This ti, in order to lift the curse from Edward, Everly had truly gone to great lengths and spent a considerable sum of money.
She thought that Edward was still very young, with a bright future ahead of him. It would be a pity if he were permanently influenced by the monkey’s paw and forced to be bound to Jessica for the rest of his life. If she could help, then she would. However, preparing the ritual was extrely complicated, and it had to be carried out on the night of a full moon. Though Everly was kindhearted, she wasn’t saintly enough to take full responsibility for everything. So after stuffing the materials into Edward’s hands, she stopped paying attention to the tangled love-hate drama between the two of them.
After all, even soone completely ruled by love still has a brain. When reason and emotion clash, if he just thought about his forr clear-headed self—and rembered her warnings—even a fool should know which choice to make.
As for the money she had spent on the ritual materials and the curse-breaking thod, Everly planned to ask Edward to pay her back after he successfully lifted the curse.
In the end, Everly’s wait lasted until the end of the sester. An entire long term passed, and spring break was just around the corner, yet Edward was still inseparable from Jessica—so close they were like conjoined twins.
At school, while other couples broke up and got back together amid endless gossip, this campus pair alone never split. As ti went on, even their classmates began to believe they were true love. The teasing, mockery, and skepticism from the beginning gradually turned into admiration and approval.
“Honestly, when Edward cheated at the start, I thought they were disgusting. But after watching them for so long, I suddenly feel like… maybe they’re actually kind of good together.”
“Yeah. They must really love each other—especially Edward. He’s practically glued to Jessica every second… Though, isn’t Jessica Black? Why does her skin look pretty light to ?”
“Shh. Don’t talk about soone’s skin color in public. It’s rude.”
“…”
Everly had a feeling that sothing wasn’t right.
The curse-breaking materials she had given Edward weren’t hard to find—they might have cost a bit of money at most. Edward ca from a well-off family; he didn’t seem to be struggling financially. So after all this ti… why was he still with Jessica?
If the curse had been blocked by Jessica, it didn’t look like it. From Everly’s observation, it was Jessica who was being pursued by Edward, not the other way around. She never had deep feelings for him; her attachnt was mostly vanity, and the novelty had long since worn off. Plus, ever since they beca a couple, Edward clung to Jessica constantly, giving her no personal space. The relationship had grown too heavy, and Jessica had long felt suffocated.
After thinking it over and finding no answer, Everly decided to seize a chance during a joint class and directly ask Edward.
“Are you here to ask why I haven’t lifted the curse?” Seeing Everly approaching intentionally, Edward asked before she could speak.
Everly nodded.
Edward smiled. “Now that you ntion it, I never got the chance to thank you properly before. Finding that cross and the thod to break the curse must have taken quite a bit of effort on your part. But after thinking it through, I feel that life is pretty good as it is. Helena… I an, Jessica and I really love each other. We’re both very satisfied with each other and don’t want to change or end things. So, thank you, Everly, but I’m giving up on lifting the curse.”
“Do you really understand what you’re saying?” Everly wondered if Edward had been completely corrupted by the power of the monkey’s paw, losing all sense of reason. She briefly regretted not taking the extra effort back then to contact Edward’s family directly.
Could reason really be so powerless in the face of love?
“What about the cross I gave you? I think you’re not thinking clearly right now—you need a shake of your brain,” she asked sternly.
“That… I’ve already used it.” Faced with Everly’s doubt and confusion, Edward smiled as carefree as ever, as if he had no idea what worry even was. “When I made the decision—driven by all the love in my heart—to give up lifting the curse and stay with Jessica forever, I used that cross. I wanted to be sure whether my choice was truly influenced by what you called ‘supernatural forces,’ or if it genuinely ca from my own heart.”
“And then?”
Edward’s lashes curved as he smiled, his blue eyes sparkling like a sky full of stars, his gaze tender and sweet. “Then I realized that my clear-headed self, after careful thought, still wanted to maintain things as they are—with Jessica. So I gave up on breaking the curse.”
“You… do you even understand that you’re just using her as a substitute for Helena?”
“Of course I know,” he said, “but so what?” Edward’s smile slowly faded as he spoke, his eyes widening, his expression serious. For so reason, his handso face took on a trace of cruelty and coldness. “That person—Helena—was never soone I could touch. Being able to fill the emptiness inside with false happiness like this… I’m already satisfied. So I’ll stay with Jessica forever, just as she expects. And who made her stir with inhuman power? The consequences? Naturally, she has to bear them herself.”
“…”
Alright, so Edward wasn’t exactly a saint.
But… what he said made sense. The one who provoked it was Jessica. If Edward was treating her like this, then it was her own doing.
Hmm, fine. If the person involved doesn’t mind and even seems sowhat pleased, there’s no need to interfere… As for the money she spent on the materials, she might as well consider it Edward’s “commission” for tornting Jessica on her behalf.
Everly had originally thought that things had co to a close at this point. She never expected that, after spring break ended and everyone returned to school to continue their studies, a shocking piece of news would spread across the campus—Edward was dead.
He had gone out with his girlfriend, Jessica, near the end of spring break, and had accidentally fallen into a river and drowned.
The incident took place in a quiet park on the outskirts of Micano, a place rarely frequented by people. Apart from Jessica, there were no witnesses.
According to Jessica’s testimony, they had been taking a walk along the riverbank. Jessica was feeding the fish with breadcrumbs and accidentally dropped her beloved bracelet into the water. Seeing this, Edward went into the river to retrieve it for her. Unexpectedly, the water was deeper than he had anticipated, and the early spring cold made it even more dangerous. Edward accidentally drowned in the river.
Edward’s father and stepmother didn’t accept Jessica’s account. They insisted that their son was not a strong swimr and would never have done sothing so risky. They claid that Jessica, unable to endure Edward’s relentless pursuit day after day, had pushed him into the river.
But Edward and Jessica’s affectionate relationship at school was obvious to everyone. Furthermore, Jessica had cried inconsolably afterward, her grief plain for all to see. Because of this, the police ultimately closed the case as an accident.
“Jessica is really pitiful. She and Edward loved each other so much, and yet he went to heaven first…”
“Do you really think that? Haven’t you noticed how heavy Edward’s love was? No matter where she was or what she was doing, the mont he sent her a ssage, Jessica had to reply imdiately. If she didn’t, he would bombard her with calls. He would even wait outside classrooms and dorms to confront her. I’ve seen Jessica lose her temper at him several tis—she seed completely worn down by his constant attention, almost like he had pushed her to the brink of a nervous breakdown.”
“That’s just because she has a bad temper. Edward was truly a gentleman—he would still tolerate her whims even in situations like that… I hope Edward rests peacefully in heaven.”
“…”
Most of the students at school felt regret over Edward’s death and sympathized with Jessica’s situation. Only a small handful noticed sothing off about how the campus couple interacted and began to question the circumstances of Edward’s death.
Everly was one of those few.
She didn’t believe Edward would be so reckless as to risk his life in cold water just to retrieve a bracelet. He didn’t even love Jessica—just as Jessica didn’t really love Edward, treating him instead as an obsession, a trophy, or a dal to decorate herself. Their relationship was fake and fragile, unable to withstand even the slightest test.
Perhaps Jessica could no longer endure his constant pursuit and deliberately acted, or maybe a dispute broke out, and Jessica accidentally pushed Edward into the river. Either way, it was absolutely not the case that Edward went into the water of his own accord.
Unfortunately, Everly had no proof. re suspicion wasn’t enough to convict Jessica.
As she mourned a life lost and felt frustrated that the “culprit” went unpunished, an unexpected retribution appeared.
Edward’s funeral was held on the seventh day after his death—just the second day after spring break ended. Rumor had it that, due to a serious conflict between Jessica and Edward’s parents, Jessica did not attend her boyfriend’s funeral.
That very night, a terrifying figure appeared on campus.
It was a tall, burly young man, dressed in a black suit. His face was swollen, his steps unsteady, and he walked slowly across the campus, leaving deep wet footprints wherever he went.
Halfway through, a patrolling security guard spotted the figure. Thinking it was a student wandering around at night, he rushed forward to stop him—but was imdiately startled by the boy’s deathly pale, almost corpse-like face.
When the guard asked why the figure was roaming the school in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, the figure replied that he was looking for his girlfriend, Jessica.
“I… we promised… we’d be together… forever…” he slurred, his speech thick and uneven.
Because he was so close, the guard slled a faint stench as the figure spoke. Frowning, he was about to scold the student and send him back to the dorm—when the angle of his flashlight shifted, illuminating the figure’s face directly.
Seeing those familiar features, the guard finally sensed sothing was terribly wrong.
The person in front of him… looked exactly like the school’s popular football player. But wait… wasn’t he supposed to be…
“Ahhhhh!”
Realization ca too late. The guard let out a terrified scream as he understood who was standing before him.
Fortunately, Edward’s “corpse” did not attack the guard. He staggered past the patrolling staff, swaying with difficulty, and continued trudging across the campus at night, eventually reaching Jessica’s dormitory door.
No one knew how a “corpse” like Edward had bypassed the heavy security at the dorm entrances.
When a girl in the neighboring room, Gina, was awakened by the noise in the hallway and opened her door, she saw—under the dim hallway light—Edward, dressed entirely in black, standing stiffly in front of Jessica’s dorm room.
His face still retained the appearance he had in life, though the muscles were slightly slack, like lted wax sagging loosely, giving him an inexplicably aged appearance. At his feet, the dry floor was stained with a thick, black, foul-slling puddle.
“Jessica… Jessica… open the door…”
Edward whispered softly, almost sickly, leaning forward as his upper body swung like a pendulum. He repeatedly banged his forehead against the tightly shut door, producing an eerily rhythmic thud… thud… thud. Even when the skin on his forehead split and the bone beneath was exposed, he showed no intention of stopping.
The girl standing nearby was so terrified that she fainted on the spot.
When she regained consciousness and recounted everything she had seen, everyone assud she had hallucinated.
Because aside from a puddle of foul-slling liquid at Jessica’s door, there was nothing else left behind.
Jessica herself was nowhere to be found. Soone, unable to bear the stench of the puddle, cleaned it up with a mop. Strangely, even after that, anyone who passed by Jessica’s dorm room still slled a strange, putrid odor.
By the ti school ended, the sll had grown so intense it was unbearable. Angry students tracked down the dorm supervisor and had her unlock Jessica’s room.
Under the bed of the girl who lived alone, they found the source of the odor.
It was Edward’s decayed corpse.
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