Chapter 257 – Regret and Stupidity

Chapter 257

First, I got out of bed and began tidying up my bedroom, unaware that the figure was still beside me, staring at me with an unsettling gaze.

At first, I paid her no attention, but what could I do when my uneasiness only grew as time passed and the woman continued to stare at me?

Eventually, I gave in and decided to approach the mysterious woman, who was sitting at my stepfather's former desk. Despite the thick layer of dust covering it, she seemed completely unconcerned about her black lace dress patterned with roses. The sheer fabric draped along its sides gave her an air of mystery and elegance while accentuating her femininity.

"Who are you, really?"

I took the initiative to investigate the woman's identity, ready to take further action if the situation escalated.

Rather than answering my question, the woman lowered her gaze while her legs swung gently back and forth.

I silently studied her black ankle boots with their low heels, sensing that something was wrong with this woman who seemed determined to act mysterious.

"Hey, are you even listening?"

As irritation gradually began to fill my head, I decided to move closer to her, passing the lower bed and heading toward the desk on the left side of the room where she was sitting.

Once I reached her, I hurriedly extended my right hand to grab her arm, intending to make her get down.

However, something strange immediately crossed my mind. My thoughts suddenly went blank, and a wave of discomfort washed over me as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I had just realized that my hand had passed straight through the woman's arm.

'What is going on?'

In a split second, I stumbled two steps backward until my thighs hit the slightly rough wooden edge of the bed.

As I focused on the sensation of the wood against my skin and raised my gaze again, I saw that the woman's figure had vanished from the desk.

Realizing this, I hurried over to the desk and tried to determine whether I was hallucinating or if something else was happening.

One thing was certain: the woman had disappeared without a trace, and in her place was the bracelet I had brought home the previous day.

'What the hell is this?'

"Zavi, it's morning! Hurry up and get up!" a shout was heard from behind the door.

As the sound of approaching footsteps grew louder, I failed to notice that my mother was already standing in the doorway, watching her son sit silently while staring at something in his hand.

Sensing that something was wrong, my mother looked worried and approached me with the towel I usually used.

"What's wrong, dear?" she asked, her voice filled with concern.

Not wanting her to keep worrying about me, and afraid that something bad might happen to her, I decided to respond by turning my face toward her while keeping my eyes fixed on the bracelet.

How strange. Even I didn't know whether that woman was truly human or something I should never have disturbed.

That day, I acted as usual, as though the previous incident had never happened. At the time, I didn't suspect the bracelet at all, but after school, Ren approached me repeatedly.

That was where everything began, just as the sun slowly concealed its light.

"Do you realize that what you did last night could have put you in danger?" Ren said, his voice sounding utterly desperate, though a faint glimmer of hope lay beneath his words.

I raised an eyebrow, having absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

"Zavi, how long are you going to keep acting like this?"

I fell silent, merely grumbling to myself about his behavior.

'Huh? I have no idea what he's talking about. Did he take something to make himself act like this?'

Before I realized it, time seemed to have passed as though I had been asleep for an extraordinarily long time. That day went by so quickly that, as time continued to pass, I grew older without even noticing.

Fourteen years old. Everything began there.

One night, Ren came to see me and demanded an explanation for my interest in supernatural matters, such as the doomsday prophecies circulating amid the onslaught of reports about deaths involving two black marks on the wrists and a black spot on the neck.

Almost every victim had experienced the same thing, and Ren openly shared this information with me.

As the sun was about to sink below the horizon, my younger sister, Isabelle, who was eleven years old at the time, came out of her mother's room.

She was no longer the girl she used to be. Now, she even looked so mature that I felt proud watching her grow until she was taller than me.

Looking at her, I felt a mixture of envy and hope. Various questions arose in my mind amid the same unresolved problems that continued to plague me.

Would I ever grow taller in the future? Could I return to that place and discover the true mystery of this world?

"You really are stubborn, Zavi," Ren said, immediately interrupting my reverie.

"Eh? Were you saying something to me?"

Without any warning, he suddenly moved his hand and, for the first time, flicked my ear hard.

"I don't know what's going on inside your head, but one thing is certain: something is watching you."

After saying that, Ren left without offering any further explanation.

A few seconds later, my sweet, adorable little sister approached her foolish older brother after noticing that he was wearing the same gloomy expression again.

"Are you two still arguing about that?" Isabelle asked, sounding tired.

I remained silent without even looking at her face. Instead, I walked away, leaving her alone in the middle of the living room.

When we gathered in the dining room, we sat in silence, barely exchanging a single word. Even the food, which usually looked so enticing and tasted as though its flavors were dancing across my tongue, seemed meaningless as tension settled over everyone's shoulders.

After dinner, I failed to notice that my mother often visited Ren's room upstairs instead of speaking to me directly.

Everything became painfully clear when Ren grew furious over my decision to bring home the cursed object I had once mistaken for a stroke of good luck.

I had been oblivious to all of this because my fascination and curiosity had driven me to investigate anything related to the occult.

Stories circulated about mysterious figures, each bearing their own titles, and they only deepened my fascination with the supernatural world.

From that moment on, the world seemed to change, as though a barrier had risen between the two of us.

Ren stopped speaking to me entirely. He was even reluctant to meet my gaze, though he seemed just as distant toward everyone else.

His mysterious behavior after graduation gradually freed me from the world of the supernatural, as the government began tightening its grip on the people while poverty spread further with each passing day.

I had once possessed the strange hobby of collecting objects associated with the occult. Now, I began opening my eyes to the wider world around me.

As an ordinary person with no authority or influence in the city, I had been completely unaware of just how chaotic things had become.

Although everything seemed fine on the surface, turmoil raged beneath it. I had been about to throw away those useless objects when my heart stirred at the sight of so many children around Isabelle's age begging along the factory-smoke-filled streets.

That wasn't all. The clothes they wore were hardly suitable for them, either. I could only bite my lip at the sight before returning to the disposal site to throw the object away.

After returning from there, I was approached by someone whose personality I knew all too well.

It was Aurora Chevalya.

I stood silently before her, reluctant to start a conversation because, to be honest, although she was beautiful, I wasn't particularly fond of her aloof, self-important attitude.

Having decided what to do, I walked past her without paying any attention to how she might truly feel.

Unbeknownst to me, that day happened to be her birthday, and "she" had come to invite me to the small, private celebration she was holding.

Yes, I knew that because she personally took my hand and wouldn't even let me move any farther away from her.

"They've arrived. You should come too," she said flatly.

I almost pouted, thinking that the woman was like a doll devoid of emotion.

However, after spending a considerable amount of time with her and sharing the same class, I came to realize that Aurora wasn't so bad after all.

When I had only just turned fifteen, everything gradually began to change. Yet one thing remained unchanged, even as I failed to notice how comfortable I had become with the new chapter of my life that I had begun just a few months earlier.

At home, I saw my little sister, Isabelle, returning from school after saying goodbye to her friend.

"Isabelle, wait a moment," I called, hurrying toward her.

Isabelle turned around and stared at me for quite some time.

"What is it?" she asked, furrowing her brow.

I couldn't tell whether I was dreaming or simply having trouble processing what I saw. My little sister had grown so much that she had even surpassed me in height, despite being my younger sibling.

"Didn't you come home with Mother?" I replied by asking her a rather important question.

"I think she has something to take care of today," Isabelle answered hesitantly.

I immediately understood where this conversation was heading.

"You're going to that old woman's house, aren't you?"

Isabelle immediately patted my shoulder before turning her back to me.

"That's rude, you know," Isabelle said firmly before turning the key one last time and hurrying inside.

I seemed to be too foolish to have uttered such inappropriate words. I fell silent, then brought my palms together and offered a prayer to the Goddess.

"Protect a lost soul like mine and guide me toward the right path."

After saying that, I decided to return to my room. Before doing so, however, I locked the door securely from the inside, then headed back to my room to rest while waiting for dinner.

Night passed, and now I was sitting in my room, reading a book to prepare for my midterm exams.

However, something made me pause my studies for a moment when a series of knocks sounded from my right.

"Who's there?" I whispered.

I immediately stood up and opened the door without the slightest hesitation. Then I froze when I saw Ren standing before me, his imposing build towering over mine, his presence intimidating.

Without realizing it, perhaps because she had grown tired of seeing the same thing happen over and over again, Isabelle came to separate us. Whether intentionally or not, she even managed to hit both of us.

From that moment on, when she was only eleven years old...

"Get out of this house! You don't deserve to live here because your father abandoned his family a long time ago!" Isabelle shouted, her emotions preventing her from thinking rationally.

The girl I had once forbidden from speaking to Ren or even meeting him now saw Ren as a parasite living in our home.

I had no idea what was going through Ren's mind after he heard those harsh words. Watching him clench his fists, I thought he looked as though he wanted to vent his anger on something.

A few seconds later, I witnessed Ren calmly leave us behind, his face almost entirely expressionless, before returning to his room.