Nightmare Game
Copyright© 2025 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 20
Grace looked at her with clear reluctance, yet Daisy held firm, blocking the doorway and gesturing for her to hurry and toss the bags into the furnace.
They stood in tense silence, staring each other down, time stretching until impatience crept into Daisy’s expression.
Only then did Grace grudgingly reach for a bag, dragging it toward the incinerator.
Each bag stood about a meter tall but wasn’t too heavy, manageable for a girl on her own.
Still, with so many, handling ten or twenty alone would wear anyone out.
Why make me do it all when two could finish faster?
Resentment built in Grace. She was honest, not great at pushing back under pressure, but that didn’t make her dumb.
She knew Daisy’s kindness was surface-level; if danger hit, she’d bolt and leave Grace behind without a blink.
But knowing it didn’t change Grace’s ingrained softness. Raised in a strict home with controlling parents, she’d grown up voiceless, conditioned to obey like a puppet.
She sensed their love was real, just as their grip on her life was.
Over twenty years of that had taught her to hand her fate to others, without learning how to say no.
It was the same in the outside world and here in the Castle, fueling her growing frustration.
Why did some people love controlling others’ lives?
Why act superior while pretending it’s for your own good?
Right, they just spout survival of the fittest, the strong eat the weak, adapt or die.
To them, anyone weaker is trash, disposable at their whim.
But to Grace, these so-called strong ones were leeches sucking her dry; they were the real trash.
She hefted a black bag and hurled it into the furnace, flames engulfing it instantly, sending heat rolling over her.
Staring into the blaze, a strange thrill stirred in her, the fire before her merging with the one inside, no longer just the furnace’s flames but her own buried rage burning through.
She grabbed another bag and tossed it in, the fire surging higher, the room growing hotter.
Wordlessly, she lifted bag after bag, flinging them into the inferno.
To Daisy, the whole thing looked deeply unsettling.
After the first bag, Grace seemed transformed, head bowed so her face stayed hidden, standing stock-still by the furnace.
“Grace, hurry up.” Daisy figured she was still resisting and called from the doorway. “Finish burning it so we can go; who knows what might happen if we linger.”
Grace acted as if she hadn’t heard, remaining frozen in place.
“What’s with you, so ungrateful?” Daisy’s impatience sharpened her voice. “Who do you think’s been looking after you? Since we got to this Castle, without me, those sharks would’ve picked you clean.”
“Fine, no threats around now, so you grow a spine and slack off? What an ungrateful wretch!”
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