Chapter 3

...𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 3...

...𝙰 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝙷𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚗...

ᴵᵐᵃᵍᵉ ³• ᴬᴵ ᴳᵉⁿᵉʳᵃᵗᵉᵈ•

꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭

In the blink of an eye, they had arrived at her home. The little girl was right: it was small, cozy, a world apart from the place they had once called home. The three of them could already feel the warmth radiating from the place, the kind of warmth that seemed to embrace you.

‘It’s so different,’ Lisn thought, her mind drifting back to the home they had escaped from. ‘So different from that place... the one that gave us nothing but trauma and terror.’

‘It was huge...’

‘Expensive...’

‘Massive...’

‘But empty.’ The thought of it sent a shiver crawling down her spine, a coldness that refused to leave her.

As Lisn sat on the small couch, lost in her thoughts, she felt something soft fall over her head. A towel. Her eyes flicked up in surprise, and she saw the girl who had helped them earlier, standing behind her.

The girl offered a modest smile, one that didn’t quite reach her eyes. Her gaze was empty, as hollow as the barren land outside, a dullness that made Lisn’s heart ache in a way she couldn’t fully understand.

Lisn turned away for a moment, focusing on the towel draped over her head. It smelled nice—comforting, like fresh linen, with a subtle scent that seemed to soothe something deep inside her.

“Are you alright?” The girl’s voice, soft and melodic, filled the small living room. There was a calmness to it that brought a strange peace to Lisn’s frayed nerves.

Lisn watched the girl move toward the kitchen, just a few steps away in the corner of the room. “You look rather pale,” the girl added, her voice still gentle, almost caring.

Lisn couldn’t quite bring herself to say that she was worried too, but there was something reassuring about hearing those words from someone else.

“Do you want some medicine?” The girl paused at the threshold of the kitchen, glancing back over her shoulder. “I can make something for you.”

“Make something?” Lisn’s voice was laced with a hint of disbelief. “Do you know how to make it? Like they do in a laboratory?” She couldn’t help the tiny flicker of hope in her voice, a hope that the girl might know how to create the antidote, the one that could lift the curse that had followed them from the moment they were born—a curse born from those twisted experiments of the wicked old man.

The girl’s hands stilled as she stirred something in a pot, her eyes briefly meeting Lisn’s before dropping again. “Oh... that?” she said, her voice distant. “As you can see, I’m just a child, living alone now.”

She added a few more ingredients to the pot, her movements slow and deliberate. “I’m not rich enough to afford a laboratory medicine or the education to make it with science... but my grandmother, who just passed away, knew a lot about herbs. She used them to heal people’s colds. So, I guess I could make something for you. It won’t be a cure, but it might help.”

Lisn felt her hope deflate, like a balloon slowly losing its air. “Oh...” she whispered, her shoulders slumping slightly.

The girl’s gaze remained empty, her words carrying a quiet finality that left Lisn with nothing more to say.

𝓣𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓮𝓭...

─────────── ୨୧ ─────────────

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***