She woke up with an audible gasp and found herself in a strange place that she wasn't familiar with.
She wasn't even in pain. She felt completely whole as if she wasn't shot by her boss. But the only thing she felt was an earth-shattering migraine as if the back of her head was repeatedly slammed with a baseball bat.
"Her imperial majesty," someone rushed to her side. It was a man, dressed like a physician in the 18th century. And then the large wooden doors burst open, revealing two young women wearing the same maiden attire.
"She's awake at last!"
"Oh, thank heavens!"
Could it be that she died and stopped there halfway to hell? She pondered with wide eyes and stared at the first girl holding her hand.
It wasn't even October 31st yet, but these strange people were dressed in Halloween costumes.
"Thank God you're awake, my lady," the first girl breathed out whilst the second was completely teary-eyed.
"What's happening?" She blinked unsteadily and made to sit upright, but they immediately helped her up.
"Last night, you were having your bath when you suddenly slipped and hit your head against the floor, and then you lost consciousness," the second maid responded.
"The Emperor had all the servants punished and wanted to behead the cooks because he thought you were poisoned. But then your parents fetched the physician and we were told you had fallen into a vegetative state, that you would be up in a few hours." The first maid explained.
And she scoffed upon hearing this.
"This is quite an expensive joke, isn't it?" She snapped her gaze to meet the confused physician once, "Bryan paid you up for this?"
"What do you mean by that, my lady?" He squinted, "You've been out cold for the past sixteen hours."
"That fucking slime bastard shot me thrice, ran away with all the money, and hired you three to do this, isn't it?" She let out an incredulous chuckle, "He's not only a monster but also an idiot."
The maids and the physician exchanged a confused glance, completely baffled at this outburst.
"He couldn't even give me my twenty percent, forgetting the fact that if it weren't for me, Peitro wouldn't have bought that fucking Briolette duplicate. Yet he fucking shot me, fled with the money, and hired you three to confuse the fuck out of me!" She was seething in ten shades of red when she threw the sheet covers off and her eyes immediately raised in their sockets, upon seeing she was wearing a white chemise.
But that didn't stop her from leaving the bed. She would go find Bryan and give him a taste of his own medicine. It didn't matter if he was her boss.
"My lady, you can't step out like this!" The first maid ran to her side, looking all worked up.
"Who are you to tell me what to do?" She turned to face the girl.
"Your handmaiden, my lady," the girl clasped her hands together and curtsied.
"Oh, enough with all that act. Your job here is done," She gritted out and immediately stiffened when her eyes accidentally met the mirror.
At first, she thought it was some sort of trick and wondered if someone else was staring back at her.
But when she raised her hand to touch her face, the same thing happened in the mirror.
She was horrified at this.
Because she didn't want to think Bryan paid people to do facial surgery on her.
"What the fuck is going on!?" She thundered at the top of her lungs, making the one man and two women flinch.
"My lady, don't tell me you're going to faint again," they rushed to her side upon seeing how her body trembled violently.
Angered and in utter shock, her legs gave out underneath her and she sat on the floor.
"What did Bryan do?" She asked no one in particular, with her hands touching her face once more.
"Do you mean Brandon, my lady? The fifteen-year-old cupbearer?"
"Or Brimsley the gardener? We don't have any under-butler with the name Bryan."
The maids were puzzled.
"Why do I look so young, pale, and with a different face?" Her eyes were still fixed on the mirror, where the fresh-faced beauty was staring back at her. With a pair of emerald eyes, a tiny button nose, and bow-shaped lips. Not to talk of all that generous, curly blonde hair.
"What do you mean, my lady?"
"My name is Kate Butcher, thirty-two-year.."
"No, no. You're Imogene, twenty-one-year-old daughter of Grand Duke Campbell and bride to be of his imperial majesty, Blake Fitzgerald," the first maid provided.
"Imogene, twenty-one? Whose wife again?"
"Lord Fitzgerald, our emperor."
She stared into a space and had flashbacks of when she had read about the tyrant emperor in History. He was Blake Fitzgerald, who was feared by many. He had several mistresses but was forced by his mother to take a wife whose name was Imogene.
Imogene?
No. It can't be.
"What year are we?" She inquired quietly.
"1815, my lady," the first maid responded.
And she gasped in horror at this.
The only thing her boss did was to kill her and somehow she was given a second chance to live.
As Imogene, the one who married the tyrant Emperor?
She felt shivers transport themselves down her spine.
How was it even possible that she was transmigrated into the body of the Emperor's wife in the 18th century?
"You don't remember anything, my lady?" The physician's voice pulled her out of her thoughts.
"What did you do?" She gripped the man by the collar stunning everyone in the process.
"Nothing, my lady. Just to help revive you," the man breathed out, despite the chokehold he was being given.
"It was magic, wasn't it? Because this isn't my fucking body!"
The maids tried their possible best to free the physician from her grip.
They succeeded at last but she had ripped his collar off. Earning a collective gasp from them.
"Put my soul back into my body! I am Kate Butcher and not Imogene!" She lunged at him once more but was restrained halfway by the maids.
And the physician ran for his dear life.
Screams were resounding inside the room because she was trying to chase after the Physician, but the maids were holding her back, crying at the same time because this was a strange behavior.
"Let me go!"
"No, you cannot be seen in a mere chemise."
"This isn't my body, I can do whatever the fuck I want with it!"
"It is your body, my lady. You're to be our empress. You were groomed for this."
"My name is Kate Butcher from the 21st century and I need to have my soul back in my body."
"Now that's enough, my lady!" A more mature feminine voice shouted.
And the commotion stopped.
Her head snapped back, only to see a middle-aged woman standing in the doorway.
"You have to stop this so we can start dressing you up."
"Why and who are you?" She narrowed her eyes at the woman.
"I am your court lady, Alice,"
"And?"
"You're to wed the emperor in three hours," The woman said.
And she flinched as if she got whipped in the back.
"Did you say wed?" How could today be the wedding day? Of all the timing in the century?
"You're aware of this already, my lady. Right from birth, you were raised to be the Empress." The woman said.
"You're mistaken, court lady Governess, Alice in Borderland or whatever you call yourself," she rose to face the woman.
"I am Kate Butcher and this isn't my body, I came from the future and your Imogene isn't here."
The woman wasn't even moved by this.
"Enough with the act, my lady. We couldn't start things because you drank a sleeping pill last night for reasons best known to you. Now, we need to bathe and dress you up for the wedding. Otherwise myself, your maidservants, yourself and your family will be beheaded by the emperor."