Towards the Winter Cabin of Serenity and Madness, Cinderella Runs - Chapter 6
Feeling powerless and despairing, tears streamed down Roel’s face as she felt the vile hands groping her hem.
‘Please, please, no.’
As Roel lay resigned, Howson gasped for breath with a vile smile on his face.
“Just stay still. It’ll be over soon.”
At the edge of Roel’s despairing gaze, something caught her eye—a small wooden figurine on the bedside.
While Howson’s attention was fixed between Roel’s legs with his face flushed red, she reached out and grabbed the wooden figurine.
“Ugh!”
Without hesitation, she struck Howson’s head with it.
Once, twice, three times.
She struck him relentlessly. Any hesitation might give him the chance to assault her, so she summoned all her strength from within out of fear and struck him as hard as she could.
Each time his limp body twitched, she flinched and swung the figurine again. Hot liquid splashed on Roel’s face; she didn’t realize it was blood.
Pushing Howson’s body off her, she tumbled off the bed. Crashing to the floor, she lay there looking up at the body slumped over the bed.
“Haa, haa, haa.”
She clutched the figurine as if it were her lifeline.
The bear figurine, crudely carved by her father in her childhood, was now half-covered in blood.
‘Blood…’
Only then did Roel notice the blood. She staggered to her feet and stared at the still Howson.
“Ah.”
A small gasp escaped her lips.
The bed was soaked in blood. The blood runs freely. The amount of blood flowing from Howson’s head was shocking, as if a person’s body held an endless supply.
‘Is, is he dead?’
Howson’s eyes were wide open, his mouth agape. A weak moan escaped his parted lips. His pants, half-removed, hung around his hips, and his not yet stiff body twitched intermittently.
Roel’s body trembled uncontrollably. Realizing she had inflicted such harm enveloped her in utter terror.
He might not yet be dead. The blood was still flowing, and his body’s warmth hadn’t faded.
Should she call for help to save Howson? The fact that he might not be dead forced Roel to make a choice.
Delaying any further might make it irreversible. Howson could die, and then Roel would become a murderer.
Then Roel, who had been silently crying, suddenly changed her expression. She clamped her mouth shut and glared, her eyes wide and the whites showing.
‘Save Howson?’
The thought of committing murder was unimaginably horrific, but the idea of Howson not dying and mocking her was even more dreadful.
What would he say if he survived? Would he thank her for saving his life? Impossible. He would surely curse her, blaming her for nearly killing him, calling her a devil b***h.
He might even try to assault her again someday. That beastly brute was capable of anything.
“Just, just die. Please, just die quickly.”
Roel whispered softly, her delicate voice trembling with a chilling sharpness.
She finally grabbed a pillow and pressed it down on Howson’s head, using her entire body to ensure his breath was completely cut off.
Though Howson was the one suffocating, it was Roel who let out muffled groans. As if she was the one unable to breathe, feeling as though her own throat was being strangled.
How long had she smothered him? When she came to her senses, Howson’s body had gone cold.
He was finally dead.
A sigh of relief escaped Roel. The satisfaction of having crushed a wriggling bug under her palm surged through her, enveloped in a vile pleasure before she snapped back to reality.
‘I… I’ve killed someone.’
She had committed a horrendous act. Her mind was numb. Perhaps due to the gravity of her actions, it left her body limp and unable to feel it.
Sitting at the edge of the bed, Roel stared through the gap in the broken window. Then, an absurd thought crossed her mind, utterly irrelevant to the situation.
Despite her requests for it to be fixed, the window gap remained unrepaired. The wind whistled, causing her much discomfort and cold.
‘How could they not fix this window to the end? Do they want me to freeze to death?’
Roel started to think that all the bad things she had done were because of that window gap.
If only it hadn’t been for the noise from the window gap, she might have heard Howson entering the room sooner. She could have prevented the lock from falling off. Then, Howson might have given up and left, and he wouldn’t have died.
‘Yes, it’s all because of that.’
Organizing her thoughts that way seemed to steady her spinning head. Every event has a sign, and a series of minor events can lead to a major catastrophe.
Howson’s death might have been an unavoidable accident, precipitated by ignoring numerous signs.
The howling wind through the window gap, the loose lock, the lustful beast, the cherished wooden figurine…
With that, Roel abruptly stood up.
