Making her Joyful Again || RF Julie x FEM reader || L1TTL3_R0TT3N

- Ch.11: Thorn Bushes -

[Name] was not excited to go back to work tomorrow. She'd have to see Walden, and Cod was probably pissed at her for ditching. She decided that rotting in her bed for the weekend before would be the best option.

She thought about Julie. She wondered how she was doing; if she was okay. She couldn't shake off the anger she witnessed in her. The door to her bedroom opened, and in stepped Harold. She sat up instantly in concern for the messy state of her room.

But Harold stepped over it and sat on the bed beside her in panic. He cupped her face in his hand, examining her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened?" He didn't look at her once. He was occupied with making sure every limb was intact. 

"Everything's fine, Dad. I'm fine." She calmed down a bit to see that he wasn't so concerned about the mess. He sighed and nodded his head, gradually letting go of her arm. "Good."

She looked away from him and looked out the window beside her bed. 

He proceeded to ask the question she dreaded. "What happened?"

[Name] was a rowdy kid. Back when she and Wally were close, back when he was Wally to her in general, they had a lot of fist fights. It was more of a bond than a fight. But what she hated more than anything was when Harold asked that same annoying question; "What happened?"

It didn't make him bad, of course. It just annoyed her as a kid. And apparently, it still did.

"I didn't get into any fights. Walden was getting all pissy and-" She cut herself off and ran her fingers through her hair. "And...and I passed out. He didn't hit me or anything, I just...fell." She gave that innocent shrug. She just wanted off the hook.

Harold sat in silence for a moment. He looked at the pine floors below in total serenity. Until it snapped. "Were you with her?"

"What does his wife have to do with any of this? It's all anyone talks to me about lately. 'Julie' this, 'Julie' that, we were just hanging out. Having fun. Walden treats her pretty shitty from what I hear, and she needed a friend." She threw her arms up like boiled pasta noodles.

Harold let out a low hum. "I don't want you to have a distance because of your immaturity. You're an adult now, you can handle yourself. You always could." His hand rested over hers. This permitted her to calm down more.

 "But..Julie has a past of running in with dark magic. More powerful, more ancient than anything I'm familiar with." That sentence alone shook fear into her. Harold, out of every being she knew, was by far the most powerful. 

"And the demons she ran into are more than either of us could imagine. Old beings like them are bored, and that makes them ruthless."

[Name] had a hard time understanding what any of it meant. Why would Julie want to be around such a malevolent demon anyway?

"I want to help her, Dad." She fidgeted with the blanket on her legs. Harold went quiet for a moment, still as night. "When...when I was around her, she looked so happy. So peaceful. But the second she saw Walden, it's almost like a piece of her died." Her eyes widened as she explained it.

She was so joyous in one moment but pulled away from all those emotions of glee in another. She was ripped away from them like they were attached by nothing but velcro.