The Sixth

11: The Faces of a Beast

Darlin watches the study's door shut with a click. She draws a shuddered breath, feeling something encroach from the back of her mind. It's strange yet familiar, unwanted as it is inevitable.
Her eyes press shut in an attempt to force it back, but when she reopens them, Darlin finds herself standing before a vase of blue irises.

Fear drops her heart into her stomach. Her sharp and short breaths are poured into a shrill, "NO!" as she crumples to her knees before the flowers.

Darlin drags her fingers over her scalp as if wanting to include her hands in the search for the gap in her memory. "...No... no, no, no...!" There's nothing.

As bizarre as a day with no sun, or a house without floors, there was no recollection of the time between Flora's exit, and now.

A single drop splatters on the floor, then another, and another. Strength and will drain from Darlin's bones with every tear until she's left laying on the floor. "Why... No, no, no, no, no, no! I d-don't... I-I ruined everything...!"

The last time such a lapse overcame her, she got her hands on the aphrodisiac that made Heinrich slay her in their matrimonial bed.

Same with when she purchased the poison that killed everyone in her fifth life.

Darlin chews her bottom lip, unable to fathom how one's own mind can betray them so. "It's over..." There's no telling what she's gone and done this time. "N-no... it can't— not yet. I... It's over...?" A lifeless chuckle falls past her lips as she thought, There's always next time. with her heart growing ever sour.

It is the same tragic story of her existence— so much toiling and not a single fucking fruit!

There is a great deal of hatred within Darlin, and in her mind's treachery she realizes she seems to act on these evils.

No doubt someone will come to discipline her— maybe even arrest her? Should I kill myself?

There was a knock on the door and Darlin found this odd. Do officers normally knock when coming to make an arrest?

"Milady, it's Collette."

When no answer comes, Collette knocks again. That's weird. Other servants said they saw Darlin headed for her room.

Is she sleeping? "...No way." Darlin doesn't take midday naps. That busy little bee is at work from the moment she wakes to the second she rests.

Collette knocks a few more times, harder each time she goes unanswered. Seeing no other choice, she lets herself in with a, "Pardon me."

Her eyes trace left and right before finding the unexpected sight of Darlin curled up on the floor.

"Milady!" Collette closes the distance between them in a dash, but before she could lift Darlin into her arms, the noble lady shot into a seating position and grabbed onto Collette's arms.

"You!" Darlin's eyes are crazed with excitement. They shot all over the maid's face, lips curling up in a rush of glee. "I-I almost forgot... I... I still... I have you!"

Darlin couldn't help laughing at herself. Her mind instantly got to work spinning instructions for Collette, but when she opened her mouth only a hiccup spilled out.

Her mind was in disarray, and her body would not stop shaking. Darlin thought she was melting, and the only stable thought in her head was amazement towards such oscillating relief.

Collette blinked till the shock eases from her mind. She was still left at her wits end when Darlin slumped against her, disjointed laughter turning into whimpers.