The Day we shall all Regret...

The stairs had never seemed as long as they did then, every step feeling heavier than the one before. Her heart was beating hard and fast in her chest, knowing if they were to be exposed she would suffer the concequences alongside Rin. No one could know what he truely was, or it would cost them both dearly, a price she was not in any way willing to pay. Not because of a demon, not because of anyone at all.
As she reached the base of the stairs with Rin close behind she looked around, hoping to God there would be no one in the hall, though knowing herself the God she believed in would not support the blasphemic act of protecting a demon so casually. She could only hope...

Rin slowly walked down the stairs, making sure to be cautious as he did. He had no idea how to act human, and he continued to hope that they would not have to interact with anyone. He was sure that the Rectory could not be big, and as they reached the bottom of the stairs he quickly looked around to get an idea of the size and layout, knowing it may come in handy.
He stood by Miriam, waiting for her to move. 'Don't lounge around, we haven't got all day' he hissed quietly. Staying in here made him more and more nervous, and he was quickly growing impaitent.

Proteus was ready for his mission, the one that Frollo had entrusted him: he had the holy water in one pocket, the salt in the other, and the knife in the belt, ready to be used if he needed it. But, before to go, there were two people he had to talk to… one was Cinderella: he hadn't talked to her in even too much time, and he really needed to see her. And the other one… the other one was Miriam: he wanted to ask her to help him, she was good in those stuffs, she would have surely been helpful… but, even if the rectory was small, it seemed that people could easily disappear there: he had searched for both girls for a while, and still he hadn't managed to find them. Sighing, he stepped in the hallway: he didn't aspect to actually find Miriam, especially not to find her with company, and the surprise made he jump a bit, staring for a few seconds at the two before to look at Miriam "M..Miriam! I was searching for you." He was honestly surprised: he was sure to have never seen the man before… what was he supposed to do?

Miriam was about to answer Rin, and whipped her head in his direction, but before she could manage to speak Proteus caught her eye, and only a second later he spoke to her. She jumped at the surprise as much as of the fear, but though her heart was beating frantically she managed to keep her face cold and straight as always as she looked at him, reminding herself that Rin's eyes were human, and Proteus shouldn't expect anything.
"What is it?" she sighed, as if she did not have the patience to speak to him. The sentence felt a bit more forced than their earlier conversation, but it would only be noticable if he looked for the change, and he had no reason to suspect them yet. In either case the words were similar to what she would have told him before, and she was confident she was doing a decent job at lying.

Rin looked at the man, smart enough to keep his mouth shut even though his expression remained cold. He looked cowardly, as he expected the humans to be. However he seemed to know Miriam, and from that he wondered whether this was the same person who had stabbed Calcifer. If so prehaps first impressions were not entirely accurate.
He could see the knife in his belt, and nervously he tried to not focus on it, hoping Miriam would deal with the situation. However she didn't exactly seem to be as friendly as he expected, which although was amusing to watch was hardly reassuring from his perspective.

"I had a favour to ask you" he replied flatly, focusing his glance on Rin: he seemed human, his eyes were human, but he had had already a taste of the fact that demons could easily hide their nature with Kaiani. He couldn't do the same mistake twice... even if he was with Miriam... he was probably just being paranoid, he was surely a man, but... but he couldn't not do it: suddenly and fastly he took the little bottle of holy water from his pocket and threw a bit of it on Rin "Sorry man..." he said doing it, sure that soon the man would have started to complain, to ask him if he was crazy, then he would have said again that he was sorry, and then maybe they would have laughed a bit. Yeah... because he was human, he had to be human...

Miriam's eyes widened as she realized what Proteus was about to do, only a second too late. She gasped a "No!" and stepped to the side, hoping to shield Rin from the water, but most of it still splashed on him, and she closed her eyes tightly in fear of what would happen next. She knew her actions had been foolish, as this not only prooved Rin to be a demon, but also proved that she had been aware all along.
She opened her eyes again to stare at Proteus, now standing between the man and the monster, and the shock and surprise was clear on her face. Though fear, regret and sorrow entered her she could do nothing but to stare at him coldly as she would an enemy, because right now she could not afford to not see him as one. For some reason she was bent on protecting the demon behind her, and scared that Proteus would soon attack him she reached for her own blade, grasping it tight in her hand.

He hissed in pain, not particularly good at hiding it even if he tried. He hated holy water, which was quite evident from his expression, and the man had not been sparing in the amount he had used. He made sure not to be loud, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention, but since Miriam's actions had made it blindingly obvious he felt no need to keep his eye colour hid, and he stared back at the man with black eyes smirking.
'Yeah, sorry man' he mocked back. 'Now can we please get the hell out of here?' he said to Miriam, who suprisingly was guarding him, before looking up at the man. 'Its not that I don't want to stop and chat, just I have many more places to be than well.. here.'

What had happened? Protues stared at Miriam's cold expression, and behind her a creature with deep black eyes. What had happened?
He had thrown the holy water on the man, ready to have to be sorry for his silly action, and instead...
now he was actually staring at a demon.
And Miriam was protecting him!
He couldn't believe it was actually happening: it had to be a bad dream, just a nightmare, he would have woke up soon, it couldn't be real...
But it was.
His mind worked fastly, totally ignoring the demon's words: he swallowed and then fastly he took the knife from his belt, ready to attack.
He was going to die: the realization hit him hardly. They were two, Miriam, oh, God, why? She was working with him! And she was good and smart, and they were two... no matter what, it was probably his last hour. Surprisingly, he wasn't scared, and he had no intention to run away. His only regret was to not have had the chance to say goodbye to Cinderella...

Miriam stared at him in utter fear, but the cold winter in her eyes did not subdue. As he drew his knife she swallowed hard and followed it with her eyes, knowing exactly what he was about to do with it. She could see the fight already playing in her mind, and she knew she could not let that happen for several reasons. She needed Rin out of there quickly, before this aroused any more attention than it already had.
Quickly and without warning she launched for his hand, slicing at his wrist to make him drop the knife. The blood clouded her vision, and for a second she jumped back, just as she had the day in the spire when she accidentally cut him. The cut was far deeper than she had intended it to be.
Without further hesitation she quickly stabbed his hip, wanting him to fall to the ground. With his weapon on the ground he was defenceless against her attack, but she did not stay to see if he would fall before she turned to Rin, her face scared like a little girl of six, but also with the cold, fierse determination of someone twice her age.
"Run," she said hastily, not understanding why he was still standing there. She nodded towards the door to show him the exit before looking back over her shoulder to Proteus, making sure he was not about to attack her. She could not turn her back on him now.

He stared back at her wide eyed, never having expected her to act like that. Although on some level he felt almost proud, he also felt a nagging feeling that this would not help either of them in the long term.
However he couldn't help but smile smugly at the man on the floor, although he would have much preferred to have done so himself rather than feel like he was being babysat, and by a human of all.
Nodding he quickly moved away from the scene, hesistantly glancing back at Proteus to check he did not make any rash moves. He knew he still would be concerned about Miriam, even if it was her fault after such a rash move. However he hoped humans realised how outnumbered they were, and did not therefore make sacrifices of one another. Waiting by the doorway, he checked there were no traps, and watched them to ensure nothing drastic happened, ready to make his escape momentarily.

Miriam's movement took him by surprise: he had thought to have to fight, but he didn't think she would have react so fastly. She tightened his teeth when she hurted his hadn, keeping himself to scream for the pain: after it she stepped back, but the pain at the hand kept him from thinking clear-headed, so again he couldn't avoid her attack. The time seemed slow down to make him feel inch by inch the blade entering in his flesh, it was so painful that this time he opened his mouth to scream, but he simply couldn't: he was totally breathless, and so dizzy that he believed to can faint any moment. Actually he wished to, to not feel anymore the unbelievable pain. He didn't even realized to have fallen on the floor, on his knees, the head that was almost touching the ground, his hands pressed on his wound, hoping that the pain would have stopped. He didn't get what happened next, he vaguedly listened Miriam's voice ordering to the demon to run away, he opened his eyes, raising his head: he had to do something... with his blurred vision he saw the knife not far from him... he had to get it, no matter what... he had to... with his hand that was barely trembling he moved to take it again...

As she turned around to look at Proteus he was struggling to regain his weapon. He was dangerously close, and so she kicked his arm away, quickly bending down to get the weapon herself before she put both of them in her pouch. Only then did she fall to her knees and looked at him with extreme worry. Rin had already left, or at least so she thought, so there was one less thing to worry about. She knew she would have to convince Proteus to stay quiet, but for now she was just concerned about the severe wounds she had caused him.
Without hesitating she removed the jacket he had given her and laid it over his hip, wrapping it around tightly to stop the bleeding if only a little. Then she did not hesitate to rip the fabric of her own top and gently wrapped it around his hand as a bandage, looking down on him with great remorse, before she touched his arm to assure him she would not harm him further.
"I'm sorry," she whispered quietly as to not gain attention from others that might be hiding in rooms nearby.

Quietly he watched for a moment, watching as she went to pick up the pieces. As he had told himself before, Miriam confused him almost constantly, and now she was back to what he had expected of a human. Compassion, at least on some vague level. He already did not like Proteus, and the sight of them two together was almost frustrating.
Knowing that there was no reason for him to still be there, whilst also growing more and more irritated, he decided to make a quick escape and kicked away at the devils trap over the entrance, looking back one more time before walking into the Sanctuary.
He had gathered minimal details about the inside of the Rectory, and limited knowledge of the humans relationships since Miriam essentially made no sense, but he hoped it would be enough to make the situation minimally better if questioned about it.

When Miriam kicked his arm he growled in pain, curling up more on the floor, a hand still on his wound. He was still barely conscious when the girl started to help him, using the jacket and a pice of her own dress to stop the blood.
He raised slowly his glance to look at her, though she had to focus a lot to see her in the blur that the pain was creating in his mind
she said that she was sorry. He coldn't understand. She stared at her for a time that in his mind seemed eternal before to manage to ask simply in a weak voice "Why?"
He wanted to say more, to ask more, but he simply couldn't: the pain was unbearable, and seemed like it wanted to swallow him. His view was becoming more and more blurred, and darker...
maybe...
maybe he was actually dying...
And it hadn't been a demon that had killed him, but someone that he had called friend, someone that was supposed to stay by his side in the war against the evil creatures...

/ooc: oh man no Proteus dont die dude!\