Lady Devil - Chapter 102

#102

Have you ever heard the voice of someone who is not present?

Do you know the eerie sensation of a phantom voice scratching the back of your neck?

It’s similar to the feeling of momentarily losing focus due to a sharp noise like metal scraping against metal. The moment that dark voice echoes in my brain, my reason is instantly captivated by it.

Though it was clearly a human voice in this world, I had no way to avoid hearing it. If it were external noise, I could at least cover my ears, but I couldn’t very well open my skull and pull out my brain every time it reverberated inside my head.

Moreover, that voice came naturally, fitting the time and situation, and for a very long time, I didn’t even feel any particular sense of dissonance from it. I simply assumed it was something everyone experienced.

Where did that voice come from? Perhaps it was part of the madness descending through the cruel bloodline of my cursed maternal family? Only now, as I write and recall the past, do I attach the new nameplate of ‘auditory hallucination’ to that voice – how dull-witted I was.

You mad woman.

You death-obsessed bitch.

I constantly woke up writhing from nightmares, and the hostility in the voice became clearer each time. The young me in my head often spoke recklessly. It mocked me, sneered at me, screamed, and sometimes burst into tears, as if ringing a final warning bell.

My nightmares and malicious hallucinations reached their peak just before we left the South.

“…This is incredible.”

While Johannes was briefly away, Alyona, who had been uncomfortable even breathing in the same space as him, barely managed to utter a word.

“Indeed.”

I replied nonchalantly, sitting in an armchair and embroidering. Alyona tore her wide eyes away from the new jewel box Johannes had brought in and looked around the inner room anew. That gaze seemed as if she were daydreaming with eyes wide open. Her eyes appeared dazed wherever they landed.

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