Page 15 of Everdoll

He frowned. “Watch your tone.”

“What?”

“In your position, you have no right to question me.”

“Raymond! Snap out of it! Look at me, I’m real!”

“If you dare try to take her place again, I’ll have to finish you off.”

“Finish me off? Seriously?” I scoffed. My entire nervous system was in turmoil.

“Exactly. You need to be punished.”

When he stood up, my laughter immediately faded, I looked away. I didn’t bother counting the coffins, but there were more than twenty, along with the shattered remains on the ground…

Were they finished off too?

When he picked me up again and began walking toward the coffins, I tutted at him.

“We met again after all these years, and this is how you treat me? You’re so rude.”

He didn’t answer me; he was gentle as he entered the password at the door and put my body inside. As he closed the iron door, I reached my arm through the bars and grabbed his wrist, but his focus was not on me.

“Remi, don’t… Don’t leave me here in the dark. I can’t see you from here. Look at me… I came this far.” Knowing his weakness for it, I deliberately pitched my voice to a whiny tone. “I came to accept your darkness, but tell me, how can I see you without light? I beg you, don’t imprison me, don’t deprive me of you, I beg you…”

A crooked grin appeared on his lips, and his gaze finally landed on me.

“You’re begging me. My Mina would never beg me.”

I grinned. Maybe I should’ve taken this game as far as I could. If things got dangerous, I’d just show him the chip I’d entrusted to him, and he would understand I was real. But I had no intention of doing it yet. Having seen him at his darkest, at his lowest, there was no way I was giving up on him now.

“Maybe she would beg. People change over the years.” One of the holograms came over to listen to us, but Raymond didn’t notice, his serene eyes fixed on me.

“Not Mina. She’s already perfect as she is.”

My cheeks flushed, but I managed to clear my throat and said indifferently, “Oh, really? But even so, you’re not going to her. Since you’re staying here with the copies, you must love us more.”

“You talk too much.”

Seeing him actually leaving, I shouted in hurry.

“Remi! You can’t just keep me locked up forever!”

He went rigid, his hands tightening into fists. He lunged back toward the iron bars, his shadow looming over me like a dark tide.

“Who says you’re staying there forever? Some words carry weight. You can’t use them lightly.”

“What word? Forever?”

His face twitched. “I said don’t use it.”

“Forever, forever, huh?”

I repeated it with a playful tone, but that only annoyed him even more.

A heartbeat later, his fingers were around my throat.

“I hate it.” His blue eyes flashed, I could feel his hands shaking.