The Demon's Bride

The Butler That Dug a Hole

That night, Elise went back to her room and ended her night for the day while tucking herself under the warm quilt. Since working here, she have made new friends and had taken a step forward. Her right hand that she buried under the pillow felt the cold touch of the metallic object. She pulled it from the pillow, taking the key of the library that Ian gave and a gentle smile passed over her face. She hadn't yet had the chance to use the key but in her next break, she decide to use a key. After all, Ian told her to take a great use of the library.

As she fluttered her eyelashes and closed her eyelids to fall into a dream, suddenly she felt as though she was swallowed into the darkness. When she opened her eyes, a woman with the similar features of her face sat in front of her, her hand holding her neck and wring it firmly. A gasp escaped from her mouth, her tears mixed with the cold sweats dripping off from her forehead. She called weakly to the woman who was strangling her and pleaded. "M-Mom, please don't. Help. I can't breath."

Yet hearing this, her mother felt utterly disgusted. Her expression twisted with a distorted look. "DON'T CALL ME THAT! YOU'RE NOT MY DAUGHTER! CURSED BEINGS! GIVE ME BACK MY DAUGHTER!"

The shout that escaped from her mother's mouth rang her mind. She became dizzier from the lack of air and soon enough Elise almost lost her sight.

Elise jolted up in surprise from the nightmare. She held her neck, feeling it. Even though it was only a nightmare, it was real enough that she could feel a hand strangling her neck, trying to wring it to the point she had to gasp for air. Cold sweats dropped down of her forehead, Elise sweep her forehead only to notice how horrible her hand was trembling. She held both of her hand to her chest, calming herself by organizing her harsh breathings. "It's a dream, Elise. It's only a dream, a nightmare." She cooed herself, chanting the words like a magical spell.

The woman at her dream was none other than her mother. Her mother who she didn't really remember because to her, the earliest memory she had began when she had already thrown out from her biological mother's house. Yet there's only one memory that she had of her mother, it was when the woman strangled her in hope to kill her. She didn't remembered what happened after it nor her mother's face.

Aryl who was woken up by her abrupt movement, flicked her finger to create a fire and panicked when she saw Elise's pale face. "Are you alright, Elise?"

Elise nodded, trying her best to pull a smile. "I'll bring a drink." She spoke and went to see the water jar beside her bed to be empty and stood up to exit her room to the kitchen. Aryl being her little lamp followed her from behind, perhaps due to dark hallway or perhaps because of how she remembered the massacres that happened nine years ago in the mansion, she felt a chill running down her back. Seeing ghosts didn't help her in not fearing the dead, instead it make it worse, Elise thought to herself while passing the first floor's hallway. When she passed by the hallway with the large window, Elise heard a pitter patter from outside. "It has been raining?" She muttered aloud.

"Perhaps? I also don't know." Aryl replied.

Elise tucked the curtain aside, trying to see whether it had been raining while she was asleep but the sky had turned pitch-black, making it hard for her to see what was happening outside. Retracting her hand, suddenly a bolt of thunder rang aloud, following the ringing sound, a blue glare of light appeared at the garden, showing a man with red hair, digging a hole and a body lying beside his shovel.

Elise gasped in surprise, she covered her mouth to let go of the curtain from her hand and stepped behind. Wasn't that the butler, Maroon? Although she only saw it for a slight second, she was sure the man was digging something with a large human-like bundle beside him.