A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 94

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 94.
The guest room door closed.
The “Aiden’s Perspective Setting” remained active, making Will’s room on the third floor appear like a guest room as well. In this cramped space for a cruise ship, Caroline felt anew just how terrifying it was to be alone with Will.
“It doesn’t seem so long since I warned you. And yet here you are, walking into this room. So it must be one of two things.”
Will drew his mouth into an exaggerated smile and peeled off his white gloves.
Caroline withdrew her hand from the wardrobe door and stepped backward. Not that there was anywhere far to run in this cramped space anyway.
“First: you’re far too fearless. Detective, you seem like the type who doesn’t listen to others very well. Your parents must have had a hard time raising you.”
He removed the other glove and closed the gap between them at a leisurely pace, his hands clasped behind his back.
“Second: you ignored my warning, which means you came in with real certainty. Looking at your expression, you already know something.”
“……W-what are you talking about?”
Damn.
She’d stumbled over her words—unlike Jane. Caroline felt her ears burning.
“That I’ve killed someone.”
Will stated the fact as casually as if he were reciting a lunch menu.
“And you’ve gathered quite a bit of evidence, it seems. You must have just come back from looking.”
“What did you see?”
“You went rummaging through my Cocktail Bar trash bin. So, what do you think my murder weapon is, Jane?”
The Special Mission had just ended, but it appeared that moving in and out of the space while Aiden inhabited Will’s form had sparked misunderstandings.
“……An arrow.”
So be it.
Caroline decided to commit fully to the character of Jane, trusting that there would be some way to survive. In the story itself, Will hadn’t actually tried to kill Jane. She wasn’t someone he bore a grudge against like his other victims.
‘Though he did lock her away in places no one knew about and left her to starve.’
Whether he’d intended to kill her was unclear.
But Will had confined Jane to the guest room, the basement, and various other places, even gagging her at times, insisting that she mustn’t interfere before his murders were complete.
She prayed that such a thing would never happen to her.
“Excellent. You’ve already constructed the entire truth of the incident perfectly in that small head of yours, haven’t you? Now that you know the facts, what do you plan to do?”
“……I was only trying to uncover the truth. I didn’t really plan to do anything.”
Despite knowing from the narrative that Will had no immediate reason to harm her, Caroline’s heart raced and her hands trembled as she stood before him, fully immersed in his role as a murderer.
“……And even if I did plan something, I wouldn’t tell you.”
But cornered as she was, her mouth grew bold. It was as if she’d truly become Jane herself.
Caroline felt fear grip her after the words left her lips, and she clamped her mouth shut.
At such a brazenly provocative remark, Will instead burst into hearty laughter. As he laughed in his light blue tailcoat, the image of a clown guffawing and slapping his belly flashed across her mind.
“Ha ha! Ah, Detective, you’re truly unpredictable. You’re right—I asked something foolish. But I was curious what that clever head of yours would come up with to deal with me. Though you won’t tell me, I’m sure.”
Having laughed enough, Will nodded as if he understood Caroline—or rather, Jane. Then he moved closer.
“!”
“Our detective will certainly find ways to bother me from directions I haven’t even considered. So I’ll just have to make sure you can’t do anything at all.”
“What are you doing?”
“You thought you could come out of this unscathed after learning everything I’ve done?”
Will seized Caroline’s wrist and began dragging her ruthlessly. The guest room door opened, and Caroline had no choice but to move as he pulled. They descended the stairs on the second floor and then the spiral staircase leading down to the engine room at the very bottom of the ship.
‘This must be the basement passage hidden beneath the second-floor carpet.’
It was past midnight now, and no servants were in sight. Not that she could have called for help even if she’d encountered one.
‘What do I do?’
Caroline bit her lip hard, watching Will drag her along while surveying her surroundings.
‘Is he going to lock me in the storage hold like he did with Jane?’
“Let go of me.”
She struggled on the chance it might work, but it was useless. The cheerful expression that had greeted her words faded, and the man’s cold sneer remained as he pulled her forward with tremendous force.
His strength was so overwhelming that she couldn’t even think of resisting. Since she couldn’t fight it, being dragged by such power didn’t hurt much. Caroline was drawn by Will’s hand down into the basement of the mansion.
“What are you going to do to me?”
The basement was divided into sections including the corridor, an underground prison, an armory, and other spaces. As she’d confirmed before, descending the stairs transformed the armory into the ship’s engine room, and other spaces came into view.
‘What is he planning to do here?’
Could he possibly load her onto the engine room elevator and suspend her from the deck, just like the murder he’d committed in the earlier mission?
A chill ran down the back of Caroline’s neck. But Will dragged her somewhere unexpected. Beside the engine room lay a corridor and a storage hold, and Will headed unhesitatingly toward the storage.
Only then did Caroline realize that this storage hold of the cruise ship corresponded to the underground prison of the mansion basement.
“!”
And Caroline was shoved inside the underground prison.
The storage hold beside the engine room was divided into several sections, with various cargo stacked throughout. Dust floated in the air, and it looked as though no one had touched it in ages.
The section where Caroline landed was also piled high with luggage. No one checked here regularly. As she was pushed and fell, she scrambled to her feet, looking around at her surroundings in the moment she pulled herself up.
Click.
“!”
Will locked the storage hold—or rather, the underground prison—with a key he must have obtained at some point. Something turned, and she heard the sound of complete locking.
“Open the door! What are you going to do to me?”
Caroline hurried toward the door and knocked frantically, but all that came back through the thick barrier was a distant voice.
“I’m keeping you out of the way before you can interfere with what I’m about to do.”
“You’re locking me in here to die?”
“Who knows? The crew might get lucky and find you. Then again, they might not. Good luck.”
“What? Wait—”
The conversation ended there. Beyond the opaque steel door, footsteps receded into silence.
‘What happens now?’
Caroline stood frozen, blinking. Was she really locked in? How would she get out? Could she even escape?
Within the game, Jane might get discovered by luck, but Caroline could think of no one else to rely on besides Aiden. So what would happen to her?
‘What if I’m trapped here forever?’
Her blood ran cold.
No, surely not. Yet even as the thought crossed her mind, the reality of playing this game with her life on the line crashed down on her. Hadn’t she nearly drowned in freezing water last time?
‘No, it’s fine. I can get out.’
Caroline gripped her thoughts and forced herself to think of solutions.
Unlike the Underground Prison with its iron bars, she couldn’t see outside this sealed door, let alone figure out what to do. Could her hand even reach the lock on the other side?
‘Then I need to try something.’
Maybe she could knock loudly enough that a servant, or three-o’clock Aiden, or even Will himself would have to come looking.
If a servant found her, her Heart would drop after midnight, but at least she’d avoid dying trapped in here. With no water, no food—she had no idea how long she’d survive.
‘If I scream with all my might, the metal will ring so loudly they’ll have to hear.’
Caroline took a step back slowly, gathering herself to hurl her body against the door. But in that instant—
[Settings Bar]
“Oh!”
A familiar window opened before her.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————