Dying Lily & Wilted Rose

It Begins Before The Beginning

She lost track of how many loops she's stuck in. Each one always ended in a death too early.

Penelope tried everything, every route, no route, learning self-defense, and even running away. It was hopeless, nothing worked. And worst part about it was that she couldn't rely on anyone.

But then she started seeing things, hearing things, that no one else could. The spirit of the lost Eckart daughter, Yvonne.

For a while, Penelope thought she finally lost it and her mind was conjuring up ridiculous things, this person was the what got her killed in every loop, indirectly or not. Was this the manifestation of her paranoia? That death would always find her?

It wasn't.

When their eyes met for the first time, the spirit's face twisted with shock and came flying to Penelope, causing her heart to nearly leap out of her chest.

"You can see me! You can see me, right?! You can, you have to! No one else has ever looked at me so clearly before!" The ghost (Yvonne?) cried desperately.

Penelope didn't say anything to her, frozen with fear.

"Sister?" Yvonne, the Leila, said, tilting her head innocently. "Is something wrong?"

Penelope tore her eyes away from the spirit, shaking. "I'm going to my room, I'm not feeling well," she announced, and ran, not caring about displeasing the duke and his sons. Everything was going to restart anyway so why should she worry?

Penelope reached her room and slammed the door shut, sliding against it as she sucked in frantic breaths. She almost screamed when a head of pink hair popped through the wall, its incorporal state not caring for the solid structure.

Penelope jumped back and unsheathed her small dagger in a flash, "What the hell are you?!"

"I'm Yvonne, the real one! The one you were with right now was–!"

"No, no, no, I'm hallucinating."

"No your not! I–"

"I finally went mad. This is my limit, I'm crazy," Penelope let out a hysterical laugh.

"LISTEN TO ME!" The ghost, hallucination, whatever it was screamed, cutting off Penelope's unintelligible mutterings.

"I'm real, I'm the real Yvonne! My body was taken over by this thing called Leila!" She said in dismay.

"I know. I know that. Your body is being possessed. I'm trapped in a time loop actually," Penelope blurted.

Yvonne blinked, her mouth shaping into a 'o'. "I knew something was off about you! The time loop, I'm stuck in it, too!"

It was Penelope's turn to blink this time. "You?"

—

The real Yvonne, Penelope found, was not as nearly as fear-inducing as the Leila, but extremely talkative.

"What's your favorite color? Or your favorite dessert? I really liked the dark chocolate pastries back then," the said ghost chattered.

And Penelope couldn't tell which was worse.

Penelope sighed a long internal sigh. "Dark purple and melon sorbet," she answered tiredly.

"Really? I never particularly enjoyed cold things because they make my head hurt. But I liked iced fruit drinks a lot during the summer..."