45 Cowardice (1/2)

Seeing the look in Catherine's eyes, Joshua has a bad feeling.

”You know, the look in your eyes is usually beautiful, yet sometimes it can be scary. This is one of those moments,” he told her.

”Calm down, I'm not gonna yell at you,” she said, chuckling, ”Jacques just warned me about something else that we need to take care of.”

”Is it related to their kidnapping?”

”No, it's about you,” she paused for a moment and added: ”When he contacted me, he was assaulted by a wandering nightmare and said it's been lurking around me. However, I didn't have bad dreams recently. So, please tell me, have you been sleeping well lately?”

Joshua gulped hearing this. Catherine saw that his fingers began to move rapidly out of nervosity. His face became quite pale

”What… That's not possible.” he blurted out.

Ignoring Catherine, Joshua began thinking while walking around the room and biting one of his fingers.

'Obviously, that nightmare she's talking about refers to the abomination. It's not supposed to appear unless I go to sleep. I thought I could avoid the issue by remaining awake. However, it attacked someone other than me which means it's not impossible it decides to go after Catherine should I choose to ignore it. Damn! This is all wrong, I made a big mistake!'

Joshua was so focused he didn't hear Catherine talking to him. He suddenly dashed out the room. Catherine ran after him but he ignored her. She saw him enter the big laboratory containing all the creatures corpses. A few seconds later she entered the room as well and saw Joshua open the vat containing the body of Delilah. He dragged her corpse on the ground for a moment and placed it on a table.

'What did she do to me?' he thought. 'Could there be a rune still active, still after her death?'

He launched a scan. From what he could tell, a few runes which were located in her brain. However, since he had murdered her by smashing her head, they were quite damaged. Even if her mental abilities originated or were amplified via those runes, it was impossible that they would be responsible for the current situation. All logic dictated that her death should have been the end of it. And yet, the little monstrosity had appeared in front of him afterward, he was clearly missing something.

Joshua was so focused on the issue that he didn't notice that Catherine had joined him. She called his name a few times but he didn't seem to register it. Ultimately, she got annoyed and just grabbed his shoulder and yelled 'JOSHUA!!!!!!' in his ear. Only then did he realize she was there.

”Oh… you're here,” he said, weakly.

”What the hell are you doing? You're worrying me.”

”Trying to figure out the source of the problem.”

”I'm sorry. I can't… I'll find a solution… Trust me.” he replied, looking away.

He clearly didn't dare to meet Catherine's gaze. She even saw his body react as he was getting shocked. Even Luna could tell he was irrational.

Catherine was getting angry. They were a team. They were supposed to face hardships together and yet Joshua was ignoring her. Surprising herself, she slapped him in the face.

”I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on. I don't know what that woman did to you but please, talk to me. I'm not gonna eat you.”

Her slap seemed to have some effect as Joshua finally looked at her. However, his usual cheerful expression was gone. Instead, his expression was filled with fear. Catherine had the impression he was like a little boy afraid to tell his parents he had done something bad.