“You know, sometimes I wish you’d sleep in your own room,”I mumbled after I tripped on a shirt that was lying on the floor. “That’s right, why don’t you go back to your place? I mean, Hell’s Gates must be waiting for you…”

He chuckled. “Right…You wish me to leave that badly?”

No. “Yes.”

“And if you need my presence once again? And if you don’t call for me? What’s going to happen then?”he continued his interrogatory.

I’ll die in my sleep before doing that! “Nothing’s going to happen, don’t worry,”I smiled. “Seung Ho, what’s your real reason for being here?”

He looked me in the eyes. His smiled faded away for a couple of seconds, only to reappear brighter this time. “What a question!”he smacked my head. “The meals, the bathing,”he enumerated using his fingers.

My eyebrows shot up. But the knock at the door stopped me.

“Luhan!”I smiled as the door opened, revealing a blonde head and a childish smile.

“You remember that we have to take baths before midnight, right?”he came in carrying two huge metal buckets with hot water. I watched him pouring the water inside the metal bathtube, then mixing it with cold water. “Look at that hair of yours! You look like a broom! Go put that bed on you! I’ll wash your hair,”he rolled up his sleeves.

I smiled as I hid myself behind the paravane, throwing the clothes on the floor. It was a thing of ours. Like a special bond that was created back then when he first touched me…

“You know you’re pretty strange, right?”his voice disturbed the silence half a hour later.

“Why?”

“Because today I heard you talking to yourself. And it’s not the first time actually!”

I frowned as I drew circles with my index finger in the hot water. Seung Ho was living inside my room ever since he took me to see my dead sister at Heaven’s Gates. And we sure did fight a lot! I mean, he’s so self-centred, annoying and erratic!

“Watch that,”Luhan mumbled behind me as water landed on his face after I slapped the sparkling surface. “So, not going to explain it to me?”

I sighed. “I’m strange.”

Just how was I supposed to explain Seung Ho’s existence in my room? And how was I supposed to explain the fact that he was a demon? Or what lie could I probably say to him so that he would believe me? The answer? Nothing. Nada. Zero.

I sighed while listening to the fire that was burning in the fireplace. Outside, the snow was falling hard, painting everything in white. The magnolia forest was only a bunch of tree trucks, mere halos in the white storm. It was the last night of 1939 and silence was ruling over the hill and the forest like an empress over a dead empire…

New Year’s Eve and nothing else but silence came from Germany…

♃~✵~♃

The winter passed and left its place to the spring, who left as well, letting summer take her place.

The time followed his own course, not letting us dream about a moment of  break. He dragged us after him, forcing us to adapt to the changes. Europe was in war. Japan was in war. S.U.A was thinking of joining the war as well. Everyone was fighting. For what? What was so desirable so that it lead to a total war?

And for the first time since I was brought to the House, I was more than happy that it was situated in an isolated area, far from the cities where everything was dying. The war didn’t knew about our existence. But we knew what was going on around us…killings, kidnappings, criminals with guns in the front line of the army, trenches dug around the big cities to ‘protect’ the citizens while they were kept under strict supervision.

“Really now, I don’t get them,”I tilted my head while hanging the clothes on the wires in the sun. “Fight