DEMONIC AFFECTION [ᴊᴏɴᴀᴛʜᴀɴ ᴍᴏʀɢᴇɴsᴛᴇʀɴ]

DEVIL, DEVIL

"ʜᴏᴡ ǫᴜɪᴄᴋʟʏ ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴅᴏ sᴇʟʟ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ sᴏᴜʟs
ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴍɪsᴇ ᴏғ ɢᴏʟᴅ
ʙᴜᴛ ᴅᴇᴠɪʟ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴏɴ'ᴛ ʙᴇ ᴍᴇ"

- 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑐𝑘

"𝐼𝑡'𝑠 𝑜𝑘𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑙𝑒. 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑙𝑒".
"𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑙𝑒. 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟".

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟓

The next day, Sebastian found the Institute entirely cleared of people he knew. He had decided to skip breakfast and invest the time in proper planning, but as he was wandering the corridors without one familiar face in sight, he slowly started to regret this decision.
How was he supposed to get close to these people if they weren't here?
How was he supposed to gather intel when no one even had the slightest clue who he was?

On his second patrol, he noticed what he assumed to be the steady sound of punches on a punch bag. Curiously, he followed the noise. Everybody seemed to be either to busy to train or entirely gone, yet when he approached the training room, he could make out a familiar frame. Her stance was solid, yet she skipped forwards and backwards with an elegance that was repugnant to the forceful punches. Sebastian couldn't see her face, but judging by the sheer tension in her whole body and the way she kept putting more and more force into her swings, he could vividly imagine the fierce determination on her face.
Amelia wasn't the person he came here for but something about the challenge of getting her on his side inspired a thrill in him. After all, she seemed to be the most suspicious of him. Therefore he seized the moment and quietly approached the brunette. One of the many things his father had told him was the ability to approach an enemy silently and even though he didn't particularly pay any attention to it, Sebastian had noticed how it had become somewhat of a habit of his to carry himself without giving the slightest sound. And yet when he drew closer, he could see her muscles twitch all of a sudden, accompanied with the smallest falter in her steady punches. Nevertheless, she didn't bother to turn around to check who was joining her, she didn't stop to make any smalltalk. Amelia's entire focus was concentrated on the punching bag in front of her, even after Sebastian's stroll brought him right next to her.
He considered his options quickly. By now he had realized that she wasn't much of a talker and much less a fan of him as it seemed but then again he too wasn't either of those things, so he opted for something that seemed more natural for Jonathan than it did for Sebastian. Wordlessly, he positioned himself in front of her and held the punching bag in place while she — after a short pause — kept on hitting. The next few minutes taught Sebastian that her technique seemed to be one of her greatest strengths. The punches were packed with a good impact, yet she was a lot weaker than he was himself; it was her skill that turned every punch into a deadly threat.
Another thing Sebastian learned was that this woman seemed to thrive on stony silence as it took her more than five minutes to only give him a curt look, just enough to acknowledge his presence.