Tapping her feet on the marble. One, two. One, two. Step. Jump.

Once again, her feet meet the floor. The cold marble welcomes her return with a chilling embrace. 

She attempts once more, taking a delicate step back. Remember. One, two. One, two. All she needed was to follow the routine, follow it and she would be granted her freedom. 

One, two. One, two. Step. Jump. Jump and lift herself off the ground, never to return.

As her feet leave the ground, the coolness of the floor fleeting from her skin. She was doing it. She was doing it! 

The lingering chill reignites, creeping from her toes, up to her legs, through her spine,  and—oh no…

Falling back into the cold desolate ground. Out of breath and out of strength. She was fatigued, physically and mentally. 

The chill had wriggled it's way to her throat, drying it of it's moisture. The girl quietly mutters out to the cold air.

"Let me go." 

"Please."

A breeze was her response, lightly brushing against her white locks, as if someone was gently brushing the girl's hair with a comb. It was comforting her, yet subtly refusing the girl's plea.

It was then the girl could feel her consciousness start to waver, maybe it was the fatigue, the comforting breeze, or a combination of both. As her vision faded away, she has finally come to accept her fate. 

She will never escape. 

Then the book slams close as Eunsoo contemplates what she has just read. This is truly a special kind of romance novel.

Not only did the end of the story not end when the hero and heroine defeated the villainess, with a final execution. But, it continued diving deeper into the hero and heroine's twisted vision of love. 

The hero gifting furniture made from the skin of all the other love interests. Then the heroine later eating the hero, claiming that this way, they would be together forever.

"They're all deranged." Eunsoo noted to herself the more time then she can count as she read novel. Only to be proven right each time.

No one was spared, not even the side characters.

The heroine's best friend got her heart ripped out by the hero and put into a automaton. All so her and the heroine can be best friends forever.

The saintess, another character who backed up the heroine, got locked up in the cathedral by an admirer. A bird trapped in a cage.

There's even a whole segment dedicated to a background farmer who grinded their lover down to fertilizer for their cabbage patch. Fertilized by the love of two people, the cabbage went on to win first place in a competition.

Thinking about all the different outcomes sent a cold shiver down Eunsoo's spine, there was no happy ending no matter how you looked at it. But hey, at least none of them were her and that's all that matters.

Setting the novel down on the nightstand, finally fulfilling the promise that she'll sleep after one last page. Finally lying down, tucked in her soft blanket and pillows. Eunsoo drifts off into dreamland.