Chapter IX: Mourning of the queen

I heard the screams of Annaliese first thing as I rushed at mom’s bedroom.

Everyone took the day off that day, skipping both work and school. Gale and Vance were back as well, staring at the utter horror in front of them.

We were all gathered around the big bed as Kruz, together with Satomi, tried to figure out how to clean up.

“Mom! Mom! Oh my God! No! No!” Annaliese cried desperately, hugging her own mother’s dead body.

I stared at the knife I used to stab her with remorse as I cried silently. Nelya was at my side, staring at her in utter shock, not making a single sound.

“THIS IS BULLSHIT!” Gale screamed, punching the wall. Vance trembled in fear, comforted by William, who was staring at mom as he wept.

“I can’t do this...I can’t…!”

“Hey! Hey!”

Katherine suddenly grabbed the knife and tried to stab her own throat, she was miraculously stopped by Rosie, who was pale and in a state similar to Nelya’s...silent shock. Satomi quickly helped her out, hugging Katherine as she screamed and cried.

Annaliese squeezed her body, trying to wake her up while repeating her name. Kruz waited patiently for her to step away and let him do his job.

I looked at my family as it fell apart. I was the cause of all this.

My heart rotting, my soul shattering. I held the urge to vomit right then and there.

“Is this the end of our family?” Nelya asked me, slowly turning around.

Yes. It was.

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Ten minutes later, Kruz went to contact the funeral parlor with Satomi. I wondered what they would have thought after seeing us five days later.

We were all in the living room, sitting on the couches around the small table as Ferya served tea very quietly.

William was the only one standing, walking back a forth with a hand on his chin.

“In one week, we lost both our parents. They both killed themselves.” Vance muttered, clenching at his black, elegant and expensive pants. “I don’t think I can take this any more.”

“Vance.” William glance at him sternly. “We can’t fall apart.”

“What do you even mean?!” Gale retorted. “Mom and Dad are fucking dead! What are we going to do now?!”

“Is this about money?! Really!?” Annaliese exclaimed. “You fucking bastard!”

“Who said it was about money?! I just-”

“Stop! Everyone!” William yelled. “Stop right NOW!”

I flinched, Milo appeared from under the couch and jumped on my lap. He brushed his head against me as I hugged him.

William took a deep breath. “Look. This is very, very hard. Believe me when I say I’m suffering as much as you all are.” He said, swallowing down a chunk of tears. “T-They...both didn’t deserve such an end. Dad had something tormenting him, and mom couldn’t hold the grief. But as the eldest son, it is my duty to protect everyone here...and I can’t afford to lose any more people I love because of suicide.”

We all looked at Katherine. She whimpered, hiding her face with her hands.

“I just wanted to say...please, trust me when I say that the best thing we can do now is to stick together. Look out for each other, constantly...and none of you should give in to weird thoughts. At all.”

Erika sighed, shaking her head. “I don’t think we can afford sticking together. We all have different lives and goals...the warmth of this house was the only thing keeping us united, William. Now that it’s gone, we can barely be here anymore. You will leave us after this summer as well.”

Erika was trying to make them leave home, because she knew that whoever was the killer didn’t want that.

The witch really had it planned thoroughly. She even predicted this. The more I lived inside her plans, the more I realized that everyone here was a puppet, after all.

“I will figure out something.” William replied. “I don’t want to have any of you out of the house, am I clear? Also, please...Vance, Gale...do not disappear like you did again.”

Vance nodded.

“Yeah, we gotta stick around for the little ladies.” Gale said, forcing a clear, fake smile while looking at me, Nelya and Erika.

Erika sighed.

Leaving this place was out of question, she knew that. I also knew that both her ego and expectations crumbled last night, seeing how well I played my own turn.

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Nelya was already sound asleep even if the next day she would have skipped school for being at mom’s lunch.

I was sitting at the desk, doing nothing. Milo was purring on my lap as I petted him.

Then, all of a sudden, I heard her voice.

“Lillya, come. It’s urgent.”

I was there in no time.

She wasn’t sitting like usual, she was standing and looked in a hurry.

“Let’s make it quick. Erika is already going to try to lure you out as I predicted.” She said. “You have to kill your mother right now.”

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“I-I...what? No, I-”

“Quick! She’s in her room right now, she’s trying to muster the courage. She cannot see you!” She walked closer, menacingly. “Be a good puppet! Obey.”

I shook my head, clenching my fists. I wasn’t ready, at all. I wasn’t expecting to kill her so soon and so abruptly.

“Lillya, kill your mother.”

But then all my muscles tightened at her words. My body turned around and started walking slowly.

“Good. Fail and I will punish you.” She said before vanishing behind my back.

And so I went back to my room, grabbed the knife I had hidden since that same morning under the bed...and went to my mother’s bedroom.

I opened the door slowly.

“Oh! Lillya?” She was reading a book, her lamp shining bright her side of the bed.

The moment I saw her loving, caring expression despite her sorrow, I started crying. Ugly, loud sobs as I hid the knife behind my back.

“Oh my God…! Is something wrong, baby?” She immediately wanted to get up and hold me in her arms, but I stopped her with my hand, pressing her body against the bed.

“Mom…” I muttered, swallowing down my sorrow. “...mommy…”

“W-What is it baby? What are you doing?” She grabbed my wrist with her hands as she tried to get up again.

“I just...want to tell you that I love you, okay? I love you...and this...this is not me. This is the witch.”

“The...witch?” She widened her eyes.

“I’m sorry…”

I leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Ack!”

And then the knife was in her chest. The blade went in smoothly at first, blood gushed out immediately, followed by a moan of shock and pain from her throat. Then, I had to push it deeper. Sounds of flesh and bones breaking leaked from the wound, filling my ears. My brain started feeling that tingle of pleasure again, encouraging me to push even deeper.

Don’t look at me with those eyes...mom…

Mom’s grip on my arm weakened, an ugly death rattle coming out of her throat as she struggled for her life.

I grabbed her hands and wrapped them around the knife’s blade, to make it look like she stabbed herself. Erika wasn’t going to buy it, but the rest of the family would have.

I kissed her forehead again. “I’m sorry...I’m so, so sorry…” I muttered, my tears falling all over her nightgown as her eyes stared at me in shock.

Then, I heard a sound outside. It had to be Erika. I immediately turned the lamp off and hid under the bed, panicking.

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I looked down as I reminisced.

She could have told Erika I was under the bed...yet...she chose to lament about how I was crying. I will never understand why she did that.

And I will also never forget the look she gave me.

Erika was desperately trying to find the next counterattack, since after two deaths she could only figure out the culprit was a female.

“No matter what, I will keep this family together.” William stated, denying Erika’s suggestion once more.

“We all will do our best.” Rosie corrected him, walking to his side. “Right?”

We all nodded, getting up from our seats. Milo started scurrying around us, bringing the whole mood up.

“This cat...he doesn’t have a clue.” Vance bitterly smiled. “He’s so cute.”

“Yeah.” I picked him up, he brushed his little nose against my chin. “It’s like he came here to support us.”

Annaliese sighed and tapped his nose with her finger. “I’d give anything to be a cat.” She sighed. Milo meowed at her.

I looked at Katherine as she passed behind me. She looked broken, lost. I had never expected such an act from a quiet and detached girl like her. She nearly got that knife in her throat right in front of us.

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The funeral of her dear mother had just finished. Everyone paid their respects and went back into the house.

A haunting silence lured all across the room, as Katherine sat on her bed, hugging her own knees, all alone.

Her mind was empty and full of thoughts at the same time. She wished to cry, scream...but all that came out was silence.

They were all wrong. It wasn’t suicide, nor anything else.

Katherine saw the real reason, Katherine could feel it ooze out of both her parent’s corpses.

The reason she tried to stab herself wasn’t out of sorrow, but out of terror.

Many nights before all this she saw her, after all.

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Nelya and I sat under the tree, right beside our parent’s graves. I stared at her, her mind blank. Milo resting on my lap.

She hadn't spoken a word since that question.

‘’Is this the end our this family?’’

I wanted to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be okay...but I was the reason our parents died, after all. It would have been so hypocritical of me to do such a thing.

Yet, it looked like it was what she needed.

“Nelya.”

She slowly turned around, staring in my eyes. Her deep, blue eyes looked beautiful. My whole body felt something I was disgusted of, and I was forced to swallow it back down.

“Can I hug you?” I asked her.

She nodded.

I slowly embraced her in my arms, as she let her weight fall against me. I put my face in her golden hair, tightening my grip around her. I inhaled deeply.

“Lillya…” she finally spoke, saying my name.

“Yes?” I chimed.

She looked up in the sky and muttered three words I will never, ever forget.

“I love you.”

Her voice sounded like heaven. My heart melted and I hugged her tighter.

“Why?” The sane part of me asked. Why would she say such a thing now?

“Because I realized how quickly our loved ones fade away.” She replied simply. “I don’t want to live with regrets. I love you.”

I began to weep.

“We will be always together, right?” She asked.

I cried louder and louder, holding her against me as much as I could.

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I tapped my fingers against the side of the typewriter, trying to make my brain work.

‘’She’’ could have been anyone.

Katherine, Annaliese, Rosie, Lillya, Nelya, Satomi, Steelia, Ferya, Cléa.

I had a lot work to do, and no more room of error. Another death, and the family would have crumbled apart. My heart was already twisting...I couldn’t possibly withstand losing anything else without making my emotions gain the control of my actions.

I had to think. I had to think fast while I still could be lucid and rational.

Given the circumstances, this is all I had:

The culprit was a girl, a girl that couldn't tie knots properly, which excluded Satomi, Ferya and Steelia. Cléa was still on the list, since she was just a cook. All this would have been true if the witch wasn’t playing with red herrings. Maybe those three were the culprit and tied the knot badly on purpose.

But for the sake of my sanity, I temporarily excluded them.

Cléa, Nelya, Lillya, Annaliese, Katherine and Rosie.

Rosie was also out, because during the murder, she was lecturing me with William about my negativity towards the lunch we were preparing for mom.

Cléa, Nelya, Lillya, Annaliese and Katherine.

Who, among these five girls, is the witch’s pawn?

Then, I realized something.

Katherine tried to kill herself randomly while in front of mom.

Did she...succumb to the remorse and regret killing her?

That made way too much sense. I couldn’t discard the theory. Katherine was a quiet, mysterious girl. We rarely talked to each other even if we had been sharing the same home for six years.

She was a suspect.