After watching Monika leave, the two stood atop the stairs as the owner called out. His face was a mix of anger and distress, and he immediately rushed towards a bucket and released whatever was left in his stomach, which, by the sounds alone, seemed to be nothing.
Ashley grabbed Ansel's hand and clutched it tightly. She wanted to avoid Cypress at any possible chance she could be able to. She could never forgive his actions from the night before. Even if he was drunk when he walked into the kitchen, there were lines that should never have been crossed, and he crossed them.
Just after Ansel and Ashley arrived at the tavern by sneaking in from the back, Cypress stumbled into the kitchen. While the way he moved should have given it away, the odor that followed only confirmed that he was drunk beyond compare.
He was aware of Ansel's presence in the corner and approached Ashley with eyes that a man should never have for his daughter, adopted or not. Lusty eyes and heavy breathing were the few things that she vividly remembers. He kept muttering a name that Ashley was all too familiar with: Lorry. Tears were down the corner of his eyes as he wept, claiming that she had returned and that he was happy she was waiting for him in the kitchen.
The only thing that Ashley could make believe gave him this disillusioned thought was that she was standing in the middle of the room, leaning against the table with part of her skin showing due to her not closing Ansel's jacket all the way. While she was willing to write it off as nothing more than a drunk man's actions, he went too far. He tried to undress her, but fortunately for Ashley, Ansel stepped in and grabbed her by the wrist.
Fast forward back to now as Ashley glared at Cypress. He turned around and looked at her. Regret that was all he showed now. She would never accept it if he begged on his knees for forgiveness. Sensing her thoughts, Cypress turned with a heavy step as he sat at a nearby table.
Ansel led Ashley down the stairs, acting as a buffer between them. She was happy that he was there, but something about his behavior felt off. He seemed on edge after watching Monika leave.
"Since when have you been buddy-buddy with new people, Ashley?" Cypress spoke with his head lying in his arms on the table.
Even after what happened, he still tries to act like her father. Despite what had just happened, his voice was filled with a half-ass attempt at authority. It churns her stomach to see him just play it off. Ashley had heard the rumors that Cypress was madly in love with her mother to the point where others called it an obsession. Seeing the way he was last night, maybe that's why he offered to take them in after losing their parents. He wanted her to grow up as a replacement for the void in his heart. His lewd thoughts are the only proof she has of that claim, but at this point, she would not be surprised.
"Why the hell do you need to know who I hang out with? You perverted, molesting creep?" Cypress's eyes widen in surprise. Despite her ongoing hate towards the man, she had never once let it show. She hid her distrust under a veil of fake smiles, but now she could not even force a fake one towards the man who looked at her with eyes filled with regret and stained from the tears he cried.
"Heh, looks like they were right about you, Ansel," Cypress turned towards Ansel. His voice lost all its weight and lingered in the tense air around them. Ansel turned his head to avoid looking at the pathetic man sitting at the table with a bucket filled with vomit mixed with food and alcohol. "You really are a bad Omen, bringing nothing but disaster with you."
"What can I say…" Ansel finally spoke, but even he refused to look Cypress in the eyes. "You did this to yourself. But I suppose I truly am a bringer of bad luck." Ashley noticed he clenched his fists tightly behind his back. "I can't say I relate to you, but I can understand your thoughts and feelings."
"How can you-"
"That girl you just saw leave the tavern. She is my adopted daughter. While currently it's hard to believe, but she once hated me with all of her guts. So I can understand how it feels to be hated by someone what you wanted nothing more than to give the world to. But you…you caused the downfall yourself. That is what happens when you let your sins bottle up for so long."
Sins? Ashley looked at Ansel when he said that. His face was showing nothing more than a loneliness with regret. He seemed to be lost in thought about something as he spoke to Cypress. She wanted to ask him more about what he meant but felt a slight tug on her sleeve. It was as if Ansel was telling her to not ask him. He then motioned towards Cypress.
Ashley took a deep breath. It was clear what he was trying to get her to do, but she wanted to know why he was trying to help Cypress. If anything, she wanted him to die in a pit of loneliness caused by the alcohol he consumed.
"Cypress," Ashley spoke with a bitter coldness that caused Cypress to tense up. "What is he talking about? What sins is he referring to?"
"Heh…Ansel, you truly are a curse to me. Sicking my daughter to dig into the past that you already know of. Or was that the reason you have yet to tell her? You wanted to watch me break and sit there and laugh."
"You made a deal with an angel, didn't you?" Ignoring his attempt at keeping his loosely-held pride together, Ansel asked a question of his own. Cypress grew silent. His eyes widened with a small hope that he had lost. He looked down with a frown. His eyes were glued to the table, lost in thought. His lips quivered as if he were trying to speak the words, and he refused to leave. "Man, you are a pain… We'll come back later for your answer." Cypress looked up in curiosity at Ansel was not pushing any harder. "You better have your act together."
"Wait, we are just gonna leave? What was the point in having me ask that question about his sins?" Ashley voiced her concerns, but Ansel ignored them and forcefully dragged her out of the tavern. "Hey, knock it off! What's going on? You have been acting weird ever since Monika left."
As Ashley finished those words, a chill ran down her spine. The feeling of several eyes watching her with tense bloodlust caused her to look around in a panic. Something was not right in the town. As she looked around the town and the forest that surrounded it, she saw nothing, no person or living things roaming the streets.
"It seems like everyone has been evacuated during the scuffle between us and Monika," Ansel spoke, his unease more visible than before. He reached into his pockets and dug around. His face twisted in shock as he realized he was missing what he was looking for. "Damn it…out ran out of rations."
An unnatural wind swept through the area. Ashley had not thought about it, but the strange wind from yesterday was unnatural, too. It appeared at strange moments and lasted for a short amount of time. Ashley's heart raced, a sense of unease creeping up her spine.
Ansel let out a heavy sigh as he pulled out the dagger he kept hidden. Crimson veins webbed out over his face, and he gritted his teeth.
"Hey, what's going on-"
"AWOOOOOOOOO"
Several howls echoed through the trees, carrying the deathly weight of fear with them. Ansel moved in front of Ashley and kept his eyes fixed on the forest.
"Get back in the tavern."
"H-hey, what's going on-"
"Get back in the tavern Ashley."
"Let me know what's-"
"I'm not losing two of you." Without another word, Ansel kicked Ashley back with enough force to send her flying through the tavern's doors.
"ACK!!!"
"Ashley!!!"
As Ashley flew into the tavern, she crashed against a few tables and coughed up blood. Ansel had kicked her right where he had stabbed her yesterday. The pain from the wound shot through her as she could feel the crimson veins crawling through her skin. Cypress ran up to her and stared harshly at the door.
"Ansel, you-"
Cypress's jaw dropped as Ashley noticed his legs were trembling with fear. Ashley recovered from being launched into the tavern and looked where Cypress was looking. The door was busted wide open, revealing several people fighting.
A large horde of people with weapons and torches charged at Ansel, trying to slip past him. He effortlessly cut them and sent them flying with the same kick that he hit Ashley with. While he seemed fine for the time being, there were too many for one person to deal with.
"Who are they, and what do they want?" Ashley stood up, holding her stomach in pain. The people attacking Ansel were not normal. Some were missing limbs, and others were nothing more than burnt-up skeletons.
No matter how many times Ansel would cut them down, they would keep getting back up as if nothing happened. Ansel had noticed this and stopped trying to just stab them and focused on chopping off their limbs to immobilize them. His dagger sliced through as if they were nothing more than butter. As the limbs fell to the ground, there was no blood, just a webbing of ebon purple veins that oozed out a strange black mist, plunging the air with an acrid scent.
"Not way…" Cypress was the first to speak after he and Ashley silently watched Ansel fight. Black smoke then leaked through the cracks of the windows. "They should be dead…I made sure of it."
Ashley felt something off about what he had just said. Did he recently attack another town? For what reason, and what did he mean by making sure they were dead? Ashley took another look at the attackers. While a good few looked like walking skeletons, only a handful of them had an appearance. And that appearance brought forth memories she had wished would stay in the back of her mind. A few of them were the very men who had assaulted her mother and tortured both her parents to death. They each had their clothes torn and had a large hole in their chest that removed where their hearts would have been.
"The city produces weapons hidden from the common folk of the world." A new voice entered the room. Well, now would serve it a dis-justice, as the voice was familiar to everyone in the room. Ashley and Cypress turned towards the bar. A headless figure stood dressed in a torn cloak. Her head was in her hands as if she was a Dullahan from the books that Ashley had read as a child. Her face was similar to Ashley's, from hair to facial features. Beside her was a man who had just entered from the kitchen, dressed in the same clothes she had last seen him in and carrying an old sword dripping with the ooze that leaked from the bodies that Ansel was dealing with.
"AA Dead Memories huh…" The man said as he examined his own body. "A support class artifact that reanimates the dead to match those who knew them while they were alive. How nasty."
Ashley could not find the words. She was witnessing something that should have been impossible. Two people who died years ago, standing before her in the flesh, while not in one piece, they were them. The ones she had lost at a young age. Her heart was confused about how to process the information. They appeared as nothing more than zombies. Their skin was torn and pale. Their eyes held no emotion, and the strange ooze dripped through the openings of their bodies.
"Lorry…Markrove…" Cypress's knees gave out, and he fell with a heavy thud. He sat in a pool of piss as he stared at the two who stood in the tavern with them.
"Cypress…" The man spoke in an unfriendly tone. "How does it feel? How does it feel to face the consequences of the sins you committed?"
While the man glared at Cypress, the woman looked at Ashley. "My, have you grown? You look just like me." She giggled slightly before staring out at the entrance of the tavern, where Ansel was fighting the horde that had shrunk in numbers. "I can see why he is trying to keep you alive." There was a regretful tone in her voice.
Ashley looked at them and took a deep breath. While it was hard to process everything that was going on, there was one thing she knew for certain. "Ma…Pa…" She muttered those words that had once refused to leave her lips.
"That's us, dear. Now," Markrove, her father, aimed his blade towards Cypress. "Are you ready to repent?"