The cold wind brushes on their skin and some manage to slowly crawl up to their spines. Killian wanted to commend how Heather still has the audacity to appear like it's a gothic fashion show despite of the seemingly haunted place they're currently in. Rocking those platform boots, totem cutout black fishnet thighs and two crescent moon hair clips for both sides. It looks like a silver horn but all the words he wanted to say fled off his delicate lips the moment the gigantic shadow appeared.
In instant, they froze. The tall and murky shadow overpowered the entire front yard. It has slender and sharp fingertips as dark as the moonless sky above. Its eyes were raging red, and it even resemble a tormented human's face. That's when Killian realized there's indeed a human inside the horrifying shadow. He can't help but sarcastically chuckle. That's literally what he's looking for. A negative energy he can banish and collect into his ring with a black onyx pendant.
Killian was so ready to launch the first attack when Heather made the first move. Using only her bare hands, she grabs the shadow's arms, trying to separate it from the man inside. The shadow just budges so she didn't give up. She removed her crescent moon hairclips and swung them lightly, extending into a boomerang-shaped knives that they truly were. She then wages for another attack and Killian was once again stuck staring at her long and luscious hair that gracefully dances with her very move.
He didn't know Heather can do that. He thought she's just a seer, a person who can see spirits. He wasn't aware that she can touch them and smack them in the face. Not even the fact that her weapon can pierce through the shadow's being! With few more swings of her crescent moon knives, she manages to somehow make the tall shadow kneel down. just enough she can reach the human inside.
The wind blew a breeze that didn't even broke Killian's gaze towards Heather. He figured; she was the one. Well, the human with special ability that Leviathan told him about. The one who can help him collect negative spirits. His eyebrows narrows as he clutches on his slippers tightly. Despite the feel of mockery upon realizing that Leviathan might know that all along, her being the human with special ability and him being impatient even with instructions to wait, leading for them to cross paths in this murky place. He decided to shrug it off his shoulder for a moment and helped Heather.
"I got it!" Killian exclaimed the moment he grabs the now-unconscious human inside the shadow. It was a man in his 30's with ragged clothing and long disheveled hair. Heather then fixed her moon clips back to her hair and rubbed her palms together. Getting ready to perform the ritual she's always been doing with the aim of banishing the dark shadow within him.
"By the grace of of Heathenian's Mythology's Gods and Goddess, get lost, you evil spirit!" With that, she punched him in the face. Killian's jaw almost dropped.
As soon as her fist landed on the man's face, the dark shadow slowly unclasps its grip on the poor man. Flabbergasted and stunned, Killian still manage to activate his ring and absorb the shadow, despite the whirlwind of emotions inside his chest.
"I called the cops earlier and they will fetch this man." Heather stated and walked back to the front door.
"Eh bakit ka papasok ulit?" The Trickster God immediately hid his pathetic weapon. He can't throw it away though because that was Rozen's mother favorite slippers.
"May naiwan akong importanteng bagay sa loob. Kinuha ng mokong na 'to kanina." Pumasok na si Heather sa madilim na bahay habang nagpagdesisyunan naman ni Killian na igapos nalang ang walang malay na lalaki. He didn't know what the guy has committed but he's sure it was pure evil. He also noted not to get into Heather's nerves so much because she has the ability to exorcise anything and anyone with a punch, just like what she did on the owner of the house. It seems like fate has a twisted humor, for Killian's been hiding from other deities, afraid of being recognized and being send back to the underworld. Only for the person who can help him regain his power to also possess the ability to banish him from Rozen's body.
She's indeed a blessing and a curse waiting to happen.
***
To eradicate the suspicions, Killian told her that he ended up seeing spirits and feeling negative energy after his accident, that's why he was there too, because he felt like the negative energy was calling him. Heather seems to be convinced and told him it was probably his near-death experience that awakened his sixth sense. Walking the way back home, he tried to close the distance between them, but Heather darted him a death glare.
Ended up for the Trickster God to let her pace the path before him. Yeah right, to her he's just Rozen and he remember her saying how she wanted space. She didn't want to see him again, nor to have anything to do with him, but what can he do? She's the only person who can help him. She might be born to be his apprentice anyway, that's what Leviathan told him. But that just reminded Killian to throw the Water God into the depths of ocean he could no longer breath in, the moment they'll meet each other again.
Don't get him wrong, Killian believed everything he said about the forgotten past and half of his power, he can't just take how Leviathan keep on insisting Heather in everything they try to do. He even printed out a photo of her. Was he trying to play cupid with them? He sighed and passed another silent street. Well, that's the thing for small towns like Heathens, when the dead of the night has come everything is eerily quiet. Few to no cars on the street as the whole town seems to be asleep. Except for those in the nightshift who has bills to pay like Heather and the cops who was called to arrest the guy.
"What did the guy do?" Killian broke the silent. He can't help it. He was literally locked up on the underworld for a total of thousand years with no one to talk to, and ya'll expect him to keep his mouth shut and enjoy the long way home?
Heather held on to her batlike pack bag's strap. "Trolling, bashing and cyberbullying."
"Eh?" His eyes narrowed. He can't believe such act can create an enormous dark shadow. An incarnation of evil.
"He's aware of all the mental health he's ruining but he continued to be that way just for fun. Because it engages with likes, comments and attention. He does that because he's bored, and he thinks that making fun of others online is a trend." Killian ended up nodding his head.
"He only cares about his satisfaction; he doesn't give a single fuck about other's feelings. He's been imposed with warrant of arrest from celebrities or rich people he talks bad with, but he still thinks it's fun. He doesn't have plans on changing even if he'll have another warrant. He'll heal in hell, he says."
Killian found his nose on Heather's business. He was curious how she knew that information, but she said a ghost told her. Turns out her client was a ghost who committed suicide because of his cyberbullying. The ghost was regretful, but she didn't want him to victimize other people anymore, so she asked for Heather's help. You can say she Heather was pretty popular with spirits and humans with paranormal and supernatural dilemmas. She even has her own website and contact number in it.
"So, you didn't get money out of that?" Killian stretched his arms, not realizing that they are now walking side by side. Heather doesn't seem to realize that either, well...not yet.
Killian can't help but to hide his smile. It felt so familiar and oddly satisfying, walking her home. It seems that was Rozen's favorite thing but to hell be with Rozen, he's dead now. Killian was the one who's currently inhabiting the body, and he just wanted to be happy too. It's making him pathetically happy too.
"She didn't have to. But she did give me these hairclips as a payment. She said it has incantation to protect its wielder from supernatural forces. And it seems legit. Now I have two anik-aniks." She sarcastically laughs and walked faster, making Killian's pathetic smile to disappear. She catches up too quick and her boundaries are really thick.
"Anik-aniks?" He repeated. But when he was about to ask more question, he noticed her bag was open. As he tried to tell her about it, he noticed a very familiar clown mask that's peeping into the small hole from it.
"Heather, why do you have that clown mask in your bag?" He stopped his tracks.
"This was the very important thing that I left inside that bastard's house." She didn't notice the growing distance between them. When she turned around that's when she saw Rozen under the broken streetlight. Standing still and unable to move. His dramatically red top and black bottom didn't save the visibility of gloom in his stance. He was just there, staring at her with emotions she couldn't tell.
She did the same and didn't move an inch.
"Why?" Killian couldn't even utter, but it surprisingly reached Heather.
"Because it also has incantation to protect me from paranormal and supernatural forces. It made me stronger too. And it was owned by someone..." Heather looked down and sighed. "Nevermind. Let's go home."
She kept moving forward but he didn't even move at all. He can't help but clutch at his chest, hoping for it to stop breaking into pieces. Sure, that was Rozen's body. But maybe the one whose breaking wasn't just Rozen's heart anymore. Perhaps, it's also Killian's.
Because that clown mask was original owned by him, all along. Just a harmless prank many years ago for people whose fool enough to listen to a random voice inside the mask. Its purpose was to use people, as much as he was using her still, right now.
She's so pathetic it's making him cry. For Leviathan's words were clearer now, Heather wasn't born to be his apprentice.
He made her to be his, when she was younger.