"But my princess, you asked me not to speak." Crystal felt a profound sense of wrongness. She needed to explain herself, hoping the princess couldn't be so unreasonable, right?
"Impudent! You may speak now; I permit... you."
Anabel's response made Crystal feel elated. At last, she wasn't wrong; the princess wasn't so cruel after all.
"Lady Anabel, the Young Master Kris shared a room with his Senirips tonight..."
Boom!
Like a violent hurricane, Anabel slammed her hand on the table after Crystal spoke.
She was frowning, her whole demeanor radiating obvious unhappiness.
"Useless! A very useless maid...how could you allow that?"
"My brother cannot fall for that Senirips! There should be nothing but coldness between them!"
Lady Anabel glared at Crystal, her eyes blazing with rage.
She stood up, mumbling incoherent words in fury, her voice blurred and barely audible.
"My mood is spoiled. Everlyn, you know what to do," she said, a sweet smile now plastered on her face.
The smile was beautiful, a dangerously beautiful smile that could kill.
"What, my lady?"
Everlyn seemed to be struggling to hear clearly what was asked.
"Uhhhh! Everlyn, don't annoy me too much... I want you to rip her throat out."
Lady Anabel grimaced, her hands folded, casting death glares around the room.
She took a deep breath and turned her gaze to Everlyn.
"What's with that look, Everlyn?"
She scrutinized her further, rolling her eyes and confirming the implications of Everlyn's incomplete words.
"Uh, fine, fine, I know you can have it for yourself once the job is done."
"Thank you, my lady," Everlyn replied, her smile taking on a creepier edge,
her cheerful expression lost and replaced by that of a psychopath.
"No, please...!! My lady, spare me... Spare me!! My lady!"
Crystal cried out, begging, having overheard the chilling conversation between Everlyn and Lady Anabel. They were going to rip her throat out. Lady Anabel was commanding Everlyn to commit such cruelty against her.
Everlyn, her friend... She used to smile and laugh with Everlyn,
but now Everlyn seemed different. Was the sweet, kind Everlyn she once knew the same person before her?
Was there still hope that this was all an illusion?
"Everlyn, don't do this to me… Everlyn…" she pleaded, desperate for reassurance that it wasn't real, that it was just her ears that had failed her.
"I thought we were friends."
Please, Everlyn couldn't do this to her... She was still her friend, wasn't she?
What if...
"You know very well, Crystal, that there is no such thing as friendship in this mansion..."
Everlyn's response sent chills down Crystal's spine, making her soul feel as if it had left her body. Her eyes widened in horror.
"Ha, don't you know that..."
Everlyn laughed, her eyes sparkling with mockery as if she were savoring a delightful show of despair.
"Fuck off, Everlyn, and stop making noise in my ears. Take her to another corner and just do it."
Lady Anabel shot Everlyn a warning look before turning her attention back to her tea, completely ignoring Everlyn,
who was retreating elsewhere while dragging Crystal across the ground by a chain around her neck that seemed to come from nowhere.
The maid, Crystal, was pulled to the corner by the other maid, Everlyn, who appeared angelic.
But this angel transformed into a devil when, as if in a horrific illusion, her mouth stretched into a grotesquely wide grin.
With a swift, decisive motion, she decapitated her fellow maid.
Blood gushed from the headless neck, splattering in all directions,
while the body soon crumbled to dust, vanishing without a trace, as if such horror had never occurred.