Tying Loose Ends

Claire's POV:

Me and my sister, we never had the best of luck. Born to a harlot and sold in the same trade, any chance of a normal life was stripped away from us at a young age. For a while, things looked bleak, but as our bodies grew and our minds toughed up to the torture, the two of us became much more resilient.

At a certain point, we were picked by a man working in the lower circles of the nations' VIPS. Since then, we'd been showered with luxury and being able to demand a cost much higher than any other girls at the parlor could even hope for.

"And we blew that up," speaking out loud, I kept staring at the vampire lying on the bed. Ken has already finished questioning her and it turns out everything we'd assumed about the murder was absolutely true.

"What if she tries to kill us next?!" Her nails digging into my shoulders, Mercy clung to my arm like a lost child to an amiable stranger.

"We're gonna leave now," pushing Mercy's nails off my skin, I locked my fingers with her instead. "We'd be better alive and selling ourselves out than dead."

However, right as I tried to turn around and leave, Ken spoke out in a raspy voice.

"You'll die either way, the embassy will make sure of it," his words stung like a broken nail, especially since I knew he wasn't lying.

Sleeping around with the chattery people from the embassy, I'd learned one important lesson. Anyone who leaves the workforce disappears into thin air. Oftentimes, their colleagues were the ones to sell the other person out. And why? For some pity social points in the workforce, for the so-called quest for supremacy over others.

"Damn it…" Reluctant, I let Mercy's hand go.

"The rain hasn't stopped yet, and we don't have water or food," changing the topic of conversation, Ken looked around at everyone. "Sleep, that's all we can do to conserve our energy until help arrives."

Come to think of it, with how bad it smelled inside the hotel, I doubt leaving the hotel right now was a reasonable choice. Besides, we only had to wait till evening for the supply trucks to arrive. Along with which a representative in place of Ophelia was also coming over.

"We still have wine," I muttered, my hands crossed with a hint of visible frustration on my face.

"Go ahead then," once again looking at everyone, Ken gestured to them to follow us out of the room. "I'll watch over Rin, you guys have done enough for now."

"Works for me," grabbing hold of my sister's hand, I didn't have to be told twice.

Leaving the room without another question, I was ready to drown my fears with the best medicine in the world.

"Again?" Knowing exactly what I was thinking, Mercy scoffed at me before rolling her eyes. "Fine, I guess I'll keep you company."

"Stop lying, you love wine as much as I do," trying to lift the mood with a light chuckle, I already began to feel a little bubbly.

  ***

Ken's POV:

The twins left the room without much convincing, the others however were a bit more persistent in staying. Even so, convincing them to leave Rin to me, they eventually left me alone with the vampiric beauty.

Glancing over her pale skin as her eyes twitched nervously under the influence of the spell, I knew what had to be done–yet I didn't know if I had the courage. Just a few hits to the head would've been enough to end any problems she caused in the future, but the fact that she and I shared a soul, kept me from going through with the plan.

'I guess, we have to accept to live with a murderer after all.' Reverting back to my previous plan, I started untying her limbs from the bedframe.

After she was free to move more than a few inches, I slipped back into the chair to watch over her sedated body. Looking at me through the rest of the day, she dared not speak one word more. Her testimony about her wicked crimes had been enough to enrage everyone already.

"You'll only make things worse by talking," I told her as she tried to open her mouth to speak.

Shutting her lips defeated, her eyes went shut. Slipping into slumber, she avoided enraging me or anyone else anymore. Making sure that she was asleep, I locked the bedroom from outside before heading off to get Erica's letter.

It was time to open the damned thing, after all, what greater betrayal can I get than the outright murder of someone I got close to? Not to mention, the rep from the embassy was due to arrive in a few hours so whatever it was that I had to do at the hotel, had to be finished in that small frame of time.

Getting to my room, the very first thing I noticed was that Senya was no longer there. Even weirder was the fact that she wasn't present during Rin's interrogation either. There was no doubt she'd known what the vampiress had done, and the guilt of hiding the truth was eating her away.

'Worry about it later.' Shaking those thoughts away, I quickly grabbed the envelope from under my pillow.

Running my fingers across the crude parchment, I felt minute creases all over it. Whatever the envelope was made of had a texture akin to leather, but then the question stood, what kind of animal skin was it made out of? The witch Erica was evidently powerful, however, whatever was confined in this envelope was more of a curse than a blessing. Something she'd admitted with her own words.

'Just do it…' Flicking the wax seal open with my nail, I reached inside the envelope. Feeling an even thinner folded parchment in it, I quickly pulled it out. 'Okay…Here goes.'

Throwing the envelope on the bed, my eyes scanned through the letter examining every word with keen scrutiny. From a glance it was a simple explanation of what she was offering–the power to consume other people's souls in order to cast magic as well as conduct experiments, however, reading the finer lines things quickly grew grim.

'My master taught me how to cleave your own soul to breathe life into objects. A prime example of this would be my doll, Dandelion. Once just a toy, I infused her with a fragment of my soul. It took her a while, but eventually, she grew conscious. Being a part of me, she's taken to my previous child-like personality. However, if I were to die truly, she'd try to become me or at least try to clone my personality. The logistics of it are murky, but remember, every soul you consume will turn you into someone else. Worst, if the person dies, you might just become that person–or at least your mind would suffer irreparably.'

The letter from Erica went on and on explaining even finer details of the curse. Reaching its end, however, I noticed something peculiar. Signed in blood were numerous titles and her name was mentioned only at the end of the list of titles.

"The crimson witch, the nameless giant's named daughter, the fallen king's mistake, and lastly, the slave of the last magus," marked alongside her real name–Erica was a small note closed in brackets. 'In my world titles hold power, my name has none.'

I didn't know exactly what she meant, and yet my heart was clouded with gloom over the last part. Sparing but a moment to keep her in mind, I ripped the parchment to complete Erica's instruction. Her memories flooded out of my head not moments later, and before long everything about the crimson witch had been forgotten. Everything, but the curse she left behind.