Nightmares Vs Magic

TW: This chapter contains topics and elements of self harm and suicidal thoughts.

Laurence was still holding them close, hands over their heads as they caught their breaths from the fall. They all appeared to be normal and even had all their items. Laurence with the now empty latte cup, and Dove with the borrowed lab coat. 

Their eyes were wide open in surprise as they all took in the white, polished floor. The material didn't belong to the conference room, but rather the alchemy labs. 

Laurence looked up to see Adan and Enzo standing in front of them. Shocked and relieved to see the three appear in front of them. 

Joon looked up and saw the two, getting up but feeling very unsteady. His body was still shaking. 

Enzo dropped whatever items he had and ran over to hug the boy. Adan was still surprised and too shocked to move. 

Dove forced herself to stop crying on instinct and wiped her eyes before daring to look up and see where they were. Laurence stood up in confusion, giving her a hand as he looked around, making sure nothing was fake. 

They were in one of the little testing labs, a huge window was at the wall with some people passing by, alchemists working late. There was the door next to the window, and a camera at the corner. 

He saw the dollhouse that was right behind them, along with Bence, Eden, and a little girl. 

The dollhouse was on a metal table and the little girl stood on a stool. It seemed like she was disassembling it and Eden was helping her. 

Bence was visibly relieved, but then his face fell when he noticed Laurence's arms. He picked his jacket up from the floor, pulled Laurence over. 

The detective only realized what the necromancer was trying to do as he shoved his jacket into his arms, because that was when Laurence noticed that his arms were exposed, and he stepped behind Bence for cover as he put his jacket back on. 

Eden ran over to hug Dove, tears in their eyes. Dove slowly wrapped her arms around their waist and sighed, relaxing her shoulders and closing her eyes as she rested her head against her friend.

"Sorry for worrying you." 

She then felt a gentle tug on her pant leg. Looking down, there was the little girl, who had stepped off from her stool. 

She wore a pink dress and a red, cardigan jacket. Her light brown hair had a little flower in it. Dove recognized the flower as one of the plants from Vernon's garden. 

Eden let go of Dove and they crouched down to meet the little girl at eye level. 

The young necromancer spelled out their name in American sign language, revealing the little girl to be Connie, the creator of the dollhouse. 

Little Connie twiddled her thumbs nervously before looking up at the two teenagers, feeling intimidated but also happy to meet new people. 

"Are you ok?" She asked, barely meeting Dove's gaze. 

Eden playfully elbowed Dove, pointing to her eyes, and making a shivering motion. Dove was confused and then blinked, trying to shift her face into that of a friendlier expression. She put on the best grin she could, and offered the little girl a handshake. Eden wanted to face palm as Dove spoke to the girl in the softest voice she could muster. 

Despite having lived with a kind couple, the girl was still not used to dealing with genuinely good and honest people.

"I-I'm good! Hi. You must be Connie. It's good to see you awake. How are you feeling?"

Connie looked away from Dove again, but this time she looked guilty of something, having started frowning. 

"I'm sorry. You and your friends got stuck in my dollhouse because of me." 

Dove frowned and looked to Eden who shook their head, showing that they said nothing about blaming her. They looked back to the little girl and Dove waved her hands. 

"No. No- it's not your fault at all. In fact, you're the one who saved us!" 

"... Really?" 

Dove and Eden nodded eagerly with genuine smiles. 

"Y-yeah. Look at you- a little hero." Dove continued to put on the best smile she could. 

.... Listen I'm not used to putting on a big huge smile. I do subtle faces, but children can't read subtly. They are smart in other areas but not ones where you expect them to read your mind to know your meaning. 

Eden extended their index and middle fingers while keeping the rest curled, and held it up to their head as they smiled at the kid. 

Behind them, Adan gave Joon a fast pat down to check for injuries, gave him a tissue to wipe off more of that ichor from his face, and then scolded him for being reckless and breaking the explicit rules of not reading the pentagram. 

"You could have experienced torture! You could have become cursed! Mutilated! Trapped for eternity! Experienced every pain that would consider death a mercy! Did you switch brains with a chicken?!" 

Adan scolded the boy as he planted a hand on his hip and the other hand pinching the bridge of his nose. 

Joon looked up at him with a blank expression, knowing that Adan is just worried. Enzo stayed silent but he would scold Joon later with a lecture, which the boy did not look forward to, but today, he had no energy to complain. 

He simply fell into Adan, wrapping his arms around the alchemist's waist to hug him tight. Adan sighed and returned it, still muttering all his worries under his breath.

Eden and Dove distracted Connie and moved her farther away from the three. Bence advised Eden to help Connie up to the stool again to finish her earlier task.

The rest of the dollhouse was taken apart afterwards, and Connie went back down to be with her siblings at the magic store. The father, Cooper, didn't want them to have to deal with any more supernatural situations for now, and to instead entertain themselves at the store. 

While offering a hand as he and Eden walked with the two exhausted people to the elevator, Bence filled Laurence and Dove in on all that happened. He and Chris went to exterminate the nightmare at the client's house. The nightmare was not the grandfather's actual spirit, just something born from hidden emotions and unspoken thoughts. 

"We managed to figure out how to get rid of it- don't bother asking, it's too long to explain. Just know that it involved all of my holy water and for Chris to burn away all the substance in each of the bedrooms." The necromancer sighed, still shivering from all the substance in each of the bedrooms. 

Adan let him know what the substance was, that and he put the pieces together from the recording on Dove's phone. She still left it unlocked. 

"Anyway, the kids woke up after the nightmare died, and after earning their trust, the older siblings let me question little Connie about her dollhouse. As it turns out, the dollhouse was not meant to be a place where her perfect family could be remade. It was a trap that the nightmare had her make, something to pull her other family members in so that they could chase and consume them. Only four dolls were made because she was tied to the house, therefore the house required her to stay alive because she was the creator."

"And so you soon realized if she was the maker, then she could un-make the dollhouse as well?" Laurence inquired, tugging at the cuffs of his sleeves. 

He pat Dove's head when she looked in concern and waved it off, gesturing for her to not think about it. 

They stepped off the elevator and into the detective's floor where it was mostly empty.

When looking out the windows, it was shown to be completely dark out. 

"How long were we in the dollhouse?" Dove asked, taking out her phone to check the time. 

'2:00 am' and she saw multiple missed calls from Annie and Joel. 

She cursed under her breath and excused herself from the conversation, swallowing her nervousness as she walked off to a quieter place, beginning to call Joel back. 

"As you guys can see, you were in there for hours." Bence said as he turned to Laurence. 

"When I got permission to bring the little creator and the other kids back here, I first had them wait in the labs as I moved the little house to the labs. As soon as little Connie made eye contact with it, she instinctively tried to destroy it." 

"That explains why the world from our perspective started glitching."

The two walked over to Bence's desk where he already had half of the report ready for the detective to read. 

"Yeah, I had to put up an effort to keep her away, but she was really insistent on it. It's like when the coma and the spell wore off, she could easily sense the evil energy from that messed up DIY project. I managed to convince her not to destroy it, yet, after I showed the doll bodies of you and the two kids. But then, as soon as I saw her read the pentagram and easily swipe away the dried up blood with her fingers, I didn't feel as worried. You three appeared right as she wiped away the entire symbol."

"Perfect. Thanks a bunch." Laurence sighed in relief. 

He looked up from Bence's computer, scanning the other rooms, and noticed Cooper in the waiting room.

"Is that the father?"

"Yes. His name is Cooper. Dove rescued him from the house, and then there was a huge fight between him and his wife."

"The wife is Madeline, if I remember correctly? Dove mentioned her. Where is she?"

Bence was silent for a moment. 

He sat down and updated the report, preparing to email it to Laurence. He thought about what to say, and what Dove likely would not want Laurence to hear. 

"Dove went into the dollhouse, as soon as she realized Joon got turned into a doll as well, and when she realized trying to get answers out of the couple wouldn't help. She tried to give the woman a chance to help her fix her problem but... there was a lot of conflict and basically, Madeline left." He shook his head and took a file from his desk, handing it to Laurence. 

It contained the printed photos, the list of questions with new answers written at the side and more. 

"Cooper doesn't know where she went, she wouldn't pick up his calls, and when I called Liora to ask, she said that the woman walked past her kids and out the door."

Laurence hummed, seeing one of the photos that Dove took, containing a picture of Madeline and her family. He stared with a mix of pity and animosity. 

"Not the first person to go insane when trying to hide it."

"How are you feeling? Along with the kids?"

Laurence went over to sit at his desk, sighing as he laid back in the office chair. 

"Joon may need or want some time to himself, he'll probably be silent for a bit. As for Dove..." He looked off to where Dove was. 

She went inside the conference room and closed the door, looking anxious as she spoke on the phone. She paced the room slowly, but her body language showed that she was relaxed, if not cringing from the light scolding she was getting from the person on the other side. 

Her eyes were still red from the tears, but her face was back to that of the professional mask she wore when interacting with anyone. 

"... I don't know what to do for her."

"So don't do anything unless she asks you to. If you hover over her like a mother hen, she'll just further pretend that everything is fine." Bence answered pragmatically.

Laurence leered at him, knowing that he was right but also, he didn't like that Answer. Bence shrugged, looking over at Dove in the conference room. She had just now ended her call but still remained in the room for a bit. She still had that faraway look in her eyes, and then she turned on her phone again and held it straight up to get a good look at her face. 

Bence softly sighed.

"You're not gonna tell me what happened in that dollhouse, are you?"

"No. I can't."

"... Fine. I'll have to redact that from the research. You and the others should go ahead and clock out, but not before going to see Leon."

Laurence internally groaned, typing louder on his desktop and standing up, going over to the printer. 

The papers came out instantly, making him flinch. 

"I fixed the printer again after restocking on holy water. Don't bother coming up with excuses, I told Enzo to schedule your appointment with Leon. If you and Dove don't go and see him in the next few minutes, he's going to come and get you both himself." Bence told him nonchalantly, leaning in his chair. 

"You didn't think to tell us this before?!" Dove responded with panic in her low voice.

She had exited the conference room just in time to hear Bence speak about the appointment and rushed to the elevator. 

"Go follow her."

Laurence sharply inhaled and begrudgingly went with his intern to the apothecary floor with no complaint, knowing exactly what Bence would say if he didn't. Some examples would be that he wasn't setting up a good example for Dove. 

As the two detectives left, Bence went to and have a word with Cooper. 

The man was contemplating many things, one of those being his marriage and his kids. 

Bence took a quiet seat next to him, papers in hand. 

"Is there more paperwork for me to fill out?"

"No. This is just a list of suggestions for you."

Confused and curious, Cooper takes the sheets of papers offered to him. 

One was a list of recommended babysitters, trusted family therapists, and parental support organizations. Another was for a list of psych evaluations, marriage counselors, and a list of trusted divorce lawyers. 

Bewildered, Cooper looked up at Bence.

"You really think I'm gonna get divorced?"

"I don't 'think', I suggest." The necromancer leaned forward and answered. 

"Your wife seems like someone who had good intentions at the start, and full of love and hope for a happy life. But she has made all of the wrong choices to accomplish that goal. She knew of a threat to her children and not only pretended it did not exist, but when the danger was nearly consuming all of you, she did below the bare minimum in an attempt to fix it."

Cooper was silent, turning to look back at the papers. Bence stood back up and left the room to give him a moment. He came back with a glass bottle filled with holy water.

"May I ask what religion you are?"

"I'd like to say we're Christian... I thought we were."

"That's an issue for a lot of Christians but at least you're self aware." Bence handed him the glass bottle. 

"Take this when you and your kids go home tonight. A few splatters for each room should be enough. You have plenty of time to think on it. It's your life, but your children need you. And not to sound cruel, but I highly recommend Madeline go on a self-discovery journey alone before she interacts with people again."

Cooper frowned. 

"Are you saying that I should get full custody of our kids?"

"Yes." The necromancer said firmly.

"But what if I can't fully watch over them? That's three kids plus the housework, and I'm rarely at home due to work." Cooper stood up, not to make himself bigger, but because he could not simply sit down for this topic. 

"I know that makes me sound like, like one of those dads, but- I mean I can cook, but I legitimately don't have enough time." His anxiety was rising. 

"I'm a stick in the mud when it comes to parenting, Madeline messed up a lot but she was the one who did more with the raising-"

"You have two teenagers, and one little one." Bence retorted calmly, placing a hand on the man's wrist to get him to ease his grip on the papers. 

"Two are well in high school, still children yes, but big enough to make their own decisions and watch over the youngest. Think what you will, but when they all woke up, they remembered the events that happened, and they know what their mother did. Do you honestly think that your children would choose to go with her?" 

Cooper fell silent again. His phone vibrated in his pocket and he took it out, seeing a message from his eldest, Matthew. 

'When are we going home? Also, Paris saw a bunch of these candles and the ladies at the shop said they ward off evil spirits.'

Below the text was a photo of a rack of candles, and then another with each of the kids posing with some candles. Paris was helping Connie hold her candle. The little girl made it clear she wanted the biggest one there.

'Can we get 1? or 2 or 3'

'... or 4 or 5'

Cooper chuckled to himself, glad to see his kids still being themselves despite the entire incident, having retained their innocence in some way. 

His son then sent him a screenshot of cleaning products they should get to clean all their rooms, and some sleeping bags to replace the beds for a bit. Cooper's face fell again at seeing those. 

"Sir, do you have kids?" He asked without looking up. 

"No, I just have one that I am in charge of watching over until they can take care of themselves. The other two just refuse to leave me alone."

Cooper noticed behind Bence approached Eden. Eden nodded rigorously at the question and held up three fingers, pointing one finger at themself.

They put their hands away and looked away innocently as soon as Bence turned around, sensing their presence. Bence asked them if they finished their skeleton puzzle and they held up their phone, showing Bence a photo of the skeleton they completed. He hummed, impressed, until seeing that they mixed up the radius and ulna in both arms. 

He showed the mistakes to the young necromancer and they visibly groaned without a sound, taking their phone back and going back to redo the skeleton.

"Well, what do you think I should do?" Cooper asked after seeing the interaction.

He looked back up to Bence, doubt in his face. Doubt in himself and worry for whether he can act as an emotional stability for his family. 

"I know that I should do what's right for my kids,,, but I've known Madeline for years. I..." He stammered, words caught in his throat before he started talking again in a broken tone. 

"I can't comprehend... comprehend just leaving her."

"That's why I gave you a list of marriage counselors and family therapists. Maybe you can work it out, you can forgive and forget, or forgive yet remember. Just be sure to let your kids be included. They were the main targets of all of this and they are old enough to speak for themselves."

Soon after the conversation, Bence looked at his watch and recommended he take his kids and go home. If his wife returned home, he suggested having her come visit Macabre House again for some help. 

Cooper would go down to the first floor, seeing his kids having fun looking through all the items in each aisle. 

Meanwhile, in the apothecary floor where Laurence and Dove just narrowly made it for their appointment, Dove noticed that Enzo had also gotten Joon to get himself checked as well.  

Enzo gave them a nod when they entered the waiting room, Joon gave a little wave, Dove waved back. 

Leon practically yoinked Laurence over into his office and shut the door. 

Trusting them to stay together and act as moral support for each other's checkups, Enzo left them alone temporarily, saying he'd be back. 

Joon and Dove sat in the waiting room silently, awkwardly silent. She had her hair put back up into a ponytail, giving Joon a good view of her face as he glanced at her from the side.

"... How long have you had that bruise on your face?"

"Is it visible again?" 

"I think my grandma may have given you the ones one your cheekbones and nose."

"Stop saying it was your grandma. That thing wasn't your real grandma." Dove chuckled lightly, shaking her head. 

"My real grandma was a nightmare to me anyway. Both are the same to me!" Joon chuckled back, shrugging his shoulders. 

They both flinched upon hearing footsteps down the hall. 

They both stood up and turned in the direction of the noise, sighing in relief to see two of their friends jogging down the hall and waving to them. 

Vernon was holding two succulents in his hands, Annabelle was holding a very suspicious notebook. 

"You both are still here? Why didn't you go home?" Joon asked, knowing how late it was. 

"Because neither of you responded to the things I sent in the group chat!" She commented cheerfully. 

"And Vernon could sense that something was off with you both when his succulents were beginning to wilt for some reason." She pointed to the two little succulent plants he was holding. 

"I named all of my succulents after my friends and coworkers. The succulents named Joon and Dove began wilting a little after you both disappeared for a few hours."

Joon rubbed his neck awkwardly as Dove grimaced and kept silent. 

"What happened in that dollhouse?"

"... A lot."

"An unsolicited blast to the past for everyone involved. Actually now that I think about it, why didn't we see the layout from Laurence's past?" Joon asked, turning to Dove. 

"Genuinely not sure. Maybe because he didn't have any specific people who traumatized or impacted him?" She shrugged, looking to the floor. 

"... The DIY project didn't seem to have any fixed rules, it just brought us the monsters that would most certainly hurt us or get a huge reaction out of us. Maybe Laurence didn't have anything like that."

"That does sound viable. Why do you think it showed the house of the guy who messed you up physically, but showed the figures of your parents instead? Why is it that only my grandma was this horrific monster that could kill us but your parents were just like, apparitions that didn't even enter the building?"

Dove swallowed the spit in her mouth as she kept staring at the ground, pondering. She knew the answer why but she had to figure out how to properly phrase it. 

Vernon sat next to an empty seat on her side, letting her hold the succulent named after her, as shown by the letters painted beautifully on the side of the little flowerpot. He took very good care of it, up until it began to wither, supposedly showing her condition. 

Succulents are known as the easiest plants to take care of, along with cacti. And yet there are some who get those plants with no knowledge of how to take care of them. As Vernon once explained to me, they survive in deserts that will occasionally have flash storms or sudden heavy rain. So, you do still need to water them, just once a month. Dunk that sucker in water for a bit and then set it back out in the sun again. 

Dove cupped it in her hands like an item of emotional comfort. She does not see herself as someone deserving of being held, but the succulent that just so happened to be named after her, was something precious to Vernon, therefore she would treat it as such. 

"It appears I am still more afraid of the judgement of my parents, than whatever pain or trauma that could be inflicted on me by any stranger."

The others hummed in agreement, except for Vernon who shook his head. 

"Your parents are not good people if that is the case." He said. 

Dove stifled a chuckle. 

Making a self-deprecating joke would not slide around him. His mother raised him better. Very emotionally intelligent that woman, the opposite of both my parents.  

"Well, what else could I expect from a corporate dad and a mom from a strict family?" She asked rhetorically.

"So if I'm understanding correctly, that dollhouse essentially put each of you in homes from your childhood, but only the ones that would scare you the most? I need to learn something from that eight-year-old! For my enemies!"

"Calm down Satan." Joon laughed lightly. 

Laurence eventually came out, whispering quietly for Leon, who was hovering over him with antidepressants, to stop worrying about him. 

As soon as he noticed Dove and the others near the door, he snatched the little container and quickly hid it in his jacket pocket. 

"Thank you, Leon. I'm not injured, I'm fine." 

Leon looked at him and tilted his head just slightly, doubt, concern, and patience written all over that doctor's face.

"At least take this before you go." The doctor held a lollipop out for him.

"I'm a grown man."

"And you're still my boy." Leon retorted back with a gentle smile as he put the lollipop in his jacket pocket. 

Laurence reluctantly accepted. He wanted to reject, but didn't. 

He felt Dove's eyes on him, tracing his neck where he had gel patches for the bruises, and down to his arms that were well covered by his sleeves. 

She looked up and he swallowed silently. 

'I saw your arms.' Is what her face said. 

Laurence gave her and the others a quick nod, telling Dove he'd see her back at the detective's floor before they all went home, and he went to find the elevator. 

It was Dove's turn and Leon allowed the other interns to come into his office as well, just as long as none of them messed with his photos. 

The vampiric doctor did the usual questions of asking if she was in pain everywhere. Dove answered that her back and face hurt, because a nightmare grabbed her by the face and slammed her into the floor. 

Leon then showed her a paper on his clipboard, showing it to be a simple psych evaluation that he was using to gauge how mentally impacted she was from the recent experience. The questions were simple, and she had taken a psych evaluation test before. 

"Before we begin, allow me to ask a question not a part of the psych eval, and if it makes you uncomfortable, I apologize but I do require an honest answer. Any other question will not require an answer."

"Alright." Dove shrugged, hands folded in her lap as she sat across from him. 

"Did you almost die in the dollhouse realm?"

She was silent and her breath hitched. Joon was sitting behind her as he waited for his turn, also gulped. 

Normally when a counselor or psychologist would ask about how a student or someone is doing mentally, the questions are usually pretty light. 

Leon prefers to be gently blunt. 

"Ah, yes." 

"That will help me as we figure out the answers to the other questions." Leon said with a smile. 

"What?" 

Joon's eye twitched, not excited for his turn. 

After the questions that made Dove think more deeply about herself than she wanted, he gave her gel patches for her bruises, the same ones that Laurence had to wear. 

"I would've preferred that you come to get these patches from me after coming back from the island, but I was flooded that day. Please don't hesitate to come to me for patches from now on. Or at least ask for a box to put at your desk." 

The girl nodded, getting up out of her seat after he finished applying the patches to all the bruises on her face. 

Joon switched places with her, and immediately answered yes to having almost died before Leon could ask. Just to rip the band-aid off.

Annabelle and Vernon stayed silent, but the two could feel their eyes on them ever since the reveal of their near death experiences. 

Funny enough, Leon gave each of them a lollipop before they left. 

"Why? Not that we don't appreciate it but,,, why?"

"Tomorrow's Halloween."

"Oh."

Annabelle and Vernon had to go home soon after. November was going to be a busy time for all college students and they both had to start preparing for their finals and schedule classes for next semester. 

Vernon was going to home and facetime his mother for some advice, while Annabelle had to do her own extensive research. 

Enzo had come back to see how Joon's appointment went, and the boy asked if he could help out with anything in the labs. 

He was disappointed when Enzo told him no, and advised him to go home and rest. 

"Maybe even take tomorrow off? If you want to." Enzo told the boy as they all stood in the elevator. 

Dove went and pressed the buttons for the third and fourth floor. 

"Dove. I suggest you do the same."

"What if someone needs help on Halloween night?" 

"The detective's floor will be empty tomorrow night. Most of the workers along with myself will all be out patrolling the city." He informed her, surprising both her and Joon. 

Joon turned to give Dove the same curious look that she turned to give him, and they both turned their heads to Enzo. 

"What do you mean 'patrolling the city'? Why didn't we know about this?" Joon asked.

"Are you telling me you guys actually have jobs on Halloween that involve city routes and stuff? Like Batman and the Robins and the Signal?"

"Essentially. As for why you didn't know- well, it's because you are interns."

Joon's eye twitched in annoyance. 

"Interns?... Is that it? Don't you frickin lie to me." He seethed as he stared up at Enzo. 

The man looked down at him and shrugged. 

"The building still has the spell built in. I physically can't lie to you. I just mean that as interns, none of you are ready yet." He shrugged.

"... We have done haunted houses, walks through a haunted forest, and literally just survived literal monsters in a nightmare dollhouse!"

The elevator dinged and the doors opened to the detective's floor. 

Dove stepped out just in time and turned around to wave goodnight to Joon and Enzo. 

'Goodluck.' she mouthed to Enzo, who sighed as the doors closed. Joon could be heard trying to get more answers out of him for why they wouldn't qualify for patrols on Halloween night.

She turned around, scanning the office and searching for Laurence. When she didn't see any trace of him, she walked over and scanned his desk. 

It was just cleaned up, and there was a little letter on the table, folded in half to stand up and be easily seen. 

'I needed some air. I'm at Vernon's garden, right next to the door.'

She shrugged, taking a photo of the letter, and went to use the stairs. 

Opening the door to the rooftop garden, she finds him right by the door as the letter had spoken. He had no cigarettes to smoke with so he had a lollipop in his mouth, the same one Leon gave him. There was a bench by the door, made from two bushes squished together and combining their branches.

He looked to his right and gave her a small wave as she sat beside him. 

"Vernon is really proud of his benches." She said casually as she took out the lollipop Leon gave her. 

She didn't take the wrapper off yet, just looked at it. 

The color was a deep royal blue. 

"He's about to start on a new project soon." Laurence pointed to a table nearby.

The girl looked up to see the table a few feet away, containing a box with some large leaves and strings of tiny webbing on the leaves. On the side of the box was a label sticker.

'Silkworms'

"That'll be neat to see later."

Laurence hummed in agreement.

They sat in silence for a moment longer, until Laurence noticed her trying to resist looking at his arms. 

"I never-,,, you and Joon didn't hear me confess any secret or trauma of mine, and, that might be, unfair..."

Dove shook her head.

"It's alright if you don't want to reveal anything. I'm pretty sure my theory was wrong anyway, telling the truth didn't do much aside from add entertainment to the hosts."

"It's still unfair." He insisted, his voice still soft in the silent night.

"You and Joon were very vulnerable back there. And meanwhile I couldn't do a thing to help."

"You did! A lot. I just..." Dove's words fell. 

Laurence turned to look at her, seeing as her face had fallen back into that numb expression. The one she wore as her neutral face when they first met. But he also remembered her real face that he saw in the mirror room all those months ago. 

"I was mostly crying because, I didn't want you to see the,,, weaker sides of me. And now you've seen how weak I can be."

"Dove. Crying is not weak-"

"It's not just the crying." She interrupted abruptly, gripping the lollipop in her hand like a stress toy before she began again with a ramble.

"I didn't want you to know about my stupid parental issues, or this past I have with someone who hurt and humiliated me- or my stupid emotions, and my inability to get a job done all because my stupid emotions got in the way-" Her voice began to crack again and took a second to pause and breathe.

She took her hair out of its ponytail again to better hide her face.

"Hey-"

"I only ever wanted to show my strong side, my better, more composed side. Because I hate the thought of acting like a useless kid in front of you because I don't ever want to disappoint you or give you a reason to look down on me-"

Laurence wanted to reach out and pat her shoulder, but he hesitated. 

"Hey. Pause." He chose instead. 

"... May I have a turn?"

Dove hid her face with her hair as she stared down at the ground, sniffling and trying to muffle it as she nodded. 

"... Would you mind if I showed you something?"

"I don't mind."

He shuffled to take his jacket off. When Dove heard the ruffling of clothes, she tilted her head up just enough to peak through her hair. 

Laurence took one arm out of his sleeve. He was still wearing his shirt with the torn sleeves.

The girl saw the numerous thin lines that scattered across the inner sides of his forearms, and she lifted her hair out of her face for a better view. 

They were faded, but still visible.

"These, were from after college... I'm a few years clean. I don't know exactly how long, but I can guarantee you that I'm definitely clean now."

The old scars on his arms only made Dove want to cry even more, and become more sad because someone that she looked up to also found difficulty in moving on, just like she did. 

"Am- am I- what do-" She stuttered, too anxious at saying the wrong words in thus vulnerable moment, and also because her tears had slipped out and made her want to hiccup for air.

"Do you know why I'm showing you this?"

"No..."

"I am showing you this, because, I want you to realize that you talking bad about yourself, is about as pointless as it is harmful, as it was for me to do this with myself."

"But you have to admit, everything I'm saying is true." She wiped her tears and tried to sit back up straight, catching her breath. 

"It's true to you, but everything you have said is more an opinion than a truth. I... don't know what exactly to tell you to make you feel better, because I still don't know what to think to make myself feel better... But I want you to know that I'm always so happy, and proud to see you come to work and try even a bit of your best everyday, because I know you're like me."

Dove finally made eye contact with him again, this time she didn't force stop her tears. Laurence turned his body on the bench to face her more as they stayed seated. 

"In the mirror room, during your interview, you saw, a scared, and sad little girl. And I saw that too, but I also saw a girl who was already tired of life. And I wanted to save that girl."

Dove fell silent. 

It felt inappropriate, all the thoughts I had in the moment.

'Why would you want to save a person like me?'

'So you already saw my weak and useless side?'

'How can I look you in the eye again after all this?'

"I felt I had to save you because you reminded me so much of myself. When we began working, I could tell you had potential but I didn't want to make you feel pressured and when we were in the dollhouse and about to get eaten alive- I was so afraid, and also so disappointed in myself, because at the moment, I was failing to protect you."

"You just wanted to help me..." She muttered, reiterating a phrase she remembered him saying before. 

"I already knew you had a past. I was able to piece together that you had, a very horrific, experience with someone and had to close yourself off for protection. I'm not saying it's bad. In this day and age, who can blame you? I just, want you to know that I care about you and I'm upset that you think so harshly of yourself-"

"I'm asexual and I was an accomplice to a serial killer." She interrupted him, steeling herself one more time for the night. Just to test one more hypothesis.

"... I see?" Was all the man said. 

"... I'm asexual, I know I am, and I know I have also done a lot of wrong because the same man who hurt me, would also make me stay and watch as he hurt others... What do you have to say about me now?" Her voice had less grit than before.

Laurence's expression for her did not change. He did not even seem surprised. 

"How old were you then?"

"... Fourteen, to almost seventeen."

"And have you directly killed anyone?"

"No, but it feels like I have because I chose not to save any of them, because of my stupid emotions-"

"Because you had to protect yourself." He softly interrupted, cautiously raising his hand to stroke her head as he looked her in her deep blue eyes. 

"And I am glad that you managed to save yourself. You were just a child then, and believe me when I say, nearly every older member of Macabre House has lots of blood on their hands."

"... What about me being asexual?"

"Dove. Jean and Dimitri are married, and Liora and Lucia are also married."

"..."

Dove shuffled in her seat, contemplating. She turned fully to Laurence, raising her arms awkwardly, hesitantly. 

Laurence opened hi arms, and she fell into him. Exhaustion and sadness rising to the surface as she sniffled and let herself lightly sob, yet relaxing against him.

Laurence pat her head, his voice also breaking as tears filled his eyes after staying strong for so long, but he wore a smile on his face.

"There is good in you, I and many others can see that easily, that was never an issue anyone was concerned with, and neither was the topic of your competence. All I ask is that you be kinder to yourself, as I will keep trying to take better care of myself, because I want to at least be there for you and the others."

"You don't know everything about me." She muttered into his now wet shoulder.

"True I don't, but I do know that I have literally seen worse, and whatever sin you may have, I know you can be redeemed."

"But I am a bad person deep down. An evil, pathetic, useless, and naive person."

"... You are wanted, you are need, you are cherished, and you should care more about yourself. We owe it to ourselves to do that much after everything. I don't think these words will solve everything, but I hope it makes you feel better at least."