𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 [18+]

17: The Slaughterer

"Out of the suffering have emerged the strongest souls; The most massive characters are seared with scars"- Kahlil Gibran

Rose's POV:

The day of the expedition left a huge impact on me. Now that I had tasted freedom, I craved for more. I craved liberty like my next breath, I craved emancipation like new born bloom craving water. I ached for freedom, I wallowed in it and I wanted to achieve it soon.

The bird once freed.... will it encage itself in greed?

Greed was far from the reason why I was shackled and imprisoned. But still, I wanted to be free. I needed to be free. I didn't want it only for my mom, I also wanted it for myself.

After the scarring experience of my very first expedition, I was half expecting Marienne to barge in and start beating me for stepping out of the chamber. But it didn't happen, in fact, I hadn't seen Marienne for a whole week.

A week.

The nauseating week passed by like a zephyr of blur.

The past week was.... agitating. The exhaustion of fear and restlessness was constantly nagging me like a bad toe finger. Lindy didn't visit me every night, which made my plan a bit delayed.

Tik tok. Tik tok.

A ghost of air escaped me as I exhaled slowly, timidly so, eyeing the archaic grandfather clock that stood tall beside the tattered window.

Lindy hadn't visited me for past three days.

I only got one more opportunity to explore the gigantesque castle after my first expedition. I cannot say that I found a lot, but then again, if the sharp knife I had discovered behind a Venus statue on the second floor counted as anything, then yes, I had found something.

Absentmindedly, I pulled out the magnificent knife from under my pillow.

The gold tinted blade shone in under the dim ray of light that peeked through the broken window glass. It looked beautiful as it wore the Indo-Persian scribblings on it proudly. One might mistake it as a showpiece because of it's deceiving display of aesthetics, but it was definitely not.

I traced my fingertips, slowly caressing the sharp blade, examining it in awe.

Primarily, I thought it was just a beautiful piece of artwork, made to adorn Venus's magnifique structure. The statue stood at a drearily dark corner of the floor, so, I thought that it wouldn't hurt to take it.

I realized how sharp it was after scratching my index finger while stroking the blade.

My finger still hurt, but at least, I knew that I had found something worth mentioning.

The loud sound of door creaking almost made me jump. Instinct rushed me to hide the beautifully engraved knife in it's hiding place, under my pillow. I hid the knife quickly and sat straight, going back to pretending that I was sad and pitiful.

But I was sad and pitiful.....

"How are you doing today?" Lindy asked me, placing the food tray in front of me. She eyed me as something undecipherable yet familiar shone in her orbs....

I only nodded my head, breaking our eye contact and concentrating on the food.

"Dear....." Lindy whispered as she played with the seam of her maid dress. I looked up. "Yeah?"

"Can you.....not go out today?" She whispered, her eyes downcast, her posture stiff yet defeated, as if, she was being consumed alive by something that seemed like worry.