The iron claws of the Curse dug deep into my head.
I barely managed my hold on the reigns as I left the Pearl Manor, whispers were screaming in my mind, and the world threatened to fade with every suffocating moment. But I could not stop. If I did, everyone would know.
Someone would get harmed.
And so, I tugged the reigns of the horse towards the dense woods, and somewhere, the darkness around clawed its way inside my heart. I stood alone within a void―inside another neverending nightmare.
.
.
The nightmare lasted for over a month.
Somewhere during that time, the Crown Prince had arrived, and his men found me wandering like a vengeful ghoul in the woods. When I woke up, the pain was a hundred times worse than anything I had ever felt.
The remnants of the nightmare still clung to me like festering wounds.