Ch 19: Invisible Force

"One or a thousand, say whatever you wish," Nathan said happily.

"You won't refuse, will you?" Roy asked anxiously.

"My life is at your service, my friend," Nathan laughed. "But first, listen to me. My daughter Alice has never seen the village."

"What's the worry about that?" Desmond said immediately.

"Alice wants to go with you to the village and stay as a guest in your mansion," Nathan explained.

This statement seemed to fill Roy with immense joy, as if a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He had come with a different plan, but now the path was clear. "Oh, that's exactly what we were going to suggest—that we should take you all to our village, where we would love to host you. There's no longer any sense of formality between us; we're like one big family now," Desmond started saying as soon as he heard this.

"Well then, we've stolen the words right from your mouth," Nathan said, laughing.

"So, get ready. We were just about to leave," Desmond said.

"You'll stay here for a while, won't you?" Nathan insisted.

"No, we have a lot to do. We need to leave today. You all get ready to go to your son's mansion," Roy said, glancing at Alice's mother.

"No, we've decided that Alice will go with her maid and brother, Zymon. We'll come some other time. Alice just wants to see the village," Nathan said.

"That's fine, but it would have been better if you had come along," Roy said.

"We'll be visiting back and forth. We'll come too," Nathan said.

"Auntie, you should come along," Roy insisted, looking at Alice's mother.

"I can't travel, otherwise, I would have gone," Alice's mother said with a smile.

"But that's okay. Alice is like a sister to me, but we won't let her return until you all come to take her back," Desmond said, smiling.

"That's fair," Nathan agreed, and everyone laughed.

Roy was extremely happy. He had never imagined this outcome. Alice was going to his mansion, and he had already thought of what he needed to do next.

Alice was ready. Grace, too, had dressed beautifully; she hardly looked like a maid. Alice was very happy. Her brother Zymon, who was older than her, was also eager to see the village, so he quickly agreed to go.

As Zymon stepped out of his room, Grace glanced at his foot, and suddenly, he twisted his ankle and sat down with a cry of pain.

Everyone rushed to him. His ankle was sprained.

Walking was difficult now, and he needed to be taken to the doctor.

"Don't worry. It's just a sprain. You all go ahead; we'll bring him later," Nathan said.

"We'll wait for you. Take him to the doctor," Roy said.

"No, no, it's okay," Nathan insisted.

Thus, Alice and Grace sat in the backseat of the car, and the vehicle left their street.

As they left with Alice, Nathan began to question why he had agreed to let Alice go with them. Perhaps he should have made an excuse to keep her home.

Alice's mother was having similar thoughts. She wondered why she had remained silent when her husband had spoken. She should have tried to stop Alice, protested even.

Both husband and wife were filled with sadness, and similar thoughts weighed on their minds.

Alice, on the other hand, was overjoyed. Her heart was brimming with happiness. As they passed by Jimmy Trout's shop, Jimmy first saw Alice and then Grace, and he stood up in surprise. "Oh... my God..."

Grace also noticed Jimmy.

In that instant, the black pupils of her eyes turned white and disappeared, replaced by glowing red embers. Then, in the next moment, her pupils returned to their normal black color. She thought to herself, "I'll deal with you too."

The sun was setting, and the shadows of evening were deepening. Another day was coming to an end.

Roy, while driving the car, glanced at Alice in the rearview mirror several times.

Alice could see Roy's eyes through the mirror as she sat behind him.

She had also smiled faintly at him multiple times after catching his gaze in the mirror.

The journey continued, and the car sped along the main road.

Occasionally, Desmond would make a comment, breaking the silence, which otherwise dominated the ride.

Their car was now just four or five kilometers away from that mysterious, dilapidated house when Grace suddenly began to feel strange.

It seemed to her as if her body was about to explode, her eyes were about to pop out of their sockets, her tongue was about to hang out of her mouth, and her beautiful face was about to deform into its true form.

A strange unease and restlessness were apparent, and she turned her face toward the window, as if trying to hide herself.

She felt an overwhelming urge to tear through the car's roof and fly away, far from them.

The mysterious house appeared as a silhouette in the distance.

As Alice looked toward that place, she began to feel fear.

In her mind's eye, she saw the same scenes as when she had almost entered the house with Ethan. She didn't want to look in that direction at all. Roy was driving the car with great focus, maintaining a high speed.

Suddenly, Roy saw in the car's headlights that a small goat kid had wandered onto the road from the left and was now standing right in front of the car.

Roy saw it and started honking from a distance.

But the goat kid remained rooted in its spot. Despite the repeated honking, it didn't budge.

Desmond and Alice's gazes were also fixed on the goat.

At that moment, Grace looked at it too. The distance between the car and the goat was rapidly shrinking. Roy had only one option: to swerve the car onto the rough ground, as slamming on the brakes at such high speed could easily cause an accident.

He hadn't slowed the car, thinking that the goat would move away upon hearing the horn.

But before Roy could turn the steering wheel, Grace cried out in panic, "Run it over! Don't swerve the car. They're coming after me. They want to catch me. Get out of here!"

Everyone heard Grace's voice and expressed their surprise.

No one could understand what she meant. They were all confused, and Roy was left with no other choice. He wasn't in a position to make any other decision.

Roy swerved the car, and it quickly veered off the road, speeding uncontrollably toward the house.