Beneath The Orange Sunset ✔️

36

~36~

A crowd have gathered around the mansion to celebrate Emile's birthday. Dressed in a white strapped dress with a tiara on a head, she looked elegant as she walked down the stairs; her face radiated a beautiful smile.

There were many guests in the room, she couldn't picture all of their faces but they had were gathered for her. All dressed in formal suits and gowns, they each held a cup of red wine in their veinous hands.

But then something seem to take their attention away from her. They seem to divert their gaze at something in the middle of the room.

What could it be? Emile wondered.

Picking the hem of her gown she trotted down the stairs quickly towards the middle where the guests seem to be concentrating their gazes on. There was a man in dark bloodied suit hunched over a long box. The once expensive dark suit, Emile noticed, was ripped horribly in several places.

Emile walked slowly towards the figure. The back of the man looked awfully familiar. Just a few more steps to reach him, but she wasn't getting any closer. It seemed each step she took drew her further away from viewing what or who was inside the big box.

'Oh no...' She whispered. 'What is happening?'

As if by command, she found herself peering into the box. It was the body of a woman.

Her chocolate skin was unmistakable, her round chubby face and her blue nurse uniform was all too familiar.

No it can't be. It can't be Rochelle.

To her utmost bewilderment, Emile watched as Rochelle's body suddenly transformed. Rochelle had mysteriously disappeared and in place of her was another woman. On  a closer look Emile recognized her own body image, lying motionless and peacefully in the box - dressed in the same white strapped dress with the white tiara on her head.

Emile shrieked in fear. Her eyes widened in shock when she realized it wasn't an ordinary box. 

It was a coffin, a very expensive one - made of black wood and golden rims - and that body was her own corpse.

The man who was still hunched over the coffin slowly turned his head. More shock registered on her face when the mutilated face of Alberte started grimly at her.

Emile Lacroix gasped hoarsely. Excruciating pain suddenly lanced at her throat and drifted into her head. She started choking just as the pain began snuffing out her speech faculty.

Alberte's eyes glared even stronger and she lost balance and began to spin on bare toes. She suddenly found herself standing near a cliff. Just then the crowd was back to cheer her up again. 

Had she survived? She wondered.

She was stronger once more. The pain had disappeared. Yes she survived.

'We know...' the crowd chorused in unison.

'Know what?' Emile lashed out looking behind her shoulders at intervals.

Today was supposed to be her birthday, a happy day for her. Why are they ruining it? Know what?

'We know your secret...'

Emile saw the dark looks on their faces and no they were not cheering for her. They were mocking her. They were snarling devils with wolfish eyes and there was a leader in their midst. He was the most devilish of them all.