Chapter 19: A Blood-Red Gala

"This dress is gorgeous, Gray."

Gwen said to her friend Gray, who was sitting beside her.

"I designed it myself. You know I love to get hands-on."

Gray rubbed his feet and stood up, looking down at the students reveling below from the stands. He said to Gwen, "Let's go down. My feet are starting to feel numb."

Gwen nodded and followed him down from the stands.

The two walked past tables adorned with the school's colors, where candles were placed in bottles, along with flyers for the competition and Garden brand snacks for the students to enjoy.

"But I have to say, Gwen, you look beautiful today too, radiant. Do you have any secrets?"

Gray stood by a table, picking up some nuts and asking Gwen.

At this moment, Gwen was wearing a high-waisted dress, perfectly accentuating her figure.

"The secret is, I'm Don McLin's secret lover."

(Don McLin, American folk singer from New York.)

Gwen joked and picked up a flyer from the table, glancing at the football players warming up. She said to Gray, "I wonder if we'll win today's match."

"Hey, Gwen."

As Gwen was chatting with Gray, a voice appeared behind her.

The two turned around to see Frank standing behind them.

"Frank?"

Gwen recognized this quiet classmate, but she couldn't recall him ever initiating a conversation with her.

Frank forced a smile and asked Gwen, "Can I talk to you?"

"Um..."

Gwen hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Sure."

She remembered this classmate, like Peter, often suffered bullying from the school's thugs.

She always felt sympathetic towards victims of campus bullying.

Gray tactfully shrugged and said to Gwen, "You guys chat. I'll wait over there."

After Gray left, Gwen asked Frank, "What do you want to talk about, Frank? Is it about studying? Maybe I can give you some advice, although I'm not sure if it'll help."

"No, it's not about studying. I just wanted to say, you look beautiful today."

Frank smiled, his gaze fixed on Gwen. "Do you have any secrets?"

Gwen's high-waisted dress complemented her blonde hair, and a simple necklace adorned her neck, giving her a mysterious charm.

'It seems Gray wasn't just flattering me. Maybe I really dressed up a bit more maturely today.' Gwen thought to herself.

Soon she pushed aside her jumbled thoughts and thanked Frank, "Thank you."

"I haven't seen you in class recently. Is everything okay?"

Gwen wanted to leave. She felt the atmosphere was too awkward, but leaving directly seemed impolite, so she brought up a random topic.

Frank was silent for a moment, his gaze shifting to the students celebrating by the bonfire. "I've been through some bad things."

Gwen thought he was talking about being bullied and after a moment said, "I'm sorry, but perhaps everything is in the past, and we can leave the bad memories behind."

"I can't forget."

Frank raised his head, his gaze intense. "I want to say, I won't blame anyone, but that's a lie! I'll blame everyone, and I'll keep blaming, I don't want to lie in front of you."

Listening to his somewhat erratic words, Gwen frowned, feeling a vague sense of foreboding.

She couldn't help but take two steps back.

"It's all over now, everything is over."

Frank said as his eyes grew even crazier.

"I remember the last school event like this, the school's spring dance. I attended that dance too, and I wanted to invite you to be my dance partner. That day, I saw you wearing high heels, two inches taller than me. I wanted to invite you, but..."

He paused and took a step closer to Gwen.

"Josh and his gang of football players played a stupid prank on me. They tied me up on stage and poured beer and juice over me. It felt awful, like I was a monkey being watched. I'll always remember what Josh did to me."

Gwen's breath quickened. "Did you kill Josh?"

"It was just to give him the punishment he deserved!"

Frank's voice was filled with resentment, his eyes turning red.

But he quickly calmed down, exhaling deeply. "Now, I have a different power. I can do as I please. This is the gift God has given me. I am the king who controls everything!"

He stepped closer to Gwen. "Gwen, when I was tied up on stage, only you were willing to help me. You scolded those people and untied me. Since then, I've loved you, Gwen. Will you... be my queen?"

Gwen looked at Frank in shock.

She realized that the guy who had sent a confession letter to her email was the same as the one standing before her now, a lunatic.

"You lunatic!"

As Gwen said these words, she grabbed a nut-filled cornucopia from the table.

"Bang!"

Along with the nuts, the cornucopia smashed heavily on Frank's head.

The nuts scattered on the ground, but Frank, hit on the head, was unscathed.

With narrowed eyes, he flashed a cold gaze at Gwen and pushed out his palm towards her.

"Thud!"

Gwen's body was suddenly thrown backward, crashing heavily onto the table.

The bottle on the table, with candles, fell to the ground with a "boom", flames immediately scattered.

The flyers for the competition caught fire, and the entire lawn was lit with sparks, igniting into a fierce blaze.

The impact on her back made Gwen feel a moment of darkness.

She struggled to suppress the pain, trying to keep herself conscious.

The sudden turn of events attracted the attention of everyone present.

The cheerleaders, football team members, students in the stands, all turned their gaze towards the two.

The entire field fell silent.

"I've always believed in one thing: If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away!"

Frank spat out these words, his sinister gaze turning towards the football team members.

"Run!"

Gwen shouted to the bewildered crowd.

"Boom!"

The crowd erupted into chaos, screams and shouts of panic filled the entire field.

Everyone rushed towards the exit.

What was once a lively event turned into a hellish scene of people fleeing.

The flames spread across the lawn, fueled by the wind, quickly spreading to the surroundings.

...