Hidden Horns

That's the only way

Chloe gasping for air, trying to fill her lungs with oxygen, she could still feel that someone was strangling her but when she shot her eyes. There was no Agma in front of her, not even a trace that she had been there, but when her hands flew to her neck, she could still feel the pain. It feels real, but she's not sure as she was seeing no one inside her room. She wandered her eyes, her sliding door that leads to her balcony was closed, her front door was closed, even her windows were closed.

But when she looked down to her hand, the sticky notes were there. She gasped and threw the piece of paper on the floor as she started running out of her room and into Molly's room.

"Molly!" She shouted after she swung the door open.

"Mom, what's wrong?!" Molly exclaimed in surprise, seeing her mom rushing to her like she had seen a ghost or something.

Chloe roamed her eyes first inside the whole room of the kid, but saw nothing unusual. She sigh in relief before approaching Molly's bed.

"Are you okay mom? What happened?"

"N-nothing. I'm just checking on you." She lied. Molly looked at her confusedly but decided not to ask further and she put down the book she was holding and climbed off of her bed. She was approaching Chloe when she noticed something red in her neck that made her halted her steps and tilted her head.

"What happened to your neck?"

"What?" Chloe asked and she turned to face the mirror on her side and she gasped upon seeing a red mark that she had been strangled hard. "Oh my god."

"I knew it! Uncle Harvey did that!"

"No, it wasn't him." Chloe defended her fiancée and she wanted to tell the kid who did it but she felt agitated. "It's just an allergy, I think I ate something that I wasn't supposed to eat." She lied again and traced the red mark on her neck, that's when she realized she wasn't wearing her necklace. "Oh shit." She whispered.

"Do you want me to call an ambulance?" Molly asked worriedly. Chloe shook her head in response and smiled at the kid to assure her.

"I think I just need to rest." Chloe said and she bent over to kiss the kid's forehead. "I'll make dinner later, I'm just going to take a nap."

"Okay." The kid shrugged her shoulders and walked back to her bed and picked up the book she was reading earlier.

Chloe was about to leave the room but she noticed the book in the kid's hands and her eyebrows knitted. "What are you reading?" She asked.

"Uh this?" Molly lifted up the book. "About Demons and Devils."

"Why are you reading something like that, Molly?" Chloe hissed and she grabbed the book. "This is inappropriate content for your age!"

"Look mom, I've lived with a demon, a witch and a devil. So I'm aware that this book is not appropriate for me, but I just want to know more about my aunties since they suddenly abandoned me."

"Exactly." Chloe exclaimed and she heaved a deep breath and exhaled slowly to calm herself. She doesn't want to lash out her anger to Yohan towards the kid. So she needed to calm down herself and just explain it to the kid that her life with those creatures are already finished and there's no way that she will let her daughter associate with them anymore.

She wanted a normal life for Molly. She might have experienced those things in her life before, but that will be the last time she'll be with them. To be honest, it really surprised her to hear that Agma visited her and she has no problem with that. But after what happened in her room, she won't allow Molly to talk with them.

"Molly." She called as she sat on the edge of the bed and put her hand above the kid's hand. "Those chapters of your lives are already done. I know that you miss them, but I think it's time to move forward and forget about them."

"Why?" Molly asked confusedly.

"I want a normal life, I just want you and me and Harvey. We're going to build our own family with only the three of us."

"But they are my aunties."

"I know, honey. I know. But for the sake of our family, let's just forget about them." Chloe begged the kid.

Molly stared at her, then her gaze shifted to the book and smiled sadly. "I miss them, mom."

"Molly—."

"But if you really want me to forget about them. Then I'll do that." Molly added to cut off Chloe. "But mom, can I ask you for one last favour?"

"What is it?"

"Bring me to aunt Yohan's house."

"To hell?!"

"No, silly." Molly laughed, which made Chloe laugh too. "The house where they used to lived next to your old house."

"What are you going to do in that place?" Chloe asked.

"I need to get something." Molly said. Chloe sighed and she nodded her head. "Thank you mom."

____

The next day, Chloe called Charlene to cancel all her meetings and she drove Molly to Upper Manhattan with Ivy. When they got to their destination, Ivy let out a sigh while staring into the house in front of her. There are people inside, a new family who bought the house after Chloe decided to sell it when her father died. But she left the house abandoned where her bodyguards used to live.

Molly used the key to the front door and pushed it open. Silence greeted the three of them, all the stuff inside still in the place where they left them. Nothing changed, not even a single thing was touched inside that year. Agma's hoodie was still hung on the sofa, Jess's boots still piled on the shoe rack, Yohan's stuff in the living room that she moved here after she sold her house. Even the glasses they used the last time they had a drink still sitting at the bar counter.

"It shows that they have never been here before since they left." Ivy said while scanning the whole house.

"Molly, just take what you need." Chloe said. Molly nodded at her before she ran upstairs and left the two adults in the living room.

"Don't you want to visit her room?" Ivy asked.

"Why should I?" Chloe asked back with a bit of anger in her voice.

"Nothing." Ivy shrugged her shoulders. "I will just go to Agma's room, I remember that I lent her my lighter and she didn't return it." She said and run upstairs, leaving Chloe alone in the living room.

Chloe scoffed and turned her heels, but when she's about to take a step, she paused and snapped her head at the boxes in the living room. All of it was Yohan's things and she's the one who packed all of it so she knows what's inside those boxes. She remembered that she put a frame in one of them.

A frame contains Yohan, Agma, Jess and another man in the picture. The four of them were in a park, sitting at the bench and they were all smiling widely.

Chloe looked up to see if Ivy was still inside Agma's room. When she made sure that she could hear shuffling upstairs, she approached the boxes and looked into it one by one. She found what she was looking for but there's another frame, but this time, there were Yohan, Jess, Agma and Molly. The guy in the other frame wasn't with them.

Then it hit her, she remembered the guy. It was the same guy who kidnapped her the day Lev died in a car accident or the day when Yohan killed him so she can have a reason to be her driver and the other two became her bodyguards.

Levi's death is planned and she believes that her father has something to do with it. Because as soon as Carlo found out that Levi is dead, he immediately introduced Yohan to her.

She took the frames and she didn't know why but she put them inside her bag and closed the box. She walked back to her spot earlier when she heard a door shut. Then Molly came out from her old room, carrying a small box.

"What's in there?" Chloe asked the kid.

"Pictures of my Dad." She said. "And oh, I also have one like yours." Molly said and she showed her necklace to Chloe. "Aunt Jess gave it to me."

Chloe knows what's the meaning of that necklace, and she's thankful that Jess gave one to her. Because with that necklace on Molly's neck, there's no way Agma or Yohan could ever get Molly even if she's not watching the kid.

"Thank you Molly." Chloe smiled at her.

"No mom, you're right. I should forget about them and it's time to move forward and let go about our past." Molly said. She sounded mature and thanks to Yohan, she taught Molly to understand every circumstance.

After all, those three inhuman creatures helped Molly a lot to build her character. They treated her like a real kid who needs to teach good manners and things that normal kids need to learn. They never taught her something evil like what they're doing in life.

"Are you done?" Chloe asked and Molly nodded her head. "Let's just wait for Aunt Ivy in the car."

"Okay." Molly replied and they both exited the house. As Chloe was about to hop inside the car, they heard a loud shattered sound coming from the house then followed with Ivy's loud scream.

"Don't leave the car, honey! I'll just check your aunt Ivy." Chloe said and she made sure that the car doors were locked before she ran back inside. "Ivy?! What happened?!" She called while running upstairs, skipping two steps at a time until she reached the second floor. She headed straight where she could hear Ivy's voice. When she opened the door abruptly, her eyes widened upon seeing Agma, in her Demon form and holding Ivy's neck.

"No one's going to leave this house!" Agma yelled angrily and she threw Ivy's body on the wall before she attacked Chloe. But just before Agma could reach her, she was thrown away and her body intersected on the wall, the debris fall on her.

Chloe was too shocked that she couldn't move a nerve, she was just looking at Agma with her eyes wide open.

"Oh come on, what is wrong with you?" Jess asked in disbelief. Chloe snapped her head on her side and she saw Jess, standing next to her. "Have you really gone crazy like what Yohan told me?" She asked.

Agma laughed as she stood up and shrugged all the dirt in her body. Then she looked up with a smile on her lips. "So she finally came out?" She asked.

"Yeah, I was with her earlier."

"Finally, so where is she?" Agma asked, there's something in her eyes that Jess knows the meaning of that emotion.

"Sadly, she went home." Jess said and there goes the anger in Agma's eyes. They're back and she glowered at Chloe. "Come on, buddy. Why do you want to hurt my sister?"

"Because that's the only way to bring her out from her throne." Agma said.

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