For a moment, Lilith wasn't sure if she was still even standing as the shrill voice of the people running and shouting in fright rang all around the place. Chairs and tables scraped on the wooden floor as all the diners shot out of their seats, trying to stay clear at the spill of red. Lilith herself was stuck motionless, her gaze locked on the man holding the machete, his eyes still burning with obvious anger. As he was about to raise his weapon again, four or five men quickly ran towards him and hold him down.
"My wife?!" the man spitted in fury, his face red as he tried to escape the hold he was in. "For how long are you two doing it, huh?! I work my ass half to death, and then I find you--!" He growled as she tried to jump to the bleeding man again, the people staying out of his target in fear of getting involved.
"My children-! Or are they yours right from the beginning, huh?! You fucking asshole!"
The owner's wife then came down after hearing the racket. When she saw her husband bleeding on the floor, she shrieked in fright as she ran towards him.
"I should kill you! I should kill both of you!" the man continued to scream. Two more people helped in keeping him down.
The restaurant was in a frenzy as people ran and enter, moving around in all direction. Still in shock, Lilith didn't notice that she was already pushed outside by the moving crowd until Henry gripped her by the arm and pulled her away from the traffic.
"Lilith! Are you alright?! Hey, come on blink!" Henry called to her as he shook her out of her stupor. Lilith's awareness was slow to come back to her, so Henry pulled the two of them farther away from people. He looked around and noticed that they're missing someone. "Where's that other girl?"
That got Lilith back to the present. She scanned around them trying to spot a flash of white dress or blond hair, but the thickening crowd made it almost impossible to look. "Aurora? Aurora!"
"She didn't get caught up by that mob, did she?" Henry said as he, too, scanned around. "I can't see her with this people--whoa, hey!" He called as Lilith ran back to the building. He tried to follow, but the people pushing around slowed his steps, now making him lose sight of her, as well.
Lilith slipped inside and tried to stuck close to the wall. She need to get to a higher place so she could spot Aurora easier. She grabbed a nearby chair and put it on top of the table. Making sure thar she's balanced, she then climbed on top of the chair.
Incidentally, she was in direct line to the source of chaos. They had managed to tie the enraged man down as a few people tried to help the bleeding gasping owner. His wife, face pale and looking lost, was kneeling near his side, eyes darting from his foot, to the injury, then to his face repeatedly. Her hands was coated in red blood, and when she noticed that fact, her face turned into an even paler shade.
Lilith herself felt her body getting cold at the scene. She pulled her gaze away and decided to climb back down, but before her foot touched the floor, a strong hand grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her to the side.
"What are you doing here?!" Sol shouted through the noise. "We've been looking for you everywhere!" He looked at the commotion and pursed his lips. "Come on, we have to go and--"
"It's the Solerna! The family Solerna's here!" Someone shouted from the crowd. Now, every eyes were directed towards the two cousin.
"Yes!" the tied man shouted. "If there's anyone who can clear this, it's the family Solerna! They will bring verdict without any biases!"
Murmurs of agreement rang all around them. Yes, who would better to judge the true sinner than the protector of their town for many gerenation? They called to them, shuffling to where the two members of family Solerna were standing. Lilith took a step back, feeling like a mouse being caged by giant predators.
"Come on!" Sol pulled her from her place near the wall towards the door, and the two of them ran fast until they reached the gates.
"What in the world is going on!" Aula practically roared as the two burst to the door. "Lilith! What have you been doing all this time, making us look around!"
"There's a riot down in town," Sol quickly intervened. "The owner of that restaurant down the left street was slashed. They're trying to pin the attacker down. They want us to mediate and judge."
The adults gasped, Lilith's mother paling. Annette walked towards Lilith silently and observed how the girl was slightly shaking.
"Did you see that happened, Lilith?"
The girl swallowed and nodded slowly.
The matriarch hummed. "So, did you brought Aurora there, as well?"
This time, most of the family took a sharp inhale, Lilith's gaze shooting up to look at her grandmother. "You. . . you know about her, too?"
"Hmm, yes," the woman hummed again. "I was quite concern when I realize that her room was empty when I came to visit her earlier."
Lilith pulled her gaze back down again. So it was her grandmother who they saw earlier?
But, unlike what she initially thought when her family found out that she sneaked Aurora out, Annette merely sighed in dissapontment and shook her head. "Stupid girl. You should have come to us first before doing such rash things, and now you got yourself in this mess."
"But. . ." Lilith stopped. How can I even talk to you when you've kept Aurora's existence for most of her life?
"You should have thought things through before you go about without any plans. Tell me, dear, have you been aware of Aurora's magical gift?"
"N-no. She didn't get a chance to tell me."
Something shifted in Annette's eyes as she stepped closer to her, but Lilith refused to think deeply into it, refusing to acknowledge the malicious glint that passed through them in a second.
"There was a reason why we keep her down in the house, Lilith." She reached and tucked a stray strand of Lilith's hair and patted her in the head. "You see, Aurora was given the Sight of Karma."
"Sight of. . . Karma?"
"It is the ability to see certain future events," her grandmother explained. "When the situation meets the requirements demanded by her gift, Aurora could see one's incoming premonition come to life."
"The ability to see. . . the future?" Lilith repeated, feeling a little lost.
"She's a harbinger of misfortune, Lilith." And Lilith couldn't help the flinch after hearing such cold word from her grandmother, even it was not directed at her. "Your sister Aurora has the ability to see the tragedies that would fall to other people. And often, they will end in death."
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Author's Note: feeling a little tired today, ooof. Hope this chapter ends okay, I'm a little sleepy when I'm typing this haha, so if there's more technical mistakes here than usual then I'm really sorry.
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