Chapter 13
Chapter 13
A moment ago, she could have easily dodged him, but she was captivated by his blazing eyes, her reaction delayed. Arietta’s head snapped to the side as his hand connected with her cheek. A burning sting quickly followed the initial heat. She touched her throbbing cheek with a trembling hand.
“I don’t need it. I don’t need anything from the likes of you!”
Still enraged, the boy shoved her hard, sending her tumbling to the ground.
“Oof!” Arietta cried out as she landed on her backside.
“Arietta?” Her mother’s voice called from inside the house.
The boy seemed to finally come to his senses. Abandoning Arietta on the kitchen floor, he bolted. By the time the bedroom door flew open, he was long gone.
“Arietta!”
Seia gasped at the scene in the kitchen: scattered belongings and her daughter slumped on the floor.
“What happened? Are you alright? You should have woken me!” She rushed to Arietta’s side, her concern for her daughter overriding any worry for her valuables. While Arietta seemed mostly unharmed, her cheek was already swelling from the harsh blow.
“Mama, Mama!” Arietta reached for her mother. Seia immediately pulled her into a hug, stroking her back. Arietta’s small body trembled with cold.
“Mama…” Arietta clung to Seia, her tiny lips pressed against her ear. “I… I want something.”
Seia realized then that fear wasn’t the cause of her daughter’s trembling. Pulling back slightly, she looked at Arietta’s face. Hair disheveled, cheek inflamed, Arietta stared up at her with an unsettling intensity.
“How do I… possess someone?”
***
“Arietta still hasn’t awakened.” Isaac’s voice was flat, yet the head maid, bowed before him, detected a simmering rage beneath the monotone.
She felt a constant sensation of falling, the ground disappearing beneath her feet. The despairing part was knowing it wasn’t a real fall, just a symptom of her overwhelming panic.
‘If only I could die, then I could escape this.’
The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. Just the effort of standing upright was exhausting.
The fury of a Big Cat, regardless of the type, was terrifying. But if one had to face it, the explosive, uncontrolled kind was almost preferable. A sudden blaze, at least, eventually burns itself out.
A quiet, simmering, refined rage was far more dreadful. It meant the Big Cat was meticulously feeding the fire, convinced of its justification, ensuring it wouldn’t die down.
And a controlled rage, carefully calculated, focused, and directed, was the most potent of all.
“I am… attending to her with the utmost care.” The head maid offered what she hoped was a safe answer. But there were no safe answers in this situation.
Isaac tilted his head slightly, gazing at her. “What meaning is there in your ‘utmost’?”
“….”
“What am I supposed to glean from your ‘utmost’?”
“I… I apologize, Big Cat.”
“Your ‘utmost’ holds no value.”
The air crackled with tension.
“The only thing that matters is whether Arietta wakes or not. That’s all I need to know. Why are you telling me about your efforts? Why do I need to know that? What makes that important information?”
“…,”
“Why did Arietta fall from there?”
“A… a foolish maid pushed her…” The head maid desperately tried to deflect the blame onto Gwen. It was a pathetic, transparent attempt.
Isaac saw right through her.
A surge of fury coursed through him. Dark fur sprouted on the back of his neck, the beast within threatening to consume his human facade.
“Grrrr…” A guttural growl, the sound of a predator, sent a chilling wave through the head maid, freezing her to the core.
“It… it was my fault!” She prostrated herself, frantic.
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