They walked into the village where Penelope’s uncle and aunt lived. Already having caused havoc with breaking her uncle’s fingers in front of everyone both Damien and Penny were famous in the village that people who caught sight of them stopped what they were doing to see them pass by while keeping their eyes on the couple who headed in the direction of a certain house.
Penny took the lead to step ahead and knock on the door of her relative’s house.
When the door opened, Penny caught sight of her uncle who gave her a sour, disgusted look upon seeing her and Damien who stood behind her who gave him a smile.
“Good afternoon,” Damien greeted the man who in return snapped,
“What are you doing here?” her uncle asked with a glare on his face directed towards them.
“We had some questions,” Penny stated and in time her aunt came out from inside the house to see who it was. Her calm sober expression turning one similar to her husband’s face.
“We answered everything we could when you came last time. There is nothing else to ask us. Leave the front door of our house and let us live in peace,” her uncle said, pushing the door to close it but Damien’s hand came in the way to stop him from closing it.
“We are not done speaking,” Damiens said pushing the door open again until it slipped out of the man’s hand and banged to the wall from inside, “Hello, aunty,” Damien greeted the woman, “I hope you are doing well since we last met you both,” a smile was placed on his lips as he asked.
Penny could tell that aunt Marion was the most annoyed compared to her uncle. Her mother was the reason why she didn’t have children…wait a minute. Didn’t this feel similar to the Artemis case? Asked Penny to herself. Both the couple couldn’t have children of their own to love and keep. Her aunt had told it was her mother who had been responsible for it and if the Artemis knew her mother, did it mean her mother had a hand in the loss of the children?
She knew it was a leap of theory to jump into conclusion by these things but it could be, right? The Artemis wasn’t born bad but they had turned to bad apples like the black witches after going through the suffering where they wanted to bring back the children to life.
“We want to live in peace, Mr. You coming here every time is going to do nothing but bring ill omen to our house,” said Aunt Marion, her eyes glaring while Damien made himself comfortable by stepping into the house and settling himself on a chair.
“Why?” Penny questioned. It was only the first time Damien had broken her uncle’s fingers and the previous time they had visited, Damien had not touched the man. She saw the way her aunt pursed her lips while her uncle gave a look to his wife to stop talking, “What’s going on?” she asked.
“I would like to ask the same thing,” her aunt didn’t heed to her husband’s looks and said, “I heard you moved your mother to another grave and with that, you also paid for our graves. How dare you think we are going to die right now?! Have you no shame, playing a joke as horrible as that?” asked the woman.
Penny turned to Damien, giving him a pointed look for him to raise both his hands and say, “I didn’t do it.” She didn’t know if she was supposed to laugh or console them. Damien said he didn’t do it which meant it was someone else who didn’t like them but her aunt said her mother was moved too.
“We already told you last time that my mother is still alive. The coffin and the grave she was buried in are empty,” said Penny to her aunt, “To move a body you need a body.”
“Then who came here to tell us?” her aunt asked.
Damien leaned back on the chair he was seated on which lifted the front two legs of the chair in the rain, “That is something which you have to tell us. We aren’t the one who received information about our graves being readied that are waiting to be filled up,” he chuckled at the end that had her uncle’s blood boiling.
“Get out of the house! Both of you right now,” said her uncle like a child who was repeating the same words.
“It seems like you forgot about our first encounter,” Damien let the legs of the chair back on the ground. He stood up to glance at the man’s hand where the fingers were missing from his hand and was bandaged until today, “Answer to the question while we are still being nice. Your niece might show mercy but that’s not the case when it comes to me. You are just peasants who are trying to survive in society,” his fingers made its way to the wall, tracing them in line as he walked forward.
“We don’t know who came to us. It was a man who looked like a high standing man,” answered her aunt quickly.
“A councilman?” Damien asked her.
“I don’t know. He looked rather posh and had brown eyes. A human,” Damien’s head tilted in question. Damien was aware of almost all people who worked in the council, it was only a few handful ones whom he didn’t know.
“How did he look? Did he say his name?” Damien looked at the woman who gave a deep thought.
Aunt Marion shook her head, “We were too in shock for what you did to register the name the man said.”
Penny didn’t know why they would think she was the one who did it. There were other better things to do in her life than dig up graves for people who had sold her to the slave establishment. Now that she thought about it, maybe it was valid for what they had put her through.
