The Demon’s Bride

Elise watched how people rushed to get inside and outside of the house. Ernest also looked around, there were around seven large houses and six small houses with the rest had turned into pile of rubbish and debris. 

"Which house do you think we should go?" Ernest asked and he turned his face to see Elise looking somewhere. "Lady Elise?" The man questions politely.

"That house," Elise pointed her finger toward the house that was smaller compared to the rest of the houses. "We should check there first."

It came to Ernest question about why Elise had chosen the smallest house. If he goes by the easiest guess other candidates would think of they would first start thinking about visiting the largest house as it the highest possibility for the killer to attack the place is robbery.

"Why there?" Ernest asked while Elise walked away to the house.

Elise turned to look at the man. The problem was that she couldn't tell him of her ability to see ghosts. While Ian accepted the fact rather smoothly as he was a Demon, others would often doubt her first or even called her crazy. Explaining Ernest about her ability would also take another time as she wish to solve the problem as soon as possible.

"My guts tell me that there are something there," Elise hoped the man could agree but he appeared to not mind her answer.

"They say women have their killer instinct, let's go," he ushered.

Elise went inside the house. While entering, she took a better look toward the ghost who stood on the terrace of the house. The ghost appeared to be a young woman a little older than her age. A large patch of blood appeared on her stomach, and other part, clearly she had died from multiple stabbings.

"What are the case for people to stab multiple times?" questioned Elise to Ernest. Even though she knew the answer, she felt like she needed to check her answer with someone else.

"Hatred, I would assume," Ernest answered. Their steps weighed in the wooden floor, causing a creaking sound. "Most killer who killed people for the first time, they would only stab once out of fear or twice but multiple times often reflect the person's hatred to the victim."

As they spoke, Elise had arrived on the living room of the house which was right in front of the door. Her eyes trailed on the blood that had dried and saw knifes stabbed on a dummy which was a doll made out from cotton and coarse fabric laid on the ground.

"The knifes seem to be new, it must be the Church Members who placed the knifes here," Elise stated after bending down to look at the knifes that were gleaming brightly without a single rust and Ernest agreed with a nod.

The human man looked around and raised his brows, "Oh how strange, it's similar to what you say, Lady Elise. A case of multiple stabbings. I have to hand it to you women's instinct," the man praised and she showed him a smile.

Elise continued to look around the house, separating from Ernest as she took the kitchen to see whether there was a sign that the knife was taken from there. Passing by the kitchen, the table was filled with dusts and Elise pulled her handkerchief to cover her nose so she won't inhale too much dusts. Looking around, she then passed by a mirror when her eyes widened.

"....D..on't go..." a whisper came next to her ears. The voice that spoke felt as if they were standing beside her, speaking the words to warn her. Elise gulped and her body stiffened as if someone had casted a time stopping magic over her. It wasn't only the whisper that startled her but her reflection where she could see the woman whom she saw standing outside the house earlier suddenly appearing behind her.

A cold sweat dribbled on Elise's forehead as she stared back at the woman's reflection. If she wish to close this case soon and find the killer, the easiest method only she could do was to ask the ghosts. But she didn't know whether this ghost was a good one or a fierce one. She knew what would happen is by chance she had spoken to a fierce ghost. But then Elise enough to about her power she knew she could rely on.

She wet her lips, gathering her courage to speak to the woman from the mirror, "Lady Elise! Lady Elise!" Elise saw the ghost's eyes snapped away from her and it went through the tables and solid walls, disappearing.

Elise breathed a sigh, she left the kitchen and found Ernest pulling a paper, "I think this might be able to help us with the case. It's a letter that the woman collect but strangely even though the jewels and other important belongings of the women were stolen from this place, but this tin case of envelope disappeared."

Elise narrow her eyes, a sudden thought passed by her and she quickly run toward the door knob of the house. The curious Ernest followed behind her, his eyes studying Elise who was perusing the door knob. "Did you find anything, milady?"

"The killer. This person must come from here and a close acquaintance of the victim," Elise stated and the man raised her eyebrows. She continued, "If you look closer to the doorknob and the keyhole, there are no sign of force breaking. Something caught in my mind when we first entered."

Ernest tore his eyes to look at the living room again, frowning when he wasn't able to see what Elise could. "What could it be?"

"The living room is too clean," Elise said, giving the man a light and Ernest looked at her with a brighter gaze, as though it finally dawned to him what didn't fit inside the house, "If the killer came to attack the woman who is living around there must be a fight between the two and struggle shown by the woman but there is nothing. And also, she was the one who had let the killer to come into her house."

"So this killer is her acquaintance, someone who is close with the victim and know well the victim. But we lack more evidence needed to know who the killer is."

"We should try to look at another house. There are another twelve houses, we can divide those together and meet each other again in this house when we found the remaining three houses of the victim," Elise instructed and Ernest nodded.

When the man left, Elise took her breaths and reenter the house, "Can you feel where the ghost went, Hallow?" 

Hallow dangled on Elise's pocket now the human man had left. He looked around, sniffing the air of the house to shake his head. "Strange, I can smell her before but now I can't... rather I think my nose is stuffy. This doesn't happen often."

Elise cocked her head, "Can a grim reaper have stuffy nose?" She didn't remember Hallow to have nose either. Was it because he is a chick now?

"There has never been the case," Hallow also sighed in frustration when he suddenly shrieked, "Oh! Something strange happen again!"

"What is it?" Elise queried the chick who covered his nose. His yellow face now for,Ed into both shock and startle.

"Death!" Hallow's first word was a warning to Elise. "There is smell of death everywhere for Hell's sake!"

Alarmed, Elise left the house. She looked at the candidates that were outside the houses, passing by her sight and her blue eyes went wider than before upon noticing the dark hazy shadows that latched on the candidate's back. "It's the shadow of death," whispered Elise.

They were still standing near the door of the house when a loud scream echoed over the whole village, her head turned to the place where she heard the sound came from like other candidates did. Hallow swiftly entered the pocket when she made a quick run to see what was going on.

  A man stumbled over the ground, his hands trembling as his finger pointed at one place. Elise trailed her eyes to where the man pointed his finger, her once shocked eyes now turned to a severe frown. 

Two bodies were hanged on the tree. A thick branch went through the two men's head, causing a cavity and she heard someone had vomited from the side in shock of what they saw. Elise didn't want to look at the gore either but she had to see who had died, noting the clothes that the two men wore which belonged to the Church.

"They are the..."

"Church members," answered someone from her left. Elise turn to see who it was, finding the elf from earlier who had helped her.