The Demon’s Bride

It wasn't only surprise Elise had when Karen had asked her the question. There was also suspicious. Since the past few days, everything was going hectic that there was almost little time for her to sort her own feeling. She was betrayed, and new beings she never knew was there appeared before her. There was no telling Karen who looked very much like a human to her could turn to a corrupted angel or Relic like how her aunt did.

"What do you mean?" asked Elise, her defensive tone appeared evident on her voice.

The old lady continue to look her with her chin slightly tipped as she was shorter in stature then Elise with her back hunched forward, "I mean, did you kill someone, take other's life."

After the talk Elise shared with her aunt earlier, she recalled about Karen's second daughter. The woman had lost a daughter and Elise was blamed in the past, for being a friend. "Is this about Elena?" she asked, being forward about it, "I did not kill Elena and I do not know what words my aunt had put to the people in the village, but I am not cursed."

"Even though right after you appeared this village is under attack?" was Karen's quick reply and her words stung Elise's heart.

"What does this have to do with Elena?" Elise questioned, the woman stared at her with a look of hate and bitterness, pushing blame to her when she hadn't done anything and would not do anything. She was a child at that time, she was still small yet everyone blamed her for what she did not do and Elise had enough of keeping silence about this. She was hurt in the past and now she wouldn't let herself be injured by other's words again. 

"The reason why this village is under attack is not mine. You should have asked my aunt for the reason," answered Elise, seeing how Karen's formed a frown she continued, "My aunt was a dark sorceress. I don't know the reason why the village was attack, but that should be more than enough reason for you to understand that I did nothing. You cannot blame me for what I did not do or for the very lone fact that I was visiting here when the attack happened."

Shock filled Karen's face, who seemed to be at disbelief with the news Elise told her. "T-That's impossible. Angelica is not such a person. She is not a dark sorceress, she can't be," the elderly woman said, as all this time she had only seen Angelica as a poor young woman who remained unmarried. Some times kindness was enough to blind a person and it was the same for Karen. Elise knew how her aunt would always look no less than an angel similar to her name, and her kindness in the village know now bounds to the outsiders.

In the past when Elise still lived with Angelica, they thought of her aunt even more than a saint as she continued to bring a young girl while everyone feared that she was cursed.

"I don't know how long she had been hiding it, but she is a dark sorceress, she is the same person who unleashed the beasts on this village," Elise explained. "The Church Member would explain you what happened after they have sort everything out, by then you will have proof of what I told you."

"Then how come you are still alive?" questioned Karen, whose expression twisted in confusion and some hatred. It had Elise to question why Karen had called and talk to her if she hated her so much. "Angelica told us you fell from a high cliff and died."

"Because I didn't fall from the cliff. My aunt had lied to everyone. In truth that nine years ago she sold me to the slave merchant," when Elise replied this, Karen's eyes widened, she appeared to be shock. But there was still something Elise couldn't understand. "Why did you ask me if I kill someone earlier? Are you afraid that I will one day kill someone because of my curse?"

Karen looked at Elise with a deeper frown after the shock had passed. The woman didn't know what to believe but then Elise had nothing to gain with lying, "I didn't blame you for you being cursed. I blamed you because you were the cause of Elena's death," Elise frowned at this, she wondered what the woman meant. All this time, she thought Karen hated her because she was cursed which in fact was not true.

"My daughter played with you and she told me you showed her the lake. You... How could you bring her to the lake?" The woman broke down to tears which she wiped it away. 

Elise was surprised, she knew how Karen still blamed her, but now she knew the reason was not her cursed. "I don't know anything about the Lake but I do remember something. It was not me who showed Elena the lake. She told me about it instead."

"What do you mean? Elena has been sick since her childhood she wouldn't know anything about any lake."

Elise shook her head, it was a misunderstanding and she had to resolved it not because Karen had painted her on the evil side but it seemed that the woman still had not move on from the loss of her daughter, "Elena said to me before that she heard some of her relatives talking about a lake that could cure any injuries if you sink at the water. I was young and was filled with wounds when Elena told me I could do that, but the next day I wasn't able to come," Elise tightened her hands, "Angelica locked me inside the shed because I sneaked out the day before."

Karen stuttered, "B-But if you didn't come why would Elena be there then?"

"Because she wanted to cure herself. She knew that you were crying every night because she was sick and thought she needed to be healthy. I'm sorry for your loss, Mrs. Karen. But you should now it wasn't I who is responsible for your daughter's death." As a friend, Elise felt saddened by Elena's death, she was a good friend of hers, and perhaps the kindest person she have ever met before moving to White Mansion. 

Elise asked herself why this memory in her faded. She recalled that she had friend but it was not until now that she remembered Elena. It could be that when little Elise had trauma of the past where she was shunned and abused, that some of her memory faded. Although memory about her aunt weren't good to look back too, she found some memories of Saltige that she could hold dear to.

"T-Then do you mean I have been blaming you for no reason?" whispered Karen, but then she shook her head, "That's why you don't about that then. You were not lying."

Elise raised one of her brows, she couldn't understand what Karen spoke of and she realized how they have not been in the same page. "About what that I didn't know?"

"The wound in Elena's chest," answered Karen, who then continued, "Elena didn't die from drowning, she died because she was found floating in the lake with a cavity on her chest." The woman then paused, recalling the death of her daughter which had become a large trauma for her was hard and Elise could see it with the way the woman clutched to her heart. "Then we found you who came out of the forest with your dress filled with blood. That's why I blamed you."

Elise for a moment didn't speak. Despite understanding everything well, she needed a time to dissect what Karen was telling her. It slowly dawned to her that all this time, Karen had not blame her because she was cursed and that people who was near her would die; she also didn't blame her because she showed the lake to Elena in which her friend died at. It was because Elena's death was not drowning but someone had killed her!

"I don't remember anything about this," said Elise, who was looking at Karen. Why was there blood on her? She didn't want to think of the possibility that she was the one who killed Elena. Her memory lasted only until she was locked in the shed, she couldn't pull any memory about her walking to the forest and with her dress full of blood no less. 

Did her power berserk? asked Elise and she felt her blood run cold at the thought. It reminded her of how she had killed someone before by turning them to ashes, and there was no clear memory in her head of what happened after, she didn't remember seeing the other Relic was killed or meeting Beelzebub. Did she fainted right soon after turning the other Relic to dust?

"There's is no blaming that you don't remember. By the time you arrived at the foothill of the mountain, you fainted because of a high fever. Later then you told us that you don't remember what happened," Karen pursed her lips, "Before, when I still can't believe somewhere you are not Elena's killer. You were a child at that time, it's not possible that you managed to kill Elena, but all evidence pointed on you. Then there was the words that man told me."

"That man?" inquired Elise whose ears were placed close to catch all words Karen told her.

"A walking man who visited our village, he told us that you bear a deep power that could one day blow another person. I wouldn't believe his words but then he showed a miracle. He said that Elena would die the next day. I didn't believe him but it happened."

Elise was still talking and many questions filled her when Karen was called by someone, she then bowed at her, about to leave. "Wait!" Elise stopped Karen from leaving, "Do you perhaps remember who that man was? The one that told you about me and Elena's death?"

"I don't quite remember, but his name if I'm not wrong was Gabriel."