The Plague Doctor [RATED R] ✓

(47) Chained

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ADELINE STOOD IN FRONT of me with such innocence—innocence that did not match the painting that was sitting behind me. All this time, this sweet little girl has been standing beside Claudio as his pet. She's been telling our dear master everything that we've said and done without his presence.

     I should have never let my guard down. I should have known that such innocence is never what they seem. Out of everyone here, I should know that better.

     "I painted this during the entire time I was in the manor. This painting is a reflection of the hatred and pain I have felt as a resident of this forsaken town," Adeline says, walking towards the painting behind me.

     "You can speak," I say in surprise as if it wasn't so obvious already.

     "I could always speak, but I was just never heard," Adeline replies, taking a paintbrush and dipping it in the paint that was on the palette.

     The art studio was silent as Adeline started adding some details to the painting. I continue to stare at her. I was still too shocked even to say a single thing, or rather, I couldn't fathom that this was the real her all this time.

     Was this even the real her?

     "I am a child who grew up with terrible adults. Dr. Giovanni was the only one who reached out to me. He told me his story and his plan for revenge, and at that moment, I knew that we have the same purpose, and I will serve him with no question to achieve that purpose," Adeline explains, her hands carefully moving with the brush.

     "But my role here is done. The plague is almost complete."

     "Role? Was this all just a role to you?" I ask her next, and Adeline stops moving her hand like I clicked a switch. "Was everything about us even...real? Did you ever see us as your comfort or your family?"

     Adeline was quiet for a while, but then she started to giggle. That same giggle that Lino and I heard that made us feel completely thrilled because we thought she was finally opening up to us.

     "How about Lino? He took care of you like you were his own. Was that fake too, Adie?" I continue to ask, and Adeline finally puts the paintbrush down to look at me.

     "Marcelino treats me like his sister, and it's sickening. She was the one who was supposed to be in the manor, but that stupid soldier took the blame for her crimes. That's not an act of love but an act of foolishness," Adeline reveals, surprising me.

     So the patient named Doll Face wasn't exactly Lino; it was his sister. Then that means the picture we saw in his room was her. That means Lino took the blame and went through this hell for her sake.

     "Family? How disgusting that word is," Adeline says as she walks towards a drawer. "My family didn't love me, so why on earth would I care about strangers who are even criminals."

     "You're a criminal too, Adeline. You're willing to kill the lives of innocent people who have nothing to do with the things that happened to you in the past. You are willing to sacrifice hundreds, and you—"

     "Do not lecture me, Bishop Lancaster," Adeline suddenly tells me, making me stop midsentence. "You have committed crimes of your own, so don't act like a hero in this story. You helped with the plague too, and you will continue to help until the very end."

     "And what if I don't want to help anymore?" I threatened her, and Adeline looked at me and laughed before taking something out from the drawers. I checked what it was, and to my surprise, it was actually a gas mask.