I Wish To Die Peacefully

Chapter 12: Trump Card

AVA

Cold... Cold... So cold... So damp... So painful...

I don't want to die... I don't want to die...

Help me. Help me, Yukina.

Somebody help me.

My whole body felt paralyzed. I'm drenched all over. The rocks are digging into my flesh.

I don't want to be here. I want to get out of here. I'll do anything... Just get me out of here.

Somebody help me. Please help me.

"Please help me... I don't want to die... I don't want to die..." I could hear my own voice. Was that my voice? It sounds tinny. Like a child.

Suddenly, I felt the sensation of soft cloth in my hand. I gripped it tight.

"Help me..." I said again. "I'll do anything..."

"I got it," somebody replied out of the blue. "I got it so you don't have to keep repeating. You sound like a broken cassette tape. And let go of the hem of my shirt already..." a boy's voice said.

I forced my eyelids open and my blurred vision slowly started to clear out. The first thing I saw was a pair of eyes. Grey, ash-like, a solid, cold color.

"Can't you hear me, little kitten?" the boy enunciated. "Get your paws off my shirt. You're wrinkling it."

I impulsively obeyed the instruction in my shock and my fingers unclasped themselves from the hem of the boy's shirt. I looked around frantically the second I snapped out of my reverie.

"Where... why..." I stammered as my eyes scanned the blue room. It overlapped with my memories of the Krauser's sitting room where I was taken on the day I was picked up by the Duchess. The memory faded subtly as my mind kept up with what my eyes were seeing.

Right. I'm not in the Krauser's mansion. I wasn't taken in by them. I succeeded. I'm in a different place. The first step to changing the course of the storyline; I did it. I'm successful.

"Relax," the boy whom I now recognized as Lennox Albrecht said as he stood from the side of the bed. "You're not dying nor are you in a cold, damp place... So rest easy for now..."

I slowly raised my eyes to the boy's face. How was it that I recognized Lennox Albrecht and remembered that it was him in particular who passed by me in the alley from the past life? The reason was simple. Anyone who read The Lily and the Rose would not fail to recognize him. His features were described in utter detail in the story and it also happened that all three sons of Duke Albrecht had different hair colors.

Cream-colored curly hair. Ash-grey eyes. And a preference of wearing white and blue clothing. Only Lennox Liberty Albrecht, the second young master of the Albrecht duchy had those qualities. He was easily one of the top five most popular male characters in the novel.

"What?" Lennox remarked all of a sudden.

"Huh?" I replied dumbly.

"You kept on staring at me. Do you have something to say?" he added.

"No, I..." I said, sounding confused.

I can't be like this. I have to pull myself together. This is a critical moment, my first actual conversation with one of the Albrecht young masters. What I would say to him may make or break the start of this relationship. I must make an impact, like the Ava in the novel.

All of a sudden, I thought of the scenario when Ava first met the Albrecht brothers. She almost died running away from the soldiers sent by Emperor Alfonse and couldn't have survived if not for the Albrecht brothers whom she ran into while they were on a hunting trip.