Chapter 145 - A Little Girl

I had one knee on the grass and my finger pointed towards an almost fully grown plant in front of me. With the belief that it was going to fail, I began casting a derivative of the 'Control Vines' spell.

However, that intuition of failure didn't appear. Although it got my hopes up, it didn't do so by much since I had gotten so used to failure after trying so many times.

...But then, the plant in front of me started to shift.

A strand of what looked like yellow grains began to grow from the green plant and hung down as though it was a limb dangling powerlessly.

I slowly raised my hand, letting the end of the yellow grains fall onto my palm.

"I... succeeded."

For a few moments, I stared at the plant in front of me in disbelief. Honestly, at some point, I thought I would be doing this forever.

So seeing the results come to fruition...

Was both unexpected and exhilarating.

I gently tugged on the yellow grains until they came off. From there, I began inspecting it, trying to find out what they were supposed to be.

I pinched one of the grains, breaking the shell. A tiny wet grain of rice was revealed.

For a moment, I was speechless.

Then, a smile broke out on my face.

It took so long, but the seed I had sown finally grew to its fullest, free for the harvest.

The excitement that filled my chest made me feel antsy. I wanted to share this with someone, so I ran back into the palace, holding the grain of rice in my hand.

As I passed through the entrance, I felt something cold touch the back of my neck, frightening me.

I snapped around, but there was nobody behind me. I brushed the back of my neck with my finger, feeling a drop of water.

It was a little confusing, but I decided to let it go.

As of now, it was still fairly early. The others were probably still in their rooms. I planned on sharing it with everyone, even Mildred, though she was still unconscious.

Considering the others probably didn't want to be disturbed as they slept, I decided to go to Mildred's room.

A small smile formed on my face.

I gently pushed open the door.

"Mildred, I finally-"

I froze.

The smile remained still on my face while my eyes gradually began to widen.

Many times I imagined that Mildred would have woken up after I pushed open the door, however, she would always just be sleeping.

It slowly came to the point that the only thing I expected was that she would be lying down on the bed, even when a tiny hope in the back of my head told me something different.

Maybe this time?

Maybe tomorrow?

However, my real expectation would be that she was asleep on the bed.

Yet, that wasn't the case.

...Not because she was awake.

But because her head was missing altogether, along with a hole in her chest.

A needlessly large amount of still-wet blood covered the room, smearing across the walls and ceiling.

Mildred's pillow was soaked with a terribly dark red color. A bit of blood was still coming out of her neck.

The clothes around Mildred's chest were similarly dark red. Some of the fabric slipped into the wound, almost like something punctured her.

Mildred's body was still in the same position as it had always been. It was almost like she was still sleeping peacefully.

However, she wasn't.

Mildred was dead.

And somebody killed her.

The grain of rice I was holding dropped onto the floor.

I fell to my knees while grabbing my skull with both hands. My pupils shook violently, almost like they were experiencing an earthquake.

My fingers began digging into my skin, forming new wounds that began to bleed.

My head hurt.

It hurt so much.

For a moment, it felt like I was sinking into an unbelievably deep ocean. The pressure overloaded my mind, making it feel as though my skull was going to cave in and explode outwards at the same time.

There was an endless dark void deeper in the ocean. The only thing other than water was the faint silhouette of what looked like sharks swimming far in the distance.

I continued to sink down in this ocean.

The deeper I got, the more I understood the endlessness of the void.

As for the sharks, their figures were slowly getting closer.

They were still extremely vague, but some of their details, like the color of their skin, became clearer.

I couldn't take the pain.

...So I let the insanity seep into my mind.

Like a drug, this strange numbness spread through my head, getting rid of the pain. Then, an uncontrollably strong uplifting sensation filled my mind.

A smile gradually formed on my face.

It was definitely not the most welcoming of smiles, especially when combined with the blood dripping down my face.

The sensation was strange.

I knew I had control over myself, like I could stop clawing away at my face. If I let it, my smile would disappear, replaced by a grieving frown. The strange sense of giddiness would leave me right away.

But I didn't want to.

I just didn't want to.

I don't want to.

Why should I in the first place?

Both sanity and insanity merged to create this strange state, almost like some freak experiment.

Who?

Who did this?

Who dared?

With shaking legs, I gradually stood up.

I walked out of the room, and slowly closed the door as though my problems would all go away once they were out of sight.

It felt as though my body had too much energy and desperately wanted to get rid of it. In an effort to stifle this feeling, I twisted my head around, stretching the skin of my neck one step away from the point of tearing.

Then, I slowly began walking back.

But that was when I heard a chuckle.

It was coming from Ned's room, but it definitely wasn't Ned laughing. The pitch was far too high, like a little girl.

It was at this moment I noticed that the door to Ned's room was open ever so slightly. After pushing open the door slowly, my eyes widened further.

Ned was face up on the ground, with a bloody hole in his chest.

His eyes and mouth were wide open, but as lifeless they could be. Standing near the balcony was a little girl.

She was tiny, even smaller than Erin, and had long black hair.

The little girl was holding onto a still-beating heart, looking at it longingly. The heart wasn't any normal heart, as half of it was crystallized. The crystallized was light blue and still stretched as it beat, almost like it was skin.

At the little girl's feet were Mildred's head and another heart.

There was a small trail of blood that started from the balcony railings and ended at the head and heart.

I looked back at Ned's lifeless eyes, then to Mildred's.

...Then up to the little girl.

She too looked back at me and flashed a smile.

"Oh, hello there."

It was as though the little girl was greeting a next-door neighbor. She had a white gown which would've looked nice if it wasn't for the blood that covered it. However, that was no match for the amount of blood covering her hands that nearly became black.

I slowly opened my mouth.

"You..."

This little girl...

Was familiar.

The feeling was slight, like it was on the tip of my tongue. In fact, it would be very easy to convince myself that it was a false belief.

However, the more I thought about it, the more true it felt.

I've seen this girl.

I've seen this girl.

I'VE SEEN THIS GIRL.

...And not in my visions.

The first time I ever came out to the balcony of my room, I saw her talking with Ned.

My breathing became terribly heavy.

"You..."

The little girl covered her mouth with the tips of her bloody fingers and giggled.

"Well, I've gotten what I came here for. Though it's still probably better to not leave any witnesses."

Her figure blurred.

Then, an empty feeling coursed through my body, starting from my chest.

I looked down to see the little girl slowly pulling out my heart. A few fragments of the broken bones of my rib cage fell to the floor.

The little girl looked up at me and I stared straight back.

I could feel everything going black, but more than that, a tiny seed of rage began to sprout.

"...I will kill you."

The little girl laughed mockingly.

"And how will you do that?"

My body began trembling uncontrollably, both from the blood loss and anger.

"I WILL KILL YOU."

The little girl raised an eyebrow.

"Ok, sure."

A giggle seeped out of me, and with my last breath I forced out my last few words.

"Just wait for me."

Then it was black.

...

"Um, why are you here?"