Path To Oblivion

Cold. It is everything around my body that lies in the snow.

I ran as much as I could to escape death, but it finally caught me. Memories flood my mind. Memories that I wish to forget.

The image of a perfect family that never loved me for being a collected bastard, the daughter of a slave with no voice or vote within that house, since i was only the substitute for the true daughter.

The babysitter who took care of me in my childhood who was almost like a mother, who protected and advised me until she found out where I came from when I was ten years old and made me the object of ridicule and mistreatment not only from her but also from all the staff of the mansion.

The heartless parents who sold me to the man who pretended to love me and then left me to go after his lover when I lost my son. The real lady who accused me of trying to murder her and then ending up locked in a dark cell where I was tortured and raped to admit to crimes and atrocities that I never committed.

I was able to flee from that hell but at a very high cost. I had lost my tongue and was left one-eyed, but despite that I started living from scratch for a few years until the people around me ended up betraying me again. I escaped over and over again and it always resulted in the same betrayal situation to the point that I ended up wandering alone in this frozen dark forest.

If I had a wish, it would be to have been aware of my situation and thus to have escaped from that house, from those people, from that destiny. To be able to live far away, so far away where no one can find me and where I never have to speak to anyone again. Now only the cold surrounds me and a night without stars.

**

A hot and bright sun dazzles my eyes. I woke up and was still alive ... why?

-Miss, wake up, we are already in the capital-

What an ungrateful surprise appeared before me.

[Looks like I ended up in hell, was to be expected]

The woman looks at me like she's worried because I haven't responded. Then I turn my head to look out the window. Not to see the city, but to see my reflection and I was surprised. The face I see is that of someone who is supposed to be dead.

Swallow. The girl reflected in the glass was the daughter of Marques Lennox. Her skin so white and delicate and beautiful, with crystal blue eyes and golden straight hair. She definitely was Maybelline Lennox.

She was too famous in social circles. Her beauty was almost fleeting; making more than one lady want to kill her to get it. But behind that beauty was hiding the most rotten and diabolical being in the capital. She was cruel, capricious and obsessive. Her tantrums made her famous to the point that the duke broke her engagement because of how unbearable he became dealing with her and announced her marriage to the prime minister's daughter who was considered a saint.

I met her at one of the gala balls in the ducal palace. While she was very beautiful, she was not friends with those who were of lower rank and did not have a guardian spirit. Coming from a viscount's home, I ended up being humiliated by her and her entourage. My guardian spirit did not even obey me and even ignored me so I could not defend myself. But her hatred was directed at the prime minister's daughter.

She always insulted her and declared that she was the official fiancée of the duke with whom he had paired her since she was a child. Not satisfied with the verbal abuse of her, then she planned to kidnap the girl to sell her to brothels. Her guardian spirit had already left her to join someone else seeing her deranged plan. The duke stopped the Maybelline madness in time and she ended up being sentenced to torture and public execution.

Her appearance was pitiful. They had raped her and tortured her just like me. She lost his tongue from her and she was completely blind. She was dragged with her broken leg while she was stoned on the way to her scaffold and even with the rope around her neck she did not stop receiving insults and stones. She was called a bastard witch, since her mother turned out to be a servant of the marquisate who died in childbirth. It was also known that marquis never favored her in anything because he hated her daughter and was disgusted even dealing with her. The marquis was the one who signed the torture and execution papers personally.

The public derision was of such magnitude that the central square was full of people from slaves, commoners and noble aristocrats until the royalty itself had arrived to witness the punishment. Maybelline was hanged and burned. The town celebrated with cheers.

Two months later, I was sent to prison where she would spend the next seven years suffering in agony.

I was scared to realize that this was not a dream; therefore, knowing the fate that Maybelline was in store for, I decided to flee at all costs. My plan has always been to escape from everything, and now that I can do it with time I will be able to live my much desired life in peace. I'll pretend to be the miss for a while while I collect enough to live in freedom until I can find a job in another country.

**

Upon arriving at the masion I was able to find out that Maybelline was barely eight years old and she would be paired with the future duke in three months and her spirit was due to manifest in two months for her birthday. I also found among the records of noble families that my previous existence is null in this world. Mavis Chaire never stepped into the house of the viscount's family; there were no girls in that house. I concluded that it could be that she was never born or that maybe the real Maybelline usurped my body and fled too. Whatever the situation, I would not change my opinion about avoiding the flags above my head.

I can not meet the future duke under any circumstances, since the rumor had spread that he was in love at first with Maybelline and then the love he felt for her cooled and ended up meeting with the daughter of the prime minister. And about the marquis, I didn't care because he never came to the mansion when his daughter came back from the academy. Servants didn't help either. They kept whispering and talking behind Maybelline's back. The hatred of her was too obvious.

That left me few options:

Stealing everything I could carry under my skirt without raising suspicions and not preventing me from moving in the event of a noisy escape.

Avoid dances and social parties so as not to meet undesirable people.

Do not make contracts with ungrateful and traitorous spirits.

Trust absolutely no one even if you pretend you do.

Set the date and place to flee.

Everything had to be done before the end of the month to rule out any change in the sequence of events. My life away from this dump would come true sooner or later.