She stood there with her arms crossed against her chest, her green eyes looking at every person who walked near the church while also keeping an eye on the busy streets. With the church placed almost at the centre, Elizabeth waited with bated breath, dreading the demoness would show up.
Ten minutes had passed since her sister Madeline, and the High House member had stepped into the church, and she stood outside here with Raphael. Her fingers tapped on her opposite arm. The wind carried the snowflakes, a lone flake coming in front of Beth and she tried to catch hold of it in the palm of her hand. The moment the snowflake touched her palm, flashes of a small girl standing with blood-covered hands while another girl lying on the ground appeared in front of her eyes.
She dropped the snowflake, doubting if Winter would ever be the same again for her.
“You alright there?” asked the demon who stood on the other side of the entrance of the church, and Beth who was staring at the front turned to look at Raphael. “I am quite surprised that you are here with me, than inside with your sister,” a small chuckle escaped his lips.
Though Beth was standing here with the man as a shield for her protection that didn’t mean he had turned bearable and he was still annoying.
“I think I have already told you why I am here. I am here for my selfish gains,” said Beth, putting a straight face and turning her face away from him.
“A person who is selfish never speaks about them being selfish. It negates the whole idea,” said Raphael, making small talk with her, something Beth was used to.
Men had often flocked around her like she was the most beautiful flower, which she was, but every person had their own insecurity. A person always found the grass to be greener on the other side of the fence, and Beth was no exception to it. She knew that beauty was hard to preserve, and a surfacial trait that didn’t allow her to bond that easily. Though there were men who wanted to speak to her and be around her, Beth had always been the target of jealousy that stemmed from her and other girls and women, who liked to nitpick on her, while also trying to thrive the way she was.
She had her insecurities when it came to the gap that appeared between people and her. It was something she could relate to princesses, where people wanted to be her, but at the same time, she had no true friend. The only person she had been able to rely on was her very own sister, but at the same time, things in the past had never been good. She knew Madeline had better relationships, and the way her sister received warm smiles, something she was unable to get, including her relatives.
“You don’t need to make small talks with me. I am sure you have met a person who goes by the name silence,” she said, raising her nose.
“I chased that friend long ago. Though I do wonder, if you would like to introduce me to this silence if the demoness appears in front of you,” he joked to see the worried look cross Beth’s face.
“We don’t have to act as if we get along. You still creep me out. It is why I openly said I am being selfish about the current situation,” answered Beth. The demon seemed like a person who didn’t have a constant house and kept travelling from one place to another, leading him to appear the way he was.
“Is it because of the way I look? It must be because of how I dress that you have such a low opinion about me,” Raphael’s words were direct where he didn’t bother to beat around the bush.
Beth pursed her lips and turned to meet his black eyes, “You keep looking at me. Even now, you have been staring at me since my sister stepped inside.”
“You speak as if you have never been admired by people’s eyes, milady,” Raphael continued to say, “When there’s something beautiful, it needs to be admired, and when something is hurt, you need to watch over it.”
Beth’s cheeks turned slightly red, “What are you talking about?”
The man shrugged his shoulders, “I say what I see. It looked like you were recollecting something of the past.”
Beth’s eyes flared in a glare that was directed towards Raphael for poking his nose or eyes where it didn’t belong. With Madeline who was with the High House member and in the church, Beth came to presume that her sister would be safe as no demon could step into the holy place. But what Beth didn’t know was that the church was connected to another building through a small bridge which was where the library was, holding books and other artefacts, making it a possible place for a demon to step into with minimum damage to them.
With people who bustled to carry on with their daily work and with the sound of carriages, horses, Beth continued to wait for Madeline to return when Raphael took a step forward.
“What happened?” she asked him curiously as it appeared like he was trying to concentrate on something.
“Werewolves!” and his head snapped to the left and Beth’s eyes moved to catch sight of a grey-furred wolf that howled loud enough for people to freeze in their spots.
Beth had never met or seen a werewolf before, and her blood froze in her body. For a few seconds, she couldn’t hear anything as her ears had turned numb, but she could see people screaming for help as they tried to run away from the werewolf.
“Lady Elizabeth!” Raphael called her, and she didn’t have time to react as he caught hold of her wrist, and he started to pull her away from the church’s entrance.
But there wasn’t just one werewolf as three more came to appear where they were in the village, snarling and destroying anything that was in front of them. One of the werewolves picked up a man who was in front of it and tore him into two pieces. This led to people screaming and yelling as they tried to scurry away from the place to get shelter.
“What about Madeline?” shouted Beth when she came to her senses where the noise started to fill back in and around her.
“She is with the priest. She will be alright. It’s not safe for either of us to be here out in the open. If you get bit, you will turn to one of them. If I get bit, I will probably die out of infection, or maybe not as I am not a vampire. Come on now!”
Screams filled around the place where they were in, and the werewolves weren’t the only ones who had entered the village. It seemed like there were demons who had stepped in here, walking leisurely while the rest of the folks continued to run, screaming their lungs out for help.
