Chapter 201: “Disappearance” (End) |
As soon as the unconscious Sara slipped out of the mirror, her body immediately lost all support. With a dull thud, her head hit the ground, and she collapsed stiffly onto the floor.
Strangely, even after such a fall, she didn’t open her eyes. If not for the faint rise and fall of her chest, Everly would have almost thought she was a corpse.
“Everly, move this thing aside.”
Natalie clearly had no intention of caring for this bad girl with a history of b*llying, but she wasn’t to the point of wanting Sara dead either.
With a wave of her hand, she dispelled the two head-like monsters she had summoned.
These creatures seemed to be formed from the resentment of b*llying victims. When the real Sara appeared, the monster heads—previously somewhat normal in form—suddenly flared up like exploding popcorn. One by one, they bristled violently, eyes wide with fury, hatred surging. Their sharp teeth dripped with saliva, as if they wanted nothing more than to tear into her flesh and devour it alive.
If Natalie hadn’t acted quickly, Sara on the ground might have been gnawed apart by the monsters in moments.
Seeing the creatures disappear, Everly hurried forward and dragged the obstructing human Sara aside like a dead pig.
Compared to the other five victims, Sara was lucky. She had only been replaced by Bloody Mary yesterday afternoon. Up until now, she had only been “gone” for about half a day. Even without eating during that time, it wasn’t enough for her to die of hunger or thirst.
Yet the Sara who fell out of the mirror was dressed in a tattered pink nightgown, with the same tears as the one worn by Bloody Mary.
Was it because she and Bloody Mary had once been mirror reflections of each other?
Thinking this, Everly raised her head and glanced toward the mirror.
At this glance, she immediately noticed something was wrong—everyone who should have been reflected in the mirror, including the mannequin-like Natalie and herself standing behind, had completely disappeared. The mirror still showed the pitch-black drama club storage room, but the person standing inside it had become a strange little girl.
She looked no more than twelve or thirteen years old. Her black hair was soaked in blood, clumped into dirty, matted strands that hung down from her head. Beneath the tangled mess, a pair of resentful, blood-red eyes could be seen, along with several horrifying wounds that tore across her face.
“No… damn it, let me out!”
The girl wore a thin white silk dress stained with blood, its style very classical, resembling medieval costumes seen in films and TV. Her face twisted with anger as she slammed her scar-covered hands against the glass mirror, trying to break free from its confinement.
However, the moment her hands touched the surface, the blood-red pentagram drawn on the mirror lit up with a vivid crimson glow.
Scorching burn marks instantly appeared on her hands. Bloody Mary let out a wail and quickly pulled them back.
“No, don’t do this to me! Damn it… I’m willing to sign a contract and work for you—you must need help, right?”
When force didn’t work, Bloody Mary immediately switched tactics and surrendered.
This evil spirit could clearly alter her appearance at will. In the blink of an eye, the blood-soaked, heavily wounded Bloody Mary transformed into a cute little girl with smooth black hair, wearing a snow-white nightdress, her eyes now a soft pink.
Clutching her burned hands, she stood before the mirror with teary eyes, her face full of hope as she pleaded again and again to those outside, softening her tone and offering all kinds of sweet promises.
Unfortunately, Natalie was cold-hearted and showed no pity for the evil spirit trapped in the mirror.
“I don’t need help—especially not from someone as unruly as you,” Natalie said.
“Please, just consider it—for the sake that we’re both witches who were persecuted by the Church… I can trap people inside the mirror world and torment them. Isn’t that a great ability?” Bloody Mary clasped her hands together in front of her chest, her pleading voice growing increasingly pitiful.
Natalie ignored Bloody Mary in the mirror.
The mannequin standing before it rotated its stiff joints, raising one arm forward with a series of click-clack sounds. A grayish-white substance—like moth dust or drifting ash—materialized out of thin air, gathering at the wooden fingertips. It then formed into small birds in midair, their sharp beaks aimed at the fragile mirror, poised to strike.
“No! Don’t—please don’t do this! I’m useful, I really am!”
As long as Bloody Mary was sealed back into the mirror that summoned her and the mirror was destroyed, the Bloody Mary inside would be sent back to hell.
For a being as widely known as her, she was, to some extent, like Lamia—impossible to truly eliminate. But once sent back to hell, it would be unknown how long it would take before she could be summoned into the mortal world again. After all, not just anyone could successfully perform a summoning ritual; sufficient spiritual power and an earnest desire were both indispensable.
With “death” looming, Bloody Mary finally learned fear. She let out a terrified scream, her pink eyes filled with panic as they darted around, desperately searching for any chance of salvation.
When her gaze swept over Everly, it abruptly froze—as if she had grabbed onto a lifeline.
Everly instinctively held her breath.
She didn’t understand why Bloody Mary was staring at her so intently. Within those pink eyes seemed to lie a world made of countless mirrors. As Bloody Mary looked at her, the mirrors in her pupils began to spin, evoking the eerie image of a “life-flashing carousel.”
“I can feel it… that girl—she’s your subordinate, isn’t she? I swear in the name of Bloody Mary, I see her fate line winding and twisting. At some point in the future, it will briefly intersect with mine… ah, yes, that’s right—at that fated turning point, she will need my power, to confront something vast and terrifying… ugh—ahhh—AAAAH—”
Toward the end of her speech, whether from overwhelming distress or because she had glimpsed something forbidden, a large amount of blood suddenly began to flow from Bloody Mary’s pink eyes.
As the blood streamed down, all of her disguise vanished. The once delicate and adorable little girl’s face reverted to a mangled, bloodied state, covered in wounds.
Natalie stopped her attack.
“Oh? Interesting… As far as I know, aside from mirror magic, you’re also skilled in divination?”
“Yes, honorable and powerful witch, please spare me. Don’t send me back to that dreadful abyss where even time is frozen…”
With a click, Natalie tilted her head at an eerie angle and pondered for a moment. “Hmm, not impossible… After all, even if I send you back to hell, the next time you’re summoned by an ability user, you’ll return to the human world anyway. By comparison, my client might prefer that the b*llies experience your mirror world for themselves…”
As she spoke, the mannequin raised its hand and traced a few shapes in the air with its fingertips. A moth-like sigil flew out, glowing faintly red, and shot straight into the mirror, heading directly toward Bloody Mary’s chest.
Bloody Mary knew her life was in the hands of this terrifying curse witch. She didn’t dare resist. Suppressing her humiliation, she allowed the moth—symbolizing the curse witch Natalie—to pierce into her left shoulder, landing just above her collarbone. It burned into her skin, forming a dark red moth mark.
Thus, she officially became a servant of the curse witch Natalie. Bound by contract, she would be compelled to strictly carry out all of her master’s commands.
Although Natalie didn’t state it outright, Everly could still sense that her decision to keep Bloody Mary wasn’t just about “preventing her from being summoned again” or “gaining another subordinate.” More importantly, it was because of Bloody Mary’s prophecy.
She thanked Natalie. Natalie glanced at her casually, then nodded. “You completed the task very well. So, as promised, I’ll have the Star Chart Witch help you find that island.”
Everly’s face lit up with joy. “That’s wonderful, thank you so much!”
Even now, she still didn’t fully understand what had happened at Mouster College. But no matter what, the culprit behind all the chaos had already been subdued. Presumably, no one else would suffer an innocent and tragic death like those five girls again.
“I’m currently in a spiritual state and can’t stay away from my body for too long… I’ll send you an address shortly. Please pack up this mirror and mail it there. Don’t worry, so long as the seal isn’t broken, the Bloody Mary inside won’t be able to use any of her powers. She’s completely harmless.”
“Understood.”
“Then, goodbye.”
Before the farewell fully faded, the mannequin’s figure had already begun to blur at the edges, like a reflection on frosted glass.
In the blink of an eye, the wooden puppet dissolved into a mass of black mist and vanished completely into the air.
After seeing off the curse witch, Everly rubbed her temples and looked at the mess on the ground.
The set boards were crooked and scattered, the dust covers were full of holes. The mirror-image Natalie that had become the mannequin was gone, but the mirror fragments summoned by Bloody Mary, along with the blood she had shed, still remained on the floor.
It was hard to tell what that blood even was. Exposed to the air for only a short time, it had already turned black and viscous like oil, giving off a sharp, rotten stench that made one want to vomit.
But none of that was as troublesome as Sara lying on the ground and the mirror standing against the wall.
Sara still lay there motionless, unconscious. It was unclear whether she had grown weak from being trapped in the mirror world for too long, or if she had been affected by some other external force.
The New Osebuch State lay at a relatively high latitude, similar to northeastern Xia Nation. In February, nighttime temperatures there averaged around -10°C. Sara was only wearing a tattered nightgown full of holes, and had been trapped by Bloody Mary in the mirror for a day and a half without a single bite of food.
“If we just leave Sara here, it probably won’t be long before she dies of hypothermia.”
“What’s wrong with her?”
Everly nudged Sara a couple of times with her foot. It didn’t feel like natural sleep, so she raised her head and asked the mirror beside her.
Inside the mirror, after Natalie’s departure, Bloody Mary had returned to her earlier arrogant demeanor. Somehow, she had conjured up a chair and was now lounging on it, sloppily picking at her feet. When Everly spoke to her, she rudely spat toward the ground, chin tilted high, eyes rolling upward.
“You’re not qualified to speak to me, human.”
“…”
Everly stared at her for a moment, then took out her phone, opened the chat with the curse witch on Twitter, and started typing rapidly.
A minute later, the emblem on Bloody Mary’s shoulder suddenly ignited, blazing from within like flames. Tormented by the mark, Bloody Mary shrieked wildly, her hair disheveled, sweat pouring down her face. She tumbled off the chair and rolled on the ground, clutching her shoulder in agony.
The torment lasted a full ten minutes.
After ten minutes, the ornate chair inside the mirror vanished. Bloody Mary sat on the ground hugging her knees, looking utterly dejected. Now, she answered whatever Everly asked, her voice weak and lifeless—like a damp mushroom growing in the corner of a wall.
“Yes… Sara hasn’t woken up because I cast a sleep spell on her… People trapped in the mirror, if they keep running around, die very quickly. I wanted them to live a bit longer, so I could use their bodies for longer.”
“…No soul? Of course it was eaten by the mirror. Something that delicious—why wouldn’t I eat it?”
“You’re asking for a reason? Do I need a reason just to come out and have some fun?”
…
After some questioning, Everly finally learned the truth behind the recent chain of incidents from Bloody Mary.
As expected, this series of deaths all originated from the “welcome party” held by the sorority on the night of January 24.