WTBFCY Chapter 7

Regina swallowed hard. She clutched her pounding heart and stared at Noah's hands. Her heart felt ready to burst from her mouth with the fear that Noah might transform into a monster any second.

"…Miss Regina, is something wrong with my hands?"

Perhaps her stare was too intense. Noah looked at Regina with a somewhat uncomfortable expression. Regina jerked her head up, startled.

"Y-Yes?"

"You seem very interested in my hands. Your gaze is burning."

Noah dried his wet hands with a napkin as he spoke. Regina gaped slightly. This couldn't be right. Noah's wet hands were perfectly fine.

She closed her eyes and looked again. They were still human hands.

'Why? Does the water not work even when it touches him?'

"Miss Regina?"

Even after his comment, Regina kept staring at his hands. Noah frowned faintly. Did she have some strange hobby? He'd let it go because she was Margaret's friend, but she'd been irritating from their first meeting.

A trace of annoyance entered Noah's voice. Regina rushed to explain.

"Oh, um, your hands are very fair. I've been paying attention to hand care lately, so I looked without thinking. My apologies."

"…I see. It must be because I usually wear gloves."

"Ah, I see."

Calling a man's hands pretty couldn't be a compliment. He answered stiffly.

When their eyes met, Regina felt a chilling cold and could barely control her trembling body. She maintained her smile with effort, but cold sweat ran down her back.

"That was a truly excellent dinner, Baroness. Thank you for inviting me."

As the conversation with Noah seemed likely to continue, Regina quickly changed the subject by addressing the Baroness.

Despite Regina's sudden thanks, the Baroness didn't seem flustered and answered with a kind smile.

"Not at all, Miss Regina."

"Ah, Miss Regina. Where will you go after the meal?"

Noah wiped his mouth with a napkin and gestured to a servant behind him. He received and put on the gloves the servant offered while asking Regina the question.

"What? Oh, um…"

When Regina didn't answer immediately, Margaret spoke for her.

"Brother, we'll be having tea in the garden."

"I see. Then I'll go upstairs and bring down the revolver I bought today. I promised to show you. Margaret, wait for me. Miss Regina, excuse me for a moment."

"Yes! I'll wait, brother!"

Margaret answered excitedly at Noah's words. Regina forced a smile on her trembling face to match the atmosphere. Noah glanced at Regina, then went upstairs with the Baroness.

Once they'd left, Margaret—who'd been standing politely—rushed over and linked arms with Regina.

"Let's go, Regina. Tea time in the night garden—isn't that charming?"

"Yes, lovely."

Regina let Margaret lead her while looking up at Noah's back as he climbed the stairs to the second floor. He still showed no change.

Maybe this was all her imagination or a mistake.

"Miss, there's water left in the bottle. Should I return it to you?"

"Hm?"

Regina, drained and deflated after all that tension, stopped walking abruptly at Emma's voice.

Thud.

The maid walking directly behind Regina couldn't step back in time and bumped into her.

Splash!

"Ah!"

Regina gasped and held her breath at the sudden cold water soaking her back, then turned around. It was the maid in the cap. She'd been clearing away finger bowls and spilled water when she bumped into Regina.

"Oh dear! I'm so sorry, miss. I'll wipe it off right away."

"Ah…"

"Regina! Are you okay?"

The maid looked shocked at Regina's wet dress and reached out with a cloth to wipe it. But Regina saw the maid's hand reaching toward her and her legs gave out.

"Hic!"

Margaret beside her grabbed Regina in surprise, then looked at the maid and went pale.

"Are you all right?!"

The maid had reached out to steady Regina, who'd suddenly lost her balance and swayed. But she sensed something strange in the atmosphere and froze.

"……?"

Everyone was staring at the maid with horrified expressions. The maid looked at their wide eyes, then followed their gazes down to her own hand.

Water dripped from the maid's fingertips. They'd stretched long. Too wrinkled and crooked to be human fingers, with long black nails jutting out.

"Oh my, why is this…?"

The maid looked startled and quickly hid her hands in her apron. Regina's trembling gaze slowly moved to the maid's face. Their eyes met past the cap's shadow. The maid's eyes curved sharply.

"Oh dear. I've been found out."

The maid's mouth stretched long and wide.

"…Huh?"

Margaret stared blankly at the maid, losing her grip on reality. She felt something darken overhead. She looked to the side and met Regina's horrified eyes.

"Regina…"

"Maggie! No!"

Crunch!

Regina shoved Margaret with all her strength. Margaret tumbled to the floor from the force. She looked up in shock—and the maid's grotesquely enlarged mouth swept past overhead. Everything moved in slow motion, clear enough to see every sharp tooth packed inside that mouth.

"AHHHHH!"

Margaret barely squeezed out a scream from deep in her body. Her hands and feet shook wildly and all strength left her. She fainted.

"H-Hiiiii!"

"AHHHHH!"

"KYAAAAH!"

Starting with Margaret's scream, the maids and servants scattered in panic. Crash! Dishes and objects spilled and shattered across the floor. Emma—frozen while being jostled by fleeing people—snapped back to her senses.

The grotesque mouth that had missed Margaret was now aimed at Regina.

"N-No, miss!"

Regina stood rigid, unable to move, just staring at the monster's mouth coming toward her.

"No, no! Miss!"

Emma couldn't think. She just threw herself forward on pure instinct to save Regina and grabbed the monster's legs. But the monster didn't budge. It just stretched its head forward and opened its mouth wide.

"No!"

Its neck and hands stretched like dough, reaching for Regina. Emma, clinging to the monster's legs, desperately reached toward Regina—but the monster's mouth was faster. The mouth closed in instantly, opening like a huge sack to swallow Regina's head.

"MISSSSSS!"

Emma's scream—mixed with horror and despair—rang out.

As that black cave of a mouth approached, Regina couldn't even think to run. She just stared at it with wide eyes. Her head roared and tears streamed down her face from the terror of death.

"Ah, ahh…"

But the monster—which had been about to close its mouth—suddenly stiffened and stopped moving. The thing that had already strayed far from human form had Regina's head halfway in its mouth. It slowly pulled its head back out.

Drip. The monster's saliva fell on Regina's pale cheek.

When the shadow covering her face disappeared, Regina beneath it was crying and gasping for breath. Hic, hic. The monster returned to the maid's face, twisted its head at a strange angle, and looked at Regina.

"You—what are you? I feel strange."

The maid thrust her head at Regina. Their eyes met directly. Black eyes like caves. Pure darkness with nothing inside.

"Are you not human?"

BANG! BANG!

A roar drowned out the maid's question. Thud. The maid's body tilted forward. The gunshot bent the maid's body halfway over, revealing Noah in the distance aiming a gun. He'd rushed down from his room at the sound of screaming.

Regina sat slumped on the floor, staring blankly at Noah running toward her.

He grabbed and tore off the ribbon still attached to the revolver box in his haste, then pulled the trigger again. The monster was hit but only paused from the impact before twisting its head back around.

"KYAAAA!"

A hole opened in the black mass, then filled instantly—and sharp teeth sprouted over it.

BANG!

Noah pulled the trigger again with an expressionless face. But the monster twisted to dodge, then charged with its head bent.

"KYAAAK!"

The monster closed in at a speed too fast for human visual acuity to follow and swung its blackened claws at Noah's neck. Noah quickly turned his head aside and blocked the claws with his gun barrel.

As the distance closed and the monster caught Noah's scent, its black pupils contracted, then returned to normal.

"Ahh, good smell! You're not human either?"

The monster's breathing quickened after smelling Noah. It opened its abnormally stretched mouth and drool hung down long beneath it.

Noah didn't answer the monster's question. He knocked away the monster's hand pressing on the gun barrel and put distance between them.

"How many humans have you eaten? From the looks of it, you haven't molted long."

At Noah's question, the monster grinned and answered readily.

"Only two so far. This body's maid and the young coachman who killed the maid. But I'll eat more."

"Why? Two people should let you go without eating for a while."

"Go without? Why? There's food right in front of me. Why should I go without?"

The monster tilted its head, not understanding Noah's question. Then with a screech, it launched itself and covered Noah. The monster that got close trembled, unable to resist Noah's scent.

"You smell incredibly sweet. Why? You seem like you'd taste better than humans."