At the sound of her mother's body crashing against the floor Serana turned back in a hurry only to see her benefactor standing over her mother's body like a maleficent angel.
She was dressed in simplistic clothes and had her short hair up in an even simpler hair style but the contorted expression on her face as she glared down at the hateful old woman was enough to transform them into the likeness of the armor of a bloodthirsty Valkyrie.
At first Serana was horrified as she saw the motionless body of her mother and was almost startled into screaming but as her eyes scanned further she saw the quick but shallow breathing of her mother and more importantly the large bottle still tightly grasped in her hands.
Blood drained from her face as she put together what happened and could only watch in shock as she watched her benefactor once again come to her rescue.
Meanwhile Cerin was angry. Incredibly so, and expressed it through her actions. The old woman trembled under her foot as it slowly applied pressure on her already weakened ribs.
The old woman was actually only in her late forties and should have been able to withstand such a hit even if she couldn't return it as Cerin had intentionally lightened her blow so she wouldn't become a murderer but because of her repeated substance abuse and lack of self care her bones were as brittle as that of a seventy year old woman and her organs could barely sustain themselves never mind defend themselves.
Speaking in a cold and intolerant tone Cerin talked down to the old woman.
" I seem to clearly remember telling you what would happen to you if our paths ever happened to cross once again did I not?"
She increased the pressure from her foot until the old woman was seconds away from screaming murder and waited for a response. The old woman squirmed under the pressure on her ribs.
" That whore was the one who came here! I didn't go see her like you said! Why would I go seek out that whore anyways? All she ever did was ruin my life!"
" and the bottle?"
Her tone was dead calm as opposed to the old woman's screeching but that only served to make her even more threatening.
" I was just holding it! She made me mad so I thought about it, but I wasn't actually going to throw it at her! At most it would have hit the door frame. Besides even if i'd missed it's not like she would have died or anything! I've certainly done worse in the past and she's still fine isn't she?"
Cerin slowly listened to the pathetic excuses of the old lady and didn't respond for a little while. Finally she crouched down, without bothering to move her foot and wrested the bottle above the old woman's head and under her fearful gaze weighted it in her hands with frightening experience.
After she had passed it between both hands a few times she firmly grasped it in her right palm and raised it high above her head, obviously poised to strike down.
The old woman began to scream like she was being murdered, but like Cerin had mentioned before, no one could hear her in her pathetic excuse of a home, and even if someone could, no one would care enough to come and help her out.
" what are you doing! Are you trying to kill me! This is murder! Murder!"
Cerin looked down on her with that same scary dead expression that she had put on out of anger.
" I thought you said that such a thing couldn't kill anyone? If getting hit by such a thing won't kill then you have nothing to fear correct?"
The conversational tone she used was so strikingly in-congruent with her violent personage that it managed to snap Serana out of her daze and rushed forwards to grab Cerin's arm.
" Benefa- Cerin! Don't! Please!"
Cerin slowly turned to the side to see Serena, who had finally gained back quite a bit of weight and muscle and looked just short of what a seven month pregnant lady should look like and was only made angrier.
She set her dead eyes on Serana and the pregnant woman felt a cold shiver run down her sine even though she knew that the only reason that Cerin was like this was on her behalf.
" You wish to spare her? Do you realize what could have happened if I hadn't gotten here in time? And don't think i'm happy with you either! If not for that child in your stomach do you believe that I would have beaten some sense into you?! If not for yourself then for the child and for Ryella why don't you seem to care about your own health and safety?! Why would you come here by yourself?!"
Finally Cerin ditched the ice cold air she had taken on and had moved on to the more familiar fiery rage as she yelled at Serana for the first time ever.
At first Serana was shocked as she saw the young girl raise her voice for the first time ever even if it was in anger at her but then she was filled with a warmth from the bottom as her heart as she realized that this had only happened from concern on her behalf.
Using all of the strength that she could muster she pulled Cerin off the old lady who quickly curled into a silent defensive ball on the floor and began to speak in a sincere and incredibly grateful tone.
" Cerin. That enough, thank you. I know that i was irresponsible and I'll take whatever lectures you want to give me but don't wreck your life on my behalf. Even though my mother is such a character she's still my mother at the end of the day. While i don't want to live with her i don't want to watch her die either….please."
At Serana's sincere tone Cerin finally regained some of her sanity and reluctantly let herself be pulled away. Having realized that the imminent danger was done with the old woman slowly unfurled herself and for a moment looked so much like a rodent that Serana burst into minor giggles but she didn't comment and simply picked up her stuff and left.
Cerin took the other half of the things packed and walked out to the car with the older woman that looked refreshed, despite the precarious scenario she was just in,
Serana got into the front of the car and started up the engine intending to leave right away btu was stopped by Cerin who said that she had forgotten something important in the house.
She was a bit skeptical because of the absolute lack of panic that usually came on people's faces when they realized they had lost an important possession but still stalled the car and waited.
Meanwhile inside the house the old woman sat in her corner, grinding up a certain white substance and muttering to herself.
" That whore.. And the one that took her in. I'll get them back soon. How dare they- they think they can look down on me just because they live in a better place?! They don't even know what I've been through-"
Suddenly a harsh blunt sound echoed in her ear followed by the dull shattering of thick glass breaking.
Her stiff neck slowly turned to look at the dent in the wall, not even four centimeters away from her and a tall and lean shadow covered her figure from the doorway. She registered the cool aura before she registered the figure itself that looked at her with total repulsion.
The old woman began to sputter,
" What do you think you were doing?! What if that had hit me! Do you think i wouldn't sue?!"
Cerin only looked at the pathetic old woman that screamed so aggressively but somehow didn't dare to move an inch from her hunched over position on the floor. Cerin shrugged her delicate shoulders and said in an incredibly mocking tone.
" But it didn't hit you right? Doesn't that make it okay? And no, I don't think you would dare to sue. After all I've got so much on you that I could lock you away for however long you have left on this earth."
The young girl slowly began to stalk towards the old woman as she spoke her last words, forcing her old body further and further into the corner, as if it were her last safe haven.
" It seems like my last instructions were unclear so I'll reiterate them. I don't care if Serana or even Ryella approached you first. The second i find out that you were so much as in the same neighborhood as either of them i'll first beat you up so bad you won't be able to testify who did it. Then I'll lock you in the same cell as your beloved husband and let you tell him all about how you've treated his daughter and grandchild and what you did with the money he went back to jail for so he could give it to Serana to raise her child."
" H-How did you know! And what do you know? Can you believe that after leaving me for so long! He decided to go back to jail for that whore of a child! What was I supposed to do?! I married young so I didn't have an education and all he left was a pittance that I could only access in the name of my daughter! Did he expect me to starve on her behalf?!"
The longer she talked the more disgusted Cerin was and she finally snapped and threw another bottle, this time right above the old woman's head and a few pieces of glass made themselves a home in her hair.
" I. Don't. Care. Just stay away from Serana and her family from now on and if anything happened to them..anything at all. You're the first one i'm coming for,"
And then after that domineering line, Cerin removed a cheaply made but brightly colored looking bracelet that she had received as a gift from Ryella earlier from her pocket and dread it around her slender wrists in a complicated pattern then went back to the car with a smile that showed nothing of what she had just done.