Lurking in the Shadows

Pitter pat, pitter pat.

The rain fell heavily against the windows and roof of the manor. The storm and the overall cover of night caused candles in their wall fixtures to remain lit throughout the hallways that cast large shadows if one were to walk past in the dreariness. One such figure was taking a stroll that night, making their way back to their bedroom. Rosette carefully and quietly walked the halls of their sleeping manor so as not to disturb the family. 

It had been approximately one week since Rosie had resurrected back in their manor, Maxie looking over anxiously when she had come to. She couldn't remember how she died this time, and Maxie had just shrugged and told her that they had found her already dead and grabbed her, telling the rest of the family he would meet them back home from their outing. If Maxie wasn't worried about it then Rosie wouldn't worry either, but it didn't stop the odd dreams she was suddenly getting, or the odd feeling of being watched in her own home. Feeling like you had to look over your shoulder constantly while trying to garden does something to a person, or in this case, a demon.

Since that resurrection day she had taken up to traveling the halls of the manor at night when everyone retreated to their rooms. She would tiptoe past Fenris' various resting locations to unhatch a door to the outside and take in the night for what it was outdoors. It was calming; therapeutic in a time where sleep wasn't holding. It's not like the Fluffypants required sleep, being demonic creatures and all, but Rosie would be nonplussed to admit that the ritual of sleep did not provide some nightly comfort to her rackety, anxious brain. All of her normal downtime activities were plagued by unease and now her beauty sleep was being affected. And so she became something of a surveyor overnight, walking the manor and its exterior for the hours she would normally be sleeping and taking in every inch of marble, soil, and crown molding she could as if she were going to forget such a place of importance.

The rain had started earlier in the evening, almost coinciding with sunset, and Rosie knew she would not be able to venture outside that night. That was fine; she would inspect the walls and trace each curve of a column with her fingers until exhaustion or the demon-equivalence of it befalls her. There was a similar night earlier in the week. It hadn't deterred her walk then and it wouldn't deter her this second night.

Except, as she walked side by side with the heavily-decorated walls and along the cold, marble floors it was starting to dawn on her that it really had been a week of feeling like this, and she wasn't sure if it was going to stop. She paused in her tracks, slumping down against the wall across from her bedroom door. She huddled her knees up to her chest and laid her arms across them, scowling at nothing in particular. She could see the light of the candles in the hallway flicker at the edges of her vision as she stared down at her shadow splayed in front of her on the floor. She tilted her head against her arms and traced her shadow with her eyes, following its silhouette up to its pointed, rabbit ears.

Now hold on a second.

She kept her eyes on the "head" of the shadow, staring at the ears in particular. She felt above her head and, as she expected, her ears weren't out in this form. She slowly and shakily reached out her hand to touch the shadow and watched in horror as its form turned to static and almost seemed to try and wince away from Rosie's touch.

Rosie quickly clasped both hands over her mouth to muffle a scream of surprise, backing herself further against the wall. "W… What are you? What is this?" she whispered at the strange shadow form. The shadow tried snapping back into its form, but the static wasn't letting up as the shadow itself continued to stretch away from Rosie. Concentrating on it, Rosie could swear she could feel an emotion emanating from the shadow and it felt like fear. "Did I hurt you? I apologize if I did, you startled me half to death, and that's a feat in and of itself." she whispered again, much softer this time and laughing only a little nervously.

The static slowly subsided and the shadow stopped stretching. They came back to Rosie and its form twisted again, swirling upwards in a void until they were standing, giving off a sense of physicality. Rosie gulped audibly, looking up at them and having to stretch her neck to do so. "Oh. Oh my, you are tall." Rosie tried to keep that thought to herself, but let it fall out of her mouth anyway. That would happen when you're not sure if you're dealing with a massive, threatening being. Despite their looming appearance though, the shadow seemed to just… stare? Their eyes were the oddest points of light of what should have been their face, and they were trained on Rosie. Their arms stayed at their side with no weapons to be seen, and so Rosie got the notion that they meant no harm and were just listening to Rosie, perhaps shocked themselves for being found.

"Are you a Fluffypants?" Rosie asked, as one is to do when they meet anything resembling a demon with rabbit ears. For the first time the shadow does something other than stand there menacingly and shakes their head once:  a "No."

"Are you a friend then? Perhaps to Maxie or Owogan?" Another shake of their head has Rosie raising an eyebrow. "Who on earth are you then if not a lurking creature in my shadow ready to pounce when I least expect-" 

Rosie stopped herself, trying to get a good look at the shadow in front of her. It couldn't have been… right? 

"Othello? Is… that you?"

At that the shadow emanated an aura of wanting to shrink away, almost in pity, but shook their head defiantly once again.

Ah. Rosie didn't know what she was expecting. Why would her brother be hiding right under her nose instead of simply coming home? A hollow laugh came out of her, unbidden, and she looked back up at the shadow. "Well, I don't know who or what you are, and that is not a good look for you. Think wisely before you answer this question: are you a threat to me?"

It took a second of the shadow boring holes into her face with their brightly, lit eyes before they settled on a shrug as their answer. Rosie was speechless.

"I'm sorry, did you just shrug? I tell you to answer carefully, yet you answered with the care of a fish who was hooked on a line and dropped into a sink to be descaled and gutted of bones!?"

Rosie thought she was going crazy, but she swore she could hear the garbled sound of laughter coming from the shadow. They were laughing at her, as if she wasn't a Fluffypants who could send this creature to any circle of Hell she chose for all of eternity. "I assure you none of this is humorous! You have found yourself in the wake of a Fluffypants heir and you have done the equivalence of laying down on your back, ready to accept death. You must either think of yourself so highly to best with me or you must be really, really stupid."

The shadow tilted their head to the side and Rosie saw their face part into a line of light she thought was supposed to be a grin.

Suddenly they folded an arm into their abdomen and bowed, taking a knee in front of Rosie and kept their head down. They reached out with their free hand and tugged on a piece of the shadow by Rosie's feet and their own. It was connected. Rosie gawked.

"That's- That's a contract bond! How did, when did… What!?" It was getting harder to keep her voice down and she could feel her shoulders shake anxiously at the thought of forming a contract with a demon she had no memory of, not to mention lacking any memory of even performing that ritual. Where had this demon come from?

"Rosie? Is that you?"

Rosie froze as a familiar voice called out down the hallway. She snapped her attention back to the shadow and saw it had disappeared. A moment later Maxie was walking up to her, arms folded. "What the hell are you doing out and on the floor?"

"Oh this? Just couldn't sleep and thought maybe the hallway would give a better drowsy atmosphere." She waved her hand around casually, looking side-eyed at her shadow. She noticed the ears were still there. Oh Hells.

"That's uh, a weird practice you have, sister. Does it always involve you whispering in hushed tones to yourself?" Maxie asked, clearly amused that they just caught Rosie in the act of… something. 

Rosie laughed flippantly and rose to stand next to her twin. "Ah, that! That's just my nightly ramblings! Helps me cool down and think up new research. You know, inventor quirk." "Riiiiiiight, one of your 'quirks'."

Rosie knew Maxie wasn't buying it, but to be honest she needed time to process whatever was going on with big, tall, and shadowy. She nudged her head to her door. "Right, well, I think my head cleared up enough to let me sleep. Goodnight Maxie, thank you for checking up on me." She shuffled quickly into her room, closing the door right away. She could hear Maxie sigh dramatically from the other side of the door and quietly said "Goodnight Rosie" before his footsteps pattered away. 

Almost immediately the shadow demon came out and stood in the middle of Rosie's room. She stared at them, her mouth a thinly-pressed line as she concentrated on her thoughts. "Right. Let's work on communication first."