To Hell And Back | Granevere | Edited

Chapter One-Hundred-Four

"Oh, by the way, Guinevere forgot her cloak," Benedetta tells him, picking up a royal blue cloak from the living room sofa and playfully throwing it to his face. The cloak drapes over his head and for a moment, he was in a black universe where he could only smell her.

He pulls the cloak off himself. She was here alright, and here with him, possibly a worse version of himself. The whole apartment smelled of Granger and this was supposedly Benedetta's apartment.

"I promise I am not hiding her. So go ahead and scan the perimeter, Hunter," Benedetta said, assuming he was still suspicious of her. He almost forgot his reason for coming into her apartment in the first place. "What's the matter with you? You look calmer than your usual tsundere self."

Not knowing what to actually do, Granger walks around the great room. Benedetta suddenly heads back into the narrow hallway and opens up every door leading to the bedrooms. "Shit!" Granger shoots her a look when she suddenly cussed. "I gotta get back downstairs. I forgot to lock the back doors."

Having all of the apartment to himself, he goes through every door and pretends to look. First room he enters turns out to be Benedetta's. He found her Alecto hung inside her closet, behind her plain village dresses. He still can't believe she was a village folk here, but what's not to believe when in another universe?

He returns to the hallway and enters another door leading to a bedroom that has a private bathroom, where a strong familiar scent lingers. Granger gives the bedroom a wary once-over once again. It's like he's been in this place with his scent practically embedded onto every surface. Not to mention, her lavender scent could be smelled once in a while as well. Just what the hell were they doing in here? Granger already knows why, which makes him bash a hesitant punch on the wooden cabinet, detonating a large slapping bang.

From one of the drawers of the cabinet, he hears sealed liquid moving. He quickly pulls the drawer open. Inside there were four piles of blood bags. It makes perfect sense. His other self must still have to deal with Kouna. Granger suddenly felt unease, not because of the reserved blood bags but because every one of them had feminine names taped in every single one of them. Abigail. Cassie. Julia. Idris. Olivia... He was becoming woozy of trying to read all of the names with the heinous desire to taste each and every one of them begins to seduce him.

"What the actual fuck," he couldn't help but say out loud. He practically had to throw himself off to get away from the reserved blood of possibly all women. He was becoming more and more anxious about his wife's well-being. Just the thought of imagining how he would feel when he accidentally found her name inside the drawer. It makes him want to crawl out of his own skin.

She probably didn't get to see what was inside of the drawers, but if she did, then he couldn't expect less of her. She loved him no matter what, and in a strange yet unfamiliar world, surely he would've done the same thing and force himself to love the worse version of his lover. A weird coping mechanism, it was.

Gripping as much of his silver-white hair as he could, he lets his back slam against the bed and to find he had laid down on a pile of folded clothing. It was a freshly washed nightdress that smells fragrantly of soap and hundreds of summer flowers. She must have worn it to sleep and whenever they were making love to each other-

Granger wasn't only clenching his fists anymore, he was clenching his fist. The more he thinks about another man touching his wife makes him all the more impatient to take another man's life.

He knew he had already crossed the line when he killed the only man he once considered as a best friend. So why stop at Alucard?

Yes, why stop there, youngling? Kouna spoke menacingly.

His fists hardened and rage lights up in the hollow feeling in his chest. "I'm not going to stop, not until she comes back to me," Granger vowed.

Having nothing else to do in the apartment, he decides to call it a night and go back to his and Harith's rented room and sleep the remaining hours of the night.

- - -

The next morning, rained came down from the heavens. The magic-less streets of the Lightborn Capital looked the same as it were last night. Godforsaken. No sign of a beating heart. It was boredom for Granger, whereas it gave Guinevere a calm state of mind. The patter of rain against the window always brings her into a meditative state.

The couple had just finished eating fried bacon and eggs which was what Guinevere personally cooked for their late morning breakfast. They somehow woke up late when it was nearly past ten because of the rain.

Barely feeling his presence in the room, Guinevere looks away from the window which was the only light source in the room and turns to Granger, who was sitting in the far corner on a boxy armchair, completely immersed with the book in his hands. It was a Bible.

Guinevere tries to study his face. He never fails to look like an unsolvable puzzle and it seems the only way to find out about his emotions is to fight him, or kiss him. Remembering the countless times she'd kissed him causes a rebellious giggle to fly out of her mouth.

Granger looks up from his book, shooting her a look. From the corner of her eye, Guinevere stares back at him.

"I'm going back to the Monastery and I probably won't come back until next month," he announced out of the blue, causing her to stand up in dismay.

"What! You're honestly just going to leave me here?"

"I serve the Empire for life. I can not not go."

"But-"

"Look, if you still want me to come back to you, don't use that tone on me."

Suddenly he was a stranger to her again. Sinking back into her chair, she lolled her head to the side, managing to distract herself from crying by counting almost all of the raindrops on the window pane.

Maybe she should've settled with Aurelius...

Gritting her teeth behind a counterfeit smile, she makes her way to the front door. "Where are you-" before he could finish his sentence, she cuts him off by slamming the door behind her. Fearing he was going to chase after her, she dashes off down the quiet corridor.

The old woman behind the receptionist desk gives her an alarmed look as she pushes through the closed entrance doors and into the pouring rain she went.

- - -

Granger acknowledged the fact that his wife was fond of the rain. Back at the Monastery, she would take their daughter out and play in the rain with her, whether it be Hide and Seek or Tag. Playing in the rain were the only times she would manifest into a little girl again, metaphorically speaking.

"Is it you or I'm stinking up the whole room?" Harith asked with a face devoid of any type of humor. Granger just stared emotionlessly as ever at him. He raised one of his short hands for the second time and brings his feline nose to his armpits. He cackles out gagging noises after inhaling his own smell. "Oh, man! It really is me!"

Like an invisible ghost, Granger watches the three-footer Leonin grab a handful of clothes and runs off to the bathroom, locking the door behind him. Granger couldn't be bothered to laugh at the time traveller. Today, the heavens were remorseful and so was he.

That is until the color of reddish orange mixes in with the transparent raindrops, and he looks down at the temporarily abandoned street to see a ginger woman walking out of the inn and into the rain like an escaped prisoner.