The Girl That Died

Black Rose II

The blond stood up, scanning her shortly, and tilted his head:

"You sound so surprised. Didn't you wonder what happened to me after Dubois' death?" 

He asked. Yvette stepped farther away from the man and responded:

"You didn't seem like someone who would poison an old man and his friend. Dubois trusted you, and he wasn't stupid."

Theodore gave back an amused look:

"Your death was never planned. Dubois didn't mention he expected a visitor."

"Didn't cake and tea make that obvious?"

"He often asked for cake, it wasn't a surprise that day. I didn't care about another dead person, I just wanted him out of my way at last."

The demon kept explaining, smirking malevolently:

"He had contacts. He didn't know it but amongst others, he had Shinigami from Italy and Germany as companions. 

How did he as a human know Shinigami? A lie perhaps. A convenient excuse? Or one of the specific circumstances Alexandre told me about.

"Of course, not because they honored him as a person, but because he knew me. Originally I only took the job as his servant because I needed somewhere to hide. And you are right; the man wasn't stupid and he noticed something was not quite normal with me. His doom was that I was aware of the research he was quite actively pursuing."

Yvette was looking for fitting words, but gave up quickly and just shook her red-haired head in disbelief. 

"He would have told his companions about his discoveries sooner or later. Or, in other words, he would have found out more about me than they already know. I'm sure you know by now that my name is known amongst the Shinigami and it really would be a shame if it had to end like in 1834, don't you think?"

Yvette crossed her arms and felt noticeably unwell talking about this incident. While she of course was not there to witness it, her fantasy painted pictures in her head that left her shivering. 

"Or if you had to end like Jeremy."

"Shut up."

Yvette said, throwing him an uncertain look:

"He didn't do anything to you, there was no reason to kill him."

Smirking, the one standing opposite to her laid his head back and a quiet chuckle escaped his lips:

"You still didn't get it? It's true that I usually don't touch a Shinigami that's no danger to me. But someone who knows too much about me is a burden and I do not need that. I will give you a piece of advice and that is to keep out of my business if you do not have the wish to die by my hand again."

Yvette took together the bit of courage she still had at this moment and mentioned yet another thing:

"You can't hide here anymore, the Shinigami are aware of your presence. You have no chance."

All of a sudden, the demon jumped forwards, pushing the woman against the closest wall. She yelped and saw metal glistening in the corner of her eye. Barely a moment after she felt him lay the sharp blade against her freckled cheek, putting gentle pressure on it:

"You react too slowly. You're weak. You can't see blood. And they didn't even teach you the most basic things, did they? So don't you dare put yourself above me, I could have killed you for good every single minute of the past two weeks."

The woman tried to escape his grip or at least hide the fear in her eyes, but he didn't let her go; instead, he seemed to find his fun in closing his hand around her throat tighter and gloating over her growing anxiety.

Suffocation can't kill me. Calm down. You have to.

He pushed the metal deeper into her flesh and made her groan at the burning pain.

Pain? The death scythe.

She concluded but it didn't seem to matter at the moment.

"Stay away from me, understood? If you just do that I have no reason to harm any of you. Oh, and think of your family; it would be a shame if something happened to the children, am I right?"

Yvette nodded silently, relieved as he stepped back.

"Leave."

The demon pointed in the direction she had come from before, his eyes sparkling with bitter seriousness. She didn't dare talk back again and instantly followed the order. 

Only a few minutes after she had left the still burning building. The cool air felt refreshing but burned on the fresh wound on her face. She made her way through the crowd and looked for Spears, who stood a bit further away, watching the scene emotionlessly. Yvette wiped the blood off her cheek but quickly felt even more flow down; it dripped on her suit, which was already damaged due to the fire, one of the many reasons at this moment for her to ignore it.

Silently she walked past the older Shinigami, without really making sure that he had even noticed her. She didn't feel like speaking to him, much less like explaining why she had approached the demon and even talked to him, despite clearly being told not to do either of those things. The wound hurt and she wouldn't have loved anything more than curl up in her room and cry the tears that burned in her throat.

"You could have died."

Spears criticized, correcting his glasses:

"This wound has to be stitched and your suit is ruined."

The younger one nodded silently but didn't reply and endured his lecture. 

"So I can assume that the death scythe is still in his position?" 

"Mhm." 

"Does he know that the others know about his presence as well?" 

"Mhm." 

The man seemed dissatisfied with the answers but found the mercy to not ask more. It seemed like he had noticed that her lack of conversation had a reason and so stopped talking himself. 

This way they distanced themselves from the chaos more and more and Yvette calmed down a little. She let her knuckles crack, hummed quietly to herself, and let her thoughts roam. It was hard to get out of her mind what she had seen even if she tried to ignore the burned faces of the children or the sick grin of their murderer whenever she closed her eyes. But still, she could see all of this in excruciating detail and had to force herself to remember what Humphries had warned her about.

Do not feel sympathy for the dead.