To Be A Villainess

Chapter Two: In a Cottage in the Woods

    "From now on, your name shall be Victoria."

    "You're not allowed to do anything without my permission."

    "Stop that. You know what to do, don't you? How ungrateful."

    "I will never hate anyone as much as I hate you."

    "Oh? A mere commoner taking the place of a noble? Don't make me laugh."

    "I've never loved you. Your only role was to ensure Kristina's place as the empress."

    "I was waiting for the day that you finally die by my hands."

    "Mom? MOM!"

    Sophie jolted awake and put her hands on her ears to silence the sounds she was hearing. There were voices. There were so many voices and she kept feeling pain and anguish and betrayal and loss. The feelings were all so strong and all were overlapping each other and she doesn't understand because she doesn't have a reason to feel the way she does. After a few moments of hyperventilating, she tries to calm herself down enough to observe her surroundings. 

    However, her eyes couldn’t focus on anything and dark spots keep appearing in the corners of her vision. As she tries to adjust her focus on her surroundings, she tries to recall how she got there. Everything was a mess inside her head. Echoes of the voices she heard still remained, although they felt faded and very far away. There was an aching in her chest that she could not explain, so she clutched at her chest, closed her eyes, and tried to remember.

~.~.~.~.~

    Sophie had been walking for hours now. Her throat was once again parched, and her knees wobbled with every step. Her hands had stopped bleeding, but she felt they might get an infection and get worse if not treated soon. She no longer knows where she was, not that she knew  this in the first place, and all she knew that at least walking in one direction would not result in her accidentally going back to the place where she escaped from. 

    With the whispering of the winds as the breeze passes through the forest leaves as her only companion, her thoughts become loud and clear to her. She began to ask herself, "How did I get here? How do I go back? What even is happening? Am I being hunted for everywhere? Will the place I find next turn me over or kill me themselves?"

    Such thoughts circled in Sophie's brain. She knows asking questions she does not know the answer to will not help her situation, but she can't help it. She can no longer think straight. In addition to her thirst, hunger is also starting to creep on her. The heat of the sun is now more forgiving than earlier, but that also means that it's almost nightfall. Sophie, although not encountering any animals so far, does not know the dangers of this forest. 

    Hope appears in the form of a tiny clearing. After walking for hours in the dense woods of the forest, Sophie saw another stream, although smaller than what she had encountered earlier. She readily rushed towards it and quenched her thirst. Panting like a dog, she washed her face and the blood and grime off of her hands. As she was trying to rub the dirt off of her feet, she looked beyond the stream and saw a small cottage. Her curiosity peaked, and she took the risk despite the possible danger to go near the cottage. It was shaped like a hut, and it was purely made out of wood. The windows were open but the door was closed, so Sophie stepped closer and knocked.

    "Hello?" Sophie knocked twice. "Is anyone there?" She knocked again.

    After a few more knocks, she waited for someone to come open the door. When no one came, she was tempted to try opening the door herself, but she didn't want to risk getting rejected because of her rudeness so she settled for rounding the house and peeking through the windows.

    The inside of the house was a bit dark and the windows were slightly over her head, so Sophie could barely see anything. After a few minutes of trying to look for the owner of the hut, she gave up and went to the front door. She leaned on it and closed her eyes, trying to get a bit of rest in case she would need to move again. 

    Sophie only planned to rest for a while, but because of the fatigue she felt from going through the events of the day, the world around her went dark and she finally passed out.

~.~.~.~.~

     When Sophie finished gathering her thoughts, she slowly removed the blanket still covering her legs and stood up. Her legs still ached, but at least her knees weren't shaky anymore. Breathing out a soft sigh, she raised her arms carefully to stretch. While doing so, she observed the room. All the furniture in the room was low and had quilts and blankets draped over them. Beaded ornaments hung randomly in various places, and a beaded curtain hung over a doorway that had no door. Everything, from the ceiling to the floor, was made out of wood. Overall Sophie felt that the place was very home-y and reminded her of her peaceful times in her grandmother's residence when she was young.

    Sophie also noticed that her clothes were changed and her body was clean. She was now wearing a clean, flowy white dress. The torn and dirty clothes she had on before was nowhere to be found. On the floor beside the low bed she was sleeping in, she saw the knife she used to cut her ropes. She didn't get a chance to observe it before, but looking at the knife now, it looks oddly similar to the pocket knife the stranger who bumped into her had dropped. Feeling her dress for pockets, she was relieved as she found one on her left side so she picked up the knife and kept it there just in case.

    Now, Sophie had a lot of questions, and she figured whoever can answer them is most likely within the house she's in. As she started walking towards the door, her reflection in a mirror got caught in her peripheral view and she turned to look at herself. She was shocked at what - or who - she saw.

    While the person she was seeing in the mirror still looked like her, Sophie Valdez, it also felt like she was looking at a different person. Her black, curly hair was longer and looked more elegant. Her face was younger and her body a bit slimmer. Her skin was smoother and clearer, and she also felt like she was taller. Other than that, her face still looked almost the same, except her once emerald green eyes were no longer green.

    They were red.

    Fascinated and confused by her appearance, she doesn't notice a lady entering the room.

    "I see you're finally awake," a voice beside Sophie said, amused.

    Sophie jolted and looked at the person who spoke. It was a woman, and she was way taller than Sophie. She had platinum blonde hair with streaks of gray tied into a loose bun. Her face looked youthful and aged at the same time. And she was pretty. Sophie thought that this lady looked incredibly beautiful with her light chocolate skin and sparkling pale blue eyes and soft kind smile.

    "Not very talkative are we?" the lady said with a light chuckle. "Come on, let's get some food into you and you can tell me your story."

    Sophie nodded absentmindedly and followed the pretty lady out of the room. 

    When she went out the doorway, Sophie was met with the sight of what seemed to be the living room. Next to it is the kitchen, and both were separated by a tall island counter. She noticed that all the furniture were still low, about the height of beanbags, aside from the regular sized dining table and its two chairs. On that table, there were already two bowls and a pot with steam rising out of it.

    The lady gestured to one of the chairs as she sat down on the other. "Sit. I made chicken soup. I figured your stomach won't be able to handle solid food at the moment seeing how badly you were beaten up."

    Sophie did feel an ache over her body, and looking at the mirror earlier she saw many faded cuts and bruises and burns from the rope, but she didn't think much of it as they didn't hurt all that much.

    "If you're wondering why they don't hurt, I put an ointment on your body to help it heal. Now sit and eat. You have a lot of explaining to do."

    Sophie silently took the seat in front of the lady and served herself some soup. She kept glancing at the other person, peeking at her from below her lashes as she blew on her bowl. The lady seems unbothered by this, and Sophie figured that this lady had no intentions to harm her or else she already would have. 

    Feeling her body relax a bit, Sophie took a sip of the soup in front of her. Her eyes widen in shock and she almost drops her spoon. She physically has to hold back a moan. The soup was delicious! With all tact going out the window, she devours the soup in front of her, not caring if the heat of it stings her tongue. She doesn't know if she's just incredibly starving, but the soup she just had was probably the best thing she's ever tasted in her entire life. 

    The lady in front of her looks amused, and as Sophie lifts the bowl to sip the remaining soup from it, she remembers that she doesn't even know the lady's name. She puts the bowl down and licks her lips, peering at the lady curiously.

    "Um, thank you . . . For- for saving me and feeding me," Sophie utters sheepishly. "May I ask for your name?"

    The lady in front of her hums. "There's no need to thank me, really. You just owe me an explanation."

    "For what?"

    "Well, how about the fact that you were able to find this place?"

    Sophie's brows furrow. "Was I not supposed to?"

    The lady swallows her food. "Only one person is allowed to find this place. Although you look like her, I knew from the moment you woke up that you were a different person. Besides, my magic isn't so weak that it would allow a mere look-alike to enter my territory without my immediate knowledge."

    "Magic?" Sophie shakes her head, incredulous. "I'm - I'm sorry but what's going on? Am I not the one who's owed an explanation here? I mean, one moment I was in my apartment and then the next I was being burnt on a stake! What the hell is happening here?"

    Sophie's demand was met with silence. The lady in front of her just quietly finished her soup and cleaned her mouth with a napkin. She then picked up with their bowls and put it on one hand while grabbing the pot with the other and started to clean up. Sophie . . . Sophie honestly does not know how to react. 

    When the lady finishes cleaning up, she sits back down in front of Sophie and puts her clasped hands on the table separating them. 

    "Tell me what happened," the lady said.

    Sophie was about to speak up and demand that she needed answers more but the lady put one hand up to silence her. She clasped her hands back together and fixed Sophie with a look.

    "Tell me what happened," the lady repeated, "and I'll answer all the questions you have."

    Sophie's lips pursed at the demand, but the cold storm she saw in the lady's eyes made her relent. So, she told her story from the moment she got off work to how she entered the forest and found her way to the cottage. 

    "Come to think of it, I did get a message asking me if I wanted to go on an adventure, whatever that means."

    The lady was silent and seemed to be contemplating something. After a few moments where they just let Sophie's words hang in the air, the lady finally looked Sophie right in the eye.

    "Sophie Valdez, you said your name was?"

    Sophie nodded.

    "Well, Sophie, I'm not aware of this world you speak of, but you're currently in the kingdom of Gurdeal . . . And I think you're currently inhabiting the body of a dead person."