𝐄𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋

Chapter 21

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"Everybody says it's all okay"

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As his words slowly set in, Emilie could only stare into his eyes in disbelief. He was hurt, extremely hurt— and it was all her fault.

"I-is that what you want?" she whispered, voice on the verge of breaking. Tears were welling up in her eyes as Lindel continued to stare at the ground, his fists in tight balls.

"Yes," he said darkly, his gaze looking away from hers.

"I—" she paused, fingers gripping the blanket around her, "If that's what you wish."

She loosened her grip around the blanket, letting it fall onto the couch as she stood up and walked swiftly past him. Her heart began to ache, her lips numb, as her fingers trembled. Emilie did not stop as she swiftly gathered herself up and walked through the door.

She went to remove the ring when Lindel's voice stopped her.

"Take it," he said quietly, "I have no use for it."

"I'm sorry Lindel," she whispered, tears now falling down her face, "I love you."

She closed the door behind her, her breath stilling as her lips began to quiver. The brown-haired woman began to walk soundlessly down the once dry path— now muddy due to the rain— fiddling with the ring on her finger. She had wanted to leave it inside the house, but she did not have the energy to face him again. At least, not right now.

Emilie decided that she would continue what she started, as there was nothing holding her back now. Then, she would find Joseph and explain the whole situation to him. Perhaps he had returned to Cartaphilus after she had left, so she decided going to his house was her best bet at finding the young boy.

She walked through the town, the lights in all the buildings turned off– which she found slightly odd, especially for such a lively town. Now that the storm had passed, the villagers should've been out and about. However, it almost looked like the town was a ghost-town, completely abandoned. Feeling worried, she began to run with what little energy she had to Cartaphilus' house.

As she got there, she immediately knew something was wrong. His front door was wide open, not how she left it when she ran off to catch Joseph. The lights were still on as she walked towards the door, a chill running down her spine as she did so. When she stopped in the door, she found Joseph sitting on the seat she last saw Cartaphilus sitting in.

"Joseph! You're alright," she sighed, leaning on the door with a hand on her head, "Where's Cartaphilus?"

As she stood there, she noticed that Joseph was not moving. Rather, he was sitting still, facing away from her as he stared into the fire.

"It's alright now."

Emilie paused, her gaze not leaving the boy in front of her.

"What's alright?" She murmured, walking towards him.

It was then that she realized the reason for the skin-crawling dread she had felt walking through the town. Joseph was not the same. His hair was much longer, and it wasn't the same brown shade it normally was. It was long and silvery. His brown irises were now a silvery blue and his skin was paler.

The part that struck her the most was the connection between the two of them pathologically. She had spent lots of her energy into healing Cartaphilus, which naturally resulted in her connection to his mind being much stronger. On the other hand, she rarely used her magic on Joseph, resulting in a weaker connection.

However, the connection she had with the boy in front of her was stronger than either of her single two connections to the two males..

"Joseph!!" She shouted frantically, shaking the boy, "What happened?!"

It was as if the boy broke from his trance, his eyes turning to look at hers.

"Emilie.." he said blankly.

"Joseph..!" she said, worry evident in her voice.

"It hurts."

Her eyes widened as she continued to stare at him, "no.."

That's when she realized it, Joseph had merged with Cartaphilus.

"Y-you.." she stumbled back, hand palming over her mouth, "You're kidding me.."

"Emilie," the boy repeated, "your magic.. Please heal me. It.. really hurts."

The auburn-haired woman could only stare in horror as she watched the boy sway from side to side. It was true, Joseph had taken on Cartaphilus' curse of immortality.

"Why.. why did you do it?" she whispered.

The silver haired boy looked at her, grimacing as he seemed to remember.

"You were going to let him die," he said angrily, "I promised to help him. So I did.."

Joseph sat up, his eyes no longer shining as he looked at her, "Help me, Emmy. It hurts. You promised.."

It was like his mind wasn't in the right place all at the same time, his personality was changing and morphing into something different. The one aspect that seemed to be consistent was the running mantra of "it hurts."

Emilie then felt a burning sensation on her wrist, and as she looked down she saw Joseph's grip on it. He was gripping so tightly that it began to leave a red mark.

"Joseph!" she shouted, ripping her hand away from him. She was in total shock, it was like every rational thought was gone from her head from all of the day's events.

However, it seemed that the action of doing so flipped a switch in her head as she then grabbed his hands, using her magic.

"Heaven's Etoile!"

She then proceeded to connect to his mind, finding it to be in such a disarray that she truly did not know what to do. Suddenly, it was like everything in his mind stopped and there was a shadow cast over all his thoughts.

Emilie turned around, seeing the same shadowy figure she had seen in Cartaphilus' mind when she started helping him. This time however, the creature had a wide grin on its face. It sent chills down her spine as she just continued to stare at it.

"You.." she muttered, "Why did you merge with Joseph?! He was an innocent boy!"

The figure laughed, his piercing gaze chilling the female to her bones. She could see every jagged tooth, his eyes the only other light source coming from the shadowy figure.

"He wanted to save the poor soul," it sneered, "so I only granted his wish."

Emilie was at a loss for words as she continued to watch the figure, "Then.. What happened to Cartaphilus?"

The shadow tilted its head before inching closer to her.

"He's here, inside Joseph," it smiled, pointing to her heart, "Along with every other soul I've inhabited."

"Let him go," she said darkly, "he doesn't deserve this."

"Ah but alas he did everything himself," it interjected, "after all, I would need another soul to inhabit instead. I'm sure you know you can't kill me?"

"It's never been done before," she replied flatly,

"but that doesn't mean I can't try."