"Ugh..." Celine coughed, her neck hurting from the impact. Her father's hand was squeezing her neck, cutting off her air supply, "I can't...breathe..."
He let go, and she slid down the wall, coughing, "I cannot trust you out there like this. The Duke's daughter, acting like a mad woman, is the last thing the Rocheforts need."
"I'm not hallucinating. How could I break the chains?!" Celine tried to reason with him, "How do random rocks appear here?!"
"Curse users had a tendency to summon inanimate objects when they lost their minds, did you forget that fact? Or are you too far gone to remember?"
"Father─"
"The curse is destroying you, Celine. You will stay in the monastery until you learn to control it. If the Crown Prince sees you like this, what do you think he will do? Do you think he will marry a crazy woman?"
"That frog has already been here! You keep me locked up and he still finds his way in!" she raised her voice, the chain on her ankle rattling. "And I killed him, multiple times! It's like they come to me on purpose, to torture me!"
Standing above her with a sigh, her father adjusted his clothes, "I have to clear up the mess you created with your latest stunt. Stay here until I get back. Do not use the curse. Am I clear?"
Celine did not answer, her eyes on the floor. Her father's footsteps faded away, and she was left alone again.
The rock she used to crush Lucian's head, the one her father just took away, reapered in the corner of the room to its previous place, as if it was taunting her.
"No...no...nononono," she tossed around, her breath getting shorter and shorter, her vision blurring, "I can't stay here...I can't...I can't..."
The footsteps returned, and she stilled, her head turning towards the door. It must have been her father. He wouldn't just leave her alone, but how─
Lucian stepped into the cell, unscathed, as if she had never touched him. The scent reached her nect: that same clean cologne, the same quiet way of breathing.
Celine began to laugh, the sound hysterical, "You never learn, do you? How many times do I have to kill you before you stop coming back?"
"I don't know, how many times will it take for you to fall for me?" he smiled, walking to her side, "I have to admit, it makes me want to try harder. I'm falling more and more in love with you, you know? Separating you from the rest of the world, and keeping you to myself. I think I have a chance now."
"Don't touch me," she threatened.
He did it anyway, caressing her cheek, and she used the curse to paralyze him.
She swung her chains around his neck, and pulled it tight, suffocating him, watching him struggle to breathe.
His elbow connected with her stomach, making her grunt, but she refused to let go. She used her leg to pin him down, and choked him until he stopped moving, his body turning into smoke once again.
Celine panted. These were the worst, and she already knew it would end up with him stabbing, strangling, breaking, or torturing her until his own mind broke, and dissipated into nothingness.
Sure enough, the phantom pain began to manifest over her body. She clutched her stomach, hit the back of her head against the wall, her body curling into a ball as she tried to trace the black smoke's path to those doppelgangers, but they never left any trail behind.
'That Duremont rat... something about him is off.' Her mind kept going back to him, 'Familiar...he feels too familiar...but how?'
Duremonts' doppelganger didn't visit her like Lucian's, but the way he tried to gain her favor made her skin crawl, acting like he knew her, his body language screaming to be let into her personal space. Exactly like Lucian's clones.
Her mind fought to keep itself sane, analyzing every detail, trying to make sense of the situation.
'Why is this happening?' she kept telling herself, and dug her nails into her skin to feel something, anything but the pain that came from nowhere.