The Villain Alpha's Cursed Mate-Chapter 273 - 273: Staying Awake
"Is it just me, or do you think this place is strange?" Leonardo whispered to Cora once the innkeeper disappeared down the hall.
There had been something unsettling about the man from the moment they stepped inside. When Leonardo mentioned they needed a room, the innkeeper had been silent for too long. It felt as though he wasn't physically present with them at that moment, only for him to suddenly respond with a strained smile that didn't exactly reach his eyes.
His skin had an unhealthy pallor, almost gray under the dim candlelight, and his cheeks were sunken as though he hadn't eaten properly in weeks, maybe even months.
The hollowness in his eyes reminded Leonardo of a man who hadn't truly slept in years. It was all so disturbingly strange.
The environment itself didn't help. The corridors were narrow and smelled faintly of damp wood and mildew, and the air carried a kind of heavy silence that made one instinctively lower their voice.
For an inn, it didn't feel like there was anyone staying here at all except for the innkeeper. He was beginning to regret stopping here at all, but if only there were more other suitable options. He wouldn't last carrying Cora all night either.
The innkeeper led them to a small room at the end of the hall and pushed the creaking door open. He then said, "We don't always get visitors around these parts often."
"Oh?"
Leonardo raised a brow, and the man added in a low voice. "You shouldn't have come here. Do yourselves a favor and leave by morning… else you'll be trapped here. Just like everyone else."
"Trapped?"
Cora blinked at the man, confusion flickering across her face. Before either of them could ask what he meant, the man's expression shifted to the same blank look before he turned and shuffled away down the corridor, his footsteps fading into stillness.
Leonardo entered the room and gently helped Cora to the bed before he moved to close the door. The wind howled outside, rattling the window shutters, and for a moment, neither of them spoke.
Cora collected her satchel from Leonardo and pulled out her chronicle, the worn leather creaking as she opened it. She was glad she still found the pen she had stolen from the last inn they had been to inside her satchel, and she began to write.
"You should get some sleep," Leonardo said, sinking into a chair nearby. "I'll stay awake and keep watch. I have a feeling we shouldn't fall asleep at the same time."
Cora looked up slightly, knitting her eyebrows. "Is it because of what the innkeeper said?"
He exhaled through his nose, shaking his head. "Not just the innkeeper. This whole village feels… wrong. Since we got here, we haven't seen a single soul apart from that healer, and the innkeeper. Like there are signs of life, but I don't… feel it."
"Hmm.." Cora tapped the pen against her chin, thoughtful. "I mean the fact we haven't seen anyone relates well with what Mira said about the woods. The hamlet is surrounded by forest, so it makes sense no one would be out at this hour. The innkeeper, however…"
Cora didn't finish her sentence.
"Whatever he meant by that, it didn't sound like a metaphor," Leonardo muttered slowly. "That's why, just in case, I'll stay awake and keep an eye out for anything suspicious. If he wants us to leave then whatever is happening here must be connected to the witches we're looking for. And for that reason… I don't think we should eat or drink anything from this place until we're gone for good."
He paused, his gaze meeting her attentive ones. "Which means–" he tilted his head toward her satchel, raising his brows meaningfully.
Cora blinked. "What?"
"Check the bag."
She sighed, thinking he was being overly cautious, but decided to humor him anyway. When she opened the satchel and peered inside, her eyes widened. Inside her satchel were small bundles wrapped in cloth– like snacks, dried fruits and flatbread.
There was also a tightly sealed water flask she didn't remember packing.
Her ankle still hadn't healed completely—not because the injury was serious, but because she'd been pushing herself too hard. Even a werewolf's body needed proper rest to recover, and exhaustion had slowed her natural healing. With the treatment and a bit of rest, her ankle should be fine by tomorrow.
"How did you– when did you even…?"
"When we bought those lanterns," he replied. "I bought them just in case you got hungry along the way, but now we can use them to survive the night."
Cora let out a quiet breath. "You're unbelievable."
He shrugged.
********
During the night, Leonardo stayed awake. He found a worn mop leaning at the corner of the room and snapped off the head with a quick twist, leaving himself with a sturdy length of wood. He flexed it in his hand, testing its weight and balance.
He gave a few experimental swings through the air. It wasn't a sword, but it was better than nothing.
He glanced at Cora who was lying on the bed, her back turned to him. He could tell from the way her shoulders shifted that she wasn't asleep yet.
"Not sleepy?" He asked quietly, resting the makeshift weapon beside his chair.
Cora turned to face him, her hair falling over one shoulder. "How can I sleep in a place like this?" She replied softly and shook her head. "It wouldn't feel right to me anyways. If anything, you need this rest more than I do. So no."
She sat up on the bed. "We're in this together."
Leonardo hummed in response before shifting his gaze elsewhere. He didn't have the strength to force her into getting some sleep at the current moment.
He asked instead, "That book you always carry around with you, what do you write in it anyways?"
"You mean my chronicle?"
He nodded.
Cora glanced at the book beside her before holding it in her hands. "It's… everything. All our journeys, the people we've met, the places we've seen. The good parts, the bad ones too. I guess you could say it holds the story of us… of all of us. And everything we've been through together. I want to write it all."
Leonardo's expression softened somewhat. "A story?"
"Mm." She hugged the book lightly to her chest. "So we don't forget any of it. Even if one day, the world forgets us."
Leonardo hadn't really thought about what the future would be like… what any of it would look like once this nightmare finally came to an end.
If it even had an end.
Would any of them still be alive to see it? Would they be remembered, or simply fade away like all the others who have been swallowed by the curse?
And what if there was no end at all? What if the darkness kept spreading, consuming every last piece of the world they once knew and called home?
"When it all ends…" Cora's voice broke through his thoughts, soft but steady. "I'll grow a tree… like a really big tree."
He blinked, turning to her. "A tree?"
She nodded. "So people can say, 'Hey, Coraline grew this tree'. I'll sit under it during every season– when the flowers bloom, when the leaves fall, and when the snow buries its root. I'll grow old and wrinkled beneath its shade, and when the time comes, I'll die there… peacefully. I've always wanted that kind of ending. I was even jealous of how most people in the North got away with such peaceful deaths. Considering our situation, it might continue to be a wish of mine."
There was a thin silence that followed.
Leonardo opened his mouth to respond, but stopped when he heard something roll across the floor and tapped against his boot.
He frowned and glanced down.
It was a marble.
As he crouched to pick it up, another marble rolled out, stopping just beside the first. Leonardo's eyes slowly lifted toward the corner of the room. There, an old wardrobe stood, its door hanging slightly ajar, a sliver of darkness yawning behind it. He reached for his stick without thinking twice.
Chapter 273 - 273: Staying Awake
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