Chapter 37 - Prelude to the Nightmare

Chapter 37 - Prelude to the Nightmare

...

<POV: 3rd Person>

"Oh.. come on, Celesta! Just one more drink~!"

"Yeah! Hic.. Hmm! D-drink some more!!"

"Ahahaha~!"

".. blergh.. I-I can't...."

"This is so much fun!"

The girls around Celesta continued to giggle happily as they tried to make their friend get drunker and drunker.

Celesta hadn't been coming out of her room lately, which prompted some of their worried roommates to arrange a drinking party to lift Celesta's spirit up.

Although she had initially disagreed, the continued efforts from her closest circle of friends eventually made her agree to it.

In the evening, the three roommates of Celesta, along with four of her other friends tagged along with Celesta for the party.

The party went on, as any College drinking party would, with things starting out slow and everyone only sipping their drinks lightly while discussing the latest gossip around them.

Once they started to get drunk though, the amount of alcohol they consumed began to rise exponentially, with most of them starting to laugh out loudly.

They started to become more and more careless about their behaviour and posture, as most of them began to behave as they saw fit at that moment.

Thankfully, the room that they booked for the occasion was a private one, otherwise, there would be too many eyes wandering all over their exposed skin.

"Meh! You girls suck! How long are we going to continue with these useless blabbers? Let's talk about love. L-O-V-E!"

"Heeeeeeeh~? What's that about~? Did you get a new sugar daddy or something...?"

"Phhh! Y-You moron! H-How dare you?!"

"AHHH! This slut is going crazzzy~!"

"Hohohohohoho..."

"Hey.. your laughter is sounded pretty creepy just now."

"EHHH~? What, could, you, be, talking... about?"

"... forget that I asked."

Celesta sat in the middle of this group as she tried to behave as cordial as she could. However, she wasn't feeling so well then, due to the amount of alcohol that she had been forced to drink.

Although she wasn't a light drinker and could handle getting drunk, she only occasionally drank whenever the occasion called for it. She also felt that her friends were being too assertive with herself today.

In the end, though, her mind had been preoccupied with the thoughts about Carene for the past several days. It wasn't wrong to say that she was suffering from withdrawal-like symptoms.

After finally finding her again, Celesta didn't want to be separated from Carene so soon. Only she knew how desperate she had been during the period of time when she was searching for her.

And when she did find her, it was already too late. Her Carene had already lost her innocence at the hands of some perverted girls. She had immense hatred within herself towards those who dared to harm dear Carene like that.

For the past few days, she had been extremely worried regarding Carene's safety. Her behaviour after those events had changed somewhat from her previous one. However, Celesta didn't blame her for it. In her opinion, anyone who had to go through such a traumatic experience would certainly change in some ways.

In these troubled times, however, Celesta refused to leave her vulnerable friend by herself.

'I already failed you once, Carene. Never again. I would never let something like that happen ever again!'

...

Celesta gripped the glass in her hands tightly while her mind began to swirl with dangerous thoughts.

"... only if I..."

"Hm? Wait you, girls! Celesta has something to say!"

"Hmm? Is it a love story about you, Celesta?"

"Heeeh? I never thought that someone like Celesta would be having love troubles at all..?"

"Ohhh! Tell us! What is it like? Who stole your heart? What does he look like?"

Upon being called out so suddenly, Celesta came out of her thoughts and looked at the girls around her. She found out that nearly all of them were staring at her, probably hoping for an answer to satisfy their curious hearts.

Although Celesta felt like keeping her mouth shut, there was something said that stabbed at her heart viciously.

"Hmm. I think that it's unrequited love, isn't it?"

"Eh? W-what do you mean by that, Sarah?"

"Right, right. Celesta, and being in unrequited love? You have to be insane to be able to come up with something as ridiculous as this."

"No. I suspect that the person that Celesta likes had been ignoring her till now. It's clear if you focus on her behaviour while we talked regarding love topics. Isn't that right, Celesta..?"

A strange rush of anger filled Celesta's mind as she began to glare at the girl heavily. She never thought that someone would be able to pick up something like that so easily, especially her behaviour of exposing it in front of everyone was very rude to her.

The other girls noticed the sudden change in Celesta's expression and they soon began to believe in Sarah's wild claims.

"I-I see. So it was like that..."

"Oh. Well, don't worry too much about it."

"Yeah. Everything would work out some way or the other, right?"

"But.. I don't know..."

"Forget about that. Can you tell us what he is like?"

"Yeah! Yeah! Tell us! Who stole our belle's heart?!"

Celesta mind calmed down a bit after hearing the words of comfort from the other girls. She drank a whole glass of alcohol to ease her heart and slowly started to speak,

"Well.. that person is very cute."

"EHH?! C-Cute? OMG!"

"Hey! Let her talk you moron!!"

After the girls around her quieted down again, Celesta began to speak further,

"That person is clumsy sometimes, however that person is also the most trustable human you could find anywhere."

"Hmm. Then, why isn't he noticing you? Is there a problem?"

"Ahh! This girl.. keep your mouth shut!"

...

Celesta felt really hurt due to some of the girls satisfying their curiosity at her expense by trampling upon her emotions. She grabbed her bag and stood up from her chair and started to walk out of the private room.

"W-Wait! Celesta..!"

No matter how much everyone called out to her, Celesta didn't turn back and kept walking away.

'No one understands me... I want to go back home... Carene..'

Celesta's mind was becoming more and more incoherent as she felt the alcohol being too effective on her this time. She judged that it was better to return to her room before she collapsed on the streets unknowingly.

When she had arrived almost halfway to the hotel, a loud voice called out to her.

"Hey! Celesta. You seem to have forgotten something here."

Celesta found the voice to be odd as she wasn't familiar with the voice. She had planned to ignore that person and to keep walking back. However, that voice called out to her again,

"Hm? And here I thought that this phone was actually very precious to you. My mistake..."

Upon the mention of her phone, Celesta tried to feel the phone's presence in her bag. She was horrified when she discovered that her phone was indeed missing from her bag.

'It should have been here. When did I lose it? And.. who is that man?"

She finally turned her head around to glare at the man who had called out to her earlier and found that he was indeed holding her phone in his hands.

Although she wouldn't have cared if she lost it, but the phone strap was something that Carene had gifted to her a few years ago. Ever since then, she had kept the phone strap attached to her phone. It was a way for her to feel Carene's presence and her feelings towards her through it.

Now though, her sacred item was being sullied in the hands of an unknown man. Anger rushed to her head, as Celesta began to march up to the man in order to snatch back her belonging.

The man, however, quickly turned around and started to escape through another street.

"Wait! Come back here!"

Celesta ran after the man as she tried not to let the man escape her pursuit.

'Just let me get my phone back! I will show you then, you thief!'

The two soon disappeared from the busy streets as they continued to run towards the more desolate area of the city.

...