APRICITAS [ENG] || Johan Liebert || Monster

Chapter 30 - The Dawn

For the next three weeks, Emiko was living in internall agony. Ever since her brother had left that fateful afternoon to find the Devil's pupil and Peter Čapek, he still hadn't returned to the hotel. After two days, young Tenma started looking for him everywhere... at the train station, in the now demolished Turkish district, in the city center... she even went to the Jahreszeit hotel. However, she couldn't find anything about him anywhere, which made her more and more uneasy...

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The night grew deeper; in the windows of many houses the lights had already gone out, and there was silence everywhere. Not far from the city, on a narrow road through the greenery, a breathless elderly man, dressed in a suit and a long coat, was walking in a light breeze. He was holding a gun in his right hand. The gun he'd used moments before at the man who was supposed to be protecting him and whom he hadn't trusted for a split of a second. That split of a second changed that man's life.

Walking so unsteadily, he looked around in all directions, and his face showed terror. He felt he was being chased... No, not by the police at all. He felt as if the Devil himself was chasing him. The devil he himself met many years ago...

Finally, after a several minutes, he reached his secret residence - no one else knew of its existence, except for four bodyguards he had assigned to protect his life. Lights were on in the windows; it was a sign that they were awaiting for his arrival. He went inside and looked around.

"It's me! Is anyone here?"

He opened the door to the next room and sat down in the armchair, sighing loudly. He put the gun down on the table, noticing a wine bottle standing there and a clean glass ready. Without hesitating too much, he poured it full and drank it all in one gulp, then set it back down.

At that moment he felt an icy cold. In an instant, terror returned with multiplied force. Fearfully, he lifted his face up, and then he saw the Demon who was standing on the other side of the table... He felt his body began to tremble as if in a fever.

"Jo... Johan!" He managed to choke out. There was silence for a brief moment.

"Many people drank this wine at the Red Rose Mansion..." The Monster spoke in a low voice, and Petr Čapek was filled with pure panic at the sound of it. He wanted at all costs to force himself to vomit his drink, because he felt as if he had just drunk a deadly poison.

The young man with a gentle smile on his lips raised his glass up and took a few small sips, calmly watching the terrified man in front of him.

"It is all right. You see? I'm drinking it too." After this, with a slow step, he approached the armchair and sat on it, setting the glass on the table.

"Where are the bodyguards who were supposed to be waiting here?" The older man breathed heavily, looking at the Demon who was still smiling at him. "Why? Why did you kill Baby?" Johan leaned back slightly in his seat. "They say we're on the same side. You were supposed to help us. We were supposed to look for your sister and bring her here..."

"Everything goes according to the plan." The young man replied softly.

"What about your sister? We know where she is now. If anything happens to me... your sister... Things won't go your way. Look, everything is going according to my plan-"

"What am I?" The young man interrupted him, making the man look at him confused. "I thought the Monster was inside me, but I was wrong. It is outside."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Is Franz Bonaparta..." As he said these words, he lowered his voice slightly and leaned towards the older man, causing him another wave of fear. "...still alive?"