TW: Child death

Grimm takes a hasty step forward and is about to speak but his face becomes like a blank void. He whips his head to the left, his gaze narrows and his spine is straightened like steel. My brows pinched together as I turned my gaze toward the direction he faced and that's when I saw her.

The demon I once met when we went to the ice parlor and I immediately remembered her strong dislikeness toward me. But here she was again, walking towards us with her shoulders pushed back and chin lifted. She wore a black coat with a silvered chained belt wrapped around her waist. A large skull sat in the middle of it. How fitting of her.

She kept an even gaze on Grimm and for a brief moment, I thought about how much she looked like Hans. Their facial features were different, but the way she carried herself was strangely similar to Hans'. She demonstrated the same emotionless stare and guarded loyalty toward Grimm.

Were all demons like this?

Her gaze then flickered over to mine and quickly showed her displeasure. She was no different from everyone else who didn't like me and I regarded her as I did with everyone else, I ignored her.

I tilt my head toward Grimm as a scowl had taken over his face, "Wait here." He said as he took my hand and forcibly made me take the wilting tulip. He strode toward her while I simply stared at the wilting flower. The flower and I were both hopeless beneath his touch and we were going to rot with him.

I turned away looking over the hundreds of gray and black tombstones. 

Crosses and angels sparsely sat on top of each grave. The dead grow every day while the living deteriorate. Sulking trees and the sound of crows broke through the cloudy day, visitors slowly left their dead as if they might wake them. There was a stone of an angelic woman with a sorrowful gaze and clasped hands, she reminded me of my mother and Refugio.

I think about them and their graves. I haven't visited them since they died, their names could be fading away. They probably haven't had fresh flowers in a long time. And yet as I stand here surrounded by the dead and near Death, my feet don't move. I don't dare to face them, I'm not getting better as I promised them I would be. 

Instead, I've become worse and it's getting harder each day to be a better person.

I'm about to put my sunglasses back on when my eye catches something peculiar. Or I should say someone peculiar. Rabbit ears. Dirt-smeared furry rabbit ears. A little girl was wearing half of a rabbit mask. She wore a pinkish-red spotted dress and twin pigtail braids. Her body was turned toward me, it felt as if she was meeting my gaze through the poked holes near her eyes. 

Oddly enough, she looked and felt familiar.

My eyes wander near her surroundings searching for her parents or any adult but no one was around. Why was there a little girl standing alone in a cemetery? Where were her parents? Maybe I'm imagining her. It wouldn't be the first time I saw something that wasn't there. I also haven't slept in a while. I looked down at my cherry red tights then looked further down at my boots and started counting.

My stomach formed a bunch of knots, they grew tighter like a punishment for not looking at her. I lifted my head and she was still there except now, she was closer. Five tombstones closer to the one she previously stood by. Chills swept the back of my neck.

She moved her mouth, she was talking but I couldn't hear her. I can't hear her.

Look away.

Look away.

Look away.

The little girl mouths her words, desperately as if she is running out of time. I dig my nails into the palm of my skin. "Do you need help?" I said under my breath.

The corners of her mouth curved at the end and kept doing so over and over and over and over and over—

"Oof!" I almost lose my balance as I stumble a bit to the side. A cold pressure sets on the right side of my body. The sensations of a pair of arms wrapped around my waist and their frost-like fingers dug into my coat. "Don't let them take me away." The soul sounded frightful and small. "Please don't let them take me away." She begged.

This is the most I have ever felt from the dead and their voice was high pitched like a child. Was she the little girl I saw?

"Are you wearing a mask?" I asked.

She said a bit surprised. "You can't see me?" I open my mouth to answer when the demon, Ivy shouts. "Get back here! You can't run away, Paisley!" She marches toward where I am and Grimm follows after her looking more furious than before. Paisley, the soul, squeezes my waist and takes my body for a full turn. She uses my body as a shield as if I could stop a God and a demon.

Paisley tugs the back of my coat as she speaks up. "Please, don't let them take me away! I don't want them to go with them. Please!" I bite the inside of my cheek deciding what I should do. She was a soul and regardless of what I can do, Grimm was going to take her. He was The Capturer of Souls, first and foremost. But I can buy her some time before she is taken.

Grimm walks past Ivy and as he says, "Stay here. Don't move." And she obeys it like a command. Her feet are planted on the cement pathway and restraint every emotion from showing on her face. 

Grimm's nose twitched as the shadows beneath him began to swim in my direction.

I stick my hand out, "Wait, wait. Hold on, you're scaring her. Don't come any closer." But he continues moving forward as if I hadn't said anything at all. 

The poisonous veins have appeared around his neck, pulsing and racing to overshadow his face but he lifts his chin in defiance. I take a couple of steps backward while my other hand hovers where the soul has attached herself.

I raise my voice a little. "I said don't come any closer!" His steps come to a halt and his body becomes rigid. His shadows have stopped themselves at the tip of my shoes but they do not touch me. They cower, swirling aimlessly.

I can hear Paisley's unsteady breathing. "What is the matter with you? The soul is a child, isn't she?" Grimm clenches his jaw. I ask Ivy, "She is a child, isn't she?" She doesn't meet my gaze instead, she looks solely at the back of Grimm's head. I did not need their confirmation but what I needed to know is why they were acting this way toward a child. She was afraid and dead at such a young age. She needed to be consoled not frightened.

"I thought you wanted to comfort souls, not scare them," I said.

Ivy then spoke. "How dare you speak—" Grimm lifted his hand and Ivy's mouth clamped shut. 

He inhales sharply and places his hands behind his back. He said carefully as he struggled with his poisonous power, "She is a soul who isn't supposed to be here. I can not control how others perceive me but I must guide her soul to eternal peace. She belongs there. This world no longer welcomes her."

Paisley quivered. "No, no. Please, I don't want to go yet. Don't let him take me." 

Grimm's gaze lowered, she was no taller than my waist. Before he said anything I lowered my head and spoke to Paisley, "I'm going to talk to him but you have to understand you'll have to go with him much later." She tried to protest but I continued. "I promise you he isn't as terrible as he looks, he won't hurt you. He is going to take you somewhere safe, somewhere warm. Now, I need you to let me go. I'll be right back." She slowly peels herself away and I'm freed of the cold pressure.

I took one step and his shadows parted a path for me, I walked between the narrow space as they retreated to him like snakes returning under the shade of his coat. His chest rose up and down, uncontrollably. Ivy couldn't see what suffering her King was going through. I wonder if she knew how much the darkness controls him. She probably did know. 

I'm still holding the tulip in my hand. "Let me take care of her for the rest of the day. You can come back for her later in the night." I politely said.

But he quickly dismisses the idea. "No, absolutely not."

I insist. "She is not ready to be taken by you."

"No one is ever ready, but they all must go." He says roughly.

I understood this was his reason for living: to capture souls and take them wherever they must spend the rest of their time in the afterlife. But it was unfair, the soul was a child, and she was not ready to leave this world. The previous souls I've met got their final wishes before they left, why can't this child's wish be granted? It was unfair.

Grimm fought the venom of his power from sprouting further. He was being tormented, and without thought, I closed the distance between us and carelessly pressed two fingers on the pulsing, darkened vein on his neck. Grimm's eyes fluttered, closing softly as his breathing slowed down to a steady pace. 

If I had listened more carefully, I would've noticed his heart was beginning to follow my rhythm. I didn't care whether Ivy or the dead were watching, at this moment it was him and I.

His wintry skin meets my warm one and the darkness fades away with ease. "You're a danger to me," Grimm whispers.

He was also a danger to me, but I couldn't say it. His veins were no longer corrupted, and yet my fingers did not move an inch from his neck. I tried my hardest to ignore the pounding inside my chest and the claw of greed, but it was a fight I was bound to lose.

"You've granted other souls their wishes and let them watch as they've been fulfilled. Why can't you give her the same opportunity?" He begins to shake his head and pull away when I bring my other hand with the tulip in hand and clutch the collar of his coat. Grimm's vibrant starry eyes meet mine. I take a different approach, a risky one.

My hand curls as I demand. "Am I or am I not, The Crier of Souls? The Crier should mourn for the lost soul before The Capturer takes the soul. We should act accordingly to our titles." It was the first time I have called myself the title that he claimed me as his equal. Grimm raises a brow, his hellish lips slightly open until they curve upwards like a madman.

"I see you're embracing your calling, and you're using it against me, I'm quite impressed. While I had other plans for tonight I suppose I can let them go if The Crier wishes to spend time with a soul before departing them into the afterlife." He briefly glanced down at my lips. "But I'll be back by midnight as The Capturer of Souls." It sounded like a threat except his eyes gleamed with admiration. 

I removed my fingers from his neck but Grimm caught the palm of my hand.

I held my breath. "Although I should warn you. I truly meant what I said earlier, she isn't supposed to be here. Children's souls naturally follow into Peace but she is here and whatever reason is holding her it cannot be good. Be careful when you're around the soul, children tend to have an abundance of unused energy, and they can unintentionally exhaust you to the point where you could faint. I suggest you eat some chocolate or the bittersweets you enjoy." He gently lets go of my hand.

I take a step back as his touch lingers like faint smoke. "Thank you," I murmured.

"Go on, I'll watch you leave." I frowned as he clarified, "As a precaution." I take a glance at Ivy but she is rather having fun looking at the pavement. 

Feeling a bit unsettled I turned around and take a few strides until I felt the frost-like presence again on my right side.

I drew my hand out into the air. "You can hold my hand or my sleeve, whichever one you prefer."

Paisley's icy phantom brushed my arm, and not a second later, I felt her wispy fingers latch themselves around my hand. A faint smile overtook my lips, "Now, where would you like to go?" I asked as we began to walk.

She was no longer panicking or had rapid breathing.

"Somewhere fun." She said shyly.

I nod as I think about all the places you could have fun but I only knew of a few. Maybe I should call Dilara and ask her if she knows of any places to take a child. Maybe she'll want to come with me, I hope she does because she probably knows how to have fun better than I do.

I felt a slight pressure between my thumb and index finger then, Paisley spoke. "They're all looking at you, they now know you're real." My brows pinch together as my eyes wander as we pass the graves and the craved names. The wind softly blows my hair and veils my face, I realized what Paisley was talking about.

The soft murmurs were gone, and the air held a thin yet eerily silent atmosphere. A pair of a thousand piercing unseen eyes followed the back of my head. I felt exposed. "Why are they looking at me?" I asked.

She presses her body closer to mine, and I imagine her looking up at me as she whispers. "Because we all saw you control the King and the dark. He doesn't listen to anyone but he listens to you." My heart is pounding once more and I'm tempted to look back but my gaze lowers toward the tulip in my hand. 

I tuck the stem into the pocket of my coat as the tulip's white petals peek out.

Only one dead soul followed after Paisley and me. The rabbit-masked girl, and I didn't feel her. She hid well. I wasn't prepared for her.

I wasn't prepared at all for what came next.