Chapter 5: A Voyage
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The man's voice boomed through the halls of the grand manor, filled with anger and disdain. "See the both of them off of my land Hemiean, get their luggage, and get the fuck out," he said, his eyes blazing with fury. Hemiean, a timid-looking butler, tried to reason with him, "But, sir...they leave in 3 hours..we still need to pack everything-". However, he was abruptly silenced by the father's cutting tone, "I don't fucking care. Get the stain OFF my property, tsk! To think that an embarrassment would come from my seed!"

The father shook his head in disgust and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to keep his composure. He didn't want to lose it and rip his daughter apart himself. His wife was standing nearby, looking down with teary eyes and covering her face, while their son clung onto her. It was a heartbreaking scene.

 

As Felona and Rebbecca stepped out of the manor, Felona was still trying to calm her breathing. She trailed behind the psychotic girl who just skipped happily to the carriage, humming all the while. Felona couldn't help but wonder, 'What's even happening...usually, she would've like...yell, scream? Bash her head on a wall or something? But this time, she seemed to be in a different state of mind.'

 

Felona scratched her head trying to wrap her mind around the current events she had just witnessed. She ultimately found herself bumping into the back of Rebbecca as she stood there, staring at a rickety-looking carriage. "Um...mistress, are we...getting in here? This thing looks like...like a fucking cart for horses or something?" she asked the girl, her voice filled with disbelief.

 

Rebecca stopped humming and looked at the carriage and then at Felona. She nodded and turned around. The carriage was made of cheap wood and was rotting in some places. It seemed as if it was thrown together and forced to hold up for 20 years. 

 

The wood of the carriage was weathered and worn, its once vibrant paint faded to a muted shade of burgundy, with flecks of gold leaf peeling away from ornate detailing. Despite its age, there was a certain grandeur to the carriage, a reminder of a time when such vehicles were symbols of wealth and prestige.

 

The wheels, though sturdy, bore the scars of countless journeys over rough terrain, their iron rims worn thin from years of use. As Felona approached, she could see the intricate carvings adorning the carriage doors, depicting scenes of pastoral beauty and mythical creatures intertwined in elaborate patterns.

 

But it was not just the exterior that showed the passage of time; the interior of the carriage bore the marks of years of wear and tear as well. The velvet upholstery was faded and threadbare in places, its once-luxurious padding now flattened with age as holes accentuated the seats and cushions . The scent of aged wood and leather permeated the air, mingling with the faint aroma of hay and horsehair.

 

Felona was amazed that this thing hadn't broken down just from the way it was assembled, let alone with it holding up. Moreover, she couldn't help but wonder if it could even take the weight of all the luggage and their weight for almost a half-month-long ride.That was a question she wouldn't want to ask, seeing as though the family called this man for a reason.

 

The coachman had a well-built body and a bit of a belly. He wore a suit, had a neatly cut mustache, and a nice black comb-over hair with grey strands. He had a country accent that suggested this was a cheap purchase from the family to transport their daughter with as little money as possible and disown her.

 

"Ugh, that carriage looks like it's held together by hope and a prayer," Felona remarked, wrinkling her nose as she eyed the rickety contraption. "You're not wrong, my dear," chimed in Rebecca, her voice tinged with amusement. "But desperate times call for desperate measures, or so they say." She said giggling as she walked around the 'thing' that's supposed to hold them for half a month.

 

The coachman, a grumpy old fellow with a penchant for sarcasm, couldn't help but interject. "Well, Miss Smirda, if we're going to make it to our destination before the next ice age, we better hop on board this deathtrap." He chuckled at his joke, his stomach moving up and down as each cackle made every part of his body move, much to Felona's embarrassment, who responded with an exaggerated eye roll.

 

As Felona approached the front of the carriage, her keen eye for animals immediately noticed something amiss with the horses. "Good grief, even the horses look like they've seen better days," she muttered to herself, shaking her head in disbelief. "Oh, don't mind them, lass," the coachman said dismissively, leaning on his knee with a smirk. "They're just... unique specimens, that's all."

 

Felona couldn't help but be sarcastic as she approached the first horse. "Wow, what a sight for sore eyes," she muttered, her tone flat with sarcasm.

 

Meanwhile, Rebecca watched with a gentle smile, her eyes twinkling mischievously. With a quick lick of her lips, she strolled over to the second horse. A glance at the coachman, and then suddenly, she clapped her hands so loudly that both the horse and the coachman jumped.

 

"Whoa there! Calm down, you noisy nag! Always making a racket like you're being attacked! Useless creatures, the lot of you!" the coachman grumbled, shooting a glare at Rebecca, who simply grinned back at him, her eyes deep pools of mischief. She then walked away, leaving Felona to wonder if she had just witnessed Rebecca's handiwork.

 

Felona shook her head in disbelief. "...I would do the same actually" she wondered aloud. "He probably knew it was Rebecca, but didn't want to risk getting on her bad side, that ps-girl can do something crazy and get away with it easily." With a shrug, she focused on calming the frightened horse, while the coachman muttered lazy acknowledgments of the chaos around him.

 

The butler finally emerged from the manor, accompanied by a flurry of maids lugging suitcases and boxes filled to the brim with Rebecca's belongings—sheets, blankets, and seemingly the entire contents of her closet. Felona couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the sight, wondering why on earth they were bringing so much stuff.

 

As Felona searched for Rebecca, she found her already settled in the carriage, her usual enigmatic smile replaced by an unsettling blank expression. "Madam, the luggage has arrived—" Felona began, only to be interrupted by Rebecca's terse command. "I don't need it. Tell them to put it all back and let's go, now." Her voice lacked its usual warmth, her hand resting on her knee with an eerie stillness.

 

With a respectful bow, Felona hurried off to convey Rebecca's orders to the butler. Meanwhile, inside the carriage, Rebecca muttered to herself, her demeanor shifting disconcertingly. "Time's almost up for my turn, it seems... tsk!" she murmured, her hands contorting unnaturally as she silenced a mysterious noise, her eyes growing a dim red. As the coachman approached, her hands returned to normal, so did her eyes and she greeted him with a serene smile.

 

"Miss, you may enter now. I'll be calling out in a couple of hours before our first stop at an inn. So rest well," the coachman announced, his tone forcedly pleasant as Felona climbed into the carriage, finding Rebecca already seated.

 

Outside, the coachman observed the scene with a mix of apprehension and resignation. Before he could take his place at the front, the butler halted him with a chilling warning. "...If anything befalls the misses...may God have mercy on your soul," he intoned, his gaze piercing and weighty.

 

Taken aback, the coachman stammered in protest, his bravado faltering under the butler's ominous presence. "Hey now, don't threaten me like that! You know this is just my job... I wouldn't dare harm the madam, or I'll be in a world of trouble," he insisted, scrambling to his seat as the butler watched impassively.

 

He walked away but before doing so, he looked at Rebbecca one last time, then at Felona and nooded to her, she did the same, unwillingly knowing the consequences the coachman was promised, she would get double for.  Hemiean sighed and clapped his hands, the other maids then looked up and received their order from Hemiean.

 

 The moment the carriage started moving Felona let out a deep breath she was holding in, she had already started writing down everything she had seen and thought about regarding the family and the situation. Rebbecca was humming as she sat down across from Felona who was sitting in the opposite seat.

 

With a fingernail in her mouth, she spoke. "So...that was something wasn't it?" Felona looked up, a bit surprised, "I-It was indeed madam...how are you feeling?" She said putting her pen down in her journal. Rebbecca slightly eyeing the notepad simply turned her head to the side, looking out the foggy window. She was about to speak before her black holes for her eyes widened in surprise for a moment. 'blood...queeeennnn!' A voice she heard astonished her. 'So it seems it's almost time, tch!' 

 

 Blood Queen said as she glared out the window, she needed to find more time...and of all people, it was the witch queen who was waking up! Felona swore she felt a very, very small hint, a minuscule amount of mana coming off of somewhere near Rebbecca but it vanished before she could grasp that feeling fully.

 

'The...hell?' Flabbergasted she unintentionally stared at Rebbecca long enough for her to snap her attention back at her. "Oh? Something wrong Felona?" She asked in an innocent tone as she slowly turned her head towards Felona. Felona quickly shook her head no, "N-no ma'am I'm fine." she said in a quick manner shaking her hands side to side with a slight chuckle. She then picked up her pen and quickly wrote what happened. The girl however didn't let it go, she was staring at Felona who was busy writing. 

 

"Is it something to do with what I said?" She asked again. Felona froze, she slowly put her pen down and looked up at the smiling girl, "N-no...I was simply admiring the fauna outside misses, that's all" She said clearing her throat and sitting back into the hole-ridden couch seat. Rebbecca's eyes went back and forth from the book in Felona's possession, and her hazel eyes that seemed weary to even look around.

 

Rebbecca hummed and nodded, she then turned her attention back to the window and let her mind wander. The coachmen started whistling, the horses trotted through the dirt road and as he went forward, the trees seemed to get denser. As the forest did, so were the voices 'Blood....quuuueeeennnn! B...iiiitch!' Blood queen couldn't help but click her tongue in annoyance. The voice came and went, in and out of Blood Queen's mind and it annoyed her!

 

 "How frustrating!" Rebbecca mumbled as she started biting her nails fervently. Felona heared a muffle from Rebbecca causing her to stop writing and look up at the girl who was gritting her nails with her teeth. "Miss..is something the matter?" She asked as she looked at the girl who was biting her nails 'Fuck! Don't she do this when she's about to do some weird shit?' She thought in a panic. The carriage suddenly jerked as the coachmen called out to the horses calling them names and such.  Rebbecca, turned to look at Felona, her black eyes meeting Felona's hazel brown, she had to calm herself else she would let loose, unintentionally. 

 

So she stopped biting her nails and sat up, crossing her legs and letting out a deep breath. "Yes...I'm very fine~" She said as she smiled a big smile towards the girl, her abyssal eyes almost seeming to be able to swallow you whole. The carriage jerked again as it seemed to slow down. "Ay, in 'bout couple more hours, the inn will be coming up, we can rest up there before moving forward, ya hear me misses?" The coachmen said, Felona nodded, "Yes sir, we will be ready" She replied as the carriage continued. Felona was about to ask Rebbecca something but she got interrupted. 

 

"Say, dear, why don't you take a nap hm? Surely a person like me can't have a maid who's tired when the night comes yes?" Rebbecca said hastily as she fervently bit her middle finger nail. Felona gazed at this and thought shit was getting more and more serious, which was warranted. Rebbecca looked like a crack addict trying to bid time for the crack dealer to arrive, her teeth went back and forth, up and down on her nails. Her contenece seemed as though she was annoyed yet...tried to not seem that way.

 

The tone in her voice seemed rushed too, but she couldn't tackle that thought since what she asked for was reasonable. Gulping, she took two steps back and calmed down..."W-well..I guess that could work yes, however, I'm not tired miss." She said looking at her. Why did she just went against someone who seemed agitated? Nerves can do that. Rebbecca looked back at her and tilted her head slightly to the right, "What are you talking about~? Taking a power nap isn't a bad thing Felona..." her voice dropped a little at the end as she leaned forwards a bit. She rubbed her head on the left softly as she suddenly started shushing to the left of where Felona was sitting, where no one was sitting.. 

 

Felona blankly blinked. 'I'm not gonna wake up then am I? It em...seems she's mad...' She said to herself. "O-oh yea-yes! Of course, it isn't bad, I'll just um...take a short nap then" She said, a bit confused by the sudden shushing, her voice hanging low at the end as it went quiet. Rebbecca turned her head, her eyes wide and her face bright with a smile as she just stared at Felona, breathing slowly in and out.  She then clapped her hands together hard  breaking the sudden silence. "Alright~! Take a beautiful nap, you hard worker!" Blood Queen said in a cheery, upbeat tone of voice as sher voice cracked a bit...she needed to quickly shut the voices up! Immediately. She wanted to do so before going on the trip but because she didn't have time to, she's rushed to make the whispers stop, or else she went insane and lost control.

 

It's obvious that both of 'them' are using their power together to speed up the time that she obtained for herself. Rebbecca's cold, dark eyes gazed at the forced-to-sleep maid, after a couple of minutes she checked up on the girl making sure she was in a deep sleep enough so that a simple CLAP of her hands...wouldn't wake her.

 

Clapping her hands a little 5 times, each time it getting louder, she smiled wide enough, showing her teeth as Felona didn't budge once, like a dead fish out of water. Rebbecca got up and sat right next to Felona, the holed-up seat didn't mean much when you have consistent whispers in your ears calling you names. She leaned in close to the area where her heart was and gazed deeply at it. The chest rose and fell, a little hiccup occurred but nothing else out of the ordinary. Her black eyes glowed a dark red, she then strut her middle finger, the nail and finger grew long and curtly. She then with wide eyes she dug her finger into Felona's body, aimed for the heart. Her finger seemed to phase into the body as if it never physically touched it.

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