Path of the Extra

Chapter 446: Hide-and-seek

Hide-and-seek was a game children often played.

Unfortunately for Celestina, despite looking as though she had everything a child could ever want, she lacked the one crucial thing needed to enjoy the game to her heart’s content.

Friends.

She had been gifted with many things.

But not friends.

At least, not real ones.

The only person left in her life whom she could still truly call a friend was Jasmine. And even then, the two princesses had never really played hide-and-seek together. Mostly because, for some strange reason, Celestina had always been too embarrassed to ask Jasmine to play with her.

There was another reason as well.

If Celestina wanted to truly enjoy hide-and-seek, she would rather play it using her Unique Skill. But once, an incident had happened. During the emergence of a void rift, she had used her Unique Skill in public because she wanted to save people. In return, the public had branded her a void creature as well. Her mother had been forced to erase the memories of everyone who had witnessed it.

Even now, Celestina was afraid to show others her Unique Skill.

Everyone except her grandmother, of course.

Her grandmother accepted her.

Her grandmother convinced her she was not a monster.

She was the reason Celestina could exist in this form. She was the reason Celestina could feel like a real child. And she was the reason Celestina could play hide-and-seek and still enjoy herself.

”Have you become slower, Cele?”

Celestina’s eyes widened.

Her feet struck the trunk of a tree, and she used her small, agile body to launch herself forward. Bending her knees, she pushed off with all her strength, shooting through the forest as she chased after her granny’s voice.

”Not fair!” Celestina shouted, her voice sulky. ”You are obviously much faster than me! And I already saw you, but you keep running! We are playing hide-and-seek, not tag!”

Her grandmother only laughed.

Celestina kept chasing her. Each time her granny hid behind another tree, Celestina would reach it just in time to see a blur slip past her and dart toward a tree farther ahead. Before she knew it, their game of hide-and-seek had become a game of tag, leading them deeper and deeper into the forest.

Not that Celestina was worried.

After all, this forest was part of the estate. The Frost Knights inspected it regularly to make sure no void rift had formed within its borders and that no void creatures had wandered inside. They came every week, preventing the possibility of a death zone taking root here.

There was no danger for Celestina in this forest.

”Ho?” her grandmother called. ”Cele, do you think I will go easy on you just because you are my granddaughter?”

”Ugh...!”

Celestina sped up, chasing after her again and again.

”Sweetheart,” her grandmother said lightly, ”you look quite tired now.”

At last, Celestina stopped.

She heard her grandmother’s laugh from behind a tree much wider, much larger, and much thicker than the others. It stood out from the rest of the forest, its heavy trunk rising like an old pillar among the shadows.

Panting, Celestina wiped her hand across her face, brushing away the sweat clinging to her skin and the strands of hair stuck to her forehead. Then she narrowed her eyes and bared her small fangs at the tree.

A cute hissing sound escaped her.

”I am not tired,” she rasped. ”Not tired at all!”

Her eyes darted toward her surroundings.

For some reason, something felt wrong.

’I have never gone this deep into the forest before...’

She glanced at the trees around her, then back at the thick trunk where her grandmother was hiding.

’But it is a good place to play hide-and-seek with Granny.’

With that thought, Celestina took a step forward.

The moment she did, the familiar butterfly she had left behind suddenly flew in front of her eyes.

Celestina flinched in surprise and stared at it.

”What are you doing back here!?”

The butterfly did not answer.

Instead, it flew wildly from left to right in front of her face, frantic and sharp, its delicate wings trembling in the air. Somehow, Celestina understood what it was trying to tell her.

Do not go forward.

Celestina frowned.

A bad premonition began to swell inside her heart.

”...You are warning me, right?”

The butterfly immediately changed its flight pattern, circling in the air as if to say yes.

It was strange how easily she could communicate with it.

But right now, Celestina did not care about that. A sudden chill crawled over her skin as she looked back at the old tree.

”Granny?”

”Yes, sweetheart.”

Her grandmother’s lovely voice came from behind the tree, sweet and warm and full of affection.

And yet...

Celestina’s heart did not warm from hearing it.

”I...” Celestina swallowed. ”I don’t want to play anymore. I feel tired. Can we go back, please?”

The butterfly began to fly frantically again.

Celestina’s unease sharpened.

Then she heard her grandmother’s voice drop.

It sank by an octave, becoming low, dark, and threaded with something ominous as it drifted from behind the old tree.

”...Then I... win... right?”

Without warning, Celestina’s heart skipped a beat.

Then it began to race.

Another horrible chill swept through the wind, making her hair dance against her cheeks. The forest seemed to breathe around her. Pine needles whispered as they brushed against one another. Branches creaked somewhere above, slow and brittle, as though the trees themselves were shifting in discomfort.

The cold feeling crept toward the back of her neck.

Behind the old tree, something pale moved.

For one fragile second, Celestina thought it was her granny.

But it was not.

What stepped out from behind the trunk was something entirely alien, and the sight of it made her blood turn sick and heavy in her veins. If it had come crawling on all fours, if it had howled, or dragged animals through the undergrowth, she might have run at once. Fear would have been simple then.

But the thing emerged slowly.

Almost shyly.

And it wore the suggestion of a human shape.

The butterfly flew against Celestina’s forehead, beating its delicate wings in frantic bursts, desperately trying to tell her to flee.

The thing that was supposed to be her beloved grandmother was tall, but not grand. Thin, but not skeletal. Its body seemed to be made of skin before it had ever been made of bone—loose, waxen, faintly translucent, as though someone had stretched a dead man’s flesh over a frame that did not quite understand the architecture of people. It stood upright, but badly. Its shoulders sloped at different heights. One arm hung too long, the fingertips brushing the ferns. The other rested against its ribs, bent in three places where there should have been only one. Its knees faced forward, but without conviction. With every slight movement, a soft internal clicking came from within it, like wet twigs being pressed until they split.

”Huh...?”

The tiny, confused sound slipped from Celestina’s lips.

She could not see its expression clearly.

And yet, somehow, it smiled.

Its lips were human. Dry and pale. Cracked at the edges. Around them, the skin folded in delicate little creases, almost beautiful beneath the dim forest light.

But beyond that mouth, everything was wrong.

”Sweet... heart...”

Celestina froze.

”Cele...”

Her grandmother’s voice came out of that thing.

”Want... to... play... again...?”

It sounded like Granny.

And yet it did not.

The voice was even more lower now, dragged out and broken, as though the creature had learned the words but not the rhythm of speech unlike before. It struggled to speak smoothly.

Celestina’s throat closed.

She stopped breathing.

The eyes staring at her were uneven in their sockets, dark and glossy, with no whites at all. There was no emotion in them. No warmth. No sign that anything alive was looking out from behind them.

They reflected the forest in tiny, trembling shapes.

Celestina staggered a step back.

The heinous thing copied her.

”G—”

She tried to speak, but nothing came. Not a sentence. Not even a thought. Only the raw, shapeless terror swelling inside her chest.

”Cele... Are... you... ok... ay...?”

It took one step forward.

Celestina immediately took one step back.

Her legs gave out beneath her.

She fell hard onto the dirt, her fox form unraveling as she reverted back into her human body, trembling on the cold earth. Her eyes quaked with fear as she pressed her palms into the dirt and tried to push herself away.

”S-s-stay...” she finally forced out, her voice breaking into a quaver. ”Stay... stay back!”

”...”

”Where... where is Granny!?”

The creature tilted its head.

”Me...?” it asked, sounding almost confused. ”I... am... Granny...?”

It spoke in her grandmother’s voice again.

Celestina’s blood turned cold.

”Cele... cheer... up... smile... hug...”

”...!”

Not even a second passed.

She did not see it move. Not its body, not a blur, not a single twitch of those broken limbs.

One moment it was by the tree.

The next, it was right in front of her face.

”Ahk...!”

A fetid smell struck her at once.

Celestina gagged. Her face went pale. The stench was rotten and wet, so foul that her eyes began to water. She could no longer hold the tears back. They spilled down her cheeks, falling freely as sheer terror swallowed her whole.

”Hug... Cele... me...?”

Hearing those words, Celestina’s eyes widened.

Her heart lurched.

She pressed her palms into the dirt and tried to scuttle backward, away from it.

”N-no!” she cried. ”Stay away from me! Go away!”

But the creature did not listen.

It moved closer.

Their faces were only inches apart now. Celestina pressed her lips together so tightly they hurt. A broken moan trembled in her throat as she cried in silence, too afraid even to scream.

”I... hug... Cele... sweet... heart...?”

Before she could react, it leaned in.

Its grotesque body folded around her small frame.

Celestina felt its arms slide behind her back.

Her body went rigid.

Her mind emptied.

For a moment, her heartbeat consumed every sound in the world.

Time seemed to freeze again.

Celestina sat there with a blank, frozen expression, tears still streaming down her face. Seconds stretched into minutes. Her hands hovered uselessly at her sides. She did not dare move. She did not dare breathe.

Only when those arms shifted did her body jerk.

But the creature held her down with such dreadful strength that she could not escape. She was too afraid to make a sound.

The embrace was gentle. It did not hurt. A mockery of affection wrapped around her like a nightmare wearing the memory of love.

Then its hands moved again.

The creature’s fingertips pressed against her back.

Celestina’s body jerked once more.

”——!!”

Her mouth opened involuntarily, but no scream came out. Only a silent breath escaped her as the creature’s fingers dug into her flesh.

Pain flared through her entire body.

The creature dragged its fingers downward.

Celestina’s back ignited.

It felt as though molten fire had been poured beneath her skin, scorching through flesh and nerves. The pain split through her so violently that her body finally found its voice without her permission.

”Kh... ahhhhh! Aghhhhhhhhhhhhh! Nghaaaaaaaaaahkkkkk!”

The pain was so terrible that foam gathered at the corners of her mouth. Her eyes rolled back. For a moment, she fell unconscious.

Then the pain dragged her awake again.

”Shhh... Cele... don’t... cry... no... tears... be... happy... smile...?”

Celestina had not even realized its fingers were no longer inside her back.

The creature must have done something.

It finally released her from its embrace and moved away.

With nothing left to support her, Celestina collapsed onto the forest floor. She screamed, cried, and sobbed in agony as the pain devoured every thought inside her head. Her body curled against the dirt, shaking helplessly.

Through the blur of her vision, she barely saw the butterfly.

It had hidden from the creature.

Now it sat at the base of a nearby trunk, its wings trembling as it watched her.

Celestina could not hear anything clearly.

The pain drowned the world.

Because of that, she failed to hear her grandmother’s voice coming from the creature one last time.

”Rest... here... Cele... while... I... visit... your... gramps... my... husband...?”

’So... me... one... Gra...nny... he...lp... m—’