𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙖・tpn

09・enigma

♪( 'θ｀)ノ warning- nothing!
—
・3rd pov

Ray's eyebrows twitched, both him and the others felt like Willow spouted a series foreign curses right at their faces.

Her existence already was enigmatic for the boy— how she was able to get through difficult obstacles in a controlled course of action, how she was gifted great intelligence yet never give it her all in the daily exams, and how her eyes told a different story contrary to her deadpan expression.

He always suspected Willow knew something a long time ago, but his suspicions only ever leaked further when she started the habit of helping mama more often than usual. Which is why he dragged her all the way here to see what her reaction was, and to be expected it was nothing but normal.

No surprise, no accusation, and no anger.

It was neutral.

So, for the girl to say to this blatantly confused Ray. Willow clearly knew something was going on behind the scenes of Grace Field, so why did she see herself as a pile of dead weight? Just fresh food waiting to be eaten by a repulsive demon?

Is that why she never tried on the exams? Was that why she always tried to stay away from communicating with the children?

Ray didn't understand, and whatever her reason would be he probably wouldn't understand it either. Because unlike Willow, Ray saw life as a precious thing— you only get one after all, cherish it and do the most.

Don't treat life as another pile of crumpled paper, waiting to be thrown away in the trash bin.

But clearly Willow wasn't going to go by with that statement.

"Can... you repeat that?" Norman asked nervously, "This isn't the time to be making jokes, Willow."

"You heard me," she repeated, "I won't be escaping the orphanage."

Emma took a double take.

She refused to let anyone else die at the hands of a demon, not when Conny recently walked down that path. She was way too stubborn, and she was even willing to admit to that!

Even if her best friend, Willow, is fine with dying, Emma herself would never let that happen. She treasures Willow too much for something like that to happen!

"No way!" Emma protested, "Even if it's impossible, I want to escape with everyone, including you Willow! I may not know what's on the outside—"

But I do, Willow sighed.

"— but leaving our family behind is an option I will never consider! I want Conny to be the last. I don't want anyone to end up like that ever again. If the outside doesn't have an area we can survive in, we'll just make one ourselves. Let's change the world!"

"Emma, you don't understand-"

"I do! And I'm not giving up on this!" She yelled, "Everyone here will escape and survive, I'll make sure of that Willow! So, you two, please give up. Stop jabbering nonsense and help Norman and I!"

Ray gritted his teeth and groaned, while Willow crossed her arms around her chest.

"You really don't get it, Emma," Willow shook her head, "I'm not saying that I won't be escaping with everyone to succeed Ray's plan, no not at all. To be honest, I already knew about the truth way back before, so if I wanted to escape I would've came up of a plan much more sooner."

It didn't take long for Willow to glance back at the three, who were absolutely dumbfounded. They couldn't even utter a single word, they were that surprised. Well, not until Ray decided to break that silence.