House of Scarlet Fury

Father Dearest

God damn it, I'm literally starving. It had been this constant complaint from my stomach like this for the last hour or two. Each grumble getting louder, and significantly more annoying.

I had tried, I really did to do something productive, but nothing came to fruition from it so I gave up. All of the books in here are childhood fairytales and anything else slightly interesting had some sort of lock on them that I couldn't open no matter how I tried. And as I finally accepted my defeat I flopped down onto my bed and rolled around for a second. Completely disregarding the dress that I had been wearing that now seemed more like a nightgown. But there was no way I was about to ask for anything from them, not after that massive disaster. If I don't lay low my head will go rolling. I shuddered at the thought and finally settled on my back, scanning over the room.

Although beautifully decorated, nothing in here had any warmth; really gave off the "I'm doing this because I have to" message. Fucking assholes... Honestly, shouldn't I have taken over the body of a sailor instead.

I glanced at the old grandfather clock to check the time before noticing it had been stopped at 2:48 in the morning. Great even that's broken. I sighed and sat up blankly staring at everything surrounding me. A place that was so unfamiliar that I couldn't tell you where anything is but so familiar that my body would immediately lead me to it. It's an extremely strange sensation when your mind and body have two different independent memories.

I got up and walked to the window where I leaned out of it, judging the time to be about three or four in the afternoon. I glanced over at the bookcase filled with children's books and returned to it. Curious if they have any good nostalgic pieces that I missed which could help satiate my boredom.

Well, I certainly found one. Wow never thought I'd see a book like this in here, I thought as I flipped the book over in my hands and headed back to the window. I leaned against the wall about to open the book when there was a knock at my door. Annoyed, I let out a breath and placed the book down.

—-
1. " What do you want. "
2. " LEAVE ME ALONE! "
3. " Yes, come in. "
—-

No need to make the maids' lives harder and make them hate me more. " Yes, come in. " was all I said before Paul walked into my room again, so obviously different than earlier this morning.

He fidgeted for a second before composing himself and his eyes went directly to the book I just placed down. His eyes immediately darted to mine, confusion or surprise shown there but I ignored it and looked away. He cleared his throat before saying " The Duke has requested that you come for a private meeting in his study " There was slight hesitance, but nothing too major so I just shrugged. No choice on this one it seems, wait there was that option wasn't there? I flattened out the wrinkles of the dress before leading Paul out of my room and towards my father's study.

As we approached, I began to get more nervous, and another quest menu popped up:

—-
An Inescapable Room

Rewards: ???

Consequences: ???

Accept/Decline
—-

Shit, no way am I accepting something so risky. Come on why isn't the decline working. I furrowed my brows as I stared at the illuminated words. Eventually, I accepted that my only choice was to accept; an absolutely ridiculous piece of bait that was thrown at me. As I looked up, the door of the Duke's study appeared before me. It seemed to loom over me, all the while my heart rate quickened, and my eyes shifted uncontrollably. Paul must have picked up on my change in behavior as he tapped me on the shoulder causing me to whip my head towards him, my breathing slightly labored. Shit, I'm panicking again.