Iniquity [HS]

Chapter VII.

"Running in circles, aren't we, Cel?" Harry waited for her answer, tilting his head. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be home and study?" Celestria spoke, pressing her lips together into a straight line. "Oh believe me, i know everything." He smirked. "Of course." She rolled her eyes at him, throwing the towel on the bench. Celestria stepped forward to him.

Harry's gaze was all over her movements. He passed the ball to her with a fast yet delicate movement. Harry's lips curled up into one of those charming smirks of his, while she was staring at him with a surprisingly annoyed gaze. A few steps were enough for her to beat him just like she did with everyone before, but his looks were messing with her mind.

"Stop what you are doing Styles." Said Celestria, leaning her head forward in exhaustion. "Styles?" Harry frowned, his smirk still visible. "Bold of you to assume i will stop though. God, I love it when I make you nervous." He laughed it out, as Celestria stole the ball between his hands. "Not nervous enough, Styles." She said, dribbling as she walked around him. "Watch it." Celestria mimicked a throw directly at his face, making him twitch.
"Never thought they teach you how to play sports." Celestria continued her words.

"Never thought they teach you how to run away from your problems." His words echoed. Celestria's features stoned as soon as his words made contact with her ears. "So they teach you how to be a royal dick instead, hm?" She frowned, looking up at him. Harry's face was close enough for her to feel his freezing breath on her mouth. "Yes, yes they do indeed." He smiled. Harry leaned more into her neck, touching her earlobe with his mouth.

"Why are you running away from me, hm?" Harry whispered in her ear, brushing a part of hair behind her shoulder. "I need you to kiss me Celestria. Please." He whispered, touching the left side of her neck gently with his lips. "How much do you need it?" She teased. Celestria could feel his body getting weaker and closer to hers. Harry started kneeling in front of her on that glacial floor. He pressed his palms on his thighs, looking up at her with a foreign desire. "I am worthless without the touch of your lips Celestria." He breathed out.

She leaned over to his face and whispered. "I am afraid this is all you will get for a while." Celestria spoke, leaning even more into his soul, pressing a long, sticky kiss on his cheek. She smiled and stood up, looking down at his face with that desire still on it. "Good night Harry." Celestria went directly to the doors and opened them, this time looking behind for Harry still on his knees. His face was a shining red, his eyes a darker green than usual.

The corridor seemed shorter when she left. His words filled her brain making her lose the track of time again. He wants her. Oh, he wants her bad. His words made contact with the walls of her heart and brain, making her spine shiver. Thinking about what love should mean happen again next to him. Celestria opened the heavy metal doors and left the building of BSA. The parking lot was empty just like how she expected. People of Bladeshire were already taken away in the realm of dreams.

The street lights were flickering slowly. A ghostly breeze following each step Celestria was making since she reached the forest next to her house. The strong scent of nicotine from her cigarette was leaving behind it a long cloud. A few steps forward were enough for Celestria to notice some kind of strange movement made by a strange creature. Or..

A tall person, covered by a white material. A man. Shadows of his features peaking out of his hood. Her attention was drawn only on the upper part of that ghostly walking material. Until he leaned forward, rolling up his right sleeve revealing scandalous golden long nails attached to the fingers. The sharpness of his long nails was unlike any other knife. They were like little swords glued together on his fingers forming a monstrous weapon.

The walking material leaned more into his victim's soul, brushing two of those nails against that poor woman's cheek, cutting it open. Then, slowly moved them on her head, brushing his thumb on her scalp. After that, he moved slowly onto her abdominal area. Looking deep into her eyes, he pressed those five nails into her stomach, an alarming amount of blood splashed all over him.

He repeated his action more than a few times, blood splashing into thin air. Five deep, full of blood, holes were now visible on that woman's stomach from where Celestria was. He stroked the woman's hands and legs with his golden nails after he finished, wiping the blood on her clothes.

Celestria's palms were sweating, and her eyes have widen. Her lips trembled, her eyes unfocused and full of tears. She had just witnessed to a real murder. The monstrous scream that came after the blood, reminded her of sayings elders of Bladeshire have told her. Celestria's eyes widened even more. Was this walking material the monster killer of those poor souls in her town? Her heart was beating faster than usual; with a burning feeling of abhorrence. Just as her heart was filling with disgust, her phone rang loudly.

Shit. Shit.

Celestria was frightened to look up to see if anyone—especially the walking material— heard her ringing phone. But her senses were strong enough to feel his eyes on her. When the courage entered her body, her eyes had risen from the ground and looked directly into his eyes. The monstrous walking material turned his head directly into Celestria's direction, no shadow visible this time. Her weak legs were now kneeled next to a car, and her breath stopped for a good second. She pressed her hand over her heart, waiting for him go away eventually. He couldn't stay behind her forever, right? Right?

A deadly silence was spreading over the forest. Celestria was right in front of her house, trying to stay as silent as possible. A few minutes passed by in a rush, and everything went completely silent. Only the flickering of street lights and that ghostly breeze forming a sort of distant noise. Celestria moved her gaze to check behind her and noticed only a few fresh blood patterns on the grass. As she stood up and ran to the other side, a long trail of blood from the ice-cold murder she had just witnessed started forming under her eyes, going deeper into the forest. Her sight caught a kind of smoke so far away from where she was.

Celestria rushed her hand into her pocket to get her phone. With trembling hands, she formed the number of the only one who could help her in that moment. She waited less than two seconds until hearing a familiar voice on the other side. "Aaron?" She breathed heavily, her voice shaking.

"Celestria? What happened?" Her friend asked. "I think," she breathed out. "I think i just found something about the case." Celestria laughed anxiously, slowly turning it into some sort of foreign silent cry. "Where are you?" Asked Aaron.
"Next to my house." Celestria tried to speak. "Go inside. Now. I'll be there in three." Aaron ended the call and rushed through the door.

Celestria ran inside her house and locked the door and all the windows from both floors. Her draperies and curtains were now drawn over the windows, making it impossible for anyone to look inside.

After some moments four familiar knocks at the door made her dart her eyes directly at it. "Aaron." Celestria exclaimed and hugged her friend. "Are you okay?" Asked her friend. "Yes. I have important news though." She opened the fridge and took a heavy bottle of whiskey out of it. "It is better when it's cold, trust me." She laughed, as she invited her friend to sit down. "You know the no-name case, right?" Celestria started pouring the strong liquid into their tiny cups. "The one we elected to investigate together?" He asked. "Yes, indeed. That one." Celestria affirmed.

"I got a call when i was walking with Edward after the mass. It was from BCD, from Owen. He said they found so many things covered in blood, and you know what that means?" Celestria took a sip from her tiny cup. "Evidence. DNA. We are so close yet so far from getting answers." She looked over at Aaron, who was staring blankly at his hands.

"I saw a murder tonight. Right next to my house. There was this," Celestria shook her head firmly. "This thing. It was a man I suppose. An evil, cold-blooded killer. And after he killed, there was that monstrous scream the elders told us about." She whispered the last words of her sentence.
"I believe there are more than one. At least ten. Maybe even more. I cannot picture a killer doing multiple murders in only one day." Said Aaron still glancing at his hands.

Celestria noticed their empty cups and poured some more. And more. And even more. Until she was no longer connected to this reality and Aaron had to put her into bed and leave without many answers. Her story began to be complicated, an almost nonsense, after only a few tiny cups. Maybe more than a few.

Celestria never had trouble sleeping, but there was something different about her sleep that night. Something seemed to disturb her little subconscious.

It wasn't that dark nightmare she had during the night, in which her corpse was dragged by the walking material into the woods and thorn into the hell fire, but what came after what she witnessed to that night, was unimaginably terrifying.