Chapter 115 - Fear Of Identity

''What was I going to do?'' Esme snapped out of her trance.

She pushed herself to her feet and glanced at the people surrounding her who were shouting for her to die.

The reality started hitting her leaving her mortified for a moment. 

''He is not my brother,'' Esme pointed her finger at Adrian and shouted with all her might, turning the crowd silent within an instant, ''This is not real. My brother is alive and well.''

She gradually came back to her senses. How could this be real? Earlier this day, her brother was glaring at her from across the dining table. 

They are not in the past anymore. 

He is one of the strongest warriors with his powers at peak. No harm could befall him.

And a wave of calm washed over her.

All the mocking faces disappeared from her view like clouds dispersing in the air.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up when she realized that she was about to kill herself. She did not know what happened earlier but she felt like everything was real. If she had not seen the dried blood on her hand and if her movements did not pause for that moment then she might have stabbed herself to death. 

She broke out in cold sweat.

Outside the illusion trap, Liz was standing in front of the mirrored wall as she watched Esme standing there safely, ''You got lucky this time,'' her red pupils flashed as she extended her hand towards the mirror, ''But you are not going to survive this,'' the corner of her lips tugged up.

Before Esme could let out a relieved sigh, her surroundings started changing again.

Soon, she found herself standing in front of the sea at the border of the Enchantment forest.

Esme gulped. Was it something similar again? 

Without a moment's delay, she picked up a stone from the sand and squatted on the ground before she started scribbling something on the sand. 

'This is an illusion'

She looked at the words she wrote.

Esme was not certain what kind of situation this was but earlier, she could not control her actions. She was going to kill herself in a trance so this might prevent something similar from happening again. 

It will be fine. She convinced herself.

''No one is around,'' she mumbled after looking around, ''So, I will be safe.''

Outside the illusion trap, Liz burst out in laughter when she heard Esme's words, ''Silly Princess. No one is around. Do you think I need people to harm you?'' she twirled her hair in her fingers, ''Just your fears are enough to kill you. Tsk. Truly a naïve and weak princess. I don't even need to lift a finger to deal with the likes of you.''

Esme looked at the sea quietly and something stirring in her heart.

I should go back to the castle. With that thought in her mind, she turned around but as she tried to move, she failed to take a step. 

Her body faced the sea on its own despite her inner struggles, ''This is an illusion,'' she repeated the words like a chant but it was as if her heart was believing otherwise.

There was a weird sensation in her body. That familiar feeling. She was craving to go inside the water.

''Just this once…'' she mumbled to herself and unaware to her, the words she wrote on the sand disappeared when she made her way towards the sea.

Esme kept walking till her body was submerged in water till her waist.

There was a prickling sensation as scales appeared on her body, her long gown was shredded to pieces. Esme threw her head back, letting her long wine-colored hair flow on the water.

She slowly moved her hand to feel the scales that covered her chest, a dazed look appeared in her eyes, ''No… This is not me,'' she screamed. She was not a monster, ''No!''

The louder she screamed, the more her body drowned in the sea.

Esme could see the fishes passing through her. She grabbed the seaweeds desperately when she saw a tail had replaced her legs, ''No!" Water went inside her mouth as she cried, her tears turning into pearls as they fell.

Esme closed her eyes when she felt like she could not breathe anymore, her body started falling towards the bottom of the sea.

The lower she fell, the darker it became. It was like an abyss that was sucking her in.

Her struggles became futile attempts.

'I am not a monster. No, I can't be like this. I am a human. I am a human,' she repeated those words again and again in her mind as she glanced at the surface of the water which seemed to be moving further away from her, 'My legs…' her eyes teared up as she glanced at the long and shiny silver tail that occupied the place of her legs.

Liz watched in glee as the woman kept falling in the water, her eyes closed and her body turned lifeless.

''What a clueless bitch!" Liz turned around and walked towards the altar in the room, ''Who told you to play a game that had your life as the bet? Not that I was going to let you go if you didn't play it though,'' she burst out in laughter.

Liz looked at her nails which started growing pointed tips under her gaze. She stroked the tip of her sharp nail with a thumb, ''If you didn't agree to play that, I would have poked this straight into your eyes,'' she went into another round of maniacal laughter.

She wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes after calming down, ''Poor Princess, I forgot to tell you that you will die in real life if you die in that illusion. The more you fear something, the more likely it is for your fear to kill you. You can't blame me when it's your fear of your identity that killed you…''

''I am not going to blame a pathetic woman who has lost her mind. You don't have to worry about that.'

Liz froze.