RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE - The House of Dimitrescu

Chapter 9 - The Last Mask

'I must be out of my mind.' 

Y/N couldn't believe he was actually doing this. Striding quickly over to the chained woman in the center of the dais, he watched for a moment as Bela's golden eyes turned up to face him, narrowed in suspicion as her crystalizing skin cracked and flaked. She hissed at him from between her teeth, but it didn't dissuade Y/N as he moved to stand behind her, grabbed her shoulders in his hands and began to drag her from the dais towards the fireplace on the opposite side of the room.

The hearth was almost dark when he reached it, the chill air from the battle under the skylight having killed the already weakened fire, but Y/N sighed resignedly and propped Bela's stiff form up against a nearby armchair as he set to work, stacking wood from the log basket nearby onto the warm coals, keeping the frozen vampire in his sights at all times. 

Bela watched him through narrowed eyes as Y/N gently breathed life back into the fire, and when he moved to drag her closer, her paralyzed limbs cracked loudly as she tried in vain to shake him off her.

'Stop that.' Y/N told her firmly, sitting Bela's curled form by the fire and dragging over an armchair. 'You might not be frozen all the way through but you'll still break if you thrash too hard. So I suggest you quiet down.' Bela hesitated for a moment, then her struggles ceased, and a few moments later, once Y/N was sure she wasn't going to lash out, he picked her up and placed her into the armchair facing the fire. 

'Are you... going to kill... me?' Bela's voice creaked out from between her pale lips as her golden eyes followed Y/N to the fireplace as he heaped yet more wood onto the fire. Y/N turned to her, considering the coiled woman with her blood-soaked robes, his own blood dried on her face and neck from where she had tried to drink from him. 

'... no.' He replied after a long moment's thought. He then turned back to the fire, dragging the grill across the opening to prevent any hot embers from dancing out of the grate. They were in a library after all. The fire hazard was unthinkable.

'... why?...' Bela asked him quietly, her limbs creaking and cracking horribly as she began to thaw, her jaw still mostly locked in place. Y/N sighed, then moved closer, standing above the paralyzed woman, silhouetted against the fireplace behind him.

'Because if I were to let you die, it would make me no better than you.' He replied softly. Despite everything she had done to him, Y/N still felt pity tug at his heartstrings as he looked down at the defenseless murderess. Her eyes, whilst still frozen at the edges, glowed softly gold in the firelight, and her expression had changed from one of hatred, smugness or fury to one of confusion, shock, even pain. 

Shaking his head, Y/N moved away from her, wrapping his chain up and clipping it to his belt, before considering the wound on his neck and forearm. Both were bleeding profusely, but other than feeling a little light-headed, Y/N seemed steady enough on his feet. Quickly, he tore off a strip of cloth from the bottom of his shirt and tied it loosely around his neck. He did the same for the cut on his forearm, which was deeper, and hurt much more vividly. 

Bela was still sat motionlessly in the armchair by the fire, and as Y/N made to return to her, a tiny flicker of silver light caught his eye. The silver light streaming from the skylight was reflecting off something small and metallic in the bookshelf built into the back wall. Curiously, Y/N made his way over to it and inspected the books upon the shelf. 

None of them had silver spines, so that couldn't be the source of the glimmer, but as he scanned the bookshelves, which had been partly cleared by Bela's fly-storm, he spotted a tiny, silver keyhole in the corner of the middle shelf. However, it was a very strange shaped keyhole; more like a single hole with three rectangular slots at intervals around its edge.