DISCLAIMER: (DO NOT SKIP THIS MESSAGE)  This chapter has mature theme of killing or murder and mentions of rape. It was purely for the requirement of the story. I will suggest you to skip this chapter if any kind of mentions of rape offends or triggers your past experiences. No matter if you're a male or female, this can happen to anyone. Rape and molestation are very critical topics to mention or talk about (though we should talk more often about this issue that's been hurting us) and almost every one have been molested or has seen someone else go through either one of them. If you're sensitive to this topic and will skip this chapter. I won't mind. For me, more then number of reads, mental health of my readers matters.

If you have decided to skip this chapter, don't worry you do not have to dis-continue reading this book. I will write a short summary for you in the next chapter, so that you will have the continuity.

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The evening passed as Katherine desperately waited for the night to arrive. When everyone was asleep, Princess Katherine carefully sneaked out. Even though she wasn't around for almost five years, for studying in the United Kingdom. She did grow up in this very palace, and as an introverted princess, she would spend her time alone. Sometimes wandering inside the palace and that is exactly how she knows about all the secret ins and outs of the palace, some of which nobody knows about.

Secretly, making her way from her room to the library and then library to the back of the palace, she rode her horse towards the forest.

She was now in the woods, wearing a baggy over gown to cover herself. It was with the flashlight in her hand that she could see clear through the forest, even under the dark.

After riding for about two miles, she stopped and jumped down on the ground. She untied the shovel from the horse seat and marked an area as she began to dig the ground. 

She was preparing for the kill.

Few good hours passed until she finished digging up Lidia's grave. Her baggy over gown was covered in mud along with her glowing skin. Katherine removed her over  gown and folded it to put it into packing. She couldn't just throw it away anywhere, especially at the planned crime scene.

She did wipe out the wet mud before she rode back to the palace and sneaked her way in just like the way she made her way out.

She headed straight to the bath, cleaned herself, and put on a new fresh nightgown and went to sleep beside her charming husband Andrew.

As she laid beside him with her head resting on the pillow, Katherine looked at Andrew's beautiful face. He was in a deep sleep. No matter what her heart kept on forcing her to think about Andrew, she knew in her mind that this marriage was only causing her trouble and was a constraint in the path of her killings. She is going to have to be more careful and cunning now. 

She fell asleep with her thoughts.

The next morning, Princess Katherine woke up to an empty bed. Her duke or simply her prince wasn't there. She noticed that it was the first time in their almost two months of marriage that Andrew woke up before she did.

Usually, it would not have been a big deal for her but today was a different day. It only strengthened her doubts. Does he know? Know about her kills? Was it him writing about her killings? Does he know about her plan for Lidia?

All these questions were running in a circle inside her head. Every day she would wake up to doubt her husband a little more. Yet, she decided to shrug this thought away for a day and started preparing herself for the kill.

Again she went to the library and commanded Harvard to not let anyone inside the Library, no matter what; and he followed her orders. This time the guards were solid around the library for her.

Katherine sneaked out of the library and got her essentials on her way out of the palace. This time wearing a different over gown.

The time arrived and so did she, arriving on the West entrance of the woods, where Lady Lidia was already waiting for her. They were both on their horses. As they rode deep inside the forest, both set their foot on the ground and tied their horses to the nail on the ground.

Before going inside, Katherine changed her over gown to the gown she wore last night. The cloth seemed cleaner today.

On seeing her do so, Lidia questioned, "Why are you changing your overgrown, Katherine?"

Shrugging off some dried mud from the cloth, Katherine smiled, looking at Lady Lidia and replied," I don't want the royals or anyone to know about the dirt in my hand. Hence, saving the cleaner one to create a facade."

Lidia chuckled and joked about how she should have brought one too but stopped when she received no chuckle back from Katherine.

They continued to walk deep inside the forest. There was no exchange of words for a good while. Only the sound of the rustling leaves and their footsteps could be heard.

"Does anybody know about your whereabouts, Lady Lidia?" Princess Katherine speared through the silence as they walked.

Lidia simply nodded her head to a no and replied, " I don't trust anybody, especially after the yard sail incident."

And the talk was out. Katherine didn't even have to initiate this conversation. Now, all she needed to do was to keep her on this track itself.

"What yard sail incident?" Katherine acted unaware of what Lidia was talking about.

"There was a rumor spread in the town that I raped the captain of the yard!" she replied in an instant and nonchalantly.

"Was it true though?" Kat asked again.

"Of Course it's true. I hate misogyny and I love showing men their place. If you ask me, it wasn't rape. It was just another dominant and submissive situation. I am pretty sure he enjoyed it. At Least I enjoyed giving him pain." Lady Lidia confessed.

Her confession blew Katherine's mind. She was shocked to see the pride and excitement in the eyes of Lidia, a rapist. She tried but couldn't decipher the mind of a rapist.

The way she thought and put down the words, Katherine could only see Lidia's thirst, ego, and pleasure in the pain of a poor hard-working man. How could Lidia possibly think that rape is not wrong, in her case she didn't even consider it to be rape.

Katherine was a killer, a serial killer but she knows human suffering at least she tries to understand them and knows her morals for sure and that is why she had her pattern. Lidia fell right into it.

Katherine was ready and desperate to kill Lidia, but there were a few more details she wanted to hear about.

"Did he give his consent?" Katherine asked, walking right behind Lidia.

"Since when did men start giving their consent. They are always ready for a bang. Besides, I paid his family a  big price. But someone from the yard leaked everything and now even that man is pretending to be sick and pinned it all on me. Hence, the rape rumor" Lidia rolled her eyes.

"Okay, that's enough for me"

Just as Katherine said this, she pinched Lidia with a small finger-sized arrow in her neck. Lidia, grunt a little and almost fell on the ground when Kat held her and draped Lidia's hand around her shoulder, forcing her to walk in her unconsciousness.

Lidia could see and feel everything happening to her and around her. Her being carried and her legs being forced around, eyes only slightly open and suddenly her back felt a hard punch of the ground.

She was in the grave dug by Katherine. Lidia's eyes opened wide. They were filled with terror, she couldn't open her mouth to speak but managed to make an inaudible sound.

"Uh-ah, don't try so hard. You're paralyzed!" Katherine sat on the edge of the grave tying her long hair into a messy bun. She seemed relieved and this haunted Lidia more. Her heart started skipping beats, she could hear them.

It felt like a nightmare to her, where she was being followed but she cannot move her body, like all the forces were conspiring against her. She had no idea why this was happening to her or why would the princess do this to her?

"I am sorry, I didn't take your consent. Victims of serial killers or rapists are not offered one. But see, I have gifts for you. Body decomposers! Don't worry, your death will be as painful as Tyler Weaver's life has become now. You will suffocate and feel your body eaten alive just like you did to Tyler as his dominant." She threw the decomposers above her and injected another dose of paralysis and stood, dusting her clothes.

Now she knew why? She closed her eyes to accept her fate and thought of all her victims, finally feeling her guilt or maybe it was just a thought before death without any guilt. She was a rapist after all. It was too late now.

"Now I don't have much time to continue this chit-chat and it was almost nice to have a friend but I don't like rapists. I hate them! They disgust me! Do not rest in peace, rot in the ground, and then in hell. We can continue this friendship after I die. Till then, Goodbye." Katherine waved her farewell and started throwing and filling the grave with mud, covering Lydia's paralyzed body along with the decomposers. She burned her overgrown and buried it with her too.

Katherine went back to horses and freed Lidia's horse, which practically belonged to her as it was gifted by her family. She pet the horse to run back to his shed like he never left.

Once she made sure that the horse wasn't trying to find Lidia, Katherine, marched back to the palace, cleaned herself, and sat in the library.

She opened the lock of her drawer, pulled out a diary and began to write an entry when suddenly Harvard knocked. She let him enter only to receive the information that Duke Andrew wants to enter the library. He wanted to see her and talk to her.

_X_

As hard as it was to write this chapter, it was harder for me to upload it. There's a lot you have to think about while writing about rape and a mature theme like murder.

That's why I want you to be very open with your thoughts and views on this chapter.

WORD COUNT: 7506

15th August, 2020

01:23 A.M

Thank you very much for reading my Ninjas.

With Love

~XO ROHINI