(Yvette's POV)
Warm hands carried me through a set of enormous doors, their hinges groaning like old bones. The scent of polished wood and cold stone filled my senses as several maids guided me inside. Their grip was firm but oddly distant, as if touching me was a duty rather than an act of concern.
Where am I?
The hallways were too silent, too empty. Tall candles flickered against deep red walls, casting long shadows that danced with each step we took. I didn't speak. I couldn't. Everything around me felt unreal, as if I had stepped into someone else's dream.
Or worse… someone else's life.
One maid walked ahead of the group, her posture strict, her eyes forward. She didn't look back at me even once. Another held my arm with a cold, delicate strength, guiding me without warmth.
"Your room, Your Highness," the lead maid said at last, opening a pair of grand double doors.
The maids stepped back quickly as if afraid to come any closer leaving me alone in the doorway.
I stared.
The bedroom was enormous. A massive bed draped in black velvet sat in the center, its posts carved with swirling flames. Heavy curtains of deep red framed the windows, swallowing most of the moonlight. Even the carpet beneath my feet was dark, stitched with patterns of roses and thorns.
Red and black.
The colours of fire and shadow.
Someone's favourite colours… but not mine.
Still, something tugged at me a strange familiarity in the atmosphere, like a memory I couldn't recall whispering at the edge of my mind.
I stepped inside slowly.
"This feels wrong," I murmured. "This isn't me…"
But I accepted it anyway. Maybe this room belonged to the person who saved me. Maybe the maids were just quiet because they were shy or strict. Maybe the coldness in their eyes wasn't about me maybe it was just how things were done here.
I tried to believe that.
I wandered deeper into the room, touching the smooth edges of the vanity, the carved wooden wardrobe, and the strange designs painted across the walls. Everything looked expensive… but intimidating.
Then I noticed it.
A book resting on a shelf near a large black-and-gold wardrobe. Its cover was thick and leatherbound, with swirling patterns and a single word engraved in gold:
YVETTE
My chest tightened.
Yvette.
My name now… right?
I reached for the book, my hand trembling. Somehow, I felt that opening it would answer everything I couldn't understand. I wanted to know who this "Yvette" was… the woman whose life I was apparently living.
But before my fingers touched the cover
BANG!
The door slammed open so violently that the echo rattled the windows.
A woman stepped inside no, stormed inside. Her gown was a deep, fiery red, flowing behind her like molten flame. Her hair was black streaked with red, glowing like embers under the light. She looked to be in her forties, elegant and intimidating in every possible way.
She was beautiful.
Terrifying.
Regal.
Her eyes burned into me.
"Yvette!" she shouted.
I froze.
She marched toward me, her expression twisted with anger. Her presence filled the room like a storm, suffocating and fierce.
"How dare you go to the forbidden river again?!" she roared, every word slicing through the air. "Are you trying to disgrace this kingdom? Are you trying to disgrace me?"
I stumbled back a step.
Forbidden river?
"I-I'm sorry," I whispered, confused. "Miss, I… I don't know you."
Silence.
Her furious expression melted not into calm but into disbelief. Her red-tinted eyes widened as if she couldn't believe what she'd just heard.
"You don't…" she breathed. "You don't know me?"
I swallowed hard.
How could I?
I didn't even know myself anymore.
Her jaw tightened. "Stop this nonsense, Yvette. I am not in the mood for your childish games."
Childish… games?
She took a sharp step forward.
Her voice dropped, cold and cutting.
"I am your mother," she said. "Your queen. You dare stand before me and say you don't know who I am?"
Queen?
Mother?
My heart pounded, a mix of fear and confusion twisting inside me like a knot.
"I'm not joking," I whispered. "I really don't know"
"Enough!" she snapped.
The fire in her voice shook me to my bones.
"I will not tolerate this ridiculous behaviour any longer. You will not step foot near the forbidden river again, Yvette. Do you understand? This is your last warning."
She spun around, her gown flaring dramatically as she stormed toward the doors.
Before I could speak again before I could ask who she truly was, who I was she was gone. The maids quickly shut the door behind her with a cold, echoing click.
And then… silence.
The kind that presses against your chest and refuses to let you breathe.
I sank onto the edge of the bed, my hands trembling.
Mother…?
Queen…?
Yvette…?
"This life… isn't mine," I whispered to the dark room.
The book with my name sat only a few steps away, untouched. Waiting. Watching. Like it held all the answers I wasn't ready for.
My vision blurred as the weight of everything crashed over me dying in a hospital bed, waking in a river, being dragged into this mansion, being yelled at by a queen claiming to be my mother.
I wrapped my arms around myself.
"My past life ended," I whispered shakily. "But this one… this one terrifies everyone."
The candles flickered softly, throwing long shadows across the room. The air felt colder now, as if the mansion itself was holding its breath watching the stranger who had claimed the villainess's body.
Somewhere deep inside, a whisper rose:
Who were you, Yvette?
And why is everyone so afraid of you?
I didn't know the answer.
But the book near the wardrobe seemed to know everything.
And tomorrow…
I would open it.
Even if the truth terrified me.