Xievian quietly watched the sisters' interaction.
"Ruby! You're the next ghost!" Sally giggled. Before Ruby could even reply, Sally had already sprinted off, finding a place to hide.
Ruby glanced at Sally's departing back and sighed, "What's so great about this game? With only two people playing, there's only so much creativity one can have."
Ruby didn't bother to close her eyes or turn her back. She simply sat down on the grass and started counting.
"1, 2, 3... 5... 7... 10! Ready or not, here I come!"
Then, Xievian saw the entire scene shatter. This time, Xievian found himself in a different location.
He was standing in a hallway. To his left were the stairs, and to his right was a wall filled with portraits and a small table, with a telephone on top.
He saw a girl coming out of a room and walking down the hallway. As she passed the small table, a hand suddenly reached out and grabbed her ankle.
"Ahhhhhhhh!" the girl screamed.
Sally emerged from behind the table. The tablecloth had been enough to conceal her earlier. She giggled when she saw the girl scream.
"Sally! Stop doing that!" the girl snapped. Clearly, she wasn't happy. She was pissed.
Sally's smile vanished when she saw Lily's reaction. She huffed, "You're such a scaredy-cat, Lily. I wonder how you've got the nerve to destroy my dress, considering how thin your nerves are."
Xievian looked at the girl and saw the resemblance to the corpse he had seen earlier. So the girl was Lily.
After hearing what Sally said, Lily looked guilty but denied it. "What dress are you talking about? Stop blaming people for your mistakes. You probably ruined it yourself!"
Sally felt wronged. "Lily, just admit you ruined my dress. I just want you to tell me the truth. I'm not even asking why, I just want you to acknowledge your fault!"
Before Lily could say anything, Sally pulled a hair clip from her sleeve, held it up to Lily's face, and asked, "This is yours, right? Aunt Lucy gave this to you. You never let it leave your body. I saw this in my room. You ruined the dress Big Sister gave me!"
Lily snatched the clip. "No! You're a liar and an ungrateful brat! You can't even address our adoptive mother properly. You probably stole my clip, right? You're such a hypocrite!"
Sally didn't back down. "I'm not blind, sister. I just saw you come out of my room. You were probably looking for it, right?" Sally quickly pulled back the clip. "You keep destroying my things! The drawing Ruby gave me? I saw you throwing it into the fountain earlier! The ragdoll Sister Annie made? I heard from Nanny Lis that you gave it to Whitey as a chew toy!"
Lily tried to wrestle the clip from Sally's hand, but Sally held it in a death grip. Sally pointed at Lily. "If you feel miserable seeing me, I feel miserable seeing you, too. I tried to get close to you. I gave you attention, love, and support, and yet you think I took that away from you! Sister, I TRIED! Every time we all get together, I feel like I'm walking on thin ice. Every second, every minute, I've tried to please you!"
Lily looked a bit stunned by what Sally said. Sally panted but continued, "I honestly don't know why you all liked Aunt Lucy and Uncle Marco. I don't like them, I don't like this house, I don't like this life. I never liked them, and I will never be their child! I am not their child!" Sally threw the clip to the ground.
Lily screamed, "Wait! Sally, don't!"
Looking at the purple flower clip on the ground, Sally smiled. "Sister, I can't let you always get away with destroying my things. Consider this clip a payment." Then she stomped on it hard.
"STOP IT, SALLY!" Lily rushed toward her in a panic and pushed her away.
Sally stumbled from the push. She tried to stabilize herself with her other foot, only to feel nothing beneath it. Sally panicked. She looked at Lily, who was bent down, trying to reach out to her, but her hand touched nothing. She could feel herself falling.
It was the stairs.
"Lily!"
Then, there was a loud boom.
Lily picked up the purple flower clip, then looked up. Sally was nowhere to be seen.
She stood up, her face filled with panic, and looked down at the stairs.
Down there was Sally.
Her body was in an awkward position, her neck twisted at an impossible angle. Her eyes were filled with panic and fear, and her mouth was slightly open, just like when she had called Lily's name.
Lily felt her head spin, and her body went numb.
"Sally... Sally! Stop it! Don't scare me!" She quickly rushed down. She wanted to touch Sally but paused.
She couldn't touch Sally. It would leave evidence. Besides, looking at Sally's deathly open eyes and neck, it was basically impossible for her to survive.
Xievian could hear her thoughts for some reason within this realm.
It suddenly grew calm. Lily stopped and looked at Sally's lifeless body. She gripped the purple flower hairpin in her hands and calmly walked back upstairs.
She continued down the hallway and went into her room. Xievian followed.
Lily seemed to suddenly feel nothing at all. She put the clip into a jewelry box, then slumped onto her bed and covered herself with the blanket.
Xievian could hear her murmuring, "Nothing happened, nothing happened, nothing happened, nothing happened, nothing happened, nothing happened."
It was as if she were hypnotizing herself.
After a while, Xievian could hear her sobbing.
Xievian could feel her fear, pain, terror, and despair.
He could hear how much she hoped all of this was just a prank, the usual silly, annoying prank Sally always did to make Lily happy.
Unfortunately, the cold rationality within Lily knew Sally was gone. She was dead and would never come back.