The Crimson Witch’s Depart

After retelling everyone what Rin had done, everyone was waiting inside the room for the vampiress to wake up and answer some questions. The twins as well as Cinder visibly discomfort while Maiko was more furious than scared by her actions. It reminded me of our first night together, where she mentioned losing someone in a gruesome way. Perhaps that incident had made her more resilient to such things.

As for me, I still couldn't fathom why she would go this far. Taking a life out of jealousy? I knew we could not have her around the others anymore, not after what she'd done. And yet, I could only imagine what she would do if I forced her away from me right after she murdered a person for getting close to me.

"Again," breaking the silence, Maiko spoke to me. "She killed that woman because you and her–"

"I know, and it happened so fast I wasn't thinking straight at the moment," I answered before she could bring herself to finish the question.

"Polygamy is common amongst monsters, so I do not care if you had sex with her," crossing her arms, she heaved a sigh before continuing. "What I wanna know you two didn't notice her watching you two. How did she even know what you were up to at that hour?"

"She has eyes all over the hotel with her bat familiars that lurk around corners," even just saying that made a cold chill run down my spine. The thought of being watched without knowing had a particularly unsettling feeling. "Not to mention, I think she has powers that she's intentionally keeping a secret."

Looking at the girls wincing away at the news, I figured they too felt exactly what I was feeling. Mercy and Claire seemed especially bothered, and to be fair, I couldn't blame them. Being humans just like me, they too were raised to fear monsters. And even the three of us had grown somewhat comfortable living around them, even the slightest reminder was far too much.

"We need a break from this place," glancing across their faces, I wanted them all to know something. "I'll talk to Ophelia or whoever she's sending tomorrow. Convince them that as it stands the rogue monsters in the woods are too much of a threat."

"And then what? You think they'll just let us go?" Her body still burning a worrisome blue, Cinder stepped forward with her doubts. "I came here to work and build trust between the species, but after what Rin did, hells! They'll kill us too the moment we tell them what really happened!"

"Ugh!" Grinding her teeth, Mercy began to pace around the room. "We shouldn't have decided to stay here, it's more dangerous here than the outside fucking world!"

"Fucking bitch, talking about how good the wine was, you convince me to stay with you too!" Claire jumped in accusing her own sister.

"Don't you dare put this on me!" Pointing a finger at her sister, Mercy stood sternly before her. "We decided it together, like all our fucked-up ideas!"

"Shut up for a moment," I muttered trying to silence them both.

Turning to me with raging eyes, the two directed their rage on me instead.

"As if you're the one to–"

"For the love of god, don't make me tear your tongues out," having had enough of their nonsense, I quickly got off the bed and moved inches from their faces. Looking right down into their eyes, I kept on glaring until the anger on their faces mellowed down considerably. "I can be nice, but don't test my patience. Besides we're in this shit together now, doesn't matter how you got in. Also, at least you two had a choice, I as well as these girls, if we try leaving this damned job, the embassy might as well gut us like fish!"

Following my scream, the room was once again filled with silence. Taking a step away from the girls, I quickly finished my thought from before Cinder decided to interrupt me.

"Nobody is telling anyone what happened and what she did, we're going with the fake story she made up…" Trying to spy dissent I looked around at everyone's faces. Thankfully, this time either there was none or I'd scared them enough to keep it to themselves. "Miss Marloon died because some monsters got to her. We found her body, and soon after every guest left. I'll suggest to whoever is coming over in Ophelia's place, to give us a holiday of sorts until the embassy either abandons this project or makes sure it's safe for guests to stay over."

From the look of things, everyone finally seemed to be in agreement at the moment. Now all we had to do was wait for Rin to wake up, and interrogate her further. But before that could happen, the sound of marching steps echoed in the hallway. Since Erica was the only guest remaining, it was clear that she was leaving.

"Tie up Rin, and make sure she doesn't hurt anyone. I'll go talk to Erica before she leaves," just throwing that order around, I rushed after the footsteps.

'I doubt she's in the mood to listen to anything, but that deal we were about to strike. I could really make use of it with how things were getting so out of hand.' By the time I caught up with her, she was already outside the hotel standing before what appeared to be a portal of deep crimson. Although the sight was as baffling as it could've been, I ignored it for now and focused on the task at hand instead.

"Erica, wait!" Even as I called out to her, she didn't turn her attention to me.

Instead, patting her horses on the back, she urged them to get through the portal. It was only after the horses went through and I was standing inches from her that she looked at me.

"I'm leaving the carriage behind, it has all that you need, so get out of my face now," with those words, she looked down at her Marionette Dandy who thankfully seemed unharmed. "Better yet, we'll get out of your hair instead."

"Erica, I'm sorry for what happened," I tried to apologize, but her reply hushed me completely.

"If I had killed her, like she killed me, would you have forgiven me?" To her question, I had no answer. "Enjoy the rain Ken, and tell that vampire that when she'll outlive everything she loves, perhaps then she'll know how much it hurts to be alone. Something she'd never thought of when taking Dandy away from me."

Grabbing Dandy's hand, she turned around and phased right through the portal. It closed soon after, leaving me all to myself. And as if that wasn't enough to portray my misery, a dark rain cloud burst overhead. Feeling the drops hitting my head, I slowly reached for my hair to brush them off. However, as my fingers brushed against the drops, I realized that it wasn't water that was raining, but rancid blood of god knows what.

"Enjoy the rain?" I muttered, repeating the crimson witch's words.