Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lacie is cursed with something. She doesn't exactly remember how or when it started, although she remembered a brief point in her early life when her life was normal, when she was having fun with friends, celebrating birthdays with her family, until at some point her life turned 180 degrees, a total reversal.

Her parents don't seem to want to look her in the eyes. On the few occasions when they actually do, their stares seem to be filled with hatred and fear.

Her friends would ignore her and start bullying her. She remembers one time in middle school a black crow crashed into her class window and broke it, then landed on her table. The crow died due to the impact of the crash, and everyone thinks that it's her fault that the crow died, and they made her eat the crow while shouting "MURDERER! MURDERER! MURDERER!"

The only person who seems to care about her and treat her as normal is her older brother, Hiro. He's a doting person, he spoils her and gives her affection when no one else even looks at her despite her curse.

Lacie is invested in the occult and spends a good portion of her time in ritual forums and doing rituals herself. She never really does rituals, but after she stopped going outside a couple of months ago, she began to actually do stuff she read in those forums, mainly curse-cleansing rituals. The first ritual she did was with a hand mirror, explaining her curse to the mirror, and then saying 'I return the curse to the one who sent it to me.' Of course, it didn't work. She started doing even more rituals.

Fast forward a few months, and she finds a ritual named 'The Bus Ritual'. It involves calling a bus in the middle of the night with some simple preparations, and it's said that the ritual can actually cleanse curses, although the forum said the process may take days, even weeks to finish. Of course, Lacie who is already fed up with how the curse impacted her life, she decides to do the ritual, ordering a 'mail' that contains the ritual instructions and an additional 'return doorknob' (the forum said that you need this doorknob to go back to the real world).

A few days later, the letter arrived with the return doorknob that she ordered. She proceeds to start the ritual and actually managed to pull it off. The ritual took her to a forest that seemed like it belonged to a different world. There, she learns that:

1. Her curse might be inflicted by a demon who is currently deceased, since demons can only inflict curses on their dying breath.
2. Her curse is curable, and there's one person who might be able to remove it, named Red and she might find her answers if she manages to meet him.
3. The demon who cursed her is possibly a demon named 'Lilith', due to another demon she met there that said her scent is similar to 'Lilith'.

Her time there was good despite being scary at times. She met another person who treats her indifferently, Sai. Sai doesn't treat her like her family and 'friends', he doesn't seem to care about her curse one bit. Granted, she needs to be wary of strangers, especially people like him who do rituals casually, but maybe she can keep him around for a bit, because she might need him for something.

Fast forward. After Lacie and Sai broke Miss Knives' illusion and defeated her in a fight, they found a cursed door with empty doorknobs similar to the one Lacie used to get into the facility. Lacie puts her return doorknob she bought in there, and then she gets in with Sai.

When she gets in the door, she's met with a singular door and a vase of white lily with a garden, or maybe more accurately a patch of grass surrounding it.

"It must be the exit garden. I just need to make a lily and place it there, right?" One of the reputable forum members suggested that she learn how to make paper lilies from origami paper, so she printed out and brought the folding instructions with her. She took the folding instruction and started folding it.

"Hey um… about that list." Sai started the conversation.

"What list?"

"Your to-do list before you die?" Oh… that depressing list.

"Why don't you make a new list? Instead of a list of things to do before you die, why don't you make a list of things to do once you get fixed? Starting with treating me to an eclair maybe?" He continued. Lacie didn't reply, she just folds her lily in silence.

"... I'm not sure what to say in a situation like this." Lacie finally spoke up.

"You don't need to say anything. But, I think it'd be a shame if you give up."

"I see."

Lacie finished folding her paper lily, and she walked up to the door, ready to replace the lily, when Sai interrupted her once again.

"Thank you, I had fun today." He said. Are these kinds of days supposed to be fun?

"F-fun?"

"Yeah!, this was really exciting, don't you think?"

"We almost died many times…" Maybe, idiots really don't die.

She replaced the white lily in the vase beside the door and replaces it with her paper-made lily, and the door opens, white light coming from it.

"Uhh, see you on the other side?" Lacie bids her 'goodbye' to which Sai just responded by saying 'Yeah.' Lacie proceeds to walk into the door, which by doing so made her vision full of white light for a good thirty seconds. Her heart is beating so fast she could die right now.

And now she's on her knees in front of her house's front gate, out of breath and coughing. She musters up her strength to stand up and open the gate. Fortunately, she gets in without trouble as the gate is not locked by any means. It's dark outside, but for some reason her pet crow is still awake, still being at the same place it was the day when she tried to go outside.

She pressed the doorbell. Not long after, she can hear Hiro saying "Coming!" and his footsteps. The door opens, and Hiro's face greets her at the front door.

"LACIE, you're back!" Hiro pulled her into a hug, squeezing Lacie tight. This is actually the first time she hugged anyone after a couple of years and actually the best hug. After a minute of hugging, Hiro pulled away and both of them gets inside the house. The time on the analog clock placed on the wall shows… Exactly 12 PM? The same time she started the ritual. It starts to bug her mind on why the exact time she started the ritual and the time she gets back from her ritual is the same, but she no longer has the energy to think about it now. She's hungry, dehydrated, and exhausted. Hiro seems to take notice of this.

"Lacie! Are you hungry? Your legs are trembling like that! Let's go to the dining room and I'll make you something, okay?" Ah, her legs are shaking, probably because she's physically exhausted from all that walking in the forest.

"A cup of ramen noodles, please." She replied.

"No way, Lacie. Your body needs nutrition. I have some leftover Japanese curry, I'll reheat it for you." Hiro scolded her. Seems like she can never win an argument against Hiro about stuff like this.

Hiro reheats the curry, and her plate of rice and curry is ready to eat. She gobbled it all really fast and finished everything up in just 10 minutes. And of course, she also drank a few glass of water before eating to cure her dry throat (She hadn't drank anything during her time in the ritual).

As she finishes eating her meal, Hiro starts a new conversation with her.

"So… did you find the cure or at least some clues during your time there? Did you get yourself into any troubles?"

"Hmm… oh." She came to the realization that she doesn't fully know if her curse is gone or not. Heck, she didn't even get to meet Red, which was supposed to be the goal of her trip there.

"Umm… You don't need to talk about it if you don't want to, Lacie."

"Wait no, I actually… I don't know if I'm still cursed or not. I learned a couple of things about my curse and who the person behind it might be, but I still don't know…" She said with a dejected face while making her way into the sink to wash the plate

"I see. Well, if you need anything else, I'll be in my bedroom! I'm sleepy already~" He yawned. Lacie responded with a nod and then proceeds to wash her plate, afterward she goes up into her bedroom. Her bedroom is surprisingly clean and tidy. She sleeps peacefully that night with neither nightmares nor interruptions, and only realizes the next day that she hasn't taken a shower the night before.

'Maybe, I will be able to become normal again after this…'

The next day

She woke up at 10 AM, regrettably. Good thing it's currently Saturday. A new day, and hopefully a good one. Lacie decides that she should try going outside again. Maybe, to get back the chocolate eclair and a cup of water she paid for but didn't even get to eat. She talked to Hiro about planning to go to the cafe again, in which he even offered to go with her in case her anxiety kicks in, but she refused.

Now she's at the front door of the cafe, her heart beating a little bit faster a little bit usual.

'You can do it, Lacie, I know you can.' Lacie comforts herself.

She finally opens the door and gets inside. The moment she steps in, she can already feel a few people staring at her, but whatever. She walks into the building, and to the cashier to order.

"H-hello! Can I take your order?" Lacie can tell the cashier is nervous with all his stutters. The cashier is probably scared of Lacie, but she can tell he's trying his best not to let Lacie's 'aura' get into him.

"Um.. a chocolate eclair and a… strawberry milkshake, please?" The cashier seems to check up on the shelves.

"I-I'm sorry, but we're… out of both, actually…" The cashier looked at Lacie with a little bit of fear on his face as if she was going to eat her.

"Ah…" Expression indicating sadness creeps upon Lacie's face.

"I'll take a… hazelnut eclair and perhaps a cup of chocolate milkshake… if you have that?" Lacie ordered the same thing she ordered last time, but now with a cup of chocolate milkshake instead of water. Consuming one and a half liters of water last night to cure her dehydration doesn't really help that. The cashier nods at her order, then she proceeds to pay for it.

"Okay, one hazelnut eclair and a cup of chocolate milkshake coming up! P-please take a seat and we will bring it to you." The cashier replied.

Lacie picks a seat in the corner of the cafe, trying to place herself as far away as possible from other people. But alas, she still feels like she's being watched, that other people are staring at her and talking about her. Actually, the two people seated on her right are talking about her currently.

"Hey, isn't that the cursed kid people are talking about?" One girl said.

"I don't really know since I have never even seen her set foot at school…" says another girl.

"But she has this kind of strange aura around, like… dark energy or something. Yikes, those rumors about her being cursed might be true after all."

"Shush, quiet. I just saw her sitting near us."

"Oh, sorry."

"You know, it might be a bad omen to talk about that person like that. What if she curses us?"

"Hey, what a hypocrite. You just scolded me for talking about her."

"Hehe, sorry."

The girls who are talking about her are students of the school she's going to, or at least, used to go to. She hasn't been going to school for several months now. Her tendency to skip classes started in middle school when people started ignoring her due to her 'curse'.

She stopped eavesdropping after that point. It's starting to sting on her heart. Is her curse really gone? Maybe everyone lives with the information that 'Lacie is a cursed child' marked as a fact in their subconscious, and they can't accept the fact that her curse is now gone just because they are so used to thinking that Lacie is cursed, like a placebo effect. Or, what if her curse is not actually gone, and she's still cursed and she thinks that she's already cleansed? The latter makes more sense to her. She didn't even meet Red, her journey in that world is probably not yet finished. Yet, why did she decide to leave?

Before she knew it, tears began to drop from her eyes down to her cheeks. What's more embarrassing is that the moment tears begin to roll down her face, the waitress brought her order of hazelnut eclair and chocolate milkshake. The face on the waiter shows frowned eyebrows, that of irritation and resentment. The waitress put her order on her table hurriedly, then stormed off.

'I know these kinds of things happen to me a lot… but why can't I seem to get used to it?'

She didn't even get to finish her food that day.

When she gets home, Hiro greets her with enthusiasm, asking her how the trip to the cafe went.

"Lacie! Did it go well? Did you talk and make another new friend?" Her brother asked, stars brimming in his eyes. However, Lacie's gloomy expression and her reluctance to answer made it clear enough for him to understand.

"Oh, w-well it's okay, you can always try again. Do you want to talk about it?" He asks his concerns. Lacie shakes her head.

"Okay, then!" He said. Lacie then walks up to her bedroom, quickly took off her jacket and buries her own face in her pillow.

'First day of trying to go outside after the ritual, and it turned out no differently from usual.' Lacie starts to think that maybe, whatever her curse is still there. People still treated her no differently than it was before.

Lacie remembered Miss Knives blabbering about 'Lilith' and how she mistook her as this 'Lilith' when they first met and how she smelled like 'Lilith'. Lacie is not the smartest girl out there, but she knows from this fact that whoever this Lilith demon is… there's a high chance that she's the one who cursed her.

"But…. why?" She tells herself, her voice muffled by her pillow. What problem does that goddamn demon have with her that she uses up her once in a lifetime ability to curse someone which demons are only able to do at their dying breath, to an ordinary child from an ordinary family? How did Lilith even know about her? So many new questions emerged and are likely to remain unanswered.

She can feel drops of tears running down from her eyes, staining her cheeks with the salty water. For what reason did Lilith inflict this cure on her, if her deduction is even correct in the first place. Just… why? Did Lilith just saw her and said 'fuck this kid in particular'?

After a while (she didn't keep track of time), her eyes are getting heavier, and it gets difficult to keep her eyelids open. Before long, her eyes finally shut and she fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~

Everything around her is black, save for a bed which she is currently lying on, a weird rose-looking pattern with eyes around her bed, and the white platform with a door leading her to a memory that she probably would rather not relive.

'Huft, back to the Black Pass, I guess.' She gets up from the bed and started walking northward, to an open gateway with no doors. When she's sleeping, Lacie often finds herself in this place and she needs to go through one of the doors and relive a memory, which most of the time is painful just to go back to reality. There are two doors, one to her right side and one to her left side which are separated by a path in the middle to a monolith. The doors on the left side and the right side of the monolith's contents are the same, from what she had tried before.

'I tried opening it a few times before but… it never works.' She gets up from the bed and started walking northward, to an open gateway with no doors. When she's sleeping, Lacie often finds herself in this place and she needs to go through one of the doors and relive a memory, which most of the time is painful just to go back to reality. There are two doors, one to her right side and one to her left side which are separated by a path in the middle to a monolith.

'I tried opening it a few times before but… it never works.'

She decides to go to the door on her left. The doors on the left side and the right side of the monolith's contents are the same, from what she had tried before so it shouldn't really matter which ones she decided to go to. She takes a deep breath and then enters the door.

When she gets in, she looks back and finds that the door is now gone. It happened quite a few times before, but it never failed to give her a sense of fear and unease. She looks around, everything around her is straight up darkness. It's... kind of weird. Usually, she ends up in the classroom, her house, or somewhere else in the real world, but this is just straight up darkness, it's kind of disturbing.

She walks forward for one minute and found a drop of blood on the ground. Not far from it, another drop of blood that seems to be a trail guiding her somewhere. She follows the trail of blood and as expected, the frequency in which the blood appears gets more often. First, it's just a drop, then it's a few drops. After that, a pool of blood. After that, a few pools of blood. More and more blood everywhere. It feels so disgusting that Lacie feels she could throw up right now.

She starts walking again, and it turns out that the pools of blood aren't the worst or scariest thing she's going to see in this dream. No, far from it. A little bit further, she sees a beheaded figure. It's hard to make out who the person is, but that person has blonde hair similar to hers. She steps closer, and closer, and closer, step by step. After what seemed like forever, The decapitated head is now right in front of her. She uses her hand to move the head that's currently facing downward up so she can see its face, and…

That is a face she's not supposed to see.

"W-what?" Lacie gasps, her voice trembling.

That is not a face of someone she's supposed to see beheaded. Definitely not a face she's supposed to see here. No, not that she's not supposed to see it, she doesn't want to see it. She instantly feels nauseous, her stomach hurts, and her vision gets blurry. Soon after, her legs get shaky and it gets harder to keep her balance.

She falls down.

She attempts to stand up again to no avail. Her head hurts so much that she can't see straight without her vision getting blurry. Not that it matters, as not long after that, her vision also gets darker. However this time, it feels like something is covering her eyes, not that her retina fails to work properly.

Lacie coughs, powerless against whatever force is doing this to her.

"Always finding new places to hide from the world. Did you ever stop hiding, Lacie?"

"U-ugh, what do you… m-mea-"

A powerful force chokes her neck, partly blocking the airflow to and from her lungs, making it hard to breathe. It's getting painful. Just as she tries to gather air into her lungs, the invisible hand puts more force into choking her.

"You have been hiding for too long, Lacie. You killed him. You killed the only person who loved you. You ruined everything."

As the creepy female voice echoes in her head, her eyes get heavy. Slowly, she passes out from syncope, the lack of oxygen, and blood flow to the brain.

'It… hurts…'

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 2: 

Lacie’s eyes open, and what comes first into her vision is her dark room with nearly no lighting, except for the small ray of light coming from her slightly open curtain, which gives space for the photon emitted by the street lamps just outside her house to enter her room. The sound of her heavy breathing after waking up from that horrible nightmare fills the room. 

“Thank god… it was just a dream,” she said to herself. Nightmares are just normal occurrence to her, but this one in particular was more fear-inducing than usual. Most if not all of them were usually about her past experiences like getting bullied at school or her parents being negligent of her, but never about something that hadn’t already happened. Hiro is very much alive. He’s alive, he just cooked her food a couple of hours ago. Unless she has active schizophrenia, he should be very much alive and healthy. 

‘He’s alive… right? Unless I’m hallucinating…’ 

‘Wait. What if I’m actually hallucinating because of… whatever this curse is?’  

Once again, tears begin to drip down her face. She hopes that Hiro is still alive and healthy right now, but she can’t just stop thinking about the possibility. Every time she wakes up in the black pass, she’s forced to relive a painful memory from the past. It’s always a memory of things that have happened. The black pass never had her experience things not from her memory, based on her experience. But today, she witnessed her brother, lying down beheaded with a puddle of blood around his decapitated head, lifeless. If it is really from her memory… then… 

‘No, no, no, Lacie. He’s healthy. He was so kind to you just yesterday, right?’ She shuts her intrusive thoughts. Yes, her brother is very much alive and healthy. She just has to check on him to confirm. But not right now, it’s still very dark and she might disturb him if she decides to check on his room now. She just has to wait a few hours until sunrise, and one to two hours after that until he actually wakes up.

After what seemed like 2 to 3 hours, rays of light from the sun started illuminating Lacie’s room, penetrating the curtain. She takes a look at her digital clock and it shows 7:00 AM. Unlike Lacie who is mostly active during the night, Hiro is a morning person, sometimes waking up as early as 5:30. ‘Wait. Is it 5:30 or 6:00?’ She tries to recall his usual wake-up time with no success. Usually when she wakes up breakfast is ready by the dinner table. Lacie decides to get herself off of bed. 

‘Off to a good start of the day, I guess.’ She exits her room, walking to approach the stairs that lead downstairs. Across the stairs, the door to Hiro’s room lies. She has no recollection of ever entering this room. The door is usually closed whenever she passes by, and she respects her brother’s privacy. But whatever, she’s going downstairs to get breakfast. 

As the kitchen gets into Lacie’s vision, she sees that Hiro is not in the kitchen, and nothing is prepared at the table. Lacie isn’t some spoiled brat, so she decides to just cook up a cup of instant noodles. As she savors the salty taste of the broth and enjoys the silence, footsteps running down the stairs and a familiar voice calling out her name, bringing a smile to her face. 

“Lacieeee, good morning!” Hiro greets her with his usual enthusiasm. 

“Hiro, good morning. Did you just wake up?”

“Well yeah! But most importantly, did you get a good night sleep? My poor tiny sister should be all exhausted after the ritual, after all.” Ah, my sleep. Her sleep, especially with the nightmare she just experienced, was obviously not the best sleep she’s ever had. Added to the fact that the person she dreamt about is in front of her right now, just makes everything feel… not real. 

“Helloo~, earth to Lace? What’s bothering you? You’re zoning out a little there…” 

“Ah, sorry. What did you ask me again?” 

“Did you get a good sleep?” He asked her for the second time, to which she responded by shaking her head. 

“That’s… I understand how you feel. Do you want to talk about it? Do you want a hug?” She smiles at him and nods. Hiro then proceeds to wrap his arms around her, rubbing circles on her back. It feels comforting, although she can’t feel the physical warmth that is supposed to come from his body. 

“I had a nightmare… and you were in it. It was scary…” She says, one small drop of tear dropping down her face.

“Lace… just remember. The real Hiro will always be here for you, and the real Hiro loves you no matter what happens.” Hiro comforts her. 

“That’s comforting to hear. Thank you, Hiro.” Lacie lets out a sigh of relief.

“ If only you didn’t kill him for your selfish ritual… ” He speaks in a distorted voice.

His reply sends a shiver down her spine and goosebumps along the way. The expression on her face turns from what was a face of relief to fear in mere seconds. ‘ That is not the real him. ’ She escapes from his arms and pushes him back, making a run towards the stairs. She didn’t even care to turn back and take one look at him to confirm if that person is the real Hiro or not, if she was just hearing things or not. Her heart is beating so fast, her legs run shakily. As she’s running up the stairs, one of her feet trips on the staircase. She fails to regain her balance and hits her head first on the sharp end of the staircase. Letting out a groan of pain, Lacie tries to stand up again only to fall again because her mind is in a state of panic and she isn't able to keep her balance. With a futile mewl of cry for help, her vision gets darker and darker, before she closes her eyes. 

~~~

She opens her eyes and finds herself lying in a bed inside a dark space. She’s back to the Black Pass, the place where she re-experiences painful memories from her past. She gets up and starts to look for the gate to her nightmares. After walking up north for a few seconds, the gate is visible to her eyes, except that the gate is now suspiciously red instead of the usual white. It looks like something horror games would do to tell you that there will be a revelation of the truth or that there will be a final boss you have to fight, or maybe both until she gets in.

After she goes inside, the previously dark other end of the gate turns into her house, with minor differences in item placements that suggest that this memory is taking place a few years before the present, seeing as neither Lacie nor Hiro had rearranged the house since their parents left. It’s pretty dark, and candlelight can be seen illuminating the garage from the slightly opened door. There, she finds her younger self behind the door, peering inside the room. 

~~~ (Child Lacie’s POV)

It's midnight, and Lacie got up from the bed to get a bottle of cold water from the kitchen. As she goes down the stairs, she sees the door to the garage room, shooting a faint orange light probably emitted by candles. Is her father doing something there? Wait no. Her father is gone for the day for a business trip and it’s only Lacie, her mother, and Hiro who are in the house. Even so, why would they use candles instead of turning on the actual light? Lacie is now curious. She walks slowly to the door, peering from the small crack of the door left slightly open by whoever is in there. 

Inside, she sees Hiro, drawing something on the garage floor. He’s drawing a circle with a red paint. He’s drawing a symbol, one that Lacie recognizes from a horror movie she watched with her family to be a sigil of a demon. In the movie, the person draws a circle with their blood, lights candles to be put around the symbol, and casts a mantra to summon the demon. 

‘Is Hiro summoning a DEMON?’ He starts putting the lit candles around the circle and stands in the middle of the sigil. Not long after, he closes his eyes and casts a mantra.

“Lilith, I call upon your sacred name, empower me with your burning flame.”

She should be scared. In fact, she should’ve already left long ago, as staying for too long might mean that she’s interrupting his ritual. As he finishes saying the mantra, the garage becomes dark, the same with her vision not long after. She feels an ominous energy creeping up her feet, which slowly goes on to take over her body. 

~~~

The encounter with unconscious Lacie has been bugging Hiro’s mind ever since it happened. He was performing a ritual, and when he finishes, he finds Lacie’s unconscious body right in front of the door and notices that the garage door… is not closed. Which means, she was watching him do the ritual, and then knocked unconscious by the demon he was summoning, Lilith. The scary aura around her body confirms the fact that her being unconscious here was Lilith’s doing, and that somehow, Lilith had inflicted a curse upon her. 

Hiro just decided to carry Lacie’s body to her room, but the damage had already been done. What was she doing here? Did he forget to close the door? Why was she watching him? How did he not notice? He fears for the worst. He might have ruined Lacie’s life for eternity, and there is no going back. He couldn’t sleep thinking about it. The last time he checked back downstairs, she was still breathing which should be a relief, but he’s the type of person to consider every possibility and he just can’t help but think…

‘ What if I made her life worse than death?’ 

It’s 7 in the morning, and Hiro was preparing Lacie’s lunch when he heard his mother faint and fell straight to the floor. He instantly abandoned the bread he’s toasting right now to see what happened, and the expression on his face can be described as nothing more than pure horror. His mother laid down unconscious on the floor and to her right, Lilith stands with Her two horns and Her hair that extends to Her waist. Unlike last night (or more accurately this morning) when he summoned Her to the garage, right now She emits a bloodcurdling, fear-inducing aura that is akin to watching a horror movie, then feeling a hand grab on your shoulder when a jumpscare comes up.

“Hiro? P-please don’t tell me you’re going to faint just like mommy did.” He regains control of himself and the scary Lilith figure is now Lacie. Was he… hallucinating? Hopefully not. Her face expresses concern, and despair, fearing that the same thing that happened to her mother will happen to Hiro.

“Ah, Lacie… what happened to Mom?” 

“I don’t know… is Mommy mad at me? I know I woke up a little bit later than usual…” Guilt washed over himself. The aura around her body is horrifying and he can somewhat sense the presence of Lilith. He knows that this was his fault, for letting the door open, and for not making sure that everyone was already asleep when he performed the ritual. He understands if he was to get a curse inflicted on him because of his mistake, but strangely enough, he hasn’t been feeling anything that can be described as a curse. Instead, Lacie was the one who got cursed. She was innocent. An innocent 5 year old, getting cursed. He knelt down and hugged her tight, his tears staining Lacie’s white pyjama shirt with the cute cat motif. 

“No, Lacie. It’s not your fault. I’ll call the ambulance, and you go back to your room.” Him telling Lacie to go back to her room was not without reason. If he lets her wait for the ambulance with him, there’s a high chance that what happened to their mother will happen to the paramedic team. 

“But I want to…”

“Please.” Lacie does just as she's told.

The ambulance rushed the siblings’ mother to the ER. He felt bad for leaving Lacie behind at home while he himself accompanied his mother to the hospital, but that was probably for the best. As the news reaches his father, he calls off from his work trip to go back home, to take care of his wife. When he finally got into the hospital, he had asked him where Lacie was. Of course he was mad at him for leaving her home alone like that. He insisted that it was for the best, but couldn’t make himself up a good enough excuse to leave Lacie alone at home. 

The doctor couldn’t figure out the cause of his mother's fainting. Of course, science and the supernatural can’t coexist with one another, unless there has been new research indicating otherwise that he’s unaware of. It didn’t take long for her mother to gain her consciousness, and the car ride home from the hospital was filled with Hiro’s mother telling her husband about this ‘demon’ she encountered back in the morning. At first, of course he didn’t believe anything and told her that she might have been hallucinating and that she should rest and get more sleep, but Hiro knows that she wasn’t. It’s just a matter of time. 

~~~

Lacie told him that ever since that day, the number of people willing to talk to her plummeted drastically. Her teachers at school seemed hesitant to start a conversation with her and her friends started to make fun of her, calling her a curse child and other names. 

“Hiro… do you think I’m a cursed child?” The question stings his heart. 

“What’s with that question, Lacie? Of course not.” It hurts to lie. 

“Everyone is calling me cursed and all that stuff. Even mommy and daddy started hating me and are trying their hardest to stay away from me.” 

“You’re not… cursed, Lacie.” Despite his hardest effort to comfort her, the tears that are falling off his cheeks convey a different message to his sister. 

“Hiro…  please don’t cry. I know how hard you’re trying to put up with my curse. Everything is my fault…” 

Being told that by the person he indirectly cursed further feeds into his agonizing guilt. Lacie would have to know this fact someday, but it’s definitely not today. Not to belittle her, but she’s not yet ready for it. In his heart, he wants to let it all out, tell her the truth and cry. Or if he can’t tell her, he wants to be able to tell someone else. Maybe her parents, or his friends, letting it all out and just cry on their shoulder. But he knows he can’t. 

~~~

“Take care of your sister, Hiro. we’ll be out for a few days. I put some leftovers and frozen meals in the freezer and here’s a little bit of money just in case you two need anything else. We love you, Hiro!” His mother says to him as his father impatiently drags her to the car. This is not the first time that the siblings’ parents leave them by themselves in the house while the couple goes off somewhere he doesn’t know, and Hiro already knew that they want to stay away from Lacie. It’s been like this since the weird, ominous cloud formed around her. At first they only left for the entire day, leaving in the morning after breakfast and coming back late at night, and then they started to leave for 2 days, 3 days, and even more. 

Thank God it’s Sunday, and neither he nor his sister have school to attend. Just right as his parents’ car starts moving, Lacie tugs his shirt, her hair looking all messy. 

“Are they leaving again?” 

“Yes.” Hiro nods.

“Ah, okay,” Lacie replies, and for some reason Hiro can see a smile forming on Lacie’s lips. 

“You don’t have school today, right?” 

“I don’t want to go there anymore. I’m scared…” Lacie hasn’t been going to school for the last few days for obvious reasons, and the school administration seemingly did not care a single bit about that. 

“It’s okay, Lacie. Let’s eat breakfast. I made chicken porridge for us.” Lacie’s face lights up a little bit, putting a smile on his face.

“Sure! Also, do we have any raw meat left?” Hiro is perplexed by this question, but still anwered it by pointing at the freezer.

“We have chicken breasts, why?” 

“Oh, nothing.” 

The siblings ate their meal happily, and the day passed as usual.

As the skies turn orange. Lacie comes up to him with a weird request.

“Hiro, do you want to play hide and seek?” 

“What?”

“Hide and seek.” 

“A weird request. Why do you suddenly want to play hide and seek?” 

“Do you not want to?”

“Ah… no, I don’t mind playing hide and seek with you.” He decides not to question his sister’s request. Although it is weird, it is harmless. 

~~~ ( Lilith Lacie’s POV)

_____ Ritual. What you’ll need:

Candles,

a knife,

a chunk of meat,

a hiding place, 

an accomplice, 

a victim.

“Candles, done. A knife, done. A chunk of meat, I have it. A hiding place… let’s hope he hides in the closet. The victim… me. The accomplice… of course, it’s gonna be him. Let’s just hope that he hides inside the closet…  Great. I’ll just prepare the ritual while he’s hiding.“

After persuading her brother, the hide and seek game finally starts. Hiro will be the one hiding, and Lacie will be the one seeking. 

“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…” 

“64, 65, 66. Ready or not, Here I come~” Lacie begins her ‘search’ for Hiro. The first place she checks is the fridge. She takes a piece of chicken breast and closes the fridge. The ritual only require one piece of meat, and she’s not going to be greedy. The next thing on the list is a knife. Fortunately, the knife was lying around just by the kitchen counter. With two items off the list, the last thing she needed for the ritual is the candle. She puts the knife and chunk of meat in the empty room upstairs and follows it up by getting the candles from her parent's room. Now, it’s time to set up the ritual.

Lacie sees herself setting up a ritual and summoning a demon, but she can’t seem to see clearly, and now, she sees herself hiding in a closet.

She patiently waits. She finished setting up the ritual, and the demon could come any second now. As long as he doesn’t ruin the ritual, it’s going to be safe. 

“Lacie, did you turn off the lights?” Oh no. 

“Hey, Lacie? Where are you? This is not funny…” 

“Lacie, is that you?”

“No, no, no… you’re not Lacie… GET AWAY FROM ME!” He screamed that line to whoever figure he’s talking to. Lacie feels bad for him, but at the same time, this is what her instincts told her to. This was what her 'curse' told her to do if she wants to get rid of it, which the process should be going flawlessly if not for the fact that he left his station, his hiding place. 

Her closet door creaks open, and from the closet emerges Lilith Lacie. She slowly lurks around the house, on the hunt for his brother. 

Everything is his fault. If he didn’t worship demons and perform rituals in the middle of the night, she wouldn’t have been cursed. It told her in her dream. 

If she prepares candles, a knife, a chunk of meat, a hiding place, an accomplice, and a victim, prepares ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ in such a way, then both the accomplice and the victim hide for ▇▇ minutes, her curse will be lifted and she can live happily ever after. Leaving the hiding place before ▇▇ minutes had passed will result in punishment, and if she finds that her accomplice broke out of their hiding place before the designated time, she will, and she has to take any means necessary to put the person black into their hiding place.

Which is what she’s doing currently, with the knife in her pocket that she decided to store in her pocket after finishing the ritual preparation. 

‘I’ll just knock him out, and it’s gonna be fine.’

“Hiro, are you there?” She calls out to him. 

“Lacie! I know you’re there! Why did it get dark so suddenly?” He called back to her with a shout. Thanks to her high sense of hearing, she’s able to deduce his location, that being upstairs. She rushes upstairs and sees that the door to the empty room next to Hiro’s room is open. She takes a quick glance, and gets in to see Hiro, standing there, mortified staring at the shadowy, black figure of a demon with blue sclera and red eyeballs. 

“You’re here, Lacie?” She glanced at Hiro, then the black figure. 

“Hiro, I’m sorry. It’s for the ritual.” 

She pulled out her knife, pointing it at Hiro. Hiro, being clueless as to what is happening, takes a few steps back with fear in his eyes.

“Ritual?” 

“Yes, I’m sorry, Hiro.”

~~~

Lacie wakes up on the stairs, the same place she fell unconscious before, to the usual darkness of the night. After clearing up her mind and remembering what had happened to her, she remembers everything.

The dream. The childhood memories, locked away in her subconscious. Lacie’s curiosity was the thing that led to her curse. It’s not completely her fault that she was cursed, but it was her fault that her brother… died?

‘Wait. Did I really… kill him?’

She connects the dots. She got cursed, and everyone started bullying her except Hiro. Some time passed, she started doing rituals carrying the small hope that she would be cured but instead, the black cloud around her got more creepy, and everyone started hating her even more for that. In the middle of performing one of those rituals, she killed her own brother. 

She climbs upstairs and finds the right side door open. As she takes a few steps closer to the room, a pair of hands touch her shoulders and push her slowly to the room as if it’s guiding her in there. Inside the room, she couldn’t really see anything other than the darkness blanketing her eyes, which forced her to rely on her hearing. 

Lacie’s already creepy surroundings get creepier when she steps on what feels like bones. 

“Is that… bones…?” 

“Yes, Lacie. And you know whose bone it is.” An unexpected voice answered her rhetorical question directed at no one. The hands start wandering from her shoulder to her neck, which earned Lacie’s desperate thrashing. Looking at her futile attempt to run away, the demon released her grip on Lacie. 

However, Lacie doesn’t run away. She can’t. 

“Run away, Lacie. I have let you go already.” 

“No… I…”

“What? Finish your sentence properly.”

“Just… Who in the world are you? Lilith? Why did you do this to us…”

“Do you want to know?” 

No response came out from Lacie other than her sobbing.

“First of all, your brother did not adhere to the rules of the rituals. I have no reason to forgive those who seek my blessings, yet they can’t even obey simple ritual rules. Second of all, I need your body.” 

Lacie puts her hands on her mouth as a response.

“I have died, in a time I have no business disclosing to you. My world hated me. Someday, they decided to publicly execute me, chopping off my hands in the process. After that time, I roam aimlessly around the demon world, the human world, and in places between thanks to a certain person.” 

“You should’ve died a long time ago…” Lacie punches into the darkness, earning a laugh from Lilith.

“Yes, I should have. I did die. I cursed everyone who talks of me one thousand years of misfortune. I was also dead, until a saint revived my soul. He taught me about souls, his research of souls, whether the souls of humans or demons. You know what’s more fascinating about him, he’s a human. Also, this is just a trivia but I believe he had created a demon capable of inflicting curses without any consequences, where almost all demons are only able to inflict them on their dying breath.”

“A… human?”

“Yes. While I do not remember his name, I remember his obsession with the color red. When he revived me, I woke up with only my soul and no physical body. As time passed, I learned that I could take over a human’s body. More specifically, a witch’s body.” Hearing what the demon said, Lacie questions herself ‘Is that what she wants to do to me?’

“Were you wondering why I told you that? Simple. You may give up your soul to me, and I will take over your body. It’s a win-win situation, as humans call it. I get to have a physical body, and you will be free from your sufferings.” Lilith offered her a deal. 

“No… no.” Lacie’s voice came out shaky.

“I’m not going to terrorize your family, or anyone you know for that matter. Now if you just relax…” Lilith holds her hands. Lacie understandably pulls away and runs despite Lilith’s hands gently touching hers. Lacie rushes outside the room, making a run for the front door just to learn all her efforts mean nothing.

“Where are you going, Lacie?” Suddenly, her ankle twists causing her to fall from the second story of her house. 

“You know you can’t hide or run away forever.” The voice of Lilith continues talking. 

“No… I know better than to give up…” Her cries echo around the house. 

“So you’re going to continue being a burden to him? Why? You already ruined his life by being cursed. There’s nothing he could ever want more than for you to die and release him from his struggles of taking care of you, right?” It pains Lacie to know all of these things are true. However, even if that’s the case… he’s already dead, right? 

“I’m not a… witch…” Lacie’s shaky voice escapes her lips. 

“You’re a witch. I mean, people who do rituals are witches, no?”

“No…”

“Yes. Now, I’ll end everything.” 

“N.. no..” Lacie’s attempt to stand up failed. Her feet hurt, and her entire body is exhausted of its energy, both physically and mentally. As her body is succumbing to the pull of Earth’s gravity, Lilith’s hands prevent it from happening. Lilith traces her hands from Lacie’s shoulders to Lacie’s hands, intertwining both of her hands with Lacie’s. 

“Thank you. This is what I need, a witch’s heart.” 

Her eyes get heavier and heavier, before it's finally closed for good. As her eyes close, she remembers a line Hiro had said to her in the past, that being ‘A witch’s heart can grant any wishes’. She the witch.