Sleepy hollow [genshin impact]

37| Honor thy name

December 28, 1960

Susan watched the priest light the candles, she held the camera in her hands as she glanced at the child below nervously. The boy in question is Jackie Owens, 10 years old and fingers covered in blood from almost scratching his own leg off. He had been odd since his trip from Romenia, seeing visions, speaking in tongues, whispering under his breath as well. Then he began clawing his ankle, trying to take it off one night. Finally, his parents called the church and sent her, along with some priests.

He looked so skinny under his dark covers and the ropes held him in place, "..it won't hurt him right?" Susan asked as she held the camera closer, her hands shaking a bit as this was her third paranormal experience. 

"Of course not, Susan, it's for our protection than his own safety." the father said, as he blows the match off and the other priest came out as well. He cracked his knuckles a bit, and smirked a bit, "Let's get this done, I have a long day ahead."

Both fathers grasped their rosaries and Susan takes another picture of it, but then heard cracking. She stops moving and glancing behind her, as the sound of cracking was increasing, and ignored the fathers praying over the non-responsive boy. She turns to the side and her eyes widen seeing the windows beside them cracking slowly, webs of slowly shattering glass begin taking over, and then it breaks.

The glass spays everywhere and the adults went down, mostly for the father on the right of the bed as a large shard of glass pierced his skull. Susan covered her head and heard the laughing, it was loud and demonic and made her shiver in fear. She covered her head and moved, standing up to see Jackie laughing, it was loud and noticed his skin was peeling off along with his eyes turning yellow. The demon is in total control, especially when it turns to look at her.

"March 28! March 28!"

"What?"

"MARCHMARCHMARCHMARCH28282828!"

It laughs as the bed shakes and the rope slowly breaks with each move, she goes to put her upper body on the child and he began laughing louder, "DEATH!DEATH!DEATH!"

"Susan!" The remaining father began, he was leaning against the wall as the wind howls, he was holding his neck as crimson blood was pouring down his neck. "There's a box! There's a b-box under my bag, it was n-need just in case, open it and call its name!"

"Box? What the hell with the box?!" Susan exclaimed as the lights on the candles were flickering as Susan glanced at the box under the father's things, she bit her lower lip before hurrying to the box. He pulled at the ropes as Susan held the box, "Jackie?"

"N-No! Not the boy's name, his names!" The father speaks, as Jackie's head turns towards him, eyes blazing, the flames go out. "marchitamiento-" The father stops talking as something flies towards him, the candle holder and stabs through the father's head. His head rolls over dead and his body limps as the demon laughs happily at the spill of blood. 

Susan held the box, hand holding the bottom and another holding it on top of it, she grips the top a bit as the wind blows around and messing her black hair, "marchitamiento!"

"marchitamiento!"

"marchitamiento! marchitamientooooo!" Susan screams as she felt the bed go up a few inches and she nearly falls when something came out of Jackie's mouth, moths and black blood flowing through his lips. "marchitamiento! GET IN THE BOX!" There was another cry as a mist comes out of Jackie's mouth, it floats in the air as moths gathers around before entering the box. Susan closed it and held it, just as something goes knocking into her head from the shelf and she goes down with the closed box. It settles just as the door opened.

+++

Susan moans as she opened her eyes, eyes squinting as she saw the white ceiling and the bright lights around her. She felt something on her chest, glanced to see the closed box, and sits up slowly. She could see herself hooked up to an IV and her eyes moved around the room with curiosity. 

"Oh! You're awake!" A male, around her age and with soft blue eyes, walked inside. He wore a male nurse outfit and held a clipboard, "You were brought in after the failed church thing, you were very dehydrated and wouldn't let go of the box."

"..Oh..and Jackie?" She asked as Susan fixed her hair, placing the box on her lap. 

"He's fine, just checked out not too long ago, couldn't say the same thing about the two fathers." He clicked his tongue, "Lucky for you we got to you, two stitches on the corner of your crown."

"Mhm, well...I suppose a thank you should be in order...Mister..?"

"Harold, Harold Stewart." He offer his hand, and Susan takes it and felt flushed as he kissed the top of it with a smile. She smiles back, and looked at him, "and you Ms.Indiana jones?" 

"Susan Caswell." 

+++

"Then you two got married and had babies?" Klee asked, eyes wide as Susan had told them a story before [M/N] was picked up. 

"Hm, oh Harold, and I couldn't have kids, I was infertile, maybe because it was genetics or because my mom tried to kill me with dish soap. We actually adopted two kids, a baby boy from New York and a little girl from Michigan, we have grandbabies and kitties too." Susan giggled as she stands up, her back cracking a bit as she stretched. "It would've ruined my figure."

"Where are they now?" Auggie asked as he leans against the couch with a raised eyebrow, still amazed at the story. 

"My son, Blaine is up near the city working as a lawyer, mostly pricey divorce cases." She hummed, watching Harold attempting to beat Xiao in Tic-Tac-Toe, "my daughter Ana is in Chicago, for a vet job."

"Wow...what happened to the box-" Klee began just as she saw a car pulled up and laughs, jumping off the couch and moving to the front door with Auggie in tow. 

"Dang it! I regret teaching you how to play." Harold grumbled as he lost another game to Xiao who rolled his eyes a bit.

"You're too predictable." He replied as he gets off, and watched as his master parked and Kaeya helped [M/N] out of the car, he had a crutch on as the kids tried to help. Susan watched as she pulled her bag up, placing it down on the table. She looked down at the worn box, a cross painted on it to keep the demon at bay.

She had this box under her and Harold's bed since they were married, and kept close to it when March 28 hit, and she'd been waiting for years to hand it off. Epically in her old age, and knew [M/n] would keep it safe.