her for it!"
The more Octavia vented out her frustrations, the more Mick began to feel horrible. Has she really been feeling this way the whole time? If so, then he just couldn't sit there and stay quiet.
"Linda doesn't hate you," he tried to say, only for his attempt to get thrown back in his face almost immediately.
"Yes, she does!" Octavia snapped. "Don't you get it!? I should have treated her like the little sister I see her as, but instead, I cemented everything she's ever thought about Demon Royalty with a single act! You really think I could ever earn her forgiveness after that!?"
As much as Mick wanted to say something in response, he didn't have the words that Octavia hadn't already heard from him over the previous weeks. At this point, he probably would have sounded like a broken record on this particular subject… However, it was Octavia's next sentence that truly brought him to the verge of true disbelief.
"And you," she said, once again turning her back on the Sinner. "You're leaving me behind too."
"What, because of Ember?" Mick tried to argue, once again baffled by the Princess's logic, "I slept with her ONCE! It's not like I'm planning to move to the Wrath Ring over it."
…
"You never told me about your Mum."
At that moment, time seemed to freeze all around the two young Demons. Stunned into a tense silence, Mick was barely able to let out a single syllable as he allowed the true realization to sink in.
"Oh…"
What else could he possibly say at this point? Immediately give her an explanation? At this point, anything he could have said would have just sounded like an excuse. Either way, it wasn't a look of anger that Octavia gave him that stung the most… It was a look of disappointment.
"The best thing that could ever happen to you, and you've kept it quiet ALL week," the Goetia Princess continued. "I just thought… I just thought we were close enough for you to trust me by now."
"I DO trust you, Octi," Mick stated firmly, only to let out another heavy sigh. "I just… I just didn't want to rub good news in your face when you were already going through so much… I WAS going to tell you eventually when things settled down. I promise."
Octavia, of course, merely hung her head at that.
"I figured that would be the case," she admitted before her face turned sour. "And yet I expected you to tell me anyway like a good little lapdog…You see? I'm just as selfish as my Mum is! Even if I don't mean to be, I'm already starting to turn into her!"
Now Mick was really starting to get annoyed with all this self-loathing. So much so that he instantly stood up, grabbed Octavia by the shoulders and turned her to look him in the eye.
"Don't say that!" he snapped. "That's not true!"
"Well, maybe I'm not an exact clone, but I'm definitely coming close to it," Octavia countered. "Even today, instead of venting my problems and talking to you about all this, I ran away like a stupid kid because I thought I'd be better off on my own! Face it, Mick… I'm… not good enough for anyone."
This all seemed too much to absorb. Still, at the very least Mick finally seemed to discover the very root of the problem… and boy, was it buried deep! It all seemed so obvious now… Raised by a cruel mother and yet so desperate for her love that she was practically begging for it her entire childhood to no avail… Adored by a loving father, and yet one who was so wrapped up in his own need for love along with their depression, that he doesn't know how to balance between the love he has for his daughter and the feelings he has for the one who stole his heart… Looked up to by a young Imp that she grew close enough to consider family, only for their kinship to crumble after making a terrible mistake… and then there's Mick… her first real friend… a friend, who up until this point has been upfront and honest with her, was now keeping more secrets than before he first arrived in her home… no wonder she felt this way!
Considering all that, saying that everyone was drifting away from her wasn't even that big of a stretch, at least from her perspective. It was almost as much if she felt like she was losing the love of everyone she had shown the slightest bit of care for, and worse still, it's like she even started to hate HERSELF because she believed that she was the cause. Hell, it probably wouldn't be surprising if she felt like her own father was replacing her with his new lover! Still… to keep all those feelings bottled up until they inevitably exploded, it must have been SO hard for her… undoubtedly, whatever she heard about Mick and Ember must have been the trigger that set it all off… Well, there was no way that the Sinner was going to let Octavia torture herself like this!
"Octi, if you were ACTUALLY that horrible then do you really think that any of us would be up here looking for you?" Once again looking the Goetia in the eye, turning her head with a gentle palm so that she couldn't look away. "If Linda hated you so much… then why was she up here with me, hmm? For shits and giggles?"
Hearing that, Octavia widened her eyes with realization. That girl in the glasses… that WAS Linda! True, she somehow had a Human disguise, but that was definitely her! She'd have to be a cruel idiot not to recognise the little Imp she had grown so close to over these last few months. Still… to think that she would actually risk coming to the Human world… for her? Needless to say, the very idea brought fresh tears to the Goetia's eyes.
"We ALL care about you, Octi, even if you don't feel like you deserve it," Mick continued, his voice stern yet comforting. "Me, Linda, your Dad, everyone back at the mansion… We're all worried sick… do you think we'd feel that way about just ANYONE!?"
To say that Mick's words hit her hard would have been an understatement. To Octavia, every syllable felt like a sledgehammer breaking down every defensive wall she had surrounded herself with, and now the foundation was slowly but surely beginning to crumble.
"My… My dad's really here too?" she asked, that particular question gnawing at the back of her head as soon as that particular Demon was mentioned.
"Did you honestly think he wouldn't follow you?" Mick pointed out, almost smirking beneath his mask. "Your mother might be the worst kind of Demon in Hell… but there is no way he would hate her more than he loves YOU… believe me, I WISH I had a father who loved his kid as much as he does."
At that moment, Octavia was at a complete loss for words. Despite everything she had said, Mick simply refused to accept her words as truth. What's more, the very Demons she had believed to have been cutting her out of their lives were all looking for her? It was almost amazing that she hadn't broken down crying at that point. Still… Mick could tell that the Goetia was still hesitant to believe his claim, as evident by her pulling away from him and turning her back. She may not have uttered a single word, but the Sinner could tell that she was reeling over everything in silence as if she was trying to make sense out of things laid out in front of her even though it was clear as crystal. Realizing that he needed a stronger way to show his sincerity on the matter, Mick desperately tried to think about what else he could say that would convince Octavia to believe him, though it was not without difficulty. Then as he stood there, scratching at his mask… an idea popped into his head as he felt the cold metal beneath his fingertips… an idea that absolutely terrified him.
At first, he immediately hesitated to follow through with such a foolish idea, though, given the circumstances, no one in their right mind wouldn't do the same. Still… this WAS Octavia he was dealing with. Someone who he had not only grown very close to over these last few months, forming a bond that couldn't even be described as far as he was concerned but also the Demon who had managed to steal his heart without even knowing. That said, what he was about to do still scared him to no end, so much so that his hand began to tremble as soon as the idea formed in his head… No! He can't back down from this… Not this time. Despite years of hiding this secret from everyone from every corner of Hell… this was the one person he would gladly trust with it.
Deactivating the powers of the Asmodean Crystal with a heavy sigh, Mick watched his human form dissipate in a flutter of glittery sparkles until finally, all that was left was the previous demonic Cat form he left Hell with. As nice as it was to feel remotely Human again, this moment was far too important to dwell on such feelings. Letting out another heavy sigh, he then reached up to his face… and proceeded to pull the WHOLE mask away from it.
"Octi… look at me,"
As soon as those words left Mick's now-exposed lips, Octavia once again tensed up and anxiously began to turn back to face the Sinner.
"What are you-" she began, only to suddenly gasp in shock as soon as Mick was within her sight.
CLANK!
Letting his mask fall to the ground, Mick felt the Goetia's gaze pierce into his very being. For now, she stood there… gazing at the true face beneath the mask… and found herself horrified.
"Mick… who did this to you!?"