Tangled By Fate

Veronica and Catherine held their breaths. Their heartbeats escalated. As they stayed under the bed, their limpid eyes focused on the door.

The footsteps came closer and stopped in front of the door. The words behind the door suddenly quieted down. Soon, the door was opened. Several footsteps entered the room.

"The door was open. Someone came here," a low voice could be heard. It was a man's voice. The voice was colder than usual.

Someone else looked around and questioned him, "Why would someone come into Ruth's room?"

There was another person. He said, "Maybe he or she was missing Sister Ruth. Sigh, she was a good person."

'Three men in Sister Ruth's room in the middle of the night… What on earth are they here for?' Veronica wondered.

"Is that so? Then why is the bed disheveled?" The first person pointed his finger at the bed.

The second person was surprised to see the bed like that. "Huh? Could it be that someone slept here?" He hurriedly marched forward and took care of the bed.

Veronica pinched Catherine's arm. If she made the bed properly, they wouldn't have noticed it. Catherine flinched but dared not to make a sound.

The first person wasn't that easy to be fooled. He stated with a frown, "For what reason would a person do that? We all have beds. It's not that her bed is comfier. All beds including the Head Priest's bed are as hard as rocks."

The third person came up with a clue. "Then it means only one thing. The intruder was missing Sister Ruth."

The first person didn't like that theory. He remarked, "Then at least she or he should make the bed. What kind of discipline have we taught them? Can't even close the door?" he scoffed.

The second one suggested, "Maybe it's the children. They must be missing her and came to her room."

The first person didn't agree with his logic. "And how come the children know where her room is? They don't even come to this area. They are forbidden."

The second person added, "Only Junior priests can come here. Could it be, one of them came here?"

The first person took a round of the room. All of a sudden, he paused. "Wait, if it's someone junior or senior, they wouldn't leave the room like that. It could be the person is still in the room."

Veronica and Catherine froze on the spot. They were worried that something like that could happen. They gulped and waited silently.

The second man was quick to understand what his fellow meant. He exclaimed, "You mean that person is here right now!? Who will break the curfew? No one is insane."

"We can't know for sure. He or she must have come here and when they heard our voices, they hid. Let's see if someone is in the wardrobe, hiding from us." The first person strode to the wardrobe and opened it.

"See? No one is there. You are thinking too much," the third person commented.

"What about under the bed? We haven't searched there," saying that the first person went in the direction on the bed.

Veronica and Catherine began to sweat. They thought, 'I'm doomed. There is no turning back.'

They saw the pair of feet stopped in front of the bed. The person bent down and his fingers grabbed the hem of the bedcover.

The girls tightly shut their eyes.

Suddenly a stern voice was heard, "Lord Alexander, what pleasure do I owe you in the middle of the night in Sister Ruth's room?"

The owner of the hand paused and raised his head. The right corner of his lips lifted ever so slightly. "Sister Josephine, it's a pleasure to see you here. Did you just break the rules?"

Sister Josephine strictly stated, "That's not your place to point it out. What are you and your men doing in the inner part of the temple? This isn't a place for you to step on."

The man called Lord Alexander didn't seem to be bothered by her attitude. He smirked and commented, "How can I not come to the room of my dead cousin. I was always curious why she left her house and came to live here."

He looked around the room and said, "I can't believe she left her luxurious life and chose a shabby place to stay."

Sister Josephine snapped at him, "She chose to follow her own path and found peace living here. That's all she cared about. A person such as yourself has no right to mock others."

"Hey, woman! Watch your mouth!" the second person warned her for being rude to his master.

"Ah, don't scold her like that. She is your senior," Lord Alexander gently rebuked his subordinate. He didn't seem angry but rather amused.

Sister Josephine didn't even flinch under the threat. She kept her stoic face and said, "Since you have seen Sister Ruth's house, please leave at once!"

"You!" the second man glared at her.

He turned toward Sister Josephine and told her, "See Sister Josephine, your scary face is scaring my people. Please try to be gentler. It will be better for you." He stepped closer to her and whispered, "Human's life is so short. You wouldn't want something terrible to happen to your precious juniors, right?"

Sister Josephine glared at him without saying a word. Her eyes showed how much she loathed the person in front of her.

After Lord Alexander and his subordinates left, Sister Josephine mumbled, "If it wasn't for you, she would have lived a long life." She let out a deep sigh and shut the door.

Veronica and Catherine waited for her footsteps to go further away before breathing out loud. They were holding breaths right before when Lord Alexander was trying to peek under the bed. They forgot to breathe after that.

The two girls came out of the bed and stood up. They breathed heavily as though they ran a marathon.

"That was so intense." Catherine was panting. She wiped the sweats from her forehead. "Why did she mean by - she would live a long time without him?"

"She meant that without her cousin, Sister Ruth would live a long life. Her death has something to do with her cousin and the temple hid it for some reason." Veronica looked at the diary and added, "Now that we have her diary, we can find out what caused her death."