Winter Wolf - Chapter 2. Part 3

Chapter 2. Part 3

The room had an unusual design, with mirrors seemingly radiating from the center.

“Why are they mirrored here?”

Lysithea rose again and walked to the center of the room. Mirrors covered every inch up to the ceiling, reflecting her image from all angles.

“I feel uneasy. I’ll go crazy if I stay here any longer.”

Countless eyes on the walls seemed to be watching her. Lysithea hastily left the room with an uncomfortable feeling.

In the eastern corridor, there were only rooms that challenged her imagination in various ways. The next room, resembling a dormitory, contained several beds. Above each bed, thousands of chains were fastened to the ceiling, giving the room an eerie, death-row atmosphere.

It was disturbing. The door swung open with an eerie smoothness.

“I don’t think you’ll like it.” Terrence’s words sounded true, and Lysithea had to admit it.

She chose to end her unsettling exploration, and a twinge of regret washed over her.

“Hey….”

As soon as the door to the last room opened, a chilling breath seemed to escape from the room.

The ceiling and floor of the last room were painted a blood-red brown. It was filled with wooden and clay stands and an array of tools. It resembled a torture room.

Taking a deep breath, Lysithea stepped into the ominous room. Unlike the others, the wooden floor creaked with every step she took.

When she looked down, it seemed as if blood was oozing from the floor, and her look was drawn toward the wall.

Drawing, grinding, cutting, chopping, jacquarding, and purifying. Lysithea braced herself as she observed the instruments of torture, which resembled flowing crimson. The structures on either side of the wall seemed designed to hold a person’s neck in place.

“I think I’m losing my mind. Is this real?”

She had heard that there were nobles with such tastes, but the discovery of the room’s purpose was too shocking to confront.

“I will not come back here.”

In a moment, Lysithea turned around with her eyes closed tightly. Suddenly, a louder, scratching sound reached her ears. She looked down in the direction of the sound. It was coming from below.

Once again, a loud sound came from the floor where she was standing. It resembled the sound of sharp nails scratching against the wall.

“Oh, God!”

Lysithea ran screaming from the red room. The echo of her frantic footsteps echoed through the empty hallway. She ran down the stairs, fell to her knees, and met Terrence on the second floor.

“There is!……..

Lysithea screamed and ran toward him. Terrence opened his arms and comforted her as she rushed to him in a sudden panic.

“Lysithea, calm down. What’s in there?”

“Someone is in there! In this house!”

Lysithea, clinging to him, looked up at Terrence in tears.

“I heard it, Terrence. There’s someone up there. No, it’s downstairs, on the ground floor.”

“Is there someone?”

“I don’t know if it was a real person, but… someone was scratching the floor… under the floor. Something…”

“Lysithea.”

Terrence’s voice remained calm. He looked down at her with a mature and steady look.

“Think about what you’re telling yourself right now. Like I said, we’re the only two in this house, and I think you’re experiencing strange things and becoming overly sensitive.”

“So nobody else is in this house but us!”

“And a ghost if it’s there.”

Terrence rejected it. Lysithea wanted to argue for a moment, but she regained her composure.

“It’s not a ghost. It’s a human being; it could be an animal. You have to be aware of that; don’t be under the influence of ghosts.”

“Oh, do I have to find out? So you can win the bet?”

Lysithea felt herself choking. Of course, she was not entitled to demand that of him, but she didn’t have the funds to comply.

Lysithea decided to end her questioning rather than confront him with a reproachful look.

“Terrence, I hear screams in this house every night. Did you hear it?”

Terrence lowered his head with a significant nod.

“I hear what sounds like a scream. On nights with heavy snow, the wind can sound like a woman’s scream.”.

It was not a woman’s voice, but Lysithea refrained from voicing her disagreement.

Terrence seemed not to notice. She took a moment to compose herself before speaking again.

“So, except for the snow, there are different noises every night.”

“Well, I don’t know.”

Terrence scratched his head, looking worried.

“I didn’t hear anything even when I turned on the lights. Not on the second floor, not on the third floor.”

“You didn’t hear anything? At night?”

“Yes, I didn’t. It was quiet every night. Would you like that? Because I enjoyed it so much.”

It seemed ridiculous. Lysithea felt frustration well up inside her.

She distinctly heard it—the sound of a man’s scream every night, the noise of something scratching from beneath the floor.

“Lysithea, are you all right? You’re sweating.”

Terrence’s hand gently cupped her forehead. When a bead of sweat she hadn’t noticed touched his warm hand, Lysithea pushed him away and turned toward the corridor.

“Wait, what are you doing? What…?”

“Let me go!”

Ignoring Terrence’s call, Lysithea nervously wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead and walked down the western corridors.

Her mind was in confusion, and her eyes were trembling. As soon as she entered her room, she slammed the door and closed her eyes.

Staring at the door, Lysithea listened, unsure what she was hearing. She could still hear the screams and the scratching on the floor.

“Why didn’t Terrence hear anything? Am I going crazy? No, I’m already crazy.”

As she thought, the mansion fell silent. Lysithea laid down in bed without changing her clothes.

“It’s all a nightmare.”

Her premonition turned out to be correct.

***

The man’s hand grabbed her between her legs.

She wrapped herself in the bed and cried into his arms. But he tore her dress off her forehead without blinking.

“Be quiet, Lady Arman, if you don’t want to die.”

A cold sword struck her thigh, cutting off her belt.

“Look at this. This is better than being n*ked.”

Lysithea put her hand down in front of the sword. She stopped resisting.

The man took off his pants. With one hand, he was strangling her br**st, and with the other hand, a sword, he was unleashing the dance.

“Look how you look, lady. This is the new revolution.”

Finally, he let his p*n*s out and positioned it between her legs. It was then that his finger removed her underwear.

“Bang!”

A gunshot echoed in the outer room of the city of Arman. Lysithea pushed the lifeless man aside and rushed out the door.

Her footsteps left imprints on the snowy ground as she darted back and forth.

Her footprints were visible on the pristine snow.

In the distance, the sound of a horse whinnying reached her ears, and a dark shadow began to blur over her footprints.

“Phantom”.

The ghost was following her.

“Don’t come!”

Lysithea’s scream went unheard, and the phantom’s dark shadow turned into a black wave that swallowed her whole.

The black wave swept across the white valley like the sea, and Lysithea struggled to escape the water that grabbed her ankle and climbed up a snow-covered hill. The hill led to a mansion with its windows wide open and the black and red curtains fluttering wildly. But the door was locked.

“Terrence! Help me, Terrence!”

Lysithea banged on the door, calling Terrence’s name, but Terrence was standing at the window of a room at the west end of the second floor.

“Terrence! Open the door, please!”

As she cried out in desperation, the Phantom’s waves began to surge up the hill. Terrence, watching the scene, informed her, “The sea is freezing, Lysithea.

“No!”

“The phantom found me.”

“No!”

“I heard a funny story.”

Terrence’s yellowish eyes turned to her.

“There’s a ghost living in this house.”

Lysithea refused to move. She sat down and waited by the locked door, and soon the black water rose, creeping up to her knees.

In the cold, Lysithea comes to the harsh realization that Terrence won’t rescue her.

Another terrible thought followed.

“Terrence will let me die.”

She felt really stressed, and suddenly, tears started flowing.

***

Lysithea awoke in the middle of the night.

Her whole body was covered with cold sweat. Her face was also wet, with tears streaming down her face. When she exhaled and raised her body, the cold sweat drops flowed all over her body.

She quickly approached the fireplace and undressed. As she warmed herself in front of the flame, she saw the three figures at the foot of the bed.

Terrence was the one who entered her room while she was asleep.

‘Did he see me crying?’

When did her nightmare start, and when did she cry? When did Terrence come into her room?

Lysithea shook her head, realizing that her mind was weakening. It wasn’t this time; she had to quickly wipe her body and go back to sleep. It was nighttime, so she might have heard another scream.

‘ There is no such thing as a ghost. But I heard a sound… .’

It was when Lysithea was wiping her body with a water towel. She heard the sound of a blizzard. And she heard it again.

‘It was a man’s scream, still high and clear.’

Lysithea hastily ran and went through the door to sleep.

But not long after that, the sound came back. A man screamed, groaning only in pain. Lysithea hesitated, taking a step backward without realizing it.

A ghost. That was the first thought she heard, but it was not true.

‘If so, is he a human?’Either way, Lysithea was terrified and could not even move.

‘I don’t want to endure another night here.’

‘Terrence mentioned I could join him in his room if I’m frightened and proposed that we sleep together.’

Lysithea leaned against him for comfort, trying to suppress the uneasiness, and lay back in bed. Despite covering her ears and turning the blanket, she found no relief. The distant screams continued to echo.

Terrence is not on her side.

Lysithea closed her eyes tightly. It was the second time since the nightmare had come back to her, and the snowstorm and the faint screams against the window disturbed her.

She took the map and the luggage and left the room.