“Did you think that if you behaved like a prostitute like that, a handsome prince would appear?”
Count Nottingham sneered with a cold face. He approached with his crutches. He laughed even louder when Madeline reflexively backed away. Her back teeth trembled and she got goosebumps.
“Why do you look even more ridiculous this close up?”
“No, it doesn’t…….”
But Madeline’s voice lacked authenticity. Her voice was disturbed, rustling like a dead leaf.
Madeline Nottingham was 28 years old. Six years had passed since she was married to Count Nottingham. In words, it was a marriage, but in reality, it was nothing more than a coerced contract. At least that was what Madeline thought.
At least that’s what Madeleine thought.
This was not how a proper marriage should be. Her husband could not be this cruel.
She was born into a wealthy and aristocratic family, but she could not deny that the only thing she had left was a monstrous man in front of her and the haunted house. Reality was harsh, and her husband was even harsher than that.
He wasn’t likeable to begin with. There was nothing cute or human about him. For Madeline, it was easier to hate the man than to love him.
The one-legged Count Nottingham drew closer and closer to her. The huge scars drawn horizontally and vertically across his face were vivid and wrenching as he got closer. He was emaciated, but the skeleton itself was huge and menacing enough.
A hybrid of werewolf and vampire, he looked like a ghost that shouldn’t exist.
Madeline shuddered and groaned at the sight of her staggering husband.
Before she knew it, the Count, who was approaching, snatched her skinny white wrist with one free hand.
“I wonder how you cried under that man.”
Despite the obvious taunting, the man’s face, seen up close, was already red with murderous intent and madness. His dark green eyes were like a beast, his concave cheeks were pale, and his scars were too clear.
‘It’s a monster.’
“Get your hands off me!”
Madeline let out a suppressed groan as fear and horror overtook her. But the man did not care.
“Was the Baron nice to you? I guess I whispered love to you. With that snake-like tongue…….”
“Don’t say a word about him!”
“……”
The man’s hands started to gain more strength as he heard those words. Physiological tears began to flow because of the pain.
More importantly, no matter how coldly Count Nottingham treated her, what Madeline had committed was wrong.
She herself knew that her secret meeting with the Baron was not justified. Although she did not have a physical relationship with him, in her heart she had betrayed and betrayed her husband, the Count, many times.
‘Did I love Arlington? It’s more than that…’
‘Think of it as revenge.’
Madeline shook her head in her mind. It didn’t matter if she loved the Baron or not. All that mattered was that she hated the man in front of her and wanted to hurt him. She hoped that he would be furious and collapse. The other person wasn’t important.
Of course she was going to pay the price. Madeline vowed to bear the shame and disgrace herself. But she didn’t think that such a resolution would provoke the man in front of her.
“…You can’t get out.”
A low, cavernous voice rang in her ears.
“Not even if you die, not even if I die. Even if this bloody haunted house collapses. You are not getting out of here.”
The words sounded so horribly evil. Her wrist hurt.
“No. Let go of my hand!”
‘B*stard’. Madelaine screamed out loud. But no matter how loud she shouted, the servants didn’t seem to hear anything. They were the ghosts of Nottingham’s mansion, and they were as good as hands and feet to the man. It was their duty to hear and not listen to the spectacle of all this.
Horrible loneliness and shame strangled Madeline.
“I’m going to run away! From you, this disgusting place…….”
Madeline’s lips twisted. Hatred finally overcame fear. She will be free. She will truly escape from the grip of that disgusting man.
“You can’t trap me.”
She’s getting out of here. This terrible mansion. This haunted house.
Madeline stepped back again. She was going to turn her body around and go down the stairs. But there was something strange. Her retreating foot hovered in the air, and then she fell.
It was a fall.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
At the same time as the sound, she began to roll down the spiral stone staircase. The house’s hunting trophies (horse, deer, tiger, wolf, and lion) watched the scene without a care in the world.
The beast’s cries were heard.
The shock was repeated and Madeline’s mind began to darken. The pain was destroying her.
This was the end.
Madeline Nottingham, or rather, Madeline Loenfield, had fled the affair and ended up dead.
In her flickering consciousness, Madeline heard someone crying out her name over and over again. It was horrifying, but on the other hand, it was also refreshing. If she hurt him even this much…it seemed to clear her chest.
But like a ball rolling down a spiral staircase, had fate fallen somewhere else?
When she woke up, she was not in heaven (which of course she thought she couldn’t go), purgatory, or hell….
She was back when she was seventeen.
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In the gorgeous, beautiful Loennfield mansion.
Spring of a seventeen year old. Just as what had not yet died was revived, Madeline’s seventeen-year-old life began again.