Chapter 60
Hunter had been a refuge for her no matter what she was like.
Yet, over a small mistake of his, she was about to withhold even the small bit of attention he wanted. Shameless of her, when she could even do anything herself.
He was someone who lived by making that small attention his refuge.
And here she was, making him so anxious.
When she treated him, Hunter’s face looked as happy as a child regaining lost affection.
“You finally looked at me, Prina.”
Prina will heal me.
Prina will take care of me.
Prina will love me.
Prina. My Prina…
Hunter acted as though that alone was enough. As if he needed nothing else.
He repeated Prina’s name over and over.
At first, she liked hearing her name spoken.
The more she heard it, the more it filled my chest until it was fit to burst.
But now… somehow that name felt like a noose, slowly tightening around her throat.
And as Hunter’s shoulder slowly healed, the torn and festering rift between us seemed, on the surface at least, to be mending as well. Prina also hoped for it to be so.
They ate at set times. As if by promise, they cared for Lucky, tended to the vegetables in the garden.
And Prina tended to Hunter’s wound.
Whenever she lifted her gaze, Hunter was always there. His hollow eyes seemed to reflect Prina’s hollow soul with stark clarity. Afraid he might see too deeply, she couldn’t keep her head raised for long, but she had no real complaints.
At bedtime, when Hunter held her from behind, it was as though nothing had ever happened. As though being chased by knights in the forest, as though the knight who had come to the mansion and died, were nothing but dreams.
Hunter was the same. Peaceful days stretched on, as if life were simply to be lived like this with him every day.
Prina wanted that too. That much, at least, was true.
Hunter replaced the shattered mirror with a new one.
Like someone trying to prove that even if a mirror breaks, it doesn’t matter.
One, two, three…
Bit by bit, the mirrors multiplied. Until there were too many to count, until they crowded together to fill the walls completely.
In Prina’s room, in the hallways, in Hunter’s room, in the bathroom, even in the dining room. Mirrors were hung everywhere, without a single gap.
Their sizes and shapes varied, but all of them, as though by some unspoken promise, reflected only Prina. Exhaustively, from every angle. Nothing else appeared in them.
Cradling Lucky, Prina carefully approached one of the mirrors.
Though she held him, strangely, only she appeared.
Startled for a moment, she soon calmed.
They were mirrors he had filled the house with for her sake. That could be the reason.
It was not enough for Hunter to stare at her directly, he also devoured her with his eyes through the mirrors.
Even the trembling of her fingers as she lifted her fork at mealtimes was observed, insistently, from five different mirrors at five different angles.
Countless eyes watched Prina from every side. The mirrors reflected only her, nothing else, but within them, she saw sharp, golden-yellow eyes.
Feeling suffocated under the sense of surveillance, she tried hiding beneath her blanket, hiding in corners, but he always found her.
When she thought of stepping outside to the garden, even just to stand at the door, if she so much as imagined leaving the mansion, Hunter would already be standing behind her.
Each time, it felt as though her breath was being silently strangled.
As if even that wasn’t enough, he embraced her constantly, at all hours. Through relentless coupling, he seemed to want confirmation of something.
It was like an experiment. Or some kind of ritual.
That Prina was still alive.
That Prina still responded to him.
That within Prina, he still existed.
Hunter ceaselessly doubted, and ceaselessly confirmed.
And each time, Prina realized.
Nothing would ever change.
The more it went on, the more suffocating the supposed coziness became.
It was like living underwater, needing to break the surface just to breathe.
Even food she normally finished to the last bite, she began to leave behind. Even her favorite dishes.
She turned back from going to the garden, retreating to her room instead.
The herbs Hunter had brought her piled up in the kitchen, rotting until they were unusable.
And yet Hunter did not get angry. He only observed in silence.
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