Page 136 of Everdoll

“You’re being paranoid.”

“Lying is not a virtue, Sebastian.”

“What do you want to hear, Ray? Sorry that I’m not the devil you’ve always believed me to be.”

My lips curled upward. “That’s exactly what you are, you bastard.”

The metal arm shot out and clamped around Sebastian’s throat. He was yanked off the chair by me, his head slamming against the ceiling, a few bricks crashed to the ground. His body jerked, swinging helplessly. He choked, clawing at the grip, broken voices forcing its way out between gasps.

I didn’t move. I only stared at him with my enlarged blue eyes, watching his death throes with a sinister grin.

“You know I’m immortal, right?” My voice rose as I slammed him against the ceiling again “You fucking Loxton, you wanted you to be the one who ruled me once I began playing God, didn’t you? That was your goal all along.”

“Let’s talk, Raymond, let’s…”

“Yes. With honesty. Let’s talk, Loxton.”

The man crawled on the floor when he broke free from my grip, but my arm reached for his throat again. This time, Sebastian was grinning too.

“Can you really blame me? If it wasn’t me, it would’ve been someone else. Why shouldn’t it be me? You think you’re human, Kern shit? You’re just a puppet!” His grin stretched wider, baring all his teeth, and he laughed like it was the funniest thing he’d ever said. “It doesn’t matter who’s holding your strings. It’s either me, your pathetic parents… or that little bitch you call lover!”

These were the last words of Sebastian Loxton.

My metal hands wrapped around his throat for the last time. The thick piece of flesh burst like a balloon between my metal fingers. When Sebastian’s head was separated from his body, a torrent of blood splashed onto my face; lively, fresh blood… The headless body hit the ground, a pool of blood began to form, flowing all the way to my feet. My metal arm kept holding the severed head in the air. I stared into Sebastian’s full white eyes. My grin widened, then faded, then reappeared. For minutes, I tried to wipe the uncontrollable crooked smile from my face but couldn’t.

Had I finally lost my mind?

I dropped my godfather’s head onto the table. Blood ran from the wound at his throat and fell from the wood to the floor in a slow, patient rhythm. I turned and lowered myself into one of the chairs, crossing my legs.

I didn’t know how long I sat there. My eyes stayed fixed on the bookcase, unblinking. My mind had gone somewhere hollow and white. The smell of blood was beginning to curdle in my throat.

But I still couldn’t return to the real world.

A maid entered the room as the sun was about to rise. The moment she screamed, my metal arm reached out and caught her. I slit open her chest and ripped out her heart, silencing the voice. I needed silence. My open mouth twisted into a grotesque shape again.

I had no moral values. I was no different from my family. I didn’t care about any human being, no life mattered to me. After all, they weren’t immortals. They didn’t carry absolute power. They would die sooner or later, so why not die a little earlier? What was the problem with that?

I stood up and looked at the servant’s corpse lying on the ground. A memory flashed through my mind. This was the woman who had brought cookies and tea to us in the estate’s garden. Hot tea had spilled on Mina’s skirt, but she had smiled and said she was okay, that such mistakes could happen. But that evening, I saw a deep, bloody wound on her inner thighs, her skin had peeled off. Such a heat… It was as ruthless as a deliberate attack.

Oh. Mina had said this place was suffocating, and I knew I was one of the reasons, but what about the rest of the mansion?

I stepped into the corridor, crawling along the walls, my metal arm dragging on the floor. It seemed I no longer had the strength to return it to its original size; I didn’t care how it looked anymore. When a servant ran toward me, my mind was a battlefield. I couldn’t tell whose swords were swinging anymore.

“Young master! Mr. Sebastian asked me to wake him at this hour, I wonder if he…” The maid, who had been talking quickly, fell silent when she saw the blood spread across my entire body, even a few small pieces of flesh.

“Young master—”

“You.” I swung around to face her, and the maid cowered in fear. “Tell me… remember the girl next to me?”

The maid nodded. My metal arm moved slightly, made her shout in panic. “Yes! Yes, I remember her, sir.”

“How did they treat her here?”

I never paid attention. I never… cared. I was so happy, so blind. Why did I have to wake up from this dream like this?

“Miss Mina…?” she hesitated. “We… treated her good, of course.”

“Don’t lie to me.”