Though paralyzed, still radiantly charming!

Chapter 337: A sharp, gleaming knife

In an instant, Ryan felt a chill run down his spine.

“Alice, you’re awake. I was calling you earlier, but you wouldn’t wake up.” Ryan forced a smile.

Alice tilted her head, looking at Ryan. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me today. My head feels really heavy.”

She hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “Ryan, I think something’s off with me. I suspect it might be that seafood soup I had last night.”

Ryan thought back to dinner. He had been so focused on avoiding mixing the braised beef with the chocolate brownies that he completely overlooked the fact that the seafood soup was also made by Nella.

Nella knows I don’t like seafood soup, so she’d be sure I wouldn’t drink it.

Could Nella have used that to her advantage, making sure Alice drank the drugged soup? Ryan replayed the details of the previous night in his mind.

“Alice, I’ve been meaning to tell you… I think there’s something off about Nella, but I didn’t have any proof, and I couldn’t find the right moment to bring it up.”

“Take a look at this video.”

Alice pulled up a video on her phone.

It was footage from a few days ago, taken from the security cameras in the banquet hall.

In the video, Ryan and Alice were walking into the hall, with everyone’s eyes on them.

At that moment, the camera panned across Nella’s face.

She had an extremely strange expression.

Nella appeared to be smiling.

But her eyes were wide open, staring intently at the two of them.

Honestly, Ryan was creeped out by how Nella looked in the video.

“After I saw this footage, I felt something was off. So, I started paying attention to the surveillance videos of the three of us together.”

After watching the clips on Alice’s phone, Ryan’s skin crawled.

In every video, Nella’s expression was disturbingly eerie.

She was staring at Ryan with a forced, exaggerated smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“After that, I did some digging into Nella’s past. Before the Langston family adopted her, she was called Bella. Do you remember? She used to be bullied by some bad kids.”

Ryan nodded.

He did know about that. Bella, with her “unlucky” silver hair, had been relentlessly bullied by the other kids in the orphanage. Ryan had helped her out a few times, and then she was adopted and left.

Ryan had felt really sorry for her back then.

Alice took a deep breath and showed Ryan a screenshot of a news article.

“May 1st, 2020, an abandoned factory near Crestview Secondary School… ‘Call from the Past, Case No. 0197.’ A fire broke out in the factory, and three students who regularly hung out there died. Only one student survived.”

Crestview Secondary School was where Bella used to go.

Ryan’s heart started pounding.

Bella had never told him about this.

“I got in touch with the officer who handled the case. He told me that the fire was suspected to be arson, but they couldn’t find any evidence. It was a really strange case.”

“And after that, Bella was never bullied again. In fact, she got really close to a boy from outside the school, but not long after, their relationship started to fall apart.”

“To be more precise, everyone in Bella’s class started to be a little afraid of her.”

“Why?” Ryan asked, confused.

Alice’s forehead was starting to glisten with sweat.

“Bella was kidnapped once. Before that, she was really quiet and introverted. But after the kidnapping, her personality completely changed. She became very outgoing.”

“I talked to some of Bella’s old classmates. They said she gave off a really strange vibe, like she wasn’t the same person anymore. Even her eating habits changed.”

Alice continued, “I found the news report from when Bella was kidnapped.”

Ryan looked at the photo of the kidnapper on Alice’s phone.

It was a woman with a vicious, menacing face.

What terrified Ryan the most was that the woman in the photo was smiling.

And her smile… it was eerily similar to the one Bella had in the video.

Alice looked at Ryan and said something that sent a chill down his spine.

“Ryan, do you think the person who came back… was really Bella?”

Ryan’s hair stood on end.

He began to recall all the moments he’d shared with Bella over the years.

Nella had always been a bit of a tomboy, but she’d taken care of Ryan in so many ways.

Ryan remembered that time in the orphanage when he got food poisoning. He’d been vomiting uncontrollably, his clothes and pants covered in the mess, utterly miserable.

It was Bella who stayed up all night, wiping the vomit off him, taking care of him.

Back then, Ryan had only one thought: he would take care of Bella for the rest of his life.

But as time passed, Ryan realized something unsettling—he didn’t really know much about Nella’s past.

She had never told him about the fire or the kidnapping.

Just then, Ryan’s phone rang again.

He glanced down. It was Nella.

No, to be precise, it was a call from Nella… one week in the future.

Ryan looked at Alice. “I’m just going to the bathroom.”

He quickly stepped into the bathroom and answered the call.

On the other end, Nella’s voice was trembling, as if she’d been crying.

“Why did the call cut off so quickly earlier? I still had so much to tell you. It took forever to get through.”

“Ryan, I need to tell you something really important about Alice.”

“After you died, I kept investigating Alice. It turns out she has a twin sister.”

“Alice’s sister was always strange, even as a child. She was still wetting the bed at twelve, loved torturing animals, and was violent toward her classmates. Classic signs of a future killer.”

“When Alice was fourteen, her sister beat a classmate so badly they had to pay a huge settlement. The night before her sister was supposed to be sent to juvenile detention, there was a fire at their house. Alice’s sister died in that fire.”

“Ryan, I’ve been wondering… why did Alice hide this from you?”

“Do you think the person who died in that fire… might have been the real Alice?”

Ryan’s heart clenched.

Twins usually look almost identical. What if the one who survived wasn’t Alice, but her sister?

To avoid going to juvenile detention, Alice’s sister could have taken on Alice’s identity.

Ryan’s breathing became rapid.

Who was telling the truth—Nella or Alice?

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

“Ryan, are you okay? I thought I heard you talking to someone in there.”

Alice’s voice came from outside the door.

Ryan quickly steadied his breathing. “I’m fine.”

The door creaked open.

Thud!

Blood splattered.

Ryan felt a sharp pain in his chest. His vision blurred, and it felt like his body was being pulled into a deep abyss. His consciousness faded rapidly.

[Ding! Main Quest Progress: 2/5 – Killed by Alice (100%)]

…

But just as everything went dark, a blinding light suddenly flashed before Ryan’s eyes.

Time seemed to warp, and his consciousness snapped back to the moment before the door opened—back to when Alice hadn’t yet stepped inside. It was as if his death had never happened.

Ryan was still standing there, his heart pounding, as if everything he had just experienced was a terrible illusion.

Suddenly, Nella’s voice came through the phone again, this time in a hushed, terrified tone.

“Ryan, your cause of death has changed! It’s no longer from falling—it’s from a ruptured heart. You were stabbed to death!”

Ryan’s heart raced.

He crouched down carefully, pressing his ear to the floor.

Through the crack under the door, he could see Alice’s feet.

And in her hand… was a sharp, gleaming knife.

The voice on the phone cut off abruptly.

The one-minute call limit had been reached.

Remaining calls: 3

The doorknob slowly began to turn with a creak.

Ryan grabbed the mop beside him, backing away in fear.

The door swung open.

Alice stood in the doorway, the knife in her hand catching the light, reflecting a blinding glare.

She smiled faintly at Ryan, her expression dark and unreadable as she stared at him.