Bloodborne Briefs

Chapter 10

Elena hesitated about whether to drop the case.

It wasn’t just about whether the court would allow a defense attorney switch two days before trial without valid reason; she herself couldn’t bring herself to walk away.

At the start, fear had made her want to abandon the case. Circumstances and coincidences had pushed her to continue, but even then, her goal was to endure just long enough to hand it off. Now, with Director Grant back, she found herself determined to see it through—not out of duty, but out of fury over the torment the spirit had inflicted on her and a deep sense of pity for Lucas Graves.

She believed Lucas must have been possessed by the spirit to commit such heinous acts. But why had the spirit done this? And how would Lucas live with the guilt of killing his own family? Would freeing him even help? What if handing the case off meant he died unjustly? Yet, even if she kept the case, how could she possibly win? Unless she could prove Lucas was suffering from a mental illness that stripped him of agency, there was no defense. And possession wasn’t a recognized condition—no one would ever believe it.

Thomas, of course, urged her to drop the case, and she understood he was acting in her best interest. But Sebastian’s cold remarks and his refusal to take responsibility if anything went wrong infuriated her. She was determined to prove herself to him, yet she also knew she couldn’t do it without him. Since moving into his place, she had finally felt safe—no more nightmares or terrifying visions.

Her mind was a chaotic mess, and she spent the entire morning unable to make a decision.

"I’ll decide after lunch," she told herself, setting a deadline as she glanced out the window. The sky was ominously dark, like the calm before a storm.

The office door burst open with a bang, and John peeked in. "Elena!"

"Ah?" Elena jumped, her nerves frayed. Lately, even the smallest noise startled her. Handling a supernatural case while in this state? Even she admitted it was absurd.

"Someone’s here to see you."

"Oh, is it Dr. Light here for lunch?"

"Not Dr. Light. It’s a lady—says she’s your landlord."

"Landlord?" Elena was surprised. What could her landlord want? Had the "apocalyptic battle" in her room been discovered? Puzzled, she headed to the reception area, where her landlord stood by the window with her back to Elena.

"Mrs. Liu? What brings you here?" Elena asked.

The landlord turned around, her eyes flashing blue for an instant before she smiled—a stiff, eerie smile.

Elena froze, her blood rushing to her heart. It was undeniably Mrs. Liu, but the rigid, grotesque expression, with its distorted muscles, was identical to the faces she had seen in her nightmares—like the painted-on features of funerary dolls.

"Why are you seducing my husband?" the landlord asked in a soft, sweet voice.

"What? Who’s your husband?" Elena was baffled but instinctively inched toward the door.

"Why are you seducing my husband?" the landlord suddenly shrieked, pulling a knife from her bag and lunging at Elena. "You vixen! I’ll kill you for seducing my husband!"

Fortunately, Elena had been ready to run and narrowly avoided the attack. Terrified, she fled, with the landlord chasing after her relentlessly. Chaos erupted in the office. Male colleagues tried to intervene, but the landlord’s strength was inhuman, and they couldn’t subdue her.

"You vixen! I’ll kill you for seducing my husband!" she screamed mechanically, over and over.

In her panic, Elena tripped over a chair. Pain shot through her ankle, confirming this was no dream. She tried to get up, but the landlord was already upon her, knife raised.

"I told you not to meddle!" the landlord’s expression shifted from frenzy to an eerie calm. "Your reckoning has come."

In that moment, Elena realized the spirit had possessed her landlord. But she was helpless, bracing herself for the knife’s descent.

The expected pain never came. Instead, she heard the landlord’s distorted scream of frustration. Opening her eyes, she saw Sebastian behind the landlord, one arm around her neck, the other grabbing her knife-wielding hand.

"Thomas!" Sebastian called.

Thomas rushed in from the side, forcefully disarming the landlord and pinning her face-down on a table. Sebastian, his back to the room, pressed his palm to the top of her head, muttering under his breath.

"Go home," he commanded.

Elena watched in shock as the landlord’s expression turned from malevolent to vacant. When Thomas released her, she bolted from the office as if the devil himself were after her.

"It’s all fine—a misunderstanding," Thomas assured the crowd, helping Elena up and addressing the security guards. "She’s my patient. Delusional and paranoid."

"She wasn’t imagining you were her husband, was she?" John quipped, his joke easing the tension.

"Exactly," Thomas deadpanned. "She came after Elena because everyone knows how well I treat her."

The laughter broke the tension further, but Director Grant frowned at the chaos.

"Dr. Light," he said sternly. "Your clinic is on the fourteenth floor, not here. Let’s not have this happen again."

"Of course. My apologies. It won’t happen again," Thomas replied earnestly.

"Good. We’re professional partners." Director Grant nodded, then turned to his staff. "What are you all standing around for? Clean this mess up. And you—" he pointed at Elena, "keep your personal affairs out of work."

Elena nodded rapidly, like a guilty schoolchild, before dragging the two men into her office.

"She was possessed by that spirit," she announced.

"Obviously," Sebastian replied flatly.

"So, you only sealed it that day, and it’s already broken free?" Thomas asked, concerned.

"Clearly," Sebastian replied, his indifferent tone grating on Elena.

"That’s it? Aren’t you going to exorcise it? You have the ability, don’t you? And where did she go?" Elena demanded.

"You’re really worried about her? She was trying to kill you a minute ago," Sebastian retorted coldly.

"She was possessed. She didn’t know what she was doing."

"Good to see you know what you’re doing," Sebastian shot back. His irritation stemmed from a bad feeling he’d had earlier that morning, which led him to perform a quick divination and arrive just in time to avert disaster. Not that anyone seemed grateful.

"It’s not that Sebastian doesn’t want to help," Thomas intervened, sensing the tension. "That spirit is strong. Exorcising it without preparation could harm its host—your landlord—or even kill her."

"Oh, I see. My apologies for jumping to conclusions," Elena admitted. "But it’s daytime! How is it causing harm now?"

"Once it possesses someone, daylight doesn’t matter as much. It’s just easier to control its host at night. Today, though—" Sebastian glanced at the stormy sky, "the weather gave it an opening."

"So it’s been hiding in other homes since that day, avoiding detection," Thomas speculated.

"All because someone hasn’t leveled up their RPG skills," Elena teased, seizing the opportunity to jab at Sebastian.

Sebastian shot Thomas a glare, blaming him for speaking out of turn. Thomas, however, feigned ignorance of the tension between the two, continuing his line of questioning. "Why the landlord? I heard she lives on the first floor. That’s quite a trek for it, isn’t it?"

"Because the landlord knows a lot about Elena’s situation. If it can’t possess her directly, it’ll find another way to kill her."

"What do you mean?" Elena asked sharply. "It won’t leave me alone?"

"Don’t you get it?" Thomas interjected. "It’s still here, and that’s a big problem. Since the moment you took on this case, everything has been directed at you. I don’t know why it targeted Lucas Graves in the first place, but clearly, you’re standing in its way. It wants you dead. Just drop the case already."

Around and around it went—the same problem!