The Demon’s Bride

Seeing how jumpy the girl was, Ian quirk up the corner of his right lips in a humor that wasn't dark like how he used to have. The smirk from his lips instead had a rather freshness to his pale face. When Elise took his arm and gripped it firmly, he heard her muttering under his shoulder. In such a time, even though she looked ghostly paled from fear of the ghost she didn't forget to promise the ghost who scared her that she would give it a prayer. Having mirth ramping over his red burning eyes, he spoke nonchalantly, "Have you never seen such a ghost?"

A few moments ago Ian had been watching the view of the cemetery from the tree where he leaned. Since he was doing nothing, he saw quite a lot of deformed ghost roaming in the particular cemetery in silence and found the cemetery to be a very intriguing one. Almost all the ghosts he saw since he stepped in all had a miserable looking body or faces. Some lost its limbs and some plainly looked like something very disgusting. If a human saw them with naked eyes there would only be two situations to this human. First passing out in fear and second hurling out everything inside their stomach in disgust before eventually faint. Elise was mourning at the moment so he placed a protective barrier that would make the ghost unable to be seen out of consideration. But when they were to go to the carriage, he put down the protective barrier thus now Elise could see the ghosts again.

Elise jumped, giving him a look and beckoned him to lower his head so she could whisper very faintly in hope so the ghost wouldn't hear them. "You can see ghosts too, Lord Ian?"

"Mhm, well something similar to that." His reply was ambiguous and wasn't much an outright reply but when it came from Ian's mouth one must be very blessed. Because usually, he would answer with an even more vague answer that could make a scholar go mad. Feeling this particular ghost must have a very amusing figure, he swept his eyes to give a sideways glance.

Elise felt the shadow upon her head turning and instantly warned, "Don't turn your face and don't look him!"

"Why?" Being told no, Ian felt the need to see this ghost who scared her even more.

Seeing him tilting his head, Elise raised her palm to close his eyes and warned in stammers, "The sisters in the Church told me to never look at the ghost in their eyes or else they would know that I could see them and would instead stick themself to me!"

"Oh-" Ian hummed his answer having mirth jumping from the corner of his lips, a little mischievous, he replied, "Actually what the woman told you is a little false."

Elise turned up her gaze, still shutting her eyes when she felt a breath brushing the back of her hair and now almost hug Ian's arm wholly. "F- False? What do you mean by false, Lord Ian?" She hurried herself to ask and grazed her lips to her teeth, almost biting her own tongue.

Ian didn't seem to be offended by what she was doing. Hugging his hand in fear, reminded him of a particular dog he picked up when he was a child. When he stumbled over another ferocious dog, he acted strong but eventually find himself running to his hand.

He kept his lowered gaze on the top of her head and parted his lips to talk. "First, open your eyes and look at the ghost in its eyes."

Elise gave a silence and replied, "But what if they don't have eyes?" The Ghost that she saw was in a very horrible state to the point that it was hard for people to guess where the nose, eyes, or mouth belongs to. Even if Ian told her to look at the ghost's eyes she wasn't sure where they were!

Ian spoke easily, "Just look straight at anything after their neck."

Elise had known Ian always had a mischievous tone to his words, making one wouldn't be able to guess whether he was joking or not. Although she still trusted whatever Ian said, the tone that he used now is a little discouraging for her. Nevertheless, Ian had saved her multiple times, so he wouldn't trick her. Perhaps this way she could live without having to be bothered by the ghost or having them sticking to her. "Alright," She whispered.

She turned her face first behind her to where she felt the ghost were, very slowly with her rigid movements and peeked between her eyelids to see a figure with a burial clothe standing first. As expected it was too scary for her! Yet she braved herself to open her eyes and looked at the ghost drenched with blood all over. However now that she turned, for some reason, the ghost had multiplied to a handful of them. Did the ghosts sense that she could see them and told the fellow ghosts? That seemed to be true when Elise heard a ghost talking behind.

"You told us she could see us?"

"I walked over her and she jumped in fear, we could be right! Just try one what's wrong with a try?!"

"You're right! Let's talk to her, she looks delicious!"

Oh my! Elise shouted to herself when she overheard the ghost's conversation and clutched even stronger to Ian's arm. She was about to turn her head when she heard the deep silvery voice speaking again. "Just look at them and don't show your fear. They don't know you could see them. If you act the way you did before it would only confirm their suspicions."

It was easy for Ian to say but hard to practice for Elise. The rush of adrenaline made her heart thumping loudly, skipping a few beats. She replied, "Alright."

The ghosts saw her staring at them and snickered at each other but when Elise sharply look at them, she spotted some ghosts that still had a humanely face looked aghast. The chattering stopped and their smiles froze. The ghosts gawked at her, some either had their expressions turn to a brick or mouth tightly shut. Some even almost dropped their jaws to the ground, seeming to see something profoundly terrifying. Before Elise could understand what could make these ghosts to be scared for their life, they had run away. Scattering the cemetery like a whirlwind hurtling to a sky of clouds.

"That's how you supposed to do it." Ian spoke took her attention. She turned her head, asking, "They looked afraid before-"

"That must have been because you were too gallant in staring at them. Next time, even if you see ghosts don't act scared and never show your fear. Ignorance would blend you into a normal person who couldn't see them." Ian spoke his words in ease.

Elise nodded her head vigorously, like a student receiving the teacher's lesson. "Okay."

Ian looked at his arm for a fragmented moment and spoke, "Well then, let's go."

Elise was about to agree his word when she saw her hand wrapping comfortably at his arm and gingerly pulled her hand. Not knowing what to say or whether lord Ian was offended by her touch she could only murmur, "My apologies."

Although she did it only due to fear and they weren't doing something inappropriate, the thought of her hugging his arm made her feel more conscious. Her face blushed to a hue of pink. Ian watched her expression and chuckled very faintly.

Ian led her the way and spoke, "The carriage isn't far from here, and do you still have something you want to pick up from your old house?"

Elise's eyes draped down she does have something to take inside the house, the portrait of her and her family. But walking to that house, she was sure the image of the horror would overlap and haunt her again.

"Austin would be the one who goes, there isn't a need for you to go there too."

Elise looked up, surprised that he could guess what she was thinking, and felt grateful for his consideration. She turned her head, returning his kindness, "Thank you, my lord."

"No problem," Ian replied and left to go to the carriage sitting nicely in front of the cemetery's entrance. Austin stood beside the place with Cynthia. Seeing Elise, Cynthia smiled gently and waved her hand to be returned with another wave of hand from Elise.

Ian stopped and turned his eyes to the girl behind him, "Go and tell Austin what you need."

Elise nodded and trotted over to Austin. It has been nine years since she last talked with them and felt a little nervous. One thing she knew, the people beside Ian wasn't a human. Even after almost a decade, their appearance didn't change, they didn't look older at all. It was the same face that Elise had in her memories.

"Mr. Austin, can I bother you to help me to bring the family portrait from my house?" She fiddled with her hand. When she was younger it was easy to talk with them but with the years growing apart she felt like a stranger to them.

Austin heard her overly formal language and chuckled. He placed his hand over her head and kindly replied, "Don't be too stiff, Elise. You can just skip and call me Austin like before. I've heard everything from the Lord beforehand, the portrait you mean, is it the portrait that's hanged in the family room?"

Elise smiled back softly. Austin was the same as before, kind and easy-going. Even now he knew how awkward it was for her and tried to ease her from it, "Yes, that's the one, thank you Austin."

"Aye, aye then." Austin smiled and turned over to wink at Cynthia. When Elise entered the carriage, he trotted to her side and whispered teasingly, "She spoke to me first."

With his childish tone usually, Cynthia would have ignored his provocation. But when it comes to Elise, she felt that she didn't want to lose and replied succinctly, "She spoke to me first, without formality even." With a victorious smile, she left the man to ride over the carriage.

"Huh?" Austin felt defeated. "That isn't fair!"