the culprit

When Cyril followed, Mary had already entered the room with the help of the shadow, and he chased after him, but Mary turned her head and gave him a fierce look.He was taken aback, and stopped unconsciously, only to see Mary helping the black shadow into Uncle Heken's room.Soon, the old woman came out of the room, anxiously looking for something in the mansion.Curious and anxious, the boy quietly touched the door. The door was ajar. He pushed it open gently, and smelled a strange smell.

Is that Uncle Hicken?

What's up with him?

are you sick?

The boy was a little worried, so he slipped into the dark and quiet room with a cat on his waist, and called out "Uncle Hucken" uneasily.

No one responded.

Sitting by the bed was a figure, still wearing a black cloak, with his face hidden by a hood.

Cyril hesitated for a while, not daring to approach, and then called his uncle's name from a distance.The person next to the bed seemed deaf, didn't answer, didn't even look up at him.The boy felt frightened for no reason, shrunk his shoulders and backed away slowly, trying to sneak out while the other party was not prepared.But just as he retreated to the door, the black cloak was close in front of him at some point.He yelled in surprise, and then he was picked up by a hand stuck around his neck.He kicked his feet wildly in a dizzying sense of suffocation, desperately trying to use both hands to free the fingers that were strangling his throat, but the hand was getting tighter and tighter.

Before losing consciousness, there was a sharp pain on the side of the neck, as if being pierced.

He heard heavy breathing.

Will he die?

Then he fell into the boundless darkness.

I don't know how long he was in a coma, but the first thing he saw when he woke up was the mottled roof.It was very dark around, and the afterglow of the setting sun coming through the window was frighteningly red. He got up in a daze, and found himself lying on the floor.The room was cold, with no fireplace or candle, and was empty, with a black cloak lying on the floor.

Nightmarish memories suddenly surfaced, and Cyril took a breath and hurriedly got up.He reached out and touched his neck, then his arms and stomach, not sure if he was in heaven or hell.

He remembered that he was picked up by the man in the cloak, and his neck was pierced by an unknown weapon.His body still retains the memory of that time. He remembers the feeling of suffocation, the pain at that time, and the fear of being immersed in a glacier.

Is he dead?

There is a large bed in the middle of the room, and a person is lying on the bed.

The boy swallowed uneasily, and approached on tiptoe, but before reaching the bed, the person on the bed sat up.The long blond hair fell down, and the other party raised his hand to stroke his hair back. The sleeve of the silk shirt slid from the elbow to the upper arm, revealing a strong but pale arm.The man turned his face to the side, and Cyril realized that it was Felix.

"Are you awake?" The man said as he got out of the bed, walked up to him barefoot, reached out and pinched his chin, turned his face forcefully, and looked him up and down like a scrutiny.Cold fingers stroked his neck, and he flinched timidly. The hand pinching his chin became more and more forceful, and the pain caused him to struggle uncontrollably.

"I, am I dead? Will it hurt if I die?" He avoided Felix's hand and muttered to himself inarticulately.

"It's a blessing that you didn't die." Felix said calmly, and there was no joy in his expression.He let go of the stupid Cyril, turned his head and glanced out of the window soaked in the setting sun, and let him go out in a cold tone.

Although he was grateful to Felix for sending him home, he still kept in mind what Uncle Heken said, and Cyril had always been a little afraid of the elusive servant.He didn't know why he was in Felix's room. After all, Mary, who couldn't speak, had warned him not to go near here.

The boy took one last peek at the servant and fled from the room.

He didn't know what happened, who was the stranger who was brought into Uncle Heken's room by Mary, why the stranger attacked him, and what happened afterwards... He wanted to know too much, he had to find Mary Just ask clearly.

They pushed open the doors of every room on the second floor one by one, but they couldn't find Mary.Then he ran downstairs again, searched every room except Uncle Heken's room, but still couldn't find Mary.Cyril stood blankly in the room where they often drank tea together, gasped and put his hands on the small round table, and was surprised to find that dust had fallen on the table at some point.

Why is there dust on the table?Is Mary not there?

Where has she gone?

Cyril walked to the door in confusion and looked outside.It was already dark, and Mary had already lit the firewood in the fireplace for him at this time, and soon she would take him to the dinner room to wait for Uncle Hucken to have dinner with him.

He wondered where Mary would go, when suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a few dark stains under the eaves outside the door.He went out and approached suspiciously, squatted down and took a closer look, and found a few puddles of blood.

How can there be blood here?

Cyril looked around again anxiously, just as old Jack came over with a bundle of firewood on his back.He hurriedly got up to meet it, grabbed the old man's clothes and pulled him to the bloodstain, anxiously asking what it was.The old man's face changed when he saw the blood stains, he shook off the boy's hand, waved his hands again and again, and rushed into the mansion carrying firewood.Cyril chased after the old man unwillingly, followed the old man upstairs, kept asking what was going on, and asked him if he knew where Mary had gone.Old Jack put the wood into the fireplace in Cyril's room, lit it, lit the candles, and suddenly took the boy to bed and covered him tightly with the quilt.When Cyril struggled out of the quilt, the old man had already disappeared.

I wanted to ask Uncle Heken at dinner, but Uncle Heken didn't show up that night.The fat chef served the dinner with a gloomy and terrible face. The boy was frightened by his eyes, and he forgot to ask questions while holding the fork and spoon.

He tossed and turned all night with restless speculation, and the owner of the manor finally appeared at breakfast the next day.He couldn't wait to ask Mary and what happened to the pool of blood at the door. Heken gave him a vicious look with his swollen eyes with blue blood vessels, lowered his head and put the jerky into his mouth while asking him to ask Felix s.

Uncle's words made Cyril hesitate.But after breakfast he mustered up the courage to knock on the door of Felix's room.

The owner of the room did not open the door for a long time. The boy rubbed his red joints and wanted to leave, but he was eager to know Mary's whereabouts, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue knocking.Thankfully, the door opened at last, and Felix was still as pale as ever, with messy blond hair sticking out from the hood of his cloak and curls at the ends.

When he opened the door, he saw the worried little boy, his gloomy expression softened, and the man in the cloak held the door frame and asked the boy what he wanted from him.

"Good morning, Felix." Although startled by Felix's unfriendly expression, Cyril suppressed his fear and greeted him politely.Felix's reaction was very cold, which was expected, the boy looked down at the toe of his shoe uneasily, hesitated for a while, then summoned up the courage to look up and said, "Can you tell me where Mary is? I...I can't find her, I'm worried."

Felix couldn't help raising his eyebrows at the unexpected question, and after a long silence, he said, "Ask Hucken." As he spoke, he made a gesture to close the door.

Seeing this, Cyril rushed over and dodged through the door, pressed his back against the door panel and said eagerly: "Uncle Heken asked me to ask you! Please, tell me, I'm really worried about Mary! "

The boy looked pitiful, with innocently drooping eyebrows and blue eyes that seemed ready to burst into tears at any moment.He stared up at the strange man in the room who was still wearing a cloak with his chin up. Felix could see that he was scared, and that all his firmness was faked.

Suddenly my heart softened.

Felix knew that he had never been resistant to children, he shook his head and sighed, and told Cyril coldly that Mary was dead.

"Dead, dead?"

Felix's answer was like a bolt from the blue, and Cyril's eyes widened and he was stunned, dumbfounded.

"She, she just made an appointment with me to plant flowers together yesterday afternoon... She was so healthy yesterday, how could it be..." The ominous words came to my mouth, and I couldn't spit them out no matter what.Cyril murmured to himself distraughtly for a while, then suddenly rushed to seize Felix's cloak excitedly, and asked him how Mary died.

"She was still there yesterday afternoon!" he shouted with red eyes.

"Yesterday?" Felix grabbed the boy by the collar and pulled him away. "She's been dead for two days. When did you see her yesterday?"

Cyril was shocked again when he heard this.He looked at Felix in horror and confusion, and murmured that they went out together after breakfast yesterday.Felix carried the thrashing boy to the window and pushed him into the light.

"You have been in a coma for three days, and you have been sleeping with me during the day yesterday." He put his hands into the cloak, and carefully covered his feet with the hem.The sun was too glaring, he turned his back to Cyril, and urged the boy who knew the answer to leave quickly in a sleepy tone.

And Cyril, who heard unexpected answers one after another, was completely stunned, staring blankly at Felix's black back, wondering why he suddenly fell into a coma for three days.

"Someone stabbed me on the neck..." He raised his hand and touched his neck, and found that there were really two hard objects like scabs on the side of his neck. "Did that person kill Mary? He also stabbed her." Did it go through Mary's neck?" He imagined the arrow piercing through Mary's old body, imagining the scene of the thick blood color slowly spreading from the woman's body, and couldn't help trembling, "Why did he want to hurt us... ..."

Cyril stood in the sun and wept sadly.

This time, he was not crying for his own situation, but for Mary.The old woman had a gloomy face and an ugly smile, but she had a gentle heart.He felt a warmth and love from her that he had never felt before, and he was willing to stay here for her, because she seemed so sad and lonely sometimes.He prayed every night before going to bed, praying for the health of his family, and also for Mary. He prayed to the heavenly Father to bless the kind Mary and pray for her to be safe.

But now Felix told him that Mary was dead.

The boy was so heartbroken that he could hardly breathe.

"I bit you," Felix said quietly, "you lost blood and passed out. That night Mary tried to take you away, but Hucken found out, and he beat Mary to death with a horsewhip."

Mary's scream was like the hoarse cry of a bird, and he could hear it in Hucken's room.After the screams disappeared, Heken hugged the unconscious Cyril and came back panting with the whip in his arms. He saw thick bloodstains all over the whip.After he left Heken's room, he deliberately went around to the door to take a look. The pools of blood reflected dimly under the moonlight, but Mary's body was nowhere to be found.Heken carried Cyril into his room and impatiently asked him to keep a close eye on him.

"Uncle Hickey killed Mary... Mary tried to take me away... you bit me..." Cyril repeated Felix's words in a daze, with tears falling down every time he blinked, "Mary did it for me ...She died because of me..." He suddenly took a deep breath, "It was because of me..."

Just like my mother died because of him.

"That's why my father hates me. He knew I was going to die, but he still sent me here...he wanted me to die—" Cyril said quietly, as if he had finally realized something, and his tone was almost dead silent, "Because I killed my mother."

"All living things are mortal."

Cyril suddenly looked up at Felix, who was still facing away from him, with angry pupils in his eyes.He was shocked by Felix's indifference to death, and he suddenly understood why Uncle Heken called him a monster.

"You won't! You won't die!" he yelled through tears, forgetting his fear of Felix.

The man in the cloak turned and held out his hand to the boy.

The white fingers were soaked in the sun, and smoke rose like burning, the skin and flesh were cut and peeled off from the fingertips, and fell to the floor, revealing the white bones inside.The blood pooled on the floor and formed a slender snake, winding its way to Cyril's toes.The boy stared into his tearful eyes in horror, and rushed over desperately to protect the hand in his arms.

"Human beings are like me, monsters are like me, but all living things are mortal."

He heard Felix's voice, like weak green smoke, but his tone was still indifferent.

"No..." He subconsciously retorted, holding the hand in his arms even harder.