Late at night, in Corvin’s gothic style room, Night birds can be heard singing a sad melody outside of Corvin’s window, as the shadows from the moonlight loom over Aveline and Corvin. Aveline lays cuddling Corvin while looking up at the dark ceiling.

She replays the events that happened to her, “Did… my mother… really do that to me?” she thought while her lips were quivering and her heart filled with the feeling of betrayal.

Aveline's eyes were glistening with tears while she held Corvin closer to her, “Why… why would my warm mother,” A flash of her mothers warm smile replayed in her mind, “hurt me so coldly… with no remorse…” A flash of her mother's cold sharp eyes looking down on her lingered in her mind.

As the Night birds melody grew more mournful, Aveline started to softly cry. Reminiscing about the time when her father was alive and when her mother was warm to her. 

Then she looks at Corvin, who starts to tremble with cold sweat and tears seeping down his face, “He must be having another nightmare…” she uses her sleeve to wipe his sweat and tears, “I will protect you from my mother… I will figure out a way to make my mother kind again,” her tearful eyes filled with determination.

As the moon rose higher in the sky, the shadows from the moonlight grew bigger and the Night birds' mournful song grew louder, waking Corvin up from his seemingly endless nightmare.

Corvin’s eyes shot open, and as if the Night birds knew how he felt their song change from a mournful melody to a distressing melody. Corvin, who was resonating strongly with the melody, held the sleeping Aveline tighter.

“I… don’t want… Rowena to kill me,” he thought while nuzzling into Aveline for comfort, “I… don’t feel so good…” as he was filled with numbness and fear.

But, he was soon filled with comfort as the sleeping Aveline hugged him tight and mumbled in her sleep, “I will… protect you…” Corvin tearfully smiled and went back to sleep with peaceful dreams.

The next morning, Aveline and Corvin get ready for breakfast. They barely made it in time because they were scared of having to encounter Rowena.

Now at the breakfast table, they all ate in silence… that is until Aveline breaks the silence by asking,

“Mother, isn’t Corvin so adorable?” she tilts her head and smiles.

Corvin froze and slowly looked at Aveline with confusion.

Rowena looked at Aveline, then looked at Corvin, “Yes, he surely is,” as she smiles menacingly.

Aveline with rose tinted eyes thought her mother was smiling warmly, so she proceeded to say, “Then you should pinch his cheeks! His mother used to do that too!” as she smiled happily.

Edgar reaffirms and says, “Yes, his mother loved his rosey cheeks,” as he reminisced about the time when Lenore was alive.

Corvin, still frozen, looks at Aveline in disbelief.

“Alright, come here Corvin and let me pinch your rosey cheeks,” Rowena says as she gestured her hand to tell Corvin to come closer.

Corvin, with no choice, slowly gets up and walks over to Rowena, hesitant to stand in front of her and trembling at what she’ll do.

“I… I’m scared… why would Aveline put me in this position?”

“He must be cold, otherwise why is my son trembling so much?” Edgar thought to himself.

Rowena proceeded to pinch Corvin’s cheeks, first it was softly and this made Corvin confused, 

“It… doesn’t hurt?!” he thought while looking at Rowena’s hands.

But, then without warning she started to pinch extremely hard. Corvin's eyes started to tear up as he looked at Rowena’s face, which had an horrendous smile and eyes full of hatred looking down on him. 

“It hurts! Her face it’s scary! Why… why am I in this situation!” Corvin then looked at Aveline with eyes full of betrayal, “Why would you… put me in this situation!” his eyes start to tear up.

Aveline, who was confused, got up to try to see why he looked at her like that,

“He’s tearing up, mother must be pinching him too hard… but, why did he look at me like that?”

As soon as she saw her mothers face, which was twisted with hatred, her heart shattered into a million pieces… she realized why Corvin looked at her the way he did while she herself was frozen in fear.

“I see, I… I already failed to protect him… I… I just thought I could bring my mother to… love Corvin like I do…” her eyes started to swell up with tears, “I thought… I was doing the right thing… but now… he’s hurt… and it’s all my fault…”

For the first time, Aveline realizes that her mother is no more… and what’s left was a demon in disguise.

Edgar realizes that Corvin was crying.

Corvin cries out, “Father! It… Hurts!”

Edgar quickly gets up on instinct and smacks Rowena hands away from Corvin, but Rowena ends up scratching his face and drawing blood.

“Rowena! How dare you hurt my precious son!” Edgar's red eyes looked down on Rowena filled with anger, while he held a crying Corvin.

With both Aveline and Corvin crying, emotions ran high.

“I… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your precious son,” Rowena tries to apologize but…

“Just look at your twisted face Rowena, you have no sincerity in your apology! Get out of my sight! I’ll deal with you later…” Edgar says while holding Corvin a little tighter.

Rowena gets up and storms off, balling her fist so hard that her hands turned red, and biting her lips in anger, “Corvin! You will pay for this!” she thought filled with anger and vengeance.

Back to Aveline and Corvin crying, Aveline tries to reach out to Corvin to apologize, but he flinches at her touch.

“Corvin! Please forgive me! I’m sorry!” Aveline was reaching for Corvin, her voice breaking and trembling.

Edgar put Corvin down so he can face Aveline.

Aveline slowly gets closer to Corvin, raising her shaking hand to hug him, “It’s all my fault… you got hurt because of me… I… I’m sorry… please… forgive me,” her voice was quivering.

Corvin looked at how guilty she felt and knew that she was sincere, “I…” he was hesitant, but he couldn’t stand seeing Aveline this hurt, “I forgive you!” his voice was breaking but was loud.

Then, they both cried while hugging each other on the ground.

Edgar watched over the children, “I need to have a serious talk with Rowena…” he clenched his jaw at the thought, “I can’t stand to see my children hurting,” a flash of Lenore’s bright smile lingered in his mind, “Rowena…” he mumbled under his breath.

As if it was resonating with the sorrow the children felt and the anger Edgar has, The Juniper Tree branches danced loudly and swayed heavily at the threat that looms over their peaceful lives.