Chapter 358: The land of the dead_Part 1
How could he have noticed she wasn’t the real person when she had played her parts so well?!
"I... I—" she fumbled, struggling for words, for a name that fit the woman, but none came to mind. Instead, she dramatically clutched her head with both hands and groaned in pain. "Oh dear, my head hurts so badly, I—"
"It will hurt even more if I bang it against the wall behind you. Maybe that will refresh your memory on how you got into that body. Or I could cut your head open to see for myself. Rav, get me a knife," Rohan ordered, straightening as he spoke. "It seems I need to force the words out of you one way or another. By the time I am done with you, you will tell me where my wife is."
Rav did as he was told. Though hesitant, he left the room and shortly returned with a glimmering blade in hand. He held it out reluctantly, and Rohan snatched it without hesitation.
Upon seeing the knife, the imposter gasped, but then, as if realizing something, her lips curved into a mocking smile. She let out a cold laugh, shaking her head as if amused.
"You know as much as I do that you can’t hurt me. Yes, I am not your wife, but you won’t cause any harm to her body, will you? Hurting me won’t bring her back, but it will surely make her feel the pain. The last time I saw her, she was tied up somewhere in the land of the dead, where she will eventually perish... and I will live in this body forever. Go ahead, cut me if you dare, you will only be hurting your darling wife and making her suffer even more."
The imposter poked at his chest as she continued to speak confidently. "You know what will be best in this situation? Since I have her body, you can just pretend I am her, and we can continue our life like nothing has happened. I can learn to be her. Even though I don’t like vampires, you aren’t bad looking." She winked at him as she laughed in his face.
Her laughter rang out, echoing through the small chamber. She had realized she had the upper hand here and could keep this body forever. The living girl in the land of the dead had been foolish to think she could fight her and win. A desperate soul like her would never lose an opportunity to live again when the chance presented itself.
Now that she had won and taken the body for herself, no one could take it from her. She had won the lottery, and she wasn’t letting it go!
Rohan’s grip tightened on the knife until the hilt bit into his palm and the blade cut into his skin. He didn’t care. The blood dripping down his hand didn’t matter.
The imposter was right in one way: he couldn’t bring himself to harm his wife’s body, because wherever Belle was, she would feel the pain as she was still connected to this body until she perished. If he physically hurt her like his hands were so itching to do, to strangle the life out of her, his wife would suffer, and she might really die.
However, she was gravely mistaken if she thought she would keep the body and remain here.
Rohan reached out and grabbed the wrist of the hand she dared place on his shoulder. His eyes caught sight of a recent cut that looked like a red line, a mirror of an injury from the other world, and a smile curved across his face.
"Hmm. You have a point, lady. I can pretend you are my wife, and keep you with me forever," he said, watching as a satisfied smile settled on her lips and she nodded.
"You are a smart man to think that," she said brightly.
But Rohan’s next words shattered her smile.
"But unfortunately... you can never be my bunny. My lovely wife. The woman for whom I would bring the world down at her feet if she asked for it. The woman who owns my heart, and every inch of me. You can’t be the mother to my son. Never."
Her smile disappeared completely, and a look that had never before been on Belle’s face settled in. "You bastard," she gritted, trying to yank her hand away from his squeezing grip, but he wasn’t letting go. "You are going to have to hurt her to take me out of this body!"
Rohan nodded. "I know, but there are many ways to do it without hurting her but you. As much as she is connected to this body, you are also in it. There are many ways to kill a soul that’s already dead again."
His woman had crossed into the land of the dead and had been trapped by this soul, who had taken her body after keeping hers there. But the line on the wrist was proof that Belle was looking for ways to wake herself. Yet with this imposter, she wouldn’t be able to return, unless they drove her away.
Though Rohan had no powers to travel into that realm to help his wife, and the only creature who could had not accompanied them to Aragonia, he knew if they could make this soul miserable enough, she would prefer death rather than staying here. She would slowly drift back to where she belonged without him having to force her.
"Tie her down on the bed," Rohan ordered Rav as he released her wrist and stepped back from her. He didn’t even want to touch the imposter if he could help it. She may have his wife’s body, but it wasn’t the same.
She glared at him as Rav obeyed and stepped forward to drag her back to the bed. "You can’t tie me up forever, because no matter what you do, you can’t send me away against my will. And your wife, who can do that and take back this body, is trapped where only I know! She won’t be back!" She laughed in his face as she was being forced to lay on the bed and tied to the post.
Rohan ignored her words as he moved to take the makeshift rope Rav handed him. He was tying her wrist when he suddenly cursed under his breath upon feeling Lady Louisiana’s presence outside the door of the room, which not long after, she knocked softly on the door.
"Isabelle, are you awake?" came Lady Louisiana’s voice as she stood outside the door with her younger daughter, waiting for Belle to come and open it so they could talk to her about the plans of her attending the ball tomorrow, to clear the name she had tarnished with her madness yesterday and to apologize to the Baron and his fiancée.
"Mama, why are you bothering to even knock when you have a spare key? You should open the door. She’s probably ignoring you because she has grown a backbone," Eve said to her mother with pursed lips, swirling a strand of her hair around her finger and glaring at the door of the room, where she knew her witch of a sister was hearing them but not wanting to open it.