The Heiress's Revenge - A Bloody Affair - Chapter 58

Chapter 58: [58 – The Fractured Reality – III]
Caroline ran as fast as she could without looking back even for once. She was afraid that if she looked back she would once again see her, that if she stopped, she would not let her go. She ran as fast as she could, as fast as her bleeding feet would take her. Tears flowed down her cheeks, unabashed as she could still hear her repeating the same thing.

A wave of relief washed over her when she spotted a door just a few feet away from her. Caroline rushed towards it and tried to open it. In her haste, she stumbled a few times as the voices calling her fake grew louder and louder.

“Camille, did you really think you can replace me?” hearing the demonic voice, Caroline stopped struggling against the door and turned around to see the girl, her cousin, the real Caroline who she had thought had died years ago.

Camille became deathly pale on realizing that she was being haunted by a ghost. The demonic voice, the continuously dripping blood, the awkwardly crooked body, everything about her screamed that this was a ghost.

The ghost of real Caroline.

The only person who knows that she is not Caroline and has a problem with that.

Camille let out a gut wrenching scream and applied all the force and strength that she had in her body in opening the door while the ghost of Caroline approached her at an inhumanly fast pace.

Her hands fumbled frantically as she tried her best to open the door but because of her sweat slicked, trembling fingers she was continuously failing at opening the door. The door also seemed to be mocking her as it refused to budge despite her desperate attempts.

“Do you think you can run away from the truth Camille?” she shivered and wailed as the ghost came to stand right beside her, whispering in her ear. The air around her smelled pungent and became freezing cold.

The ghost of Caroline placed her hand on Camille’s shoulder, “Did you think you could live my life, with my name without facing the repercussions of it?”

Camille continue to try and open the door silently. Her heart pounded in her chest, beating as loud as a drum, each beat resonating with the terror that she was experiencing at the moment. Her breath hitched when she felt a wet, sticky, and cold hand around her neck.

“I knew that you always wanted to play with my toys, always wanted the same dresses as mine, always preferred eating the food I liked, but I did not know that my dear cousin also wanted my life.” Camille was panting heavily, her breath hitched in her throat as the ghost of Caroline laid her head on Camille’s shoulder, causing goosebumps to rise on her skin, all over her body,

With one final, desperate effort, Camille shook her body roughly so as to get rid of the ghost and yanked the door open. This time her efforts did not go in vain as the door opened and Camille stumbled through. She immediately slammed the door close, shutting it behind her.

“Just go away, please! Go away!” she yelled and stepped back only to hit something with her feet and fall down. Camille let out a sharp yelp as she fell down on the floor. She looked around the dimly lit room, the air thick with dust and the scent of decay.

She raised her hand to cover her nose but stopped when her hand was right in front of her nose. Her eyes widened in horror and heart started shaking violently as she noticed the thick, almost coagulated blood on her hand.

“Aahh!” she screamed and tried to stand only to slip on the puddles of almost coagulated blood that surrounded her. It was when she fell on the floor once again, she realized that she was surrounded by dead and decaying bodies.

The scream struck in her sore throat, Camille recognized that all the multiple bodies, in varied decaying stages, actually belonged to one and the same person – Caroline Mae Sullivan.

All the bodies had their eyes close. Afraid, Camille tried to navigate through them and find a way out. Despite her fear and the violent tremors causing her body to shiver, Camille tried her best to walk out of the pile of bodies that she was surrounded by.

Breathing hard, she was about to take another step but her foot stilled mid way when she hear the same demonic voice speak.

“Are you feeling scared, dear cousin?” she wouldn’t have been that scared if it was only one entity who spoke. Camille’s screams echoed through the room along with the collective murmurings of the same question by all the bodies that surrounded her.

All of the Caroline’s opened their eyes at once and repeated the question, “Are you feeling scared dear, cousin?”

Covering her ears with her hands, Camille was bawling. She felt suffocated and extremely scared as all the Caroline’s continued to ask the same question again and again like a mantra.

Piercing through these horrible sounds was that of the ghost that had been following her since the start. Utterly horrified, Camille watched with wide eyes as the ghost passed through the door and came to stand in front of her, “Did no one tell you that you cannot run away from your past, dear cousin Camille?”

Camille stumbled and fell down again. The moment she fell down, all the other Caroline’s vanished and only the ghost one in front of her remained, “Please let me go! I didn’t do anything!” she pleaded.

The ghost of Caroline tilted her neck, the action causing the side of her neck to rip apart and dark, coagulated blood to ooze out, “Do you really believe that, dear cousin?”

“I – ” stammered Camille unable to answer. That made the ghost angrier and she yelled, “DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT?!”

Camille shivered and began shaking her head in negative, “I -, I” she fumbled, “I am sorry. I did not mean to -”

“You did not mean to, what? Huh, dear cousin?” the ghost Caroline pulled at Camille’s hair hard, “What do you want to say, huh? That you did not mean to hurt me, or that you did not mean to take everything that belonged to me? Or, that you did not mean to take my place and my identity?”

Camille cried and joined her hands together as if in prayer, “I am sorry. I am sorry, please let me go.” she started shouting repeatedly but the ghost showed no mercy.

“Why should I let you go?” the ghost asked as black colored tears started trailing down her ghostly pale cheeks, “Did you show any mercy on me when you, your father, your mother, and your friends continued to hurt me again and again and again! DID YOU SHOW ME ANY MERCY?” the ghost of Caroline yelled in her face.

“I am sorry. I am sorry.” that’s all that Camille could say in response. The ghost continued to pull at her hair for a few seconds until she pushed her away. The ghost took a few steps back, her bloodied lips curling upwards in a smirk. Camille grabbed the opportunity and tried to stand up to run but she kept on slipping on the puddles of coagulated blood again and again.

The sound of laughter filled the thick, pungent air. This laughter did not sound demonic or ghostly at all. In fact, the tinkling laughter made Camille remember those days when Caroline was alive and she would laugh like this.

She looked up in front of her and saw the ghost girl in front of her begin to transform. The ghostly appearance faded away giving light to Caroline’s true, beautiful self. At first, she saw the same 10 years old Caroline that she had always envied and then she began to transform into an adult.

The same age as hers.

Camille gasped as she saw the grown up version of Caroline. It was as if she was looking into a mirror. Despite a few, small differences, she and Caroline looked the same.

The grown up Caroline stepped in front of her and placed her cold hand on her cheek, “What are you staring at? Cousin, even this face is not yours.” she smiled before her expressions and face changed back to being that of a ghost, “EVEN THIS FACE IS MINE!” she yelled and pushed Camille down on the floor.

Camille tried to run away once again and this time she was successful. She ran away as far as she could and did not look back. She ran, afraid for her life, towards the blinding white light. The last thing that she heard from the ghost of Caroline was, “Run as far away as you can, dear cousin, but remember that your past will always catch up with you, no matter how far you run.”

And the message continued to ring in Camille’s mind even after she woke up with a loud scream.

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Meanwhile, Asher sat in the living room finishing up the movie that he was watching during dinner. But the volume of the movie was muted as Asher was more interested in his sister’s screams and sobs. All this while he had been listening to Caroline’s screams as if they were the most beautiful music in the world, while he finished watching the movie.

It was quite an interesting movie about two friends, college roommates. It was a romance drama where the female protagonist connected and further fell in love with the male protagonist by exchanging letter.

They never met each other, hadn’t seen each other before which is why and how the female antagonist was able to steal the female protagonist’s identity and fool the male protagonist into believing that it was her who wrote all those letter, that it was her with whom he fell in love.

But of course, at the end the female antagonist was exposed.

Asher chuckled as the movie ended with the young couple kissing while the female antagonist was shunned away by her peers. Turning the television off, Asher went back to his room. Locking the door, he took out the scrapbook from her safety locker. The same one that Caroline had received that night in the hotel.

He opened the scrapbook and turned to the page where there was an image of Caroline and Camille writing a message on the washroom’s mirror with red lipstick. It was Halloween and all of them were given the chance to help decorate the Sullivan mansion.

That decoration was a prank.

But this was not.