Whisper In Her Ear - Winrina

15 - Lie No More

"It can't be."

Karina froze, hands and skin as cold as ice as the words hit her.

"You can't be real."

Giselle looked like she wanted to believe anything but what she saw, that she was standing in the cold lobby with anyone but her monstrous, murderer stepsister.

She looked horrified.

"H-how could you be here? How are you here?"

Karina attempted to open her mouth but felt as if her windpipe had been crushed by an iron grip. No words escaped her while oxygen seemed to leave her all at once.

She felt so breathless she might as well pass out.

"G-Giselle." Her voice came out sounding like she was dying, and it might have not reached Giselle's ears if it wasn't for the fact that they were the only two people in the empty, quiet lobby.

Giselle was apalled.

"You can't be here... M-mom said you were out of Seoul—"

"Giselle please," Karina cut her off with fear, throwing her gaze over her shoulder dreadfully in worry that Minjeong might walk out.

"Please, please just—" Her words died helplessly in her throat, and she turned to look at the younger girl again with much apprehension.

"Please go before Minjeong wakes up... Please. Please go..."

Giselle stared at her older sister she hadn't met for years, and it took her a second before Karina's near-delirious words made sense in her brain and seized her out of her trance.

Something much more surprising gripped her even before she recovered.

"You— you know Minjeong?"

Karina looked bloodless at this point and she was so pale she might as well be a corpse.

"Giselle, please. You have to go now." She stepped forward shakily with an arm out, but Giselle scurried away from her as if she might get harmed if Karina so much as laid a hand on her.

Totally in reflex she jerked backwards, eyes wide in alarm as if the blood-soaked memory from years ago was still red and vivid. "Don't touch me!"

Karina's trembling hand stopped mid-way, and for a moment she felt pained.

Pained that the girl who was once 12 and looked up to her from elbow height with so much admiration now looked at her with fear of a murderous monster.

She never thought it would hurt to see people from her past looking at her like how she expected them to, but Lord, did it hurt so much.

"Stay away from me."

Giselle's words jagged her back to her tormented mind even if it wasn't harsh and only fearful.

"How do you know Minjeong? Does she— does she know you too?"

The younger girl looked so distraught and stricken, and Karina herself didn't have the power to hold this situation longer.

She felt sick. She just wanted to escape.

"I will tell you..." She forced the last bit of her voice out weakly, eyes trained on the level of Giselle's hands to avoid looking directly into her eyes.

That was when she noticed Minjeong's phone in the other girl's fist.

Of course Minjeong had been with her before she came here.

Her heart sommersaulted and punched against her chest wall painfully.

Too much.

Too much happening at once.