4 Chapter 4 -The duchess

~(HmmhM..)

Icarus hummed through the Marcias hallway. It was already dusk when they have arrived at the mansion. There was no welcome, no sorrow expressed at the sudden loss of their great granny. With every household maid and butler that lined up, none of them showed grief on their faces. And he was also pissed off because he gave off the same vibe as them.

~(HmmhM..), Icarus still humming.

-A cold exterior and emotionless -this was the Marcias trait that marked the whole territory. Nobody would dare mess someone with such nerve racking stare and a dark gloomy aura.

This was normal by the way, and Icarus hated this silence. He hated it to his core that he spent every single day at the mansion with that orphan girl ever since she arrived.

'I await the day she becomes a Marcias too....cold, sad and empty'

-This was his first thought about Ophelia. But never could he imagine to be close to her and to even have a wholesome family with granny. But that was gone now. Today was the day Ophelia should push him away and turn cold like him. He expected this and she had shown it earlier from the graveyard.

"Where's my coat, right my silly self gave it to her... I must have pitied her.... why does she makes me feel...troubled"

Icarus talked to himself as he arrived within his bedroom. There was no one to talk to anyway, and no one listening, he might as well use his tongue, casual conversations with himself were utterly normal for him.

"Should I talk to her?"

He asked himself as he sat down on his bed and facing a huge mirror in front. He often did this, talking to his own reflection, and it helped him from growing even more insane within the household.

"....Ophelia, I've been looking forward to this day...you've always smiled at me, yet I wonder if that was all just a mask..."

He blinked a few times at his reflection, his eyes cold and grim.

A thought had crossed his mind. Ophelia was a clumsy girl who smiled and laughed at the slightest mistake and lecture from her dear brother and granny. She had always been a playmate -his toy that he grew up with in this cold mansion.

'Perhaps, it was all a façade?' He thought.

Icarus had remembered the fear, shock and confusion that Ophelia had shown him in the graveyard. He had not expected the girl to break down and getting soaked in the rain like a lost puppy. It made him wonder deep inside, was that really Ophelia? The orphan girl who didn't give a single care when she got wounded or even when Icarus had fallen on a cliff when they were younger. The girl was known for her carefree and apathetic character, and she would laugh at anything cheerfully like nothing had happened. So what changed? Could it be the granny's death?

'I've always wondered what face she would make if she had everything taken away.'

Icarus had thought -maybe she was finally showing her true colors and that the loss of their granny had triggered this.

"... I can only wonder what game you are playing now...Should I play along?"

He said in such cold expression it was strange for Icarus to suddenly pay attention to his adopted sister now. She had always been a nobody in the mansion that played a rather useless character, but he couldn't get her out of his mind...Something about her had made the young lord troubled and confused.

And Icarus' night went on like this until it was dinner and bedtime. He couldn't sleep a wink that night. It was the first time he felt thrilled and a longing he could not speak of.

-

Ophelia, tired and wiped out had to skip dinner and went straight to bed.

She didn't want to meet anyone at all, and it was in dinner time that everyone would gather around the table. She feared this, she wouldn't know what to say and most of all she couldn't face Icarus or the Duchess just yet...

'Right, they were the next to die after granny.'

As much as possible, Ophelia wanted to remember each scene and fragment that she should prepare herself with. Her priority was to get Icarus inherit the Dukedom, but should she save the Duchess? She didn't know much of what happened to the duchess aside from keeping the mansion under her control and the deathly beauty she was known for. Ophelia was also fully aware that Katerina -the late duchess was not a good mother to Icarus. Still, Ophelia had no idea how the duchess held her last breath, perhaps she had been taken by her relatives at that time.

'What secrets did the duchess hold....how did she die?'

Ophelia peered at the ceiling as she lay on top of her bed. Isn't there any clue from her memories? Did she really turn a blind eye to everything she saw? Closing her eyes, she inhaled deeply...

1...

...2

3.... exhale.

Recollecting her past was not an easy task, she always kept silent about everything -thinking that it was okay as long as she had kept quiet and not cause any problems and it would all just went smoothly for her. Ophelia was aware of this apathetic attitude, but she couldn't break from it no matter what -as if her sole role in the mansion had always been an extra who watched everything in the shadows.

'Think, elia.....what happened after granny dies'

(Blink, blink, blink)

'I was twelve when Icarus had died and 13 when the Duchess follows....blood...there was blood on the floor.....'

She had seen Icarus' blood had spilled on the floor when she entered a room from a distant memory. Ophelia's head ached like she had been crying for hours....It was tough as she tried to recollect some memories that had laid an impression to her past.

Feeling a sudden gush of pain in her chest, her heart pounded anxiously. She didn't know it had affected her this much for she never tried to awaken such nightmares but she had to go through the ignored pain....

A moment later - little Ophelia found herself embracing her chest as she quivered in fear, now she clearly remembers how the Marcias had lost their only heir.

-Two years from now and Icarus who would soon turn 14 will draw his last breath. And guess what else Ophelia remembers...

'...the duchess...killed her son..'

~(knock.knock)

"Ophelia, dear can I come in?"

A woman's beguiling voice called out.

'.....It was the duchess.'

Ophelia thought again in disbelief.

Ophelia had forgotten the most important part of Icarus' life....His mother had killed him...

She sure have acted unaware of this in the future and always thought he hadn't existed but that was because she had decided to ignore everything, -no something had made her blocked everything that she felt and saw, that she could never dare to unravel such memories and were locked up in her deepest core.

She never dared to know and expose herself with such gruesome memories, but now that she had been given this chance in order for everything to change in the future. She must face everything for herself and face the bewitching witch outside her door.

With trembling hands -now sweaty and cold, her heart leaped at the sound of the maniac voice which echoed through the door.

"Come in...."

She answered.