Chapter 337: A sharp, gleaming knife

Chapter 337: A sharp, gleaming knife

Chapter 337: A sharp, gleaming knife

In an instant, Ryan felt a chill run down his spine.

“Alice, you’re awake. I was calling you earlier, but you wouldn’t wake up.” Ryan forced a smile.

Alice tilted her head, looking at Ryan. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me today. My head feels really heavy.”

She hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “Ryan, I think something’s off with me. I suspect it might be that seafood soup I had last night.”

Ryan thought back to dinner. He had been so focused on avoiding mixing the braised beef with the chocolate brownies that he completely overlooked the fact that the seafood soup was also made by Nella.

Nella knows I don’t like seafood soup, so she’d be sure I wouldn’t drink it.

Could Nella have used that to her advantage, making sure Alice drank the drugged soup? Ryan replayed the details of the previous night in his mind.

“Alice, I’ve been meaning to tell you... I think there’s something off about Nella, but I didn’t have any proof, and I couldn’t find the right moment to bring it up.”

“Take a look at this video.”

Alice pulled up a video on her phone.

It was footage from a few days ago, taken from the security cameras in the banquet hall.

In the video, Ryan and Alice were walking into the hall, with everyone’s eyes on them.

At that moment, the camera panned across Nella’s face.

She had an extremely strange expression.

Nella appeared to be smiling.

But her eyes were wide open, staring intently at the two of them.

Honestly, Ryan was creeped out by how Nella looked in the video.

“After I saw this footage, I felt something was off. So, I started paying attention to the surveillance videos of the three of us together.”

After watching the clips on Alice’s phone, Ryan’s skin crawled.

In every video, Nella’s expression was disturbingly eerie.

She was staring at Ryan with a forced, exaggerated smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“After that, I did some digging into Nella’s past. Before the Langston family adopted her, she was called Bella. Do you remember? She used to be bullied by some bad kids.”

Ryan nodded.

He did know about that. Bella, with her “unlucky” silver hair, had been relentlessly bullied by the other kids in the orphanage. Ryan had helped her out a few times, and then she was adopted and left.

Ryan had felt really sorry for her back then.

Alice took a deep breath and showed Ryan a screenshot of a news article.

“May 1st, 2020, an abandoned factory near Crestview Secondary School... ‘Call from the Past, Case No. 0197.’ A fire broke out in the factory, and three students who regularly hung out there died. Only one student survived.”

Crestview Secondary School was where Bella used to go.

Ryan’s heart started pounding.

Bella had never told him about this.

“I got in touch with the officer who handled the case. He told me that the fire was suspected to be arson, but they couldn’t find any evidence. It was a really strange case.”

“And after that, Bella was never bullied again. In fact, she got really close to a boy from outside the school, but not long after, their relationship started to fall apart.”

Ryan’s heart clenched.

Twins usually look almost identical. What if the one who survived wasn’t Alice, but her sister?

To avoid going to juvenile detention, Alice’s sister could have taken on Alice’s identity.

Ryan’s breathing became rapid.

Who was telling the truth—Nella or Alice?

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

“Ryan, are you okay? I thought I heard you talking to someone in there.”

Alice’s voice came from outside the door.

Ryan quickly steadied his breathing. “I’m fine.”

The door creaked open.

Thud!

Blood splattered.

Ryan felt a sharp pain in his chest. His vision blurred, and it felt like his body was being pulled into a deep abyss. His consciousness faded rapidly.

[Ding! Main Quest Progress: 2/5 – Killed by Alice (100%)]

...

But just as everything went dark, a blinding light suddenly flashed before Ryan’s eyes.

Time seemed to warp, and his consciousness snapped back to the moment before the door opened—back to when Alice hadn’t yet stepped inside. It was as if his death had never happened.

Ryan was still standing there, his heart pounding, as if everything he had just experienced was a terrible illusion.

Suddenly, Nella’s voice came through the phone again, this time in a hushed, terrified tone.

“Ryan, your cause of death has changed! It’s no longer from falling—it’s from a ruptured heart. You were stabbed to death!”

Ryan’s heart raced.

He crouched down carefully, pressing his ear to the floor.

Through the crack under the door, he could see Alice’s feet.

And in her hand... was a sharp, gleaming knife.

The voice on the phone cut off abruptly.

The one-minute call limit had been reached.

Remaining calls: 3

The doorknob slowly began to turn with a creak.

Ryan grabbed the mop beside him, backing away in fear.

The door swung open.

Alice stood in the doorway, the knife in her hand catching the light, reflecting a blinding glare.

She smiled faintly at Ryan, her expression dark and unreadable as she stared at him.