"What's the matter?"
"Sit down" Aaron's voice was strikt like the one of a teacher.
"Where's Ava?" Liam asked half interested while sitting down on one of the bar stools in front of the kitchen counter across from the other person.
The madness in him seemed to have faded away into nothing.

Aaron grabbed the folder and held it in front of Liam. "Do you know what that is?" They asked.
He shook his head.
"It's the police record of everything you did"

The man whose dark secrets were about to be revealed clenched his jaw.

"You shot Millie and Caitlin, don't bother to deny it. How does it come that you still have the murder weapon after Ethan hid it for you?"

"Well, you won't believe it, but I found it just a few days ago. It was in the forest just a minute from here" he stated. "It found its way back to me on its own, funny, isn't it?" There wasn't a single trace of humor in his voice.

I doubted that a gun traveled the whole way and fell into his hands out of nowhere, but then something clicked in my mind.
Nathan! He must've found it a few years after Ethan has hid it, after he shot his boyfriend with it, it remained just a few minutes away from here. Obviously Liam was the one who had to find it there.

"Why?" Aaron asked the same question I did earlier.

"Oh, you know, I've been asking that myself a lot lately. The answer is: because I wanted to" he smirked.
That was not what he had told me. And it was certainly not a good reason to commit a crime. Something told me that he's gone mad during the time in between yesterday evening and earlier today at the attic.

Aaron looked him straight in the face, the words of their opponent didn't affect or surprise them.
"And what about my husband?"

"Isn't that obvious?" He made a causal hand gesture as if he was telling them about his weekend plans. "He knew too much, he confronted me and I had to do something. He wanted to kill me, you know? Wanted revenge for his sisters. In the end he couldn't do it though. I took the chance and pushed him of the stairs, he broke his neck and I committed arson. Sorry about your house plants by the way, I didn't mean to burn down the whole house"

For a moment neither of them said a word. Then Liam added: "I mainly moved in with you and Ava, not because I couldn't afford my rent and didn't want you to be alone while that stage of grief, like I have had told you back then, but to make sure you wouldn't get the information if the coward pathologist I've tipped so he wouldn't tell anyone that Ethan died due to a broken neck and not from the fire and the police would start an murder investigation. It did happen, however you also did hear about it somewhere"

"You're lying"

Liam raised an eyebrow. "I am?"

Aaron nodded, "You moved in with us because of guilt. You murdered my husband, Ava's father. Your friend. There had to be something you could do for us, little things like helping in the household and taking care of my daughter when I had work to do. To make you feel better. To push away the guilt you were feeling"
They glanced at him, waiting for a reaction.

The rain outside got heavier every minute and the wind blew over a trash container.

"What do you mean with guilt? I don't regret a thing" Liam avoided eye contact while saying that. He glanced at the folder that contained his police records, wondering how much of him all of them knew.

"So you helped purchasing this house out of pure kindness?"

"I had to keep an eye on you, just in case"

"You would have been the least person I would've suspected after receiving the information that Ethan was murdered. You know that"

"I just wanted to make sure you won't receive any information about it. That has nothing to do with the guilt I feel!" He said angrily.

"So you do feel guilt?"

Liam took in a deep breath and crossed his arms without saying anything.

"That's all I wanted to hear" Aaron got up and walked towards the door, leaving what they brought with them on the work plate of the kitchen counter.
Liam immediately grabbed the folder, just to find out it was full of empty sheets of paper. It was not his police record, like Aaron said, it was just a bluff and he had believed it.

They reached for the door handle, not knowing that Liam put his hand on something he had behind his back the whole time.

He aimed at Aaron's back. He pulled the trigger of the gun.

They turned around, taking something out of their pocket. Liam watched them in disbelief, even though he shot at them, nothing had happened, in fact, the gun didn't even release a bullet.

Aaron dropped three bullets on the ground. "You really think I didn't expect that you'd try to shoot me? I knew that you would tell me everything, after all you could barely held everything you did inside of you anymore, that's why I removed the deadly part of your toy and why I had this with me." Out of their other pocket they took out their phone, the voice memo app was opened and recording.

"Toodles, you bitch" they opened the door to leave while Liam did nothing except for glaring at them with open mouth.

However a hurricane worthy wind blew them off their feet straight to the staircase and closed the door.

Liam took his chance and locked the door using the house key. "Now it's either you or me" he said while sliding it into his pocket.

"Well, fuck" Aaron muttered, frantically standing up.

The other one grabbed their ankles and pulled them down. The two of them fought on the floor. Liam put his hands around Aaron's throat, but they took his wrist and elbow, pushing them into opposite directions. Something cracked and Liam let go of them. Aaron kicked him into his stomach, away from them. Then they ran upstairs.

Liam followed them after shortly inspecting his arm which was twisted in a unhealthy looking way. The sign he had on his neck yesterday night was visible again.

When he was at the upper part of clinomania manor he glanced at the entrance of every room. Aaron opened all of them before using one to hide.
Liam entered the bathroom. While he pushed the shower curtain aside to take a look inside the bathtub Aaron was sneaking out of Ava's room.

The front door was locked, so there was no way to get out. Still, Liam left the gun in the kitchen. They grabbed it and searched the ground for one of the bullets they've dropped there. They only found one, but that was enough.

The young person went through the narrow hallway with the dark green wallpaper and disappeared inside the basement.

In the dark their phone screen lit up, they wanted to dial a number, but before they could press the call button the phone battery went dead.

"Bloody hell!" They turned on the naked light bulb that was hanging from the ceiling. "Fuck it, I'll fight that bitch on my own then.
AYO, LIAM, I'M HERE. COME AND GET ME!"

They didn't notice that something moved behind them.
It looked like a giant, sleeping, bat, however something didn't fit.
It opened its grey wings. Now I saw that it was a butterfly with a body made out of a thousands of limbs.
Two of its arms grabbed Aaron, its fingers were digging into their stomach.

Their eyes widened in shock and confusion. They couldn't know that they walked right into the arms of a demon based on what a dead girl experienced.

I turned to Jane "We need to do something!"

She was breaking her mind about what to do, then she asked: "What memory do you connect with that demon?"

I was thinking; butterfly,); basement; limbs. A weird combination, what on earth happened that this demon exists?

Then I remembered, it was something which happened after I died, so the memory fortunately didn't fade away.

When I followed Rick down here, before he killed Cody, I saw the torso of someone with a butterfly tattoo hanging from the ceiling. And there were boxes full of limbs he has cut of with a saw.
I told that Jane.

"We need to find that saw. If I'm right, then we can only kill the demons with a thing that already killed them in a literal or metaphorical way"

It was just a conspiracy, but I hoped she was right.

The demon already ripped open Aaron's stomach. Blood was flowing out of them in a frightening amount. Their organs were visible and the demon grabbed one of their kidneys. They were unconscious already.
While two of its arms were playing with their organs, five other ones were holding their head with a strength that made me fear it'd break their skull.

I found the saw behind a shelve. The blade had dried dark red blood on it.
I immediately rammed the jagged metal into the demon.
It let go of Aaron in an instant and screeched. A dark grey substance was coming out of the wound I caused. I hit it again and again, a few fingers fell off and I tore the wings. Then I cut it in two pieces and it burst into a cloud of grey dust.

I blew a strain of hair out of my face and threw the saw away. Just then I heard loud steps coming near.
It was Liam.

He looked at Aaron who was bleeding to death, if they weren't dead already.
"You won't be a problem anymore, I guess" was the only thing he said. He didn't even wonder what happened to them.

While he was leaving, Aaron opened their eyes.
They watched Liam leaving, after spotting the sign on his neck they whispered: "Itsu kara kare no naka no kūgeki ga aru no desuka? Emptiness?" Their eyes landed on me. They should've been dead already but something gave them the strength for a last sentence. I had the feeling it was directed to me.
"Please don't let him take Ava into the emptiness with him"
Then they died.

An// *dramatic music intensifies*
I hope you liked the chapter, if yes maybe vote? Or tell me what you think in the comments, whatever.
Shout out to the silent readers ;)
Today is the birthday of the one and only Halsey!!! They're one if my favorite singers #romanholidayreference if you know what I mean.
Next month's chapter will be published a few days earlier than usual, prepear for drama and death :P
Anyway, have a good day/night~~~~~

29.09.21
20.00