The Church of Ghost(Emeritus IV x Reader)

Chapter 7 - My Heart Races

When I got back to Papa's room, he had applied his face paint again. He looked up at me to see if I had brought the tea, but slightly frowned when he saw I was empty handed. "Y/n, are they preparing the tea?" he asked.

     "Yes Papa. They were just out in the garden. Mountain will be up here shortly." I replied. "Good, good." he sat back in his seat. I stood in place awkwardly, "Is there anything you need that I can do Papa?" I asked. He looked up at me, "Well, no, but please, have a seat." he gestured towards his bed.

     "Aha! I'll make your bed." I quickly got to it. Papa chuckled, "It's okay, tesoro, you really don't have to." I turned to him. I haven't heard that word before. "Tesoro? What does that mean?" I asked while fluffing his pillows.

He looked down, "My apologies, I tend to say what I think. It is the equivalent of my beloved in English." he answered. I blushed. Why would he call me that? A knock at the door snapped me out of my thoughts. "Ah that must be the tea." Papa got up and answered the door.

"I brought the tea you requested." Mountain said, placing the tray on the desk. "Thank you, Mountain. Did you bring a cup for y/n?" Papa asked. I put the pillows back on the bed, "There's no need, Papa. I should tend to the rest of the house." I began to rush to the door. "If you need me I'll be in the kitchen." I said before leaving the room.

I felt like my heart was about to burst out of my chest. It was pounding so hard. Gosh, what is going on? I walked down the hallway, but decided to go outside instead of going to the kitchen. Fresh air will help. I walked to the forest where the summoning room was instead of the garden. I didn't want to run into any of the ghouls.

     When I got in I immediately sat on the cold concrete floor. I looked over to where me and Papa had spent time and my heart fluttered. I was panicking. Why do I feel like this? I put my hands to my chest and tried to calm myself down. I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds of the forest.

The quiet crickets.

The sound of rustling as squirrels climb trees.

     It felt as if time was flying by. I laid down. The cold floor sent a shiver up my spine. The pounding stopped. I was calm. Maybe a bit too calm since I began to fall asleep.

     After a while I woke up to the sound of distant yelling. My body hurt. It was cold. "Y/n?" Papa's voice echoed in the distance. Why is he asking for me? I looked outside and saw it was completely dark outside besides the moonlight shining down on the forest. Shit. I stood up, almost loosing balance. My whole body was in so much pain. I mean I did sleep on a concrete floor, of course you're going to hurt.

     I stood at the open doorway and looked outside. I could barely see anything. I heard other voices yelling for me. The crunching of leaves caught my attention. "Y/n? Are you there?" Papa yelled. I squinted, starting to see his silhouette come into view. "Papa, I'm here." I said. A feeling of guilt swept over me.

     "Oh, my Cara, there you are." he ran to me, embracing me in a hug I didn't expect. My heart began to pound again. I could feel my cheeks heat up. "I'm sorry." I managed to say. He pulled back, "Why did you come here? We've been looking for you for hours, tesoro."

     "I don't know, I guess I just needed some fresh air at first then I fell asleep, which just so you know, sleeping on concrete floors suck." I began, "I'm sorry. I really should've said something, but my heart was racing so much and I just wanted to clear my head." We walked back into the structure and sat down on the concrete floor. He held my hand with his right hand, caressing it with his other hand.

     "I understand, y/n. You don't have to apologize. What was making your heart race my dear?" he asked. My heart pounded even more. Why did he make me feel this way? "I don't know." I lied. "Do you feel like that now?" he asked. My eyes widened. How did he know?

     "What? Why?" I questioned defensively. "Because I can feel your pulse through your hand, tesoro." he chuckled. I bit my lip to stop me from smiling. "As much as I would love to stay here all night with you, we should tell the ghouls you're okay." he began to stand up.

     "Right. Yeah." I said. He helped me stand up and we walked out of the summoning room. "Cover your ears, my dear." he said to me. I held my hands up to my ears and waited. "I found y/n, you can head home now!" Papa yelled out. I heard distant yells of "Good!" and "Okay!" before Papa uncovered my ears. "Let's go home now."

     The walk back was silent and filled with comforting silence. Even though my heart was racing, he still made me feel safe. We were greeted by the ghouls when we approached the house. "Gosh,  y/n you're filthy!" Cumulus gasped. She immediately pulled me to her, "You're taking a bath right now." Papa chuckled, "Take care of her ghoulettes." Cirrus and Cumulus nodded and immediately took me to a lovely bathroom I hadn't seen yet.

     They ran the bath for me. "You really don't have to do this, I'm fine with taking a shower." I said. "Y/n, you were out in the woods, it's probably best that you have a bath." Cirrus pulled a twig out of my hair. Cumulus patted my back, which I squinted in response, "Ouch." Cumulus put her hands on my shoulders, "You okay?"

     "Yeah, I just slept in a bad place." I chuckled. "A warm bath'll do you good, then." Cirrus stopped the bathtub faucet. "Thank you, really." I said to them. "Call us when you're done." Cumulus said before her and Cirrus left the bathroom, closing the door behind them.

     I took a deep breath before undressing and getting in the clawfoot tub. I hadn't taken a bath in forever. I stepped into the warm water and slowly sank down. A bar of soap and shampoo and conditioner bottles were on the side of the tub.

     After washing I got out of the tub and dried off with a towel that was left on the counter. I put the towel around me before peeking out the door, "Cirrus? Cumulus?" I called. It took a second, but they both came. "Was the bath okay?" Cirrus asked. "It was amazing." I replied with a smile. Cumulus came in with a robe. "Here, put this on. You can go to your room after. Mountain brought you food." Cumulus said.

     "Oh, perfect. I'm starving." I took the robe from Cumulus and the two turned around. I removed the towel before putting the robe on. "Alright, I'll head back now. Thank you again, seriously." I gave the two a hug before walking barefoot back to my room.