VICTORIA'S POV

"Are you ready?" Daniel asked me, and honestly, I didn't know how to answer that question. ​​

I didn’t even know in what context was he asking me the question. Was he asking me about the cutting of my birthday cake, or was he asking me about my recent battle with my grandfather that will be happening sooner or later?

Honestly, I was ready for neither of them. My mind was occupied by too many things to celebrate my birthday happily. However, knowing that it will make them sad, I went along with the flow and smiled at their preparations.

Today was my 22nd birthday, and according to my parents, my grandfather will come to kill me today or within the next two days.

If it would’ve been earlier, then I wouldn’t have been worried so much about this fact, but now that I know that my grandfather might try to kill me because of the presence of Madeline in my body, I couldn’t help but feel a little worried about the fact.

It has been more than ten days since I last saw my grandfather, which was another thing that was adding to the uncertainty of the fact if I will be able to see my 23rd birthday or not.

After that day when he told me about meditation and bringing the water source from my dreams, which I must mention that I failed terribly, I had not seen him. There was no news from him and I don’t know what to think about it anymore.

There was this special spell he has taught me, which no one knows about so that I could call him whenever I want. However, no matter how many times I called him, neither would he reply to me nor would he give me any indications that my spells were even reaching him.

“Hey? Where have you been lost? Ashton has been asking you if you wanted any gift from him on tour special birthday,” Alexander said, bringing me out of my thoughts, and I couldn’t help but look at him apologetically.

“Yeah, I am listening. I am sorry, I am just a bit concerned over this battle,” I made up a quick excuse before smiling at all of them

“You don’t need to worry about the battle, Victoria. We are sure that we will win. And not only that, but we will also defeat this presence of Madeline around you.” Ashton said, and I nodded at him before looking at the large cake in front of me, specially prepared by my three mates to make me happy snd special on my special day.

I don’t even know how they can act this happy when I am practically on the verge of pulling out my hair because of the frustration.

I mean, we have a major battle scheduled in a few hours, not to mention that the Madeline case is yet to be solved, and we are not even close to finding the truth about that ambiguous water dream of mine.

After the cake cutting ceremony, we celebrated for a little more time before we resorted back to the living hall.

It was Alexander’s plan.

According to him, we all should be sleeping together and closer to each other because we are unsure when my grandfather will be making his presence known and try to kill me.

Though his plan was a little bit childish because it sounded more like a sleep night out between girls, I couldn’t help but agree with their plans.

Closing my eyes, I laid down along with them, smiling when I noticed that everyone was looking at me.

“Have a good night’s sleep, sweetheart,” Ashton was the one to speak, and it was followed by the goodnight wishes from the other two too.

“Guys, can I ask you a question? Do you remember the story of Madeline? She was twenty-two when she had killed her mates and entered the immortal phase, no?” I asked them, all their attentions on me now.

“Wait, why are we discussing this? Do you suspect anything? If you are suspecting anything, then let us know beforehand, yeah? I don’t want a rampant Victoria, running in my mansion to kill me,” Ashton joked. However, when I didn’t say anything, their gaze turned serious, and they looked at me with that ‘What the fuck is going inside your head look?’

“Is that the reason why my grandfather wanted to kill me as soon as I turned 22?” I asked, and it was Daniel this time who looked at me with questioning eyes.

“Are your feelings about Madeline becoming stronger? Do you think her hold on you has increased or something along the lines?” He asked, and I don’t know if he is some kind of psychic because this was exactly what was going inside my head.

“Yeah, kind of. I mean, I am not exactly sure if the things that are happening with me are all because of her. I don’t know what it is, but it feels like my head is becoming heavier with each passing second, and I can’t control my head anymore. I didn’t want to tell you about this, but I suffered from severe paralysis syndrome in the afternoon. I was almost on the verge of killing myself,” I confessed, my gaze trained on the ceiling. I know I won’t be able to face either of them right now.

“Shit, this is serious. I thought you were just joking when you said those words.” Ashton said before looking at Daniel with a hesitant gaze.

“This is not good. Why didn’t you tell us about it immediately after the incident took place? Do you even know what happened to you? This was not just a normal sleep paralysis that you suffer under stress. It was Madeline, who was trying to control you without actually entering your body or by taking partial control of your mind. This is some serious stuff, okay?” Daniel shouted at me, and I know that my not telling them was bad, but I didn’t want to affect the happy environment in the mansion that was created after such a long time.

I didn’t want to tell them even now, but the heaviness in my head was something that I couldn’t control any longer.

Closing my eyes when I felt dizzy, I opened my eyes abruptly when the image of Madeline suddenly appeared in front of me.

This was one was another thing that was scaring the shit out of me apart from the battle with my grandfather.

The occurrence of Madeline in front of my eyes, whenever I would close my eyes, was something that has started not long ago.

It was okay when I wasn’t able to sleep because of her, but do these things mean that I won’t be able to close my eyes too?

I don’t know what to do anymore with this thing. Closing my eyes, I looked at the laughing girl that was sitting inside my brain, my bones chilling as a shiver ran down my spine when she said the next words,

“Are you ready, Victoria? Because I am ready.” She said, looking at me with that creepy smile of hers.