The Un-Summoners | A Rain-Ghoul Fanfiction

18. Panic at the Practice Room

The past few days had been very weird. Every day it was another ghoul's turn to protect me, and stay with me for the entire day. Today, Wednesday, it was Cirrus' turn. Cirrus hadn't been that busy today, all she had to do today was to go to the Ritual-practice with the other ghouls and Papa tonight. But first, we were going to have dinner.

Aether, Dewdrop, Rain, Swiss, Mountain, Cirrus, Cumulus, Sunshine, and I were all sitting around 1 of the tables in The Great Hall. Nali had made me soup, and of course she had made the ghouls their special soup without salt. The soup was a little too hot to consume yet, so we all waited with consuming it to avoid our mouths getting burned.

The ghouls were all just being themselves, they were joking around as they always do. ''Why did the sperm cross the road?'' Dewdrop asked, out of nowhere. ''I don't know.'' Aether replied. ''Because I put on the wrong sock this morning.'' Dewdrop was smirking at Aether when he said that.

"Dewdrop! You can't say that, we're having dinner for fuck's sake!" Cirrus said, while she gave him a strict look. But luckily, even Aether seemed to like Dewdrop's joke. He laughed for a few seconds, but decided not to say anything. Then, he took a sip of his soup, this was a sign for the rest to take a sip as well.

Just when I was about to take a sip of my soup, Rain, who sat next to me, stopped me. "Wait, you can't take a sip of that soup." I gave him a confused look. "Why not?" "Because something just ain't right." He didn't even hesitate to steal my soup just to smell it. "Guys... It's poisoned." He passed my soup to Aether, who also smelled it. He didn't even need to think about it. "Yes, someone definitely tried to poison her." Her confirmed.

I couldn't believe what was happening. The death threat was already scary enough, but now they actually tried to kill me by poisoning my soup. I knew for sure that Nali couldn't have done this, it must have been a Clergy member who sneaked into the kitchen. It didn't matter how they did it, all that mattered is that they did it. They actually tried to kill me.

All the ghouls went silent, until Swiss spoke up. "Eve, I'm so sorry. I really don't know what is happening here, The Clergy has always been very nice to me, and everyone else."

Rain hugged me, it felt really comforting. "I'm so sorry Eve." He said. "I really am, and just like Swiss, I have no idea what's happening. None of us do. All we know is that we must protect you."

My eyes started to fill themselves up with tears once again. "I... I really don't know what to say. You guys have been so nice to me the past couple of days. Thank you, for being the best."

I lost all my appetite after finding out that The Clergy tried to poison me. I was so incredibly lucky that Rain could smell the poison because he's a ghoul. The ghouls might work for The Clergy, but they chose to help me instead. The Clergy knows this, and that's why they used another method to try to kill me instead of just sending a ghoul to kill me.

That raised another question in me: should I be scared of Papa?

He was a Clergy member after all. But he didn't seem like he was capable of killing someone. Sister Imperator for sure would kill someone so she can add their skull to her skull collection in her aquarium. But Papa? He always seemed like such a sweet man to me.

I kept walking close to Cirrus as we entered the Ritual-practice room after dinner. It was fairly big, against the wall in the middle was a huge drum kit for Mountain. There were a lot of other instruments, microphones, and other equipment in the room.

Cirrus and I were the last ones to arrive in the practice room, the rest of the ghouls and Papa were already there.

"Eve, I would like you to tell you something before we begin." Papa said. "I did not vote to kill you at that Clergy meeting. I don't think that that's the right punishment for your actions."

This made me wildly uncomfortable. "They... They don't know, Papa."

Papa just uncomfortably smiled as he looked around the room. "Oh, well, I'm sorry."

The ghouls just looked at me like I had been lying to them the whole time. But to be fair, that was true, so I couldn't blame them.

"What exactly don't we know?" Dewdrop asked. He just got ready to play his white Fender guitar.

I felt my heart beating in my chest. Was this how they were going to find out? By Papa saying too much, and not by me being honest? I didn't want that. I didn't want to tell them the truth yet. What if they would get mad at me? Maybe they wouldn't want to protect me anymore then. And then I'll definitely die because of The Clergy. "Nothing, I'll tell you later."

"No." Dewdrop stubbornly said. "You're going to tell us now."

"No, no I'm not. I admit that I'm hiding something. And I will tell you eventually, but when I'm ready for it."

Dewdrop put his guitar back into it's standard. "No, I want to know now. What are you hiding, Eve? What is your horrible secret?" His voice didn't sound friendly at all. And the fact that he was slowly walking towards me made him intimidating, despite me being taller than him.

"The truth is going to come out! It's going to come out, Eve. And I have no idea what the truth is, but I will know!" He angrily shouted at me. "We all will know, whether you want it or not." I've seen Dewdrop having his little tantrums before, but I've never seen him this angry. This was different.

Then it hit me. What if Papa didn't want the ghouls to practice? That's why he told me that he didn't want to kill me. What if The Clergy forced him to trap me in this room with the ghouls, only so they could kill me?

So I ran. I ran out of the room. But where could I go? The forest. My heart had never beat this fast before. "Eve, wait!" I heard Rain's voice behind me. Shit, he was following me. I got more scared with every step I took. The woods were familiar to me, but Rain also knew all of the paths in the woods. And he was way faster than me. I just had to make it to the border in time, Rain couldn't get me there.

"Eve! Please, I just want to talk!" Rain begged me to stop running. It was hopeless anyways, the border was pretty far away and Rain was near me already. Rain was not only faster than me, but he didn't seem to have any trouble breathing.

Suddenly, I felt something on my foot. It was that same damn tree root where I almost tripped over after the Ritual-After party. I felt Rain's hands around my waist, once again saving me before I hit the ground. He smiled at me. "If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting." "Time after time." I finished his sentence. "This is a really bad time to be cheesy, Rain." "I know," he said, "I just thought that it would lighten the mood some more. You know, because you probably thought that I was going to kill you. And just to be clear; none of us were trying to kill  you in the practice room." I was gasping for air as I finally stood still. Running surely wasn't my greatest skill. "I don't know what I thought. I just feel... Scared. The entire time. I guess I just panicked."

Rain put his hands on my shoulders. ''Eve, please, know that we would never try to kill you, no matter what you've done. I can't imagine what you're going through. So, I just wanted to remind you that you're free to go home. No, I want you to go home, it's what's best for your own safety.''

''No, I don't want to go back to Hillburg! Can't you see that this place is the place that's more like a home to me than Hillburg ever was? I can't just leave now.''

He looked me in my eyes for a second, only to look away immediately again because he knows how much I hate it when people look me in my eyes. ''Eve. Please. Do you even hear what I'm saying? Go back home, I'm warning you because I care about you, and I really, really like you. If someone ever dares to hurt you, I will hurt them 10 times as bad.''

I shook my head. ''No Rain, you wouldn't like me anymore once you've found out what my secret is. So I'm going back into the church. Sorry for panicking for no reason. And... Thank you for saving my life.''