A few minutes later Veronica woke up to Alex trying to free her hand. She felt very tired, but the amount of pain that was assaulting her body, chased the exhaustion away.
Looking at Alex, he was shouting something at her, but her deafness still persisted and her sight was swimming with colors. After a few seconds she finally managed to read his lips...
"I can't pry her hands open alone!" He said soundlessly.
Suddenly Veronica remembered the hand grasping her broken arm and with that another source of pain attacked her already suffering body. Using her left arm and with the help of Alex they managed to pry the hand free.
Her arm was mangled and barely hanging on by a few muscles. She could she the bone fragments poking out of her skin. Seeing her arm like that caused a lot of panic and nausea to appear inside her, but before she could've done anything, Alex pulled out something from his pocket.
It seemed like a small vial of a clear liquid. He didn't ask for any permission, just broke the top of the vial and poured the contents straight into Veronica's mouth.
The whole thing happened so fast that she didn't even have time to protest. The liquid went down her throat. She felt it burn as it entered her body and when it was in her stomach the pain that was already near unbearable got even worse.
She screamed and was surprised to hear her own voice. It sounded far away, like it was in another room.
Her eyes went back to the mangled arm and was surprised to find it better. It was still broken into pieces, but it wasn't hanging by a few strand of muscles. The laceration on her stomach got fixed as well, same as her shoulder.
"Don't just sit there! We need to leave!... NOW!" The shout was still a bit quiet, but she quickly recognized it as Alex's voice.
She felt really confused not fully understanding what was happening. Looking around she saw the cut and burnt corpses that were hanging on the attic's roof, with that the memories slowly returned.
Next her vision travelled below her, where she fully expected a large demonic corpse to be lying dead... Instead it was just a woman.
She was even smaller than Veronica in height, very unlike the two and a half meter tall demon.
Her hair seemed to be red at first sight, but Veronica quickly noticed the real color beneath, which was black. The woman seemed above average in looks and also kind of familiar, like she saw her somewhere before.
She was also mostly naked with some fragments of clothing hanging onto her corpse. It seemed like when she transformed her clothing got ripped to shreds. There was about half a dozen bullet holes on her and her right eye was a bloody mess.
Veronica quickly jumped up and backed away from the corpse, her eyes never leaving it.
Realizing that they wouldn't leave until Veronica got her emotions straight, Alex stood in front of her and grabbed her broken arm firmly. This caused a large wave of pain in Veronica and with a small yelp she moved into a defensive position.
"We need to go!... The police are already nearby!" This time his voice sounded crystal clear, still not perfect, but much better.
She glanced at the body again, but in the next moment she suppressed any emotion that tried to took hold of her already fragile mind.
There were tears streaming down her face, but she didn't dare acknowledge them since that could lead to a break down. She gave a small, not very convincing nod to Alex and in the next moment they were running towards the large opening in the roof.
On the way Veronica saw something in the corner of her eyes.
The room was in shambled, there wasn't a single object left undisturbed and even the walls and floor had suffered a lot of damage. Her eyes looked at the wall on the right and then she saw something behind a broken board.
As Alex was about to jump down he looked back just in time to see Veronica run to the side. He was going to shout at her to get back here, but then he noticed the object she was carrying.
It seemed like an ordinary book at first sight and Alex had no idea where Veronica had grabbed it from, but one thing was sure, they had no time for questions.
Veronica shoved the book under her arm and they both jumped down the roof. They then ran to a nearby alleyway and didn't stop until they reached the inn.
...
It was already way past closing hour when Veronica and Alex finally arrived. Suze was pacing around the main room, while James was trying to calm her down desperately.
When they stepped through the main door, the married couple just looked at them in pure disbelief.
For a moment Veronica was confused why they stared at her with terror, but then she looked down at herself and remembered how awful she looked.
Her nice light brown dress was covered in blood, soot, vomit, dust and many other different disgusting substance. It was also full of holes, especially the stomach area. The right arm of the dress was also fully gone.
Her feet were bare too. At some point in the fighting she had lost her shoes without noticing.
Luckily the skin on her feet gotten much stronger and she could run on rough terrain without hurting herself. It was only a little bit uncomfortable, mostly because of the cold.
The wounds on her body were already healed, even her arm. On the way she asked Alex what the liquid he gave her was. He said it was a healing potion, a very potent one at that.
"What the hell did you do?! I thought you are only going to look for the murderer's house!" Shouted Suze, but both Veronica and Alex were to tired to really care.
"Well... We definitely found it." Whispered Veronica and Alex began dying of laughter. The joke wasn't really funny, but he was just too exhausted and the whole scenario was ridiculous.
Suze on the other hand didn't appreciate that remark at all. Her whole head turned red. She stepped forward and grabbed onto one of Veronica's ears. Even her ascended reflexes couldn't react to a mother's anger.
She pulled on it hard and shouted straight into her healed ear canal.
"You, young lady stink! You will take a bath and go to your room!" Veronica was yelping in pain as Suze dragged her along the house and into the bathroom.
There was already water prepared there for the morning, but it wasn't heated yet. Without any ceremony she teared off Veronica's disgusting clothes and pointed at the bath.
With a sigh Veronica stepped inside and gasped from the cold. Slowly, with her trembling body, she descended into the bath. The water already looked revolting, and the cleaning has only just begun.
One thing neither Veronica or Suze was prepared for, is that the moment her body got even a little bit comfortable, she passed out from exhaustion right in the bath.
Suze watched this all sadly. Her previous anger was fully faked, mostly to hide the fact that she was really worried about Veronica. For a moment when they haven't returned, Suze thought that she lost her!
Veronica was still very inexperienced, but was already getting herself in so much danger. Her eyes went to the large stack of nauseating clothes, and her eyes spotted something hidden within.
It was a book, seemingly normal at first sight. Suze didn't dare to look inside. One thing she knew that you should never open random books and read what's in them. The knowledge hidden within could be dangerous!
Her eyes went to Veronica again and with a sigh she began to clean the many different substances off of her body.
While she was cleaning, James and Alex were talking about what happened. Alex quickly retold everything Veronica had said, which caused James's eyes to widen from surprise. On his face a small proud smile appeared, but when Alex began staring at him, he quickly made it disappear.
Eventually Suze called to help get Veronica back to her room since she was fully unconscious.
After getting her dressed in a nightgown, Suze tucked her in bed and left the room.
She gave the strange book to Alex, who said that he won't open it until Veronica awakes since she was the one who found it. Suze just shrugged, then went away to clean the bathroom.
She made sure to burn all those remnant clothes and everything that could used to track them back here via divination. Luckily Veronica's watch should've protected both her and Alex against anyone, but the police still had tracking dogs and such. There were many different regular ways of tracking and Suze didn't want anyone snooping around her home.
When she was finally done with the cleaning, James was already asleep. She climbed inside the bed next to him, then proceeded to stare at the ceiling for the next hour.
From her eyes tears flowed. Her heart was still beating faster than usual, like her blood was full of adrenaline.
When Veronica stepped inside looking all bloody and half dead, her heart nearly stopped.
Seeing her like that scared Suze more than anything. For a second she thought that Veronica had died and it was only her corpse walking. At that moment she felt like a small piece of her soul shattered.
She didn't know what the future entailed, but she was terrified. If anything happened to Veronica she didn't know if she could process it. The feeling was the same for the rest of her family, if she lost anyone that would possibly be the end of her.
With these thoughts and with a lot of fear in her heart, Suze cried herself to sleep.