Upon reaching their garden, Klaus slowly descended, letting Jake touch the ground first and walk in front of him, observing him from behind, noticing him tired and somewhat sore.

Jake took a tissue out of his pocket to completely wipe the blood from his neck before opening the door, yawning sleepily and taking off his tie, again.

Erick, who was dozing on the couch, sat up suddenly when he heard the door.

“JAKE!”

Rushing to stand up and greet his cousin, he slipped, falling head first onto the floor. Seeing that his beloved boy was about to hit himself, Jake lunged forward, sliding under the living room table to catch him before he hit the floor, holding him by the shoulders with his feet swinging in the air, rising above the back of the couch.

Seeing such a scene upon crossing the door, Klaus tried hard not to laugh as he approached to move the small table so his beloved could get up.

Before he got to them, Jake noticed the deep scratches on his younger cousins.

“Erick, what happened to your face?”

“A couple of Diagvelian possessions and two very peculiar children, that's what happened to it” Klaus answered a couple of steps away.

“What?”

Hearing his boyfriend behind him, without thinking, Jake stood up to see him, hitting the center of his back on the edge of the coffee table. A sharp stabbing pain in his lower back and the discomfort of having hit himself so foolishly added to the weight of his long day.

Klaus finally moved the furniture to free Jake from below, regretting that it had taken him so long to do so while his beloved rubbed his back.

“At least there were no hunters…”

“If there are possessed people I should purify them,” Jake stood up, “take me to them and-”

“It's not necessary.”

“But-”

“Erick and his friend Aubrey already did that.”

“What?!”

Jake was confused and stunned, until that moment only he and Cloud were able to purify those specific demons, no other human or non-human entity, as far as he and the Elumevaz military forces knew, could do it.

Added to the stress of the day and the aches in his body, this gave him a migraine.

He desperately grabbed onto his head, aggressively shaking his hair as if trying to shake the pain out of him.

“What the hell is going on today?! How did such a thing happen?!”

“Well…”

Erick began to tell him the events of that afternoon, when he was home alone, waiting for Klaus' arrival.

On Tuesday afternoon, after school, Erick was doing his homework in his room; listening to music with headphones so as not to disturb the peaceful silence of his neighbors, who, no longer being part of the living, appreciated the calm of their surroundings more than anything; when a sudden scream broke through his window.

“Erick! Are you there?! I need your help!”

Bry looked at the door in anticipation, waiting for the boy to answer her, being slightly surprised to hear his voice from one of the windows above.

“How did you find my house?”

“That doesn’t matter, my cat is lost. Help me find her.”

“Are you kidding? I literally live in a ghost neighborhood” his tone was defensive and indignant “I mean, my next-door neighbor is an apparition.”

He looked at the lower window of the house next to his, noticing that the inhabitant of this one was watching him, possibly annoyed by the noise.

That particular neighbor had always been very kind to him and his family, ever since they moved there, even offering to take care of Erick while his guardians were away for a considerable amount of time.

“Good afternoon, by the way, Mr. Harris.”

The boy greeted him with familiar ease.

Bry saw the entity returning the greeting again, waving its enormous hand arrhythmically.

It was a disturbing being, with the appearance of an amorphous corpse covered in swamp mud, its nose already eaten away revealing part of its skull, with empty eye sockets illuminated by small points of yellow light at the bottom of the sockets.

Its mouth was unnaturally elongated with the twisted jaw reaching to its chest, exposing enormous, needle-sharp fangs. Its extremely long fingers also had curves and bending points that denoted its lack of humanity.

The last thing Bry noticed was a clean, well-kept bow tie adorning the creature’s bulging neck. For some reason, the sight of the creature seemed more comforting than disturbing to her. The children returned to their conversation once the neighbor lowered his hand.

“No one but the principal knows where I live, so it does matter to me.”

Erick slammed his window shut, making it seem like he was really upset with the girl, making Bry very sad. Her sadness was short lived, as the boy hurried to grab a couple of essentials and leave the house. He opened the door still panting from running downstairs.

“You better explain it to me later.”

“Thank you very much!”

Bry jumped to hug him with all her strength, relieved, hanging on to his neck and shaking him back and forth with joy, while Erick just let it be, with some discomfort and dizziness from the jolt.

Now calm, Bry explained the situation to the boy.

“Lady likes to wander around the southern forests,  I was thinking of going to look for her there. It’s a bit dangerous, so do you think your cousin can join us?”

As his eyes wandered around listening to the girl, he noticed her bare shoulders, specifically, noticed a kind of scar on the side of her right shoulder, shaped like a three-pointed crown. He touched it without thinking.

“Ah… no, he’s at work.”

He withdrew his hand, uneasy about the mark on his friend's shoulder, his expression turning unintentionally cold and his voice monotonous.

“How did you get that?”

“It's a birthmark,” Bry replied, confused by the boy's sudden change in attitude.

“Well, whatever…” Erick took his cell phone out of his pocket, opened his messages and began typing “My other tutor should be arriving at the city's airport right now.”

Erick tried hard to sound nicer but he couldn't control his tone, which made him frown and seem even more annoyed. At that moment, remembering the last time they had spoken, Bry realized his intentions, understanding that he had difficulty expressing himself properly. Now she was the one who was serious as she thought about how to deal with it.

“I'll let him know where we're going so he can catch up with us later.”

Once the message was sent, Erick put away his cell phone and set off, heading for the southern forests where one of the regions of Kastafor began.

“Okay, let’s go quickly to get back before it gets dark.”

As the boy walked, Bry watched him, her gaze fixed on his face, only moving her head with the rest of her body completely static, lost in thought.

«How come you still don’t recognize me? Haven’t you forgotten me? Don’t you remember me even a little bit?»

Erick walked without looking back, again feeling embarrassed by his attitude and the harshness of his voice, afraid that his new friend would take him the wrong way. She continued watching.

«No biggie, it doesn’t matter, I will find a way to make you remember. I won’t let Jake or anything take you away from me, not again.»

Aubrey snapped out of her trance and started running after Erick.

“Wait for me!”

The children walked for twenty minutes until they reached the entrance to the southern forests, a region of temperate and subtropical forests interspersed with relatively young trees at the edges showing their expansion over time, now limited by a road a couple of meters from the youngest plant.

Bry, still walking behind Erick, looked around for her beloved pet while observing the child's behavior. Erick, who was now speaking normally, felt a bit intimidated when he saw the dirt road that led into the thick forest.

"Are you sure we should look for her here?"

"Yes, whenever she runs away she comes to this forest."

"If you say so" he seemed a bit nervous.

They both entered the forest, looking at each bush beside the path, which they followed to avoid getting lost.

"By the way, why didn't you come with your parents, or your sister... or even that boy, Leroy?"

Erick was a bit uncomfortable, both because of the setting and because of the deep trust that the girl, who he thought had only met two days ago, showed him.

“They are probably better options than me for this.”