Chapter 59.

The woman on the bed trembled ever so slightly before she wrapped herself up in the bloodied bed sheet. Visibly shaken by the child’s words, she staggered off the bed towards the child. She took a few steps towards the open door, but the child kicked at the ground and moved back. Her legs had given out from fear and she was unable to get up to run away, the child could only struggle to use what little strength she had remaining in her arms and legs. She moved back until her back was pressed up against the wall behind her. With nowhere left for the child to escape, it didn’t take long before the woman arrived in front of the child.

She bent down and hugged the child while repeatedly crying out through her tears, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Forgive me. Please, forgive me.”

It was at this time, someone appeared from further down the darkened hallway. It was a woman with a sickly appearance, her gray hair bunched up behind her, she struggled forward towards the duo while in a wheelchair. She appeared to be on life support as there were medical instruments wheeled around attached to her wheelchair.

The woman holding the child glanced at the sickly woman, the woman’s eyes were laced with deep uncertainty and insecurity.

When the sickly woman came to a stop in front of the room, she took one look in the room before an intense sense of dread filled every fiber of her being. She returned a deathly venomous glare towards the woman who held the child in her arms.

“You ungrateful wench! So what if he had his way with you a bit?! You should know what he’s gone through after our last child was born!”

“Why?! Why is it always about her?!”

“You... You! Kill yourself now! You don’t have the right to live anymore!”

“Why am I the only one that has to suffer?! Why do I have to give up everything?! Why am I the only unloved one?! Why is it only her who gets to live a normal life when I can’t?! Ten years! Ten damn years! Fuck off! Why should I have to die for killing that despicable trash?! Why do you always take his and her side and not mine? Where is the equality or love here?!”

“Shut up!”

The sickly woman’s breathing grew more and more ragged. She reached into a pocket at the side of her wheelchair and pulled out a pistol. The woman holding onto the child reacted as if driven by her instincts to survive and pounced onto the sickly woman in the wheelchair. She wrapped her hands around the sickly woman’s neck and clenched her hands tightly together in a vice grip. The sickly woman attempted to point the gun at the young woman, but she visibly lacked in terms of physical strength. She was unable to put up any sort of resistance.

Meanwhile, the child watched powerlessly, too scared to move an inch, as the little bit of happiness she once had, fell and shattered to pieces.

The only thing that escaped her lips was the single word, “Mother!” That was the last thing she called out before the sickly woman met her demise.

It didn’t take long before the sickly woman’s struggle ended, the life in her eyes faded away and her desperate gasps ceased shortly after.

When the deed was done, the only thing that resounded throughout the deathly silent mansion was the ragged pants of the young woman. The child was helpless, unable to do a thing. I felt something that every child should have was lost in her eyes by that point. She looked like a broken puppet completely robbed of the innocent curiosity that once originated from her eyes when I first entered this dream-like world.

Shortly after, the young woman once more turned towards the child with easy to see mixed emotions in her eyes. Despite those transparent mixed emotions, I sensed there was still something in them akin to concern. However, I still felt exactly what the child felt. To the child, she only felt an intense hostility directed towards her that only made her feel threatened like her life was in danger.

When the young woman returned to the child’s side, she knelt down on one knee to once again pull her into an embrace to try and comfort her. I understood that even she realized how futile it was by now. Despite that, she still said a few words while she moved her hand through the child’s hair in an attempt to put the child at ease.

“Everything will be okay. I promise.”

However, what happened next was something I never expected. The child in the woman’s embrace raised her right hand up and thrust it out. When I noticed what was in her hand, I was shocked.

“Kah! Cough. Cough.”

In the child's hands, a knife, now lodged deep into the young woman’s midriff, directly through the bedsheets she’d covered herself with.

She released the child and her hands immediately pressed down where she’d been stabbed. She looked towards the child despairingly.

“Why? Aren’t we-“

“I don’t know you! Go away! Go away! Mommy! Daddy! Ahhhhhhhhhh! Aggggghhhhhh! Gaaaaaahhhhhh!”

It was as if I personally felt the excruciating, agonizing, and unbearably mortifying pain with just a single glance into the young woman’s eyes. She felt heartbroken, betrayed, despair, remorse; all sorts of chaotic emotions swirled about inside her head as they clashed and eroded her sanity.

“This world is better off dead. There is no love in this world. No one will ever accept me. Not even you, huh? It’s too unfair! Why me? What did I do to deserve this? Is there even a god in this world? Why must I suffer like this? What was I born for? What did I live for? Was it just to be a tool to satisfy someone’s unfulfilled desires? Twenty-five years, fifteen of which I was able to live, yet these last ten have only been hell. I thought if I clenched my teeth and silently endured and bore with it that thing would one day get better. It’s your fault! Everything is your fault! YOUR FAULT! If only you weren’t born!”

The earlier bit of care I’d seen in her eyes directed towards the child gradually warped and twisted into pure malice and resentment. The little girl, on the other hand, was slumped down to the ground with her head parallel to the ground. Her eyes were locked onto her hands in disbelief with a lack of understanding toward what she’d just done. Her hands were bloodied and trembling. Her tears were dripping directly from her eyes onto the palms of her hand. I felt her heart as it silently broke down and became fragmented. Her mental state inevitably deteriorated to rock bottom.