itbomm

chapter 10: don't wanna know your name

He doesn't want to leave his bed after waking up. His dream lingers in his mind, but all he remembers is a bunch of vague images of a woman sitting on a stone balcony. He remembers the feeling in his chest — a painful ache, an angered rage. At the woman? Maybe at himself.

There isn't much that he remembers, aside from the bitter memories, he remembers it was a young woman who spoke to him. She had a blurry appearance, even though he had known her with absolute certainty.

Whoever the woman was, she called his name, and he was the reason why she was crying.

That was the only thing he knew for sure.

But he does get out of bed. He gets up — eventually — and ignores the dull pain in his head as Lily helps him braid his hair.

Already, it feels like today was shaping up to be a bad day, and it worsens when Athanasia spends most of the day playing with Blackie than trying to talk to him. However, it was fascinating to observe the creature, since it made him wonder how different this world was.

This world really was strange for a combination of a fanfiction and a Korean web novel. Otherwise, Athy would've been hit with some sort of issue with how often she's eating chocolate — chocolate contained small amounts of theobromine, and while chocolate was safe for human consumption as it would be incredibly difficult to overdose and die from chocolate, the same couldn't be said for animals. In fact, the common victim of theobromine poisoning was dogs — it was a lower dose for cats, but cats can't even taste the sweetness, so they were unlikely to try and eat more chocolate.

"Princess, it's high time you go and greet His Majesty," Felix cheerfully piped up as Lily tied a dark green ribbon in his braid.

He could see a look of clear disappointment on his sister's face as she leaves Blackie alone.

The bad feeling in his chest doesn't go away.

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She slapped Claude's face.

Athanasia slapped their father's face.

'He carried her, though,' Athanase absentmindedly thinks as he settles into his seat. 'And he seemed startled. It's the first time I've seen him like that...'

Watching her take a sip of tea, he looks back down at his cake.

.

('Lucky,' he thinks, his heart aching.)

.

And then, the bad feeling returns, looming over him. Frowning, he notices the way Athy raises her hand closer to her chest, then to her face. She looks pale, confused, concerned. It's a bubble of unbearable heat, a simmering pain waiting to burst apart from the seams.

"Athy...?" he hesitantly questions.

His sister coughs, her hands covering her mouth as red seeps out; a small, ugly cough as red spills like paint over her hands. And it drips onto her dress, stains the table, leaves behind red trails on her hands. She looks at her hands in blank confusion, as if she had never expected it. As if she hadn't just coughed up blood.

He can't feel what she's feeling, nor can he hear her thoughts anymore, but his chest is twisted in an aching pain.

"Athy," he blinks, bewildered as his eyes widen with the utmost confusion. He watches on in dawning horror, unable to stop it, as though it were a train wreck waiting to happen and all he could do was watch the crash.