Chapter 49: The Morning Of Madness
It was morning.
A very beautiful morning.
Like one of those days the world pretends everything is perfect even though inside people are falling apart. The whole of Ravelle was shining, bustling, sparkling like it had swallowed spring and vomited out flowers. Birds chirped too much. The sky was too blue. The air was too sweet. It was disgusting.
Far in the little cottage, things looked peaceful. Too peaceful. Mireille sat calmly in the parlor like a queen on her throne, sipping her coffee with a fresh croissant. She looked like she had all the time in the world, like she wasn’t involved in a plan that could get everyone killed if it failed.
Etienne stood stiffly by the door like he had been planted there. He was so still you could mistake him for furniture. A tall, boring piece of furniture with no sense of humor.
Delphine sat across from Mireille, her spoon swirling in her coffee like she was trying to stir the bitterness in her soul into the cup. She sighed like a dying cow every few minutes. Each sigh dragged heavy through the room, making it harder for Mireille to ignore her sulking.
Mireille finally looked at her with her sharp eyes. "Is everything alright?"
Delphine didn’t meet her gaze. "Yes."
Mireille’s lips curved in the faintest smile. "You are still worried about the plan."
Delphine shrugged, stirring faster, the metal spoon clinking louder as if the cup itself was about to break under her frustration.
"I already told you," Mireille said with absolute calm, "Vivienne won’t be able to pull a fast one on us."
The words barely left her mouth when the door slammed open like a bomb.
And there was Vivienne.
She didn’t just walk in. She stormed in like a hurricane wearing heels. She looked painfully classy, dressed in a cream gown that screamed nobility, elegance, wealth. But her eyes... her eyes screamed madness. Pure, unfiltered insanity.
The moment she entered the parlor, she screamed like someone who had just lost her mind.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!"
Everyone froze. She looked like a tiger ready to rip out throats. Her face was wild, her lipstick smudged from where she’d bitten her lip too hard, her hair falling like she had just been dragged through hell itself.
Mireille blinked. "Is everything okay?"
Delphine muttered under her breath, "What’s her fucking problem now?"
Vivienne threw her hands in the air like she wanted to tear the ceiling down. "Okay. Fuck no. That man is a fucking lunatic. He is insane. Completely insane!"
Mireille set her cup down, voice calm, but her knuckles whitened against the porcelain. "Calm down, Vivienne."
Vivienne shrieked, her voice hitting an unholy pitch that made even Etienne twitch. "Calm down? Calm down? Do you even know what he did to me?"
She started laughing. Not normal laughing. Not even drunk laughing. She laughed like a lunatic who had just escaped an asylum. Her shoulders shook, her chest heaved, tears even glittered in her eyes — but it wasn’t sadness, it was rage so sharp it had cut straight into hysteria.
"I thought he was joking when he said till sunset. I swear I thought it was a joke. But no. He wasn’t joking. That demon tied me to his bedpost and fucked me till sunset!"
The entire parlor went dead silent. Mireille’s coffee froze halfway to her lips. Delphine’s spoon stopped stirring, clattering against the saucer. Even Etienne, the human furniture, blinked like his stone face had cracked.
Vivienne threw her head back and kept laughing crazily, the sound bouncing off the walls. "I can’t even walk properly! My legs are jelly! My back is broken! And you know what? He says he loves me. He says it with his pretty face right after destroying my pussy like it was a battlefield. Do you know how insane that is?"
Her voice carried through the cottage, vulgar and merciless. She pointed at herself dramatically, her chest rising and falling with fury. "And God only knows what he plans to do to me today. He literally said, word for word, he will make love to me every day. Every fucking day! I can’t stay there. I’d rather rot in this cottage. No. I’m not going back. He is driving me completely insane!"
The parlor was so quiet after her outburst that you could hear a pin drop. A pin dropping would sound like thunder compared to that silence. Mireille’s expression remained carved in marble, but her eyes sharpened with irritation. Delphine looked horrified, like she had just been forced to swallow poison. Etienne shifted on his feet, clearly wishing he could vanish into the wood of the door.
Vivienne dragged her chaotic self to the chaise, collapsed like a dying queen, and groaned. Her gown crumpled, her hair clung to her sweaty forehead, and she looked both ruined and victorious. "This is all your fault, Madame. This entire job is madness. Madness! I can’t even find a single damn thing. Not one!"
Mireille crossed her legs with the elegance of someone who refused to be shaken, her calm unshaken. "So you are quitting?"
Vivienne let out a broken chuckle that sounded like shattered glass. "I never said that."
Delphine scoffed, bitterness dripping from her lips. "You pretty much declared it."
Vivienne shot her a look sharp enough to cut diamonds. "Why would I quit now? Are you dumb? He’s obsessed with me. Maybe too much. Okay, definitely too much. But that’s not the point."
She raised her wrist with a flourish. A diamond bracelet glittered under the sunlight, throwing shards of light into Delphine’s already bitter face. "This bastard gave me this."
Delphine scoffed again, louder, her envy making her voice shake.
Vivienne wasn’t done. She leaned forward, eyes wild, mouth curling into a grin. "And that’s not all. Along with a bunch of other jewelry. He’s been spoiling me like his goddamn princess. He even made sure I don’t work as a maid anymore. Can you imagine? He sticks to me like glue. It’s fucking annoying but useful. It won’t be long now. Very soon I’ll get that damn golden horse. I just came here to rest because my body is broken. But quitting? Never. I’m not that stupid."
She leaned back smugly, twirling the bracelet on her wrist, smiling like a cat that had just eaten a canary. "Very soon. Very very soon. That horse will be mine."
Delphine’s jaw clenched so hard her teeth almost cracked. Her eyes were practically green with envy, but Vivienne didn’t give a shit. She just stretched like a satisfied queen, enjoying her moment of chaos, vulgar, unhinged, and absolutely terrifying to everyone in the room.
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