Chapter 48 

[The Red Snow]

Jessica cracked a muffled laugh.

She should have refrained herself from doing so, she knew. After all, she was still in Choi Siwon’s territory, still figuratively within Hwang Tiffany’s evil clutch. The Choi bodyguards were still surrounding them in the luxurious dining hall, and they could blow her head off with a snap of Siwon’s finger. It was certainly not yet the time to rejoice, to celebrate. But Jessica just couldn’t help it.

Because wasn’t Pride a human’s vilest sin, after all?

(I would say that was alright, dearest. You can never be a saint in the world of sinners anyway)

Jessica’s heart raced in the expectation of triumph. She had never thought that seeing someone looking so down, so defeated could be that…exhilarating. Was this how it felt like being an antagonist? She enjoyed the sight of a whimpering Tiffany, with her wide eyes and trembling lips (Haha, take that, ). Maybe, maybe, Tiffany really dug out the worst in people (Dr. Frankenstein and his monsters –ah, that was classic).

“So, you concede, right?” Jessica pressed, and the wave of empowerment remained within her. The whole dining room was silent and all eyes were looking at her. Expectations and guesses swarmed throughout the room, and Jessica felt like she was finally the one taking control of everything. Her next words came out hollow and toneless, just as hollow as Tiffany's eyes were.

Jessica tried to disregard it.

“I am the winner, and thus I have the right to claim my prize,” she announced to the room.

Tiffany slowly fluttered her eyes close.

The silence continued, but not for long.

Because when the Witch opened her eyes again, hell was reflected on her eyes.

After all, didn’t they all say that Witches were immortals?

Twisting her lips to form a debonair smile, Tiffany made a mumbling sound and shrugged.  All eyes were focused on her as she laid her gaze down on her pink, manicured nails. She let some seconds passed on purpose, and before Jessica could run out of patience and demand the confirmation, Tiffany opened .

“You are right. I am indeed, the one without any role. I am the Uninvited One.” She lifted her chin and stared at Jessica –letting the latter absorbed the satirical message behind her words. Like father, like daughter – both Tiffany and her father would never be truly accepted in Der Märchenclub.  After all, even after years, the corruption remained. Unlike the past years, however, it was her who was in charge with the corruption now.

But, Father, then again, aren’t we the best party crasher?

Tiffany’s composure, even when facing a situation which was turned around against her, only made doubts lingered longer. Even Jessica, who had a moment of triumph, could not exactly say she still owned the game. There was a tingle of self-pity that Jessica suddenly felt, because, heck, wasn't it supposed to work according to her plan? Or were rules never applied on the Red Queen's chessboard? Would Alice always be bound by her Excellency?

Jessica did not like the situation; the discomfort growing, and the control slipping off.

The Jung heiress' sudden silence killed the hopes of the members, but Kibum always took it to the next level –to a higher disappointment. He leaned back onto his chair and examined the whole situation from his keen perspective. Jessica was losing the rein; Eunhyuk had always been, frankly said, useless; and Yoona, though always emanating murderous intention towards Tiffany, was not that reckless to commit anything suicidal. There was no need to elaborate more on Tiffany for the time being, so Kibum’s gaze eventually landed on Choi Siwon.

Sometimes he understood why Heechul found Siwon rather…unnerving. No human was supposed to be that...detached. There was a definite character flaw in him –to the point that Kibum questioned his existence, because his only reason to exist seemed to only be Tiffany. It was a morbid love, indeed.

But Kibum was not interested in further analyzing the extent of love Choi Siwon was capable of showing. The issues he had in hands were more important. Tiffany’s calmness and Siwon’s indifference allowed Kibum to realize that the night would not likely end with Jessica’s victory –as regretful as the news would be.

“Say,” Kibum said the word in the absence of Jessica's voice. His deep voice instantly brought the attention in the room back to him. Ignoring the stares directed to him, Kibum only let his gaze fell to Tiffany. The mild expectation was reflected behind her irises, and he was just tempted to make an appropriate response. Sorting out the thoughts in his head, Kibum then questioned idly, “Weren’t you supposed to be the Red Riding Hood?”

Ah, of course, Kibum Oppa, Tiffany mentally remarked. Sometimes Tiffany thought whether this guy preferred having his curiosity quenched than his soul intact. But she always appreciated Kibum, as bizarre as he was. Tilting her head to her left, she asked the boy another question instead. “Do you still remember who guessed my role as the Red Riding Hood back then?”

The answer had been in his mind all along.

“Lee Sunny,” Kibum reminded the other audiences.

“Precisely,” Tiffany said with a flick of her finger. “Leeteuk Oppa never said that she had a correct guess. He never said Sunny was the winner that time. He only told her that she could retrieve her hint –which she never had the –"

"Retrieving the hint is the right of the one who correctly guesses the role," pursued Kibum.

"No, retrieving the hint is the prerogative right of Leeteuk Oppa," assured Tiffany.

There was a mild uneasiness dwelling at the bottom of Kibum's heart. No matter how unjust everything was, Tiffany never broke any rules –never on her own chessboard. As unfair as the rules were, they were just rules that were created by the game master herself and well, he –a mere irreplaceable player– could not deny her might.

Tiffany shrugged. "It was unfortunate, but Lee Sunny was simply on top of our list that time. Her failure to correctly guess Kwon Yuri's role, Leeteuk Oppa's fault or not, denied her a chance of life and well," the girl paused to form a seemingly regretful out. “Rapunzel had to die unloved.”

But that was not entirely correct. Rapunzel did not die unloved. Her little Sunflower would always remember the radiant smile she cast and the gentle personality that had been there before paranoia blinded her. Rapunzel would always be loved; Rapunzel would always be remembered, because to the Sunflower, Rapunzel was his everything.

The mention of Sunny’s name brought a surge of emotion within him. There were tears that would never be justified, trust that would never be violated, and love that could never be returned. But despite anything, in the end, it was only Lee Eunhyuk who could love unconditionally.

“You’re wrong,” Eunhyuk weakly argued and the roulette was spun to him. Eunhyuk's nearly breaking voice and his rather timid gesture seemed to intrigue Tiffany, because the young girl immediately focused her attention to the gaunt blonde-haired guy immediately. She waited expectantly at the reply he was about to make.

“Sunny did not die unloved. I loved Sunny. No, I still do,” he proclaimed –as useless and as irrelevant as it was.

“Aww,” Tiffany cooed and pressed her fingers to her chest –being a drama queen that she was. “How romantic, Eunhyuk Oppa.”

Her undoubtedly mocking gesture stupefied him. With a helpless chuckle and a voice barely a whisper, he murmured, “How could you be so cruel? Sunny never did anything wrong to you. How could you be so –“

On the other side of the table, Yoona chortled humorlessly. Ah, Gretel. The little girl with guts –who would not hesitate to push the Witch into the stove and laugh when the Witch was burned to death (if only, my dear. If only). “Reason?” Yoona repeated Eunhyuk’s question. “Why would an irrational witch as she is need a reason?” she accused. “She kills people for fun, she enjoys seeing people suffer. There is no reason for her to do all of these. This is just your sick , isn’t it, Tiffany Unnie?”

Tiffany only raised an eyebrow in the mixture of amusement and irritation. Her guests that night were truly entertaining: she had the arrogant Jessica Jung, the intriguing Kim Kibum, the poignant lover Lee Hyukjae, and of course... the mad hurricane, Im Yoona.

“Indeed. You all prove to be a very pleasant entertainment. Would you like to reminisce a bit, Im Yoona?”

Aside from her striking feature, everything about Hwang Tiffany was supposed to be ugly. She was a wicked girl with heart as black as the raven; and never was an existence felt so sinful. But when she stood up and took a step closer to Yoona, there was a clear display of not only power, but absolute regality. Tiffany's long gown swept the floor, but she was the ruler of them all, and nobody dared to make a move against the Queen –not even Gretel.

Tiffany stopped in front of Yoona, took her time, before she opened again. And when the Witch reminisced, it was nothing but a cursed tale that came out of her lips.

“I remember the complacent feeling I felt when the Sleeping Beauty took her last slumber. The first kill had always been the most thrilling, after all. And Shin Dong Oppa and Kyuhyun Oppa were not supposed to die that fast, but Shindong Oppa broke the rule first. Kyuhyun Oppa, well, my little fairy was kinda doing him a favor anyway,” Tiffany muttered with a shrug.

When one hated the other that much, words were getting more irrelevant. It was sufficient to express ire with a glance, and Yoona’s hatred towards Tiffany was put accross with a short sentence. “What the hell are you?”

Tiffany snickered. “Don’t you love calling me ‘the Witch’? Ah, the role was supposed to be Yuri’s, but maybe I fit the role better. Yuri-sshi may have enough wickedness to cause her own best friend's death, but if it were me, I would use more severe punishments. Traitor deserves to die, doesn’t she, Eunhyuk Oppa?”

Eunhyuk no longer had the strength to protest, no longer had the will to fight back (he never had). And like a passive statue, he just sat there –trying his might to hold on to his crumbling heart pieces. Sunny did not deserve death. Neither did Yuri. Nobody deserved death. But how could someone have a heart as black as the Witch?

With a desperate tear falling from his eyes, Eunhyuk questioned the nearly rhetorical inquiry.

“What have we ever done to you, Tiffany-sshi? What have we ever done to you that earns us this misfortune?”

Eunhyuk’s question sounded the most honest to Tiffany's ears. It was not as fiery as Yoona’s accusation to her; it was not as haughty as Jessica’s claim of victory, and it was certainly never as manipulative as Kibum’s trick towards her. Tiffany was not really into weak men, but apparently in the end, it would be weak people like Eunhyuk that allowed her to bring a little truth to them all.

“Ask your parents why,” Tiffany stated –and even the devilish smile was no longer present on her face.

The room fell into silence once again.

Miyoung (little girl, weren’t you supposed to be dead?) had only one question in her head. Miyoung was innocent; Miyoung knew nothing. Miyoung never understood.

So Miyoung asked back. And the question was spoken in such an honest inquiry– a truthful curiosity.

“What have my father ever done to you?” she softly asked. “My father was a kind one. And yet all of your parents teamed up to kill him and –“

“You have no proof, Hwang Tiffany,” interrupted Kibum.

Oh, the boy should not have interrupted. Because humanity was a rare species in the Witch's blood.

Tiffany’s trademark wicked smile returned. “You’ll have it soon."

"How?" Kibum pressed. "Unless you fabricate stories, you cannot –"

Kibum's comment seemed to irritate Tiffany. Narrowing her eyes, she then told him proudly. "After Der Märchenclub game ends, I will reveal to the world how rotten your families are. The Choi, the Kim, the Jung, the Im, the Lee, all, all of your ing arrogant families’ lies would be revealed. My computer would automatically transmit the data to the government and there is nothing you can do to–“

"You manipulated the data?" accused Kibum. "I can easily tell if you're transmitting a false data and –"

"If you survive the night, you mean, Kim Kibum?" Tiffany pointed out mirthfully. "And don't ever underestimate my father. The data my father has collected is supported with many evidences. My father might have died, but not without leaving me his legacy. His microchip would reveal all, and I will clear his name. And I will show to the world how your parents betrayed and killed –"

“Our parents would have never killed,” claimed Jessica suddenly. The years she spent with her parents might have been short, and she knew dirty plays would always be involved in the construction of a great family empire. But killing was another issue. Her parents could not have committed it. A child had to trust their parent after all. “Your father committed a suicide,” Jessica challenged –having her guts slowly returning to her again.

Tiffany gradually glanced at Jessica. Ah, she wished she could be merciful to Jessica. But the Jung’s hands were not clean either. There was no exception. Those who dared to turn their backs against her father were equally as guilty. “Is that the lie your traitorous parents told you, Jessica? Oops, I forgot," Tiffany dramatically added. "Your parents never live long enough to tell you anything and –“

“My parents are not traitors!” Jessica screamed.

“Your parents left my father when he was in most need of help!” Tiffany screamed back –both Daughters were defending their parents.

The Witch's composure was gone, and she slammed her clenched fist angrily onto the table. Her pleasant mask was forgotten, and what was there was not even the Witch –she was just Miyoung. And Miyoung wanted nothing more than justice.

Only that.

(in a sickest way possible)

Siwon placed his hand on Tiffany’s shoulders, and the girl allowed herself to lean on Siwon’s chest. Siwon transferred his endless support to his lover wordlessly. Tiffany had never wanted to depend on the man, but for that moment, she allowed her mind to momentarily rest as she fluttered her eyes close.

But no one dared to make a move.

“Congratulations, Jessica,” Tiffany finally spoke again; her back was still rested on Siwon’s chest. The announcement was made reluctantly, as if it was a venom she was spitting out. “You are the winner of Der Märchenclub.”

Alice, extend your hand out of the rabbit’s hole. The Red Queen has just released you.

Still, none of them dared to make a move.

Then again, it was probably no longer entirely about revenge. The idea of vengeance was the core of her actions, but Yoona had probably been right. Tiffany just loved seeing them suffer; she loved seeing them break into shards, beyond repair. One was not enough, two was not enough. Her father was irreplaceable –the only thing which mattered to her. Even their deaths would never be enough.

Can we just end the fairy tale here?

The Witch opened her eyes again.

(Of course not, silly. Losers still had to pay)

So the Witch came with her next mandate.

“It’s time to break the Nutcracker, Oppa,” Tiffany signaled.

And before any of them could react, Siwon took out a gun from his suit and fired a direct shot to the unprepared Eunhyuk.

Dear the Nutcracker,

You are hereby invited to the Sugar Plum’s party.

With jellybeans, lollipops, and chocolate bars.

Defeat the King of Mice, and a Prince we will turn you into.

Meeting commences at 9 PM every Wednesday night at the Bluebeard Chamber in Seoul Opera Building.

Sincerely,

 Der Märchenclub

The bullet pierced the Nutcracker’s flesh. The soldier fell, but the monarch prevailed.

The room was immediately deafened with screams. Yoona clutched her head–refusing to believe someone was actually shot before her eyes. Jessica fell to the floor –her body shook greatly  in tremors. She tried to crawl to Eunhyuk –because, God, no more death please! Tiffany laughed joyfully as she patted Siwon’s shoulders in pride (Good dog, you make your master proud).

But in the midst of catastrophe, Kim Kibum stood firm. This was it. He had waited too long, had bled his heart too much, had worn the mask too tight. It happened in the count of seconds. The moment blood spluttered out of Eunhyuk’s wound and the poor boy fell to the floor, Kibum raised his hand and shouted.

(Wookie, I promise you won't die in vain)

“Now!”

Everything occurred so fast, that Jessica could barely register a thing.

The doors of the Choi dining room were slammed open, and a group of men in battle uniforms rushed in.

Wait, what?

Jessica widened her eyes as she watched the scene: the intruders –a special force – engaged themselves in battles against the Choi bodyguards. The maids screamed and they used the opportunity to escape; but their frantic movements only caused more commotion in the grand dining hall of the Choi Villa. Yelling and shouting were heard here and there, and everything was so chaotic that Jessica did not even know whether it was a good thing or not.

It was loud; it was insane; it was too sudden.

It was a battlefield.

But that man still stood firm; fire was evident on his usual nonchalant eyes. He was never a Messiah, never a hero. He was simply a Leviathan –one who stood on top of sacrifices. Merciless and demented. He lit the way with bloodied torch.

In a split of second, Jessica met Kibum's eyes.

The latter smirked proudly.

After all, it was only in anarchy could a human be free.

There was a nano-second moment where she felt her soul was vacuumed into the complexity of Kibum's eyes. But before anything else, Jessica had to drag herself back to the reality Kibum presented.

Gunshots were exchanged, and despite knowing that the special force had come to rescue them, it was the same disaster to her. She was trapped in the theater of war. A body of a dead police fell next to her–his eyes were wide open and Jessica let out a scream again out of reflex.

Havoc, just havoc.

A Choi bodyguard was trying to use Jessica as a shield, and she tried to struggle free. Jessica feared the police’s bullet more than anything. She clutched her head and tried to bend low, but the police’s gun was aimed at the bodyguard who was using her as the shield.

“N-no –“

The police could not fire, but that only gave the Choi bodyguard more lenience to use her as a hostage. Jessica screamed as the bodyguard was strengthening his grip around her body, and she could not protest –not when the brute used his strength to grip her neck and –

And Jessica felt the grip around her neck loosened.

“You’re okay?!” a man voice screamed back at her, and Jessica looked up only to see that Kibum had knocked the bodyguard down from behind.

She did not have time to respond to Kibum’s concern, because not a split of second after, Kibum grabbed her wrist and forced her to squat down. More bodies fell –both from the police and the bodyguards’ side. It was a nearly even match. The special force Kibum had called was very capable, but the Choi bodyguards were no novice either.

In the midst of mayhem, Jessica could only confide herself in Kibum.

“We got to get out of this place,” Kibum murmured breathlessly as he forced her to come along.

From the corner of Jessica’s eyes, she saw that two men dressed in the special force uniforms were trying to evacuate the injured Eunhyuk. One of them was firing more shots to the attacking bodyguards who were intent not to let Eunhyuk get sufficient treatment. The other police force quickly carried Eunhyuk’s body on his back as he left his comrade to cover his exit pathway.

The door Eunhyuk had disappeared into was not far –but with battles occurring in the pathway, it would simply be a bloody journey to get through it. Kibum quickly tried to find another exit, and he spotted a closer door. One of the maids was using it as an escape path. Taking the chances, Kibum pulled Jessica’s arm and led her towards the closer and safer door.

But Jessica’s eyes caught something else.

Just right before Kibum pulled her through the door, she saw it; she saw Tiffany shot Yoona’s feet. The next act was conducted in a perfect coordination as Siwon swept Yoona off her feet and the three of them escaped through another door.

Jessica’s eyes widened. “No! Yoona!” she howled.

But Kibum knew that staying inside the warzone-turned dining room or choosing to go after Tiffany at that moment would be equivalent to a suicide. With a strength that a woman like Jessica could never match, Kibum forcefully dragged Jessica out –trying to shut her screaming mouth in the process. But it was not a trivial task. The situation outside the dining hall was not free of any battle –some of the bodyguards and police force had equally escaped the cramped dining room and continued their battles in the corridor and lounges of the Choi Villa.

Kibum’s vision was blurred, and he tried to set everything right –he really tried. But the panicked Jessica’s struggle and the urgency of the battles before his eyes made everything twice fold harder. Letting Jessica go meant he could save his life, but that would mean he had to break another promise with Heechul. Kibum focused his attention to the still struggling Jessica –and so focused was he, that he did not realize a metal gun was directed to the back of his head.

The safety was unlocked.

Kibum eventually let his grip around Jessica's body go; the girl no longer struggled; and he could only gulp as he instinctively tried to pivot around.

He gave a reflexive shuddering when the gun was fired; when he smelt the strong scent of gunpowder; when he realized the unholy (sinful, baby) presence that made the hair of his nape stood.

“Rule number one, never turn your back in a battlefield.”

The Nightingale grinned as she pulled her blade from the skull of the bodyguard who tried to shoot Kibum seconds earlier. The docile-looking girl gave Kibum a seemingly harmless smile as she let the dead body of the bodyguard slowly fell to the floor. The Nightingale tilted her head and inquired, “We haven’t officially met before, but you’re the famous Kibum Oppa, I presume?”

It was also the first time Kibum had a face-to-face encounter with the Nightingale. The prodigy boy did his research already and he had been the first person to bring peoples' attention to the existence of a mentally-ill Taeyeon. His eyes were fixated on the petite girl –studying her as much as she was studying him. Kibum faintly noticed the dead bodies lining behind Taeyeon and only then that he realized how awfully silent the corridor outside the Choi dining hall had been. Even his attention to the struggling Jessica had completely vanished.

Not that Jessica still had the will to escape anyway. After all, her mind was equally as mind blown with Taeyeon’s presence there. When did she last see her again?

“You,” Jessica let her words hang in the air.

Taeyeon grinned and with a blood-stained hand, she waved at Jessica. There was a mixture of relief and fear upon seeing the girl. On one hand, Jessica was glad that Taeyeon did not seem to pursue Neverland, but on the other hand, her core essence as a merciless killer would always remain and –

Only when the annoyed voice came and the hesitant footsteps approached them from one of the hidden pillars on the Choi corridor, that Jessica felt a real ray of hope sneaked in.

“You… don’t have to kill them,” weakly argued Heechul as he approached Taeyeon –having to take a longer step once or twice to evade the lying dead bodies on the corridor.

Taeyeon had finished everyone in her sight at the corridor up–including the special force Kibum called. Heechul's conscience was ticked, but he decided not to pursue the issue further. He perfectly realized by then how Taeyeon could never see the difference between killing the good and the bad. His own subconscious mind would probably argue how one differ the good from the bad, but again, he pushed the issue to the back of his mind.

Taeyeon herself only shrugged and muttered something that sounded like “they were in the way” softly to herself. Heechul pretended not to hear it; and he tried to further ignore how the Nightingale’s attention was directed to the loud ruckus of the still ensuing battle within the Choi dining room.

“Hyung,” Kibum’s voice brought Heechul back to another reality. The younger boy exhaled a clearly relieved breath. “You’re alive,” he softly declared as he laid a firm hand on his older cousin's shoulders.

Heechul slowly smiled and he tried to hide his embarrassment by boasting something about how great and undefeated he was as Kim Heechul. From the corner of Heechul’s eyes, he could see that Jessica was making a face to mock him, but that was not before he caught her wiping a single tear from her eyes.

But the short reunion had to end there. The gravity of the situation soon kicked in. Heechul realized he had not seen the smiling face he had been missing the most.

“Where’s Yoona?”

“That bastard,” Tiffany growled under her breath. She knew she loved risk and played on the edge of the knife. But her choice to gamble on Kibum, apparently, turned out to be the most reckless decision she had ever made. At the back of Tiffany’s mind, she nearly could not believe how Kibum could arrange the sudden attack from the special force. After all, she had kept her eyes on him –and she had made sure Kibum did not make any suspicious movement. But then again, the banquet that night and the arm-reach victory probably had clouded her better judgment. Tiffany knew that she had been too engrossed in Yoona and truth be told, Kibum had millions of opportunities that night to call and coordinate the attack.

Tiffany gritted her teeth in irritation. She knew she had to learn being a realistic. No plan was perfect. As meticulous as she was in planning the massacre that night, she realized there would always be the x-factor that she simply could not predict.

But on the other hand, the same principle would be applicable to Kibum’s side.

Tiffany’s chess pawns might have been falling, but she knew she could still make the checkmate.

“I might have lost my biggest present, but luckily, I still have my goody bag with me, eh?” Tiffany remarked as she pushed the mouth of the metal gun closer to Yoona’s temple.

Moments earlier, when the police squad rushed in, Tiffany used the chaos to escape. She had shot Yoona’s calf –rendering the poor girl defenseless. Siwon had subsequently forced the injured girl to stand up. And ignoring the pain Yoona must have felt on her legs, the man had mercilessly dragged her away towards one of the doors in the dining hall.

A couple of police force had been trailing them. But while the police force would undoubtedly be bound by the protocol not to recklessly shoot someone carrying a hostage, Tiffany was never bound by such rule. One, two, three –she finished all of the special squads who decided to follow them –a bullet in each of their skull, and she stole their times mercilessly again.

Tiffany, Siwon, along with the struggling Yoona (dragged by Siwon), climbed down the wooden stairs heading to the first floor. The journey was heart-pumping to Tiffany and Siwon, and agonizing to the injured Yoona. Despite the obvious ache, the mad Gretel still managed to let out a humorless chuckle.

“Told you, told you,” Yoona maniacally chanted. “You’ll face your doom, Hwang Tiffany. I just didn’t expect it would come this –“ her mockery was cut miday when Siwon's palm landed on her cheek.

“You’re really in no position to talk, Im Yoona,” remarked Tiffany icily as she led the march lower to the first floor. “I don’t know about Eunhyuk Oppa, but you surely would be the first one to die in my hand