Days have passed, and so has my illness. I was as healthy as a fish, as some say. Everything went back to normal, except for one tiny thing. Rowan decided to stay with us at the request of Grandma. Her reasoning was pretty straightforward: Rowan will stay here because I want to. I didn't dare to object because I was glad I didn't have to fully depend on my pendant. On the other hand, though, I couldn't properly talk to those demons. Not that I could simply summon them, and they would appear, but I badly wanted them to reveal who they were protecting me from.

I returned to work because my wallet and my boss were crying. Rowan kept on insisting on staying a couple of more days at home, but truthfully, I wanted to get out. I hate my work, but I wanted to be somewhere else. Surrounded by realness. To see how people get drunk and barely have the ability to walk home. Their laughter, echoing in the room. To see some sanity.

"I haven't seen you for some days." A customer woke me up from my daydreaming. It was the same man who I'd served the day of my fever. His bald head was now covered with a hood. He was clothed simply. Black zip hoodie with a denim jacket layered on it. His pants were black and tight. Not only was his head covered with tattoos, but his neck as well. He was probably completely coated in them.

"Beer?" I asked, looking straight into his eyes.

He nodded, and I grabbed a clean glass. "I was sick, so I had a vacation," I explained, even though I'm not obligated to. I placed the beer in front of him and washed the dirty glasses in the sink.

"Take proper care of yourself. You never know what can happen." He said, taking a sip.

Before I could think about what he said to me, a new customer came, and I shifted my attention to them. His eyes, though, were following me for the time he drank his beer, like he was trying to figure out something about me.

"Another beer?" I asked him when I noticed he had drunk it all.

He nodded multiple times and looked kind of drunk. His eyes were telling me something else. The beer couldn't affect him. Not on a man like him.

"You have a very familiar face. Did we meet before, perchance?" He suddenly asked, studying my face like a portrait.

I finally looked into his eyes. "I don't think we did. I've lived here my whole life, and I've never seen you around here."

He chuckled, his smile dangerous. Wicked. "I don't live here anymore, but I once knew a woman named Lily Caddel."

I think my heart skipped a beat, and my world has stopped. No one ever mentioned my mother in our town. It was a thing nobody could talk about. It was forbidden, and for a good reason. It was the biggest tragedy in our town. Everyone looked at me with a pity, and I hated it.

Some distanced themselves from me because they thought, I was the cause of her death. Many people knew who I was when I started working at the bar, but they never asked me anything about her. And I was grateful for that.

"Where are you going with this?" I said sternly.

He laughed quietly. "Nowhere, Miss. You seem angered by it. Is there not a good memory of her in your mind?"

I was angry. I buried the past of my family deep. I didn't want to remember the pain. I couldn't. I didn't want to remember my mother's death, my father's betrayal, I just wanted to forget.

"It's soon her anniversary." He sipped from the beer before he spoke again. "She was an amazing woman. Pity she killed herself."

I think my insides shattered. A knot formed in my stomach. I almost broke the glass I was cleaning with my hands. My eyes burned with the desire to shed tears. I wanted to shout at him to tell him to get the fuck away, but I couldn't. I was once again helpless.

"I'll be leaving, honey. Here's the money." He placed them on the counter with strength, sending a hidden message.

He knows I'm her daughter.

He swiftly left the bar before I could look at him with hatred. I was enraged. I wanted to throw something heavy at him. Something to break his skull.

• • •

The night carried on, and so did the customers. It was nine o'clock, and the bar was empty. My rage did not go away. I was still filled with wrath. I wanted to let out my rage on someone soon.

"Someone seems not to be in the right mood."

I looked up and saw Keliah and Azra sitting behind the counter. Both were dressed as before, but I could now see their features more clearly. Their noses were flawlessly formed, their jawlines razor sharp, and their brows arched and long.

I blinked a few times to mask away the tears I had gathered in the corner of my eyes.

"What're you doing here?" I asked.

"Babysitting you, of course," Keliah replied with a sigh.

Azra elbowed him and rolled his orange eyes. "What happened?" He wondered, studying my face. Keliah murmured something, but it was hard to hear.

I quickly started doing things to avoid looking at his face. "Nothing happened," I replied.

I felt his hand on my shoulder. "Don't try to lie." I gasped and spun to meet his glowing pupils. He cocked his head and stared at me. "Talk," he commanded.

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I parted my lips, ready to say what happened, but instead, a tear rolled down my cheek.

"See? I always told you you're not good with the ladies, and now she has proved it to you." Keliah said, and appeared next to him. "Now, watch and learn."

He stepped closer and grabbed the sides of my head. My eyebrows furrowed, and my eyes widened. "Be a good girl, and tell us which mother fucking dick head upset you! It better not be that dead skeleton." Keliah said, peering into my eyes.

I grasped his hands and attempted to pull them away. "Could you first let go of me? You're crashing my head." I said.

Azra came behind him and smacked him in the head. "I told you at least for eternity not to do something without my command, and yet, you still fail to remember," Azra scolded him, looking down at Keliah, who fell onto the ground, rubbing his skull.

"I dare you to hit me one more time, and I'll plug your hair strand by strand out of your head," Keliah growled.

Azra slowly turned his head at me and arched his brow. I would be lying if I said I didn't find this situation comical. I laughed inside my head and forgot about my tears.

"And now tell me what happened." He demanded.

I took a deep breath and crossed my arms under my chest. "A bold man came and said some awful things. That's all. I'm used to harsh words." I stared at the dirty floor because I was reminded of his words. He made it sound like it was my fault that my mother killed herself. Like it was my mistake.

In a second, Keliah was on his feed, exchanging gazes' with Azra. They knew something I didn't.

"What are you hiding from me?" I asked, coming closer to them.

Keliah laughed and shook his head, his bright red hair catching my eyes. Azra roamed through his short hair and straightened his posture.

"That's not our business to tell. Ask somewhere else." He answered in a low voice. "You should head home now."

My gaze jumped from Azra to Keliah, and I knew I would get no answer to my question. There's no way they would tell me what's going on. And the only person who could answer me was Death. I haven't seen him since I took my pendant off in the bathroom.

"We will be on our way now, and ohh- thanks for not telling the angel about our visit; it made our flee more easy," Keliah said, and in a blink of an eye, they disappeared. Keliah's low laugh lingered in the air.

I instantly took my purse and jacket and locked the bar. I was scared for my life. That bold man basically threatened me. An indirect thread, and I had no clue why. What did I do to him?

I walked fast, taking huge steps to get home the quickest. The street was lonely as always. No one was going for a walk or a run. People are too frightened to step foot outside their house. The eerie mood was set above our town like clouds. Dark and thick.

I stopped walking under a half-functioning lamp to take the house keys out of my purse. I had them in my hand when they somehow slipped from my grip. I guess my hands were too sweaty from the anxiousness.

I crouched down and took them. As they were clenched in my hand, a tall shadow hovered over me. I gulped because I knew who it belonged to. I slowly stood up, hugging my arms. A cold breeze brushed my cheeks and blew my short hair in every direction.

"Too shy to face me? Oh wait, you can't actually face me." He laughed deeply and loudly.

I was turned in the opposite direction of my house, so I was forced to see him. When I unhurriedly spun, he was a few meters away from me. I was thankful for my pendant.

"You look so happy to see me, kitty." His arms were crossed under his chest, and his stance looked much larger, as if he had grown in those past few days.

I hugged myself tighter and asked what has been on my mind. "Why did you send those demons to watch me?" My voice broke.

He took a step forward, and I a step backward.

"Because I fucking can?" He replied in a high voice, his arms hanging in the air.

I huffed, shaking my head. "You're a fucking joke!" I pointed my finger at him, my voice filled with rage.

I turned my head forward and walked down the street till I reached my house. I didn't dare to look behind me. I didn't want to know if he was following me. I couldn't hear him because my heartbeat was pounding in my ears.

When I walked up the stairs to the porch, I finally looked behind my shoulder and saw no sign of him. I swiftly locked the door and checked on Grandma. Lately, she was glued to the bed and stopped going to work. She said it was because she felt a bit sick, but I began to doubt it.

I found her peacefully sleeping, so I darted to my room. Rowan was still outside, searching for the demons that visited me. I began to think that he doesn't even try to track them because they're right under his nose and he can't manage to see them.

I took a quick bath and left the bathroom only in my panties and an oversized hoodie that reached my knees. I entered my room, ready to crash into bed to at least relax because sleep was not an option until Rowan was in our house. But as I was close to my bed, the lights around my rose lamp turned on.

I whirled, ready to detect Death near me, but my room was empty. I turned the lamp off and went back to my bed. When it turned on again, I let it be on because I was exhausted. In my second attempt to go to bed, a book fell from a shelf. I sighed frustratedly and bent down to grab it.

"What a nice ass you have. It's calling me to smack it."

My heart skipped a beat; I had to clutch my chest. I ended up on the floor from the startle, facing the Grim Reaper. He was sitting on my chair, his legs spread wide.

"Stop looking at me, you creep!" I hissed. I stood up and carefully walked tiny steps around him to get on my bed.

At the same time, he spun the chair in my direction, being silent for several seconds. He rearranged himself in the seat and cleared his throat. "Sooner or later, I'll find a way to destroy that pendant, and when I do, be prepared."

I inhaled, closing my tired eyelids. My heart was banging against my chest.

He suddenly got up and strolled around my room like it belonged to him. He stopped around my belongings multiple times, but not for too long.

"Answer my goddamn question already. Why do your demons have to watch me?"

He kept on walking around my room until he stopped before my desk, where my lamp was placed. He touched it with his long finger and smelled it afterward.

"Don't touch that!" I shouted.

He snapped his head at me and, in a second, raged at me. Then, like electricity, it shook us apart. I was slapped on my bed, and Death flew across the room.

"Did they touch you?!" He shouted, standing back on his feet.

"Stop yelling; you will wake up everyone on our street." I stood up, taking quick breaths.

He sighed. "Answer me, before I wake up the dead." He said gravelly.

I chuckled. "I have no idea what you're talking about." I rubbed my temple. "If it's about your intrusive friends, then yes, they did touch me and my stuff."

Death started walking back and forth, his hand attached to his hip. "How could you let them touch you? Those wild pigs. I will break their limbs." He growled.

I sighed, and immediately went back to bed and covered myself with a blanket. It reminded me of the days of my childhood. I was scared of the monster in the forest. And now there was one right in front of me.

When I could no longer hear his annoying voice, I gradually put down the cover. He was no longer in the middle of my room because he was sitting at the edge of my bed. Squeezing the sheet in his slender, charcoal fingers. I instantly scoot to the corner of my bed, the furthest away from him.

"I know Mr. Sunshine is living with you. But let me clarify this to you-" He turned his whole body toward me. "If he ever touches you or gets closer to you, as I cannot; I promise you, I will rip that ugly pendant off your neck without a question." He got up, and a scythe appeared in his hand.

"Go to bed now." He said before he disappeared into his dark mist.