Chapter 21

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  "The winter this year is extra cold, my lady

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"The winter this year is extra cold, my lady." Harriet spoke from behind me as she brushed my hair. These last few days have been my most calm days so far. I've gone out with Delia, gone shopping, something that I quickly realized I love doing shortly after I died, and I've even attended a ball hosted by Delia's mother.

"mhm," I hummed in agreement, as I picked out a necklace from my vanity, giving it to one of the maid's attending my jewelry and speakinng further, "It has. Make sure to bring in more wood for the fireplaces, and more candles." It truly has been very cold lately. Not as cold as it was in the snowy mountains of knostasia, but I've found myself looking for a heat source in every room I enter these days.

"Yes, Lady Althea." Speaking of Knostasia, I haven't seen or heard from Aias ever since our encounter at the café. Not that I cared where he was or anything, but regardless of what he told me in the cabin, the spirit is not yet gone. I know it's not gone, I just know. And I also know that it's not gonna stop hunting me down until I lay in a pool of my own blood, my body unmoving. Apart from it's hatred for me, though, Aias is in too deep to back out now, and I'm not ignorant, I know that I need him to get rid of it as much as he needs me. So him dying right now wouldn't benefit me as much as it would've before the incident, and before the hunt became a known thing.

Throughout my nights where I lay awake reading Althea's diary, I've come to a realization that young Althea was obvlious to: The spirit has been hunting her ever since she was born. It has been trying to kill her for more time than I would've imagined. Lucky for me, Althea had been writing in her journal everyday since she had been able to read and write, which means I have access to information about her early life. I've come to realize that Althea was beyond terrified after she realized she was being hunted her whole life. In fact, she was so terrified, that not only did she try to switch bodies to escape her fate, but she even started writing in her journal as if she were going insane. Each page was one day, according to her rules, and as time passed in her life, she wrote less and less, with sentences short and to the point. Some pages were even stained with tears and blood and they wrote the word Escape over and over again until the end of the page.

  A shiver ran down my spine as I recalled the image.

  "Lady Althea," My new butler's, Mateo's, voice sounded from outside my room's open doors. I couldn't turn around as Harriet was still standing behind me, styling my hair, so I opted for a quick 'come in', while opening the vanity's drawers for earrings to choose. "There's a letter for you."

  "Why are you telling me personally? Just leave it on my desk in the study, I'll look over it later." My brows furrowed in confusion, looking at him through the mirror's reflection.

  "I would've, my lady, but I checked the location, and it's from... knostasia. It's not a business letter - just a personal one from a village named..." he looked at the letter to check, "Linau. Linau Village." If Harriet hadn't had a hairbrush in my hair right now, I would've shot from my seat and snatched the envelope out of his hands. Instead, I only stood straighter, supressing my body's urge to visibly tense up, as i set the earrings down.

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