Chapter 56.

After I exited my vehicle, I charged into the forest like a spartan warrior and penetrated to its depths. I made sure not to listen to any epic music like an idiot so I could hear if anything was approaching me. I wasn’t going to be one of those casuals in horror movies who’d let their guards down while thinking they could casually stroll about as though they were in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

Of course, I was very likely just overthinking things. This was my ex girlfriend who still thinks we’re together. She probably wouldn’t really kill me, right? Haha. Even I, myself, didn’t think I sounded very convinced when I had such a wishful thought.

Besides my ex, if there was a ghost sister with a grudge against me involved in this, I’m surely done for. The atmosphere was really getting to me though, to bring up unscientific oddities like ghosts was really troubling. Ghosts are just something born out of a man’s romance, there’s no way they truly exist. Ghosts are just used as a tool to explain things people can’t quite comprehend yet. They were nothing more than a work of fiction so to speak.

Yeah, I’ll just keep mindlessly brainwashing myself like that since it’s in my best interest.

Like this, I ventured deeper and deeper into the forest. I vaguely traced a path with the fragmented memories of the landmarks in my head that I remembered from back then. It took some time, much longer than when I was guided by Adele in the past, but I eventually found myself in front of the gate to the mansion that had been engraved in both my body and soul.

My hand slightly trembled when I reached out towards the gate. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and opened up the old, rusted, worn down gate. The moment I stepped past this point, things were certain to hit the fan this time. Definitely! It’s definitely going to be some sick and twisted hallucination. Screw it, I probably fell into a hallucination a long time ago and just didn’t realize it. Just treat it like everything that happened here wasn’t real.

Hah! Nothing can scare me if I treat everything as if it’s fake. Yeah, I’m using reverse psychology on myself, so what? If you got a problem with it, bite me creepy nonexistent ghost girl in my head.

I stepped into the premises with a confident stride, only for it to deflate moments later. Nothing happened again. Why? Why is shit not hitting the fan yet?

Well, it was a bit nice that nothing happened again; however, it still made me feel more anxious. The tough guy act really wasn’t my thing. I let out a sigh and dejectedly, I decided to drop my internal over dramatization.

If something happened, it happened. If it didn’t, it didn’t. Anyway, I’m just tired of it all already. I only wanted to bring an end to everything quickly. But what will I do when I get answers from Adele? Even now, I don’t have the slightest clue. Is there any point in seeking out these answers to begin with? Am I simply trying repent for my mistakes by trying to finally understand her after all these years? Is it because of a sense of irrational guilt towards her?

“Adele, please, just forgive me already. I’m tired of being burdened with these heavy weights on my back.”

After I entered, I glanced towards the tombstones in the distance and I found Adele beside three graves. The graves belonged to none other than her deceased family, the very same ones she claimed she’d killed. The graves looked exactly the same as what I remembered in my memories from five years ago. There were two tombstones adjacent to each other, while there was a lone tombstone positioned a short distance away from them. It faced the opposite direction with respect to the pair that was together.

I only now realized how bizarre it was when I actually thought about it. What was the reason for this sort of arrangement. Was there be some sort of story behind the way Adele positioned their graves?

Adele looked lonesome, she stood there in a short black one piece dress. She wore a thin green jacket on top that suited her well. Her long white hair blew to the side in the wind, it painted a rather telling picture that tugged at my heart. The only thing I found out of place with the scene was the snake coiled around her exposed right leg. She didn’t seem bothered by it though, and despite not looking at it, she’d slid two fingers over the snakes head beside her upper leg as if she were petting it.

I immediately chanted the Buddhist sutras I’d learned earlier to dispel any impure thoughts I had when I examined her. How could I easily let my thoughts run about in the gutter when it’s a perfectly wholesome scene. Damn it! It’s Adele’s fault for making it look suggestive, not my innocent little heart for thinking of anything dirty.

“So... my darling finally came to visit me after all this time?”

Something was different about Adele this time. Just from the intonation in her voice, the way it resounded in my ear, the way my heart skipped a beat when she looked over at me. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but she reminded me of the Adele I knew before I discovered her secret. Her eyes weren’t the crazy eyes I’d seen recently in my hallucinations, but instead, they were the ones when we initially started dating. I felt the same gentle warm type of love I remembered from when we first dated back in university.

“Adele? It’s really you, right?”

“That’s the first thing you ask me, Darling?”

I didn’t feel scared at all when I looked directly into her eyes like I had on previous encounters. Why was there such a big difference? I felt a splitting headache coming on from the large gap in my expectations and reality. Was I just villainizing her in my head all this time?

No, that can’t be right, there’s definitely something to it. Or am I just trying to search for something not there that I’ve just made up in my head? Is she the crazy one, or am I?

Drip. Drip. Drip.

When I heard the sound of droplets of water against the ground, I snapped out of it and I looked up at the sky. It was cloudy out and the sun was completely blocked out, it appeared to be set up perfectly for a heavy downpour. It was evening by the time I arrived here and it was already fairly dark outside.

“Darling, we should go inside before the rain gets worse.”

“Uh... yeah. Right. No... wait. There aren’t any dead bodies this time, right?”

“Hmm? What do you think, Darling?”

She had a slight smile, that despite the serious nature of my question, I couldn’t stop my heart from beating faster. What shocked me more was I didn’t find her smile scary like it usually was. Strangely enough, I felt truly happy to see her smile like she had in the past.