<strong>“……stair?”</strong>


    After a long time, I opened my eyes again. The warmth surrounding my body just a while ago disappeared. I was leaning against the wall.


    I was alone.


    What about stair?


    Surely he was with me.


    “……Serina.”


    It was stair’s voice.


    I turned my head in the direction of his call and saw stair eyeing the weapons on disy.


    I didn’t see him before… When did he go out of the cage?


    stair came to me with a well-forged ax with a sharp edge.


    He grabbed the iron cage door and opened it. “Serina.”


    “…… What’s wrong, stair?”


    “I love you.”


    It was a sweet phase.


    What happened after that wasn’t sweet at all.


    He raised his ax high as if touching the ceiling, then lowered it.


    A sh of silver passed through my eyes.


    Red sprayed all over the ce.


    The ax cut me deeply as if my body was going to split in half.


    I was deeply wounded. I vomited blood. Red stained at the hem of my dress.


    “Ah·······?”


    I couldn’t figure out my situation, so a stupid sound flowed from my mouth.


    For a moment, I was in a panic.


    It’s different from the pain I’ve felt so far.


    It hurts.


    It hurts so much.


    I feel like I’m going to die.


    My mind was splitting apart from the pain.


    It was so painful that I could neither bite nor say anything.


    I looked up at him, holding onto my abdomen, where trembling arms were trying to hold back the pouring thick blood.


    ‘I love you, Serina,’


    He was smiling.


    He swung the ax again.


    My head waspletely crushed by the ax de.


    Surprisingly, I still didn’t die.


    I should have died a long time ago.


    Probably from the moment he stroked my abdomen.


    Sadly, I wasn’t allowed to ask questions.


    The ax flew again.


    stair was cutting my body into pieces with the brutal ax.


    I couldn’t cry out due to the unstoppable pain, just hoping for an end to what he was doing.


    In the midst of the blood, a young stair approached me with bandages. He whispered as he hugged a piece of my shattered head and sulked.


    “I love you, but why don’t you love me?”


    The blood that ran out of my head got into my eyes and started to sting.


    As soon as I blinked, the young stair’s neck was cut open by an ax.


    The boy’s head fell, limp.


    And there was an older stair with a big ax staring at me without a word. I could make no sound because my mouth was smashed in and in fragments, but I screamed like crazy inside.


    “······Seri, eh…!”


    I heard a voice calling me urgently.


    “Serina!”


    “……stair?”


    stair hugged me tightly and cried my name urgently.


    Ovepping his affectionate face, I saw his cruel smile as he slew me before.


    “Aahh·······!”


    I pushed his chest and stepped back from him.


    What… What happened?


    Now stair wasn’t holding an ax.


    He was harmless.


    So what did I see before?


    The terrible pain is…


    As stair leaned forward, my body quivered.


    It was due to learned fear.


    He gradually narrowed his distance with his knees.


    Even though it looked harmless everywhere I looked, I retreated from the fear that I could not easily subdue.


    The cold iron bars touched my back.


    “……Do note.”


    “······.”


    He came up to me despite my rejection.


    He grabbed my wrist with a careful hand.


    I felt his nails press against my wrist.


    My heart was plunging to the ground and then flew into the sky.


    You have to be calm, Serina.


    I kept trying to maintain my reason by biting the inside of my soft mouth.


    Nothing was normal from the moment I entered this room.


    Am I finally crazy?


    “Your pulse is fast.”


    His hand rubs around my wrist.


    He asked, “What did you see?”


    “What·······?”


    “I woke up because you were gasping painfully… I think I know roughly what happened.”


    He rubbed my shoulders.


    “Did you see an illusion?”


    Was it an illusion?


    stair’s appearance was alien.


    In addition to that, I saw even a young stair…


    But······.


    “It was not a fantasy. I felt pain.”


    “It’s a vision. The scent of that candle made me hallucinate too. The sensation of the nightmare is simr to the actual pain.”


    When I received his patting and verbal reassurance, I calmed down a little.


    However, anxiety soon came back.


    Looking up, my face was distorted in distress.


    I think this is real.


    He was simr to the stair I know.


    “Then you…?”


    “Yeah?”


    “Are you also a hallucination?”


    ***