The next day~

Amelia was silent throughout the day as the people of the Hawthorne mansion noticed a moody aura around her. She was also irritable and paranoid; she couldn't help but snap at unsuspecting maids or occasionally chew her nails, a habit of hers when she was always in a pensive mood or very anxious.

She felt so suffocated and scared. The feeling of something or someone lurking in the dark, just finding the right moment to cut her life short, made her almost go insane. Emma could only pity her mistress and try to make her feel more comfortable. Quickly, the day went by, and it was time for dinner.

It was customary for the Hawthornes to always gather for dinner every day as a family, but since Amelia and Madeline's parents went on a trip and their youngest brother attended a boarding school, it was only the two of them at the table. Amelia broke into a cold sweat and lost her appetite.

Madeline noticed her sister's strange behavior. Normally, she would have been talking about how wonderful her day was and not even bothering to ask about anyone else's. That was how her sister was. Shallow and conceited.

"Melly, you haven't touched your food! Are you okay?" Madeline called in a sickeningly sweet voice. Amelia shuddered in her seat.

"I am fine, Maddie!" She answered her

"There must be something wrong. Are you ill?" Madeline prodded her. Amelia felt so uncomfortable, she couldn't find her voice.

"Miss has very painful period cramps, so she is quite uncomfortable!" Emma quickly answered for Amelia, and in return, Amelia gave her a relieved smile.

"Okay. Have you taken medicine for it?" Amelia shook her head.

"Take medicine for it, okay? Now eat your food." Madeline smiled at her. Amelia stared at the food before her. She couldn't touch it; after all, she had been slowly ingesting poison. What are the chances that this food right here is also poisoned? Amelia could not bear it anymore; she ran out of the dining room to her toilet and violently threw up into the toilet.

Madeline followed her to the toilet and held her hair up for her.

"My, my! You are sick. Let me help you." Amelia involuntarily slapped Madeline's hand. Madeline looked shocked, and just then, only one thing came to Madeline's mind.

'Perhaps she knows already!' She laughed inwardly. Her sister was so transparent.

"Sorry, I didn't want you to get dirty and disgusted." Amelia spoke, then went to rinse her face in the sink. "I don't think I have an appetite. Please don't bother to stay with me; I need to rest."Amelia flushed the toilet and went out to her room, leaving Madeline alone.

She walked to her room and lay on the bed. Tears started to flow down her cheeks.

"I am so scared" She muttered while crying. Emma entered her room and walked to her mistress's bed.

"Lady, everything will be all right soon. Don't cry" Emma comforted her. Amelia wiped her tears and sat up.

"Emma, secretly prepare me a carriage. I am going to the Darklane district!" Amelia said. Emma nodded and quickly left the room.

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Amelia left the estate in a horse-drawn carriage for the Darklane district. The Darklane district is just a nice name for the place. She has heard about it once or twice while socializing.

The district is a place where people go to get their fortune read, make good luck charms, and do other trivial things. She has never heard about people going there for things as serious as poison.

The carriage stopped at a run-down neighborhood street where people had set up a lot of stalls and kiosks, with a lot of people buying and selling odd things. She got out of the carriage and walked into the district. She made an effort to dress like a commoner, so she couldn't be identified. She stopped at a kiosk selling weird ingredients. Because of the nature of the shop, Amelia naturally thought the owner knew about poisons, so she approached the shop.

The owner of the kiosk was a middle-aged gypsy woman with a mole on her chin.

"Hello there!" The woman said, "Have you come to look at my goods?" She gestured to the display of dried plants on sale.

"Actually, I came for this!" She showed the gypsy the poison bottle. The gypsy looked at it and gasped.

"That's one expensive powder, la!" She exclaimed

"This is poison. I was hoping; maybe you know what type it is and the antidote?"

"Sorry! This type of poison, only the head shaman knows. Her shop is the biggest at the center."

"Okay, thank you!" Amelia answered

"But I have a good market for you. You see this Verin root. You can brew it into tea; it increases your spouse's performance, if you know what I mean!" The gypsy winked at Amelia, which made her a bit scared and disgusted as she remembered Christopher.

"No thanks!" She left the woman's kiosk and went searching for the biggest shop in the district. It didn't take too long till Amelia came across the largest shop, a large tent at the center of the district with an open sign in front and another sign displaying the services offered by the owner. She entered the tent.

An old woman wearing a red scarf on her head waited for her inside.

"Come in; I was expecting you!" She said. Amelia flinched a bit.

'Why was she standing at the entrance like that?'

"Come in, come in." The old lady ushered her to a room, where two other women sat. One had tan skin and dark, shoulder-length hair with brown eyes; she looked intimidating and calculative. She also noticed that this woman wore a pair of trousers and a white shirt, which intrigued her. Not many women like this kind of style.

The other woman had brown hair and green eyes; she had a scar on the side of her face, which Amelia didn't consider attractive at all. She looked athletic but still had a slender figure.

"Now they are complete!" The old woman said it happily, which creeped out Amelia. Amelia entered the room and sat on one of the bean bags.

She looked at the two women. "Hello!" She waved shyly. One waved back awkwardly, and the other ignored her.

"Now that we are complete!" The old woman brought a tea set with four tea cups and placed them on the small, circular table in their midst.

"Oh, great Mother, I brought them together. Let your will be done!" The woman bowed in there after placing the tea set.

"Urgh, I should have come here!" The woman who ignored her earlier spoke

"My crystal says you are hot-tempered. She likes your strong will," the old woman said to her. The woman folded her arms and turned her head the other way. Amelia became creeped out by the personification of the crystal ball, glowing ominously on the table. The old lady turns to the other lady in the room.

"My crystal says you are genuinely confused." The other lady grimaced, then she turned to Amelia and said, "My crystal senses your distress."

"Well, will you attend to us now?" Lady A with the distinct attire said impatiently

"Yes, yes!" The woman clapped, "I was sworn to secrecy by my crystal ball!"

"What!" The two other women shouted in shock. Amelia trembled in her seat.

'Am I really going to die like this!' She thought.

"Why did you keep me waiting for so long?" Lady A rose as she confronted the old lady, her frustration evident. "You old hag!"

Beside her, Lady B intervened, restraining the Lady A from physically confronting the old lady. Meanwhile, Amelia sat in her seat, deep in thought, contemplating her own life.

Suddenly, they heard a loud horn, bringing an end to the chaotic scene in front of Amelia. Imperial guards entered the room and took the old woman and those two.

The Lady A struggled with the guards. "Get your useless hands off me!"

"Everyone here is hereby arrested for the use of black magic and engaging in malicious practice by the order of the Emperor of the Veridian Empire!" A guard came and took hold of Amelia, abruptly dragging her out of the bean bag, making her fall to the ground.

"I didn't do black magic. I don't have anything to do with black magic. Let me go!" She struggled weakly with the guard. Amelia became terrified.

"Please cooperate with us as we gently escort you out of the district," They said as they took them out to the tent. Other guards rounded up other people and raided their businesses, destroying every means of their livelihood. For once in Amelia's now-short life, she felt empathetic.

"This was all meant to happen" The old woman said, and a guard carried her on his shoulder. She was really odd.

"Crazy old hag!" The Lady A screamed, "You set us up! Now I am going to prison.

"I can't believe I ended up like this!" The athletic lady frowned as they placed her in cuffs. A guard placed Amelia too on cuffs. Amelia could only cry silently as they took them away.

___________________________________

The prison cells were cold and had a bad stench. The three ladies were kept in a single cell.

Deep dejection filled the cell.

Amelia silently cried in a corner. Not only did she not find anything useful in the Darklane district, she was captured by imperial guards and kept in prison for an offense she didn't commit.

"Can you stop crying?" The Lady A, who later learned that her name was Victoria, sighed.

"Can you be more tolerant?" Eliza defended her, the person who she termed as Lady B. "She's scared!"

"But we are here together; you don't see me crying like an annoying princess!" Victoria rolled her eyes and Amelia glared at Victoria.

"First of all, princesses are lovely, not annoying. Secondly, how would you feel if you just found out about your sister? Twin sister, for that matter, wants you dead so she could steal your no-good fiance, so she poisons you, and you have less than a month to live." Amelia spoke angrily with tears in her eyes.

"I thought I could find an antidote if I came to the district, but no one has been of help; now I am here, in this cold and disgusting cell." Amelia cried harder. The two women with her didn't say anything.

After a long silence, she heard Victoria. "Sorry, I didn't mean to"

"Yeah, sorry." Eliza consoled her too. She wiped her tears with her dress.

"Nevermind, I miss my parents. Wait..!" Amelia paused, making the girls turn to her.

'My parents! They will come to save me, and then I will tell them all the wicked things Madeline did to me, and they will find a cure for me. At least they still treasure me. I just have to wait for them,' Amelia thought happily with a smile, while the two women looked at her weirdly.

"Wasn't she crying before?" Eliza asked Victoria, who shrugged in response.
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Two days later~

The Hawthorne mansion heard about the arrest of their young lady and went into a chaotic frenzy. Only Madeline found the situation amusing.

"Poor Amelia, poor sick, paranoid Amelia!" She laughed to herself as she brushed her hair. "I hope she stays there forever, so she won't be in my way anymore!" Her room door was slammed open. It was Amelia's personal maid, who looked pissed. Madeline turned to her.

"How dare you slam my door open like that? Don't you have manners?" She glared at Emma.

"Sorry." She said with a flat voice. "Your parents have arrived, and they requested you," Emma said, leaving immediately. Madeline scoffed. Of course, they will come rushing when their precious child is in trouble.

Madeline left her room and went downstairs to meet her parents. Her father was busy making a fuss by screaming at the coach who took Amelia out that night. While her mother silently cried.

"Mother, Father?" She called them. Duchess Hawthorne ran to Madeline and hugged her.

"You must be so devastated; your poor sister is in trouble!" She cried while stroking Madeline's hair.

'Devastated? More like ecstatic!' Madeline thought to herself. Maybe with her out of the picture, her parents would stop being biased.

"Mother, although I am disturbed...!"

"I am going to the Imperial Palace!" The Duke announced it suddenly after pushing past the coachman and walking to his wife and daughter.

"I will make our family complete again. Don't be dismayed."He hugged his wife and Madeline before walking out of the mansion with the coachman behind him.

"We'll come with you!" The Duchess dragged Madeline after the Duke. Madeline didn't like this at all.
______________________________________

Two days already, and Amelia couldn't afford to stay in the cell anymore. She could already feel her condition getting worse. Her anxiety and stress seemed to hasten the poison's symptoms. She had no strength left in her. She just leaned on the prison wall for support.

The guards brought food for them once a day and left a large bucket in the cell for them to use. The situation still seemed jarring to her, and she earnestly hoped her parents would come quickly to save her.

"Do you both have, like, families?" Eliza started. Victoria turned to her while Amelia glanced at her before going back to her resting position.

"You both seemed like you were rich and all and I am just asking." Eliza said this after a short silence.

"My father probably already disowned me, and my family members hate me for becoming the head of my family's business." Victoria scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I would be surprised even if they turned up."

"Oh!" Eliza frowned "What about you, Amelia?" She asked Amelia.

"They will come." She whispered. Eliza didn't want to bother her anymore as she stayed still in the corner. She was honestly scared for Amelia.

"Well, my elder brother is an idiot, and my younger ones are still minors. Even though I don't think they know where I am now, and besides, they probably can't afford jail bail, Guess we are together for a while."
..................................................................

Meanwhile, the Duke's carriage was already heading towards the palace. The Duke continued to curse in the carriage while his wife sobbed in his hands.

"You know, I heard my sister was in jail for using black magic. Maybe it's for the...!"

"Amelia and black magic That girl doesn't know a thing about black magic. She's too pure for such!" The Duke cut her off before she could finish talking.

"Amelia has been sheltered her whole life. She probably never knew what black magic was. She was wrongly imprisoned!" Madeline frowned at her parents. She knew even if Amelia had a boiling cauldron in her room with voodoo dolls and skeletons hanging everywhere, they wouldn't still believe

The reason why Amelia probably went to the Darklane district was because she knew about the jinx she had placed on her. What Amelia didn't know was that she didn't get it at the Darklane district at all, so she could never find answers there.

Consuming it once can lead to tiredness, but continuously, it would eventually lead to death in sleep.

She didn't expect Amelia to be whisked away by imperial guards. For once, she felt things were going well for her. But if her parents rescue Amelia, Amelia might tell them about the curse. She has to stop that from happening. She carried a bag with her. She took out a black bottle from her bag and secretly opened it.

A black, smoky creature came from the bottle and entered her parents. Once the creature entered them, They passed out immediately, making Madeline smile deviously.

"Stop the carriage!" Madeline screamed as she kept her head out of the carriage window. The coachman stopped, and Madeline came out 'crying and wailing'. The coachman came to check on what was happening.

"My parents passed out in the carriage. They must have been so sad." She ran towards the coachman, and the coachman panicked after she told him, "Please take them back to the estate; I must go help my sister!"

The coachman nodded, and Madeline entered the carriage, smiling at her passed-out parents.

"You'll just be asleep for a while." She grinned and left the carriage with the coachman, taking them back to the estate.

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A/n: I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!