Chapter 191 - Secret Project: Animal Potion

"Hello?!" the child Petunia said while opening the door to Heize's house.

"Anybody here?" she added after going inside and placing her digital broom on their broom racks.

"Mommy told me to get the animal potion from here! I hope you don't mind!" Petunia continued shouting like what she had been used to doing in Heize's house since her family was a little bit too silent and snobby.

When no one answered, Petunia quickly assumed that it must be because they're busy doing something else, like what her parents were trying to do, but instead of checking out the rooms for dead bodies, Petunia went straight to the basement and opened the secret compartment there on her own.

Heize was silently watching Petunia do all of this by herself, and every time the location changes, Heize also gets transported to that location so she decided not to bother walking or trying to talk to Petunia anymore.

"Here it is!" Petunia said while catching her breath after a series of locked doors she had to push open with her extraordinary super strength.

The room was a small moldy and humid cave-like square which was built underground with cement brick walls and vines, in the middle, there was a big cauldron above the eternal fire where the latest and most ambitious secret potion of Petunia's parents in collaboration with Heize's parents was found.

Petunia quickly grabbed three flasks from the shelves and used another tool to dip it in the boiling green potion carefully, ultimately making the potion purple as it cooled down.

"This should be enough," Petunia said and closed the lids of the flasks with a cork before putting them all carefully in her backpack.

But as she was about to run back to her house, Petunia stopped and stepped back after seeing Heize's parents gesturing for her to keep quiet while sneaking inside the secret room.

"Mom, Dad," Heize said without a single hint of emotion in her voice after seeing her strict and stoic parents after a long time.

"What are you doing here?" Heize's mom finally talked after her husband locked the secret door behind them.

"Mommy told me to get this potion and drink it," Petunia said innocently which made the two adults look at each other with concern etched all over her face.

"You know what happened to Heize after turning into a cat, right?" she said.

"She got kicked out?"

"And not only that but she can't turn back into a human anymore!"

"Our poor daughter," Heize's father said and hugged his wife while reminiscing over the very few and uninteresting moments he spent with his daughter.

"I wish I could have treated her better," Heize's mom said and cried silently while still in her husband's arms.

"It's okay, that was just a blessing in disguise. Who knew turning into a cat and getting kicked out of our city could save our daughter from all of this madness?" Heize's father said with forced optimism.

"How is living a life as a cat for almost 10 years better than dying?! Huh?!" Heize suddenly shouted after being affected by her parent's words and getting emotional over it.

"I wish I could have just died here with you… At least we'd die here together and happily like a real family instead of living this miserable life altogether," Heize whispered with a fading stubbornness of promising to hate her parents until the end of time for that unfortunate accident.

"This is because of me," Petunia said, which made Heize's parents look at her with sympathy.

"No, this is not your fault!-'' but as she was just about to continue on telling Petunia several reasons why she's not at fault, Heize quickly closed her eyes and imagined for the scene to move faster, making her skip some parts and ultimately stopping at the peak of Petunia's memories inside the secret bunker.

"Open up!" an angry voice from the outside said while banging the secret door which made Petunia unintentionally scoot over Heize's parents and hide behind them.

"It's okay, they won't get us here."

"And even if they did I won't let them touch you, not even one bit," Heize's mother said while standing behind the cauldron and in front of Petunia with a fighting stance.

On the other hand, Heize's father was diligently pushing the door so the officers outside would not get in, but just as the noise outside stopped and they thought that the officers finally gave up, a loud high-pitched descending noise followed after them which the two adults quickly recognized as a bomb immediately, instinctively scooting closer to Petunia and guarding her with their bodies.

"Hang on!" Heize's mom said to Petunia and the place suddenly went dark, probably reflecting the only things that were running in Petunia's mind at this point. Darkness.

"Those people!" Heize said with spite with his hands curled up after being trapped in the dark with Petunia whose hands body was weak on the floor and her hands covering her ears.

And with the deafening silence, Heize saw another spotlight in Petunia's memories pointing at her backpack where she put the three flasks of their imperfect animal shapeshift potion.

The child Petunia looked up and looked around as if searching for Heize's parents, but because of the dark and the deafening silence, Petunia could not see anything else other than herself and the potions in her backpack two steps away from her.

"No!! Get away from there!" Heize's mom shouted in slow motion while finally gaining a spot-light from Petunia's memories while running towards the window where she thought Petunia was running to.

"The potion! We have to drink it!" Petunia shouted but her voice was very muffled, it felt as if they could not hear what she was saying because of the high-pitched noise that just suddenly appeared again after that long silence.

And without a warning, as Petunia was just about to grab her backpack, a loud explosion made their hearts sink, shooting debris in every direction and making Petunia drop to the ground while covering her eyes and ears again.

Without giving a spotlight to anyone else, Heize was able to figure out what was going on and what happened next.

"So that's how my parents died…" Heize thought without investing any more emotions in what happened.

"And here I thought for the longest time that they chose to drink the death potion just like everyone else because of their shitty loyalty to Majesta," Heize added before closing her eyes and wishing to fast forward the events in front of her eyes again.