CHAPTER 168: THE HELL MADE

{Music Recommendation: Knocking on Heavens Door ~ Raign}

"Rachel?"

"Rachel! You asked to speak with me!" The leader of the council snapped at the woman impatiently, seeing that the woman in front of him was staring blankly into space but hadn’t said a single word.

Rachel rubbed her fingers on the cane; she didn’t know how long she had repeated the same gesture, but she felt the heat rising from the cane.

"Woman!" the older man barked. It was a shameful thing to be kept standing by a woman. If others saw him they’d make jest of him, and as the leader of the council he wasn’t supposed to be found in a situation like this.

Rachel rubbed her palms together, her eyes shifting from where Jenna sat to the council leader’s face. Never in her entire life had she debated doing what was wrong over what was right. She was supposed to have Jenna punished for going against the council order. That was the right thing to do and Rachel had always done the right thing.

If she didn’t... then she wouldn’t be fit to train the young women placed under her care. There was right, wrong, and there was Jenna....

But then... Rachel was known to be an upright woman. So many generations of mothers had entrusted their daughters to her care. If she had used the same sentiments she was thinking now, her legacy wouldn’t be the same.

Rachel gulped; she knew what to do. And it was to do what had to be right.

"Rachel if you—"

"I’m sorry, My Lord, but forgive me for keeping you here. I will return to you as soon as possible!" Rachel turned around and left.

"Rachel!" the leader of the council shouted her name, trying to stop the woman from leaving. "That... that woman!"

Rachel cursed under her breath as she ran towards Jenna. She didn’t know or could even explain what had possessed her mind in that moment to take such action. She had intended to do the right thing— why did her feet move? Why had she walked towards Jenna?

The deed had already been done; she had walked away from the council leader and it was a crime on its own. Going back wasn’t an option.

"Jenna!" Rachel waved her hand. "Jenna!"

Olivia was the first to see the woman; reading her lips she turned and tapped Jenna’s shoulder.

"Come over here, child." Rachel gestured when Jenna turned.

Both women stepped down from where they sat and walked over to Rachel. Sensing the desperation on Rachel’s face, Jenna furrowed her brows.

She could sense that something wasn’t right, and it weighed on her mind. Jenna had never seen Rachel this way before.

"Jenna... are you not friends with Lois?" Rachel began. "I saw you two playing in the rain last night. Or did I imagine it?"

Jenna huffed and rolled her eyes. Was this what Lois did- go ahead and cry to Lady Rachel about what had happened?

"Lady Rachel, I too thought, like you, that Lois was my friend, but it turns out the rope I took home with me was a snake all along," Jenna remarked, shaking her head slowly. The more she thought about it, the more annoyed she became.

Lois had stayed by her side all this time just because she wanted something she didn’t have.

Olivia bit her lip; she hated to agree with Jenna’s words about Lois, since she had known Lois even before Jenna came into their lives. To the young girl it felt like betrayal.

"Lois might not have told you this, but she wanted to be me. All this while she hid behind my mask, trying to seduce the man that came for me."

Rachel hummed. "So this was it..." she murmured to herself. The reason Lois had acted the way she did. Of course the young woman wouldn’t have acted unprovoked.

Jenna reached for the woman’s hand and patted it gently. "I know you wanted us to be friends... and I have nothing against you. After I leave, I’ll always remember the kindness you and—" she turned and touched Olivia’s face.

"You both have shown me real kindness and I’m grateful for it. Lois will be fine once the tournament is over and I’ve left with Rhane—"

Lady Rachel shook her head, interrupting Jenna. "You’re not... he’s not going to leave with you, and you’re not going with him."

Jenna tilted her head. "Are you taking sides now, Lady Rachel? I thought you were an upright woman."

"I thought I was too..." Rachel exhaled tiredly, pressing her palms tightly together. "I must have lied to myself all these years. Now the truth... the truth..."

Jenna waited for the woman to continue, but she didn’t; she kept speaking in circles, her eyes twitching whenever their eyes met.

Olivia pressed her lips; she had a very bad feeling about this. Lady Rachel looked terrified and nothing ever scared the woman —at least not from what Olivia knew.

"Jenna... Lois has made a report to me. You met with one of the men against the council’s orders and for that reason he has to be disqualified and you punished," Rachel finally said, the words forming a lump in her chest ever since she heard them from Lois.

"I..." Jenna stuttered. She dropped her hands to her sides. What had she expected? That Lois would walk away and cry over losing? A woman who had stuck beside her, tried to be and look like her, and even when confronted laughed about it.

That such a woman would give up so easily? Of course she would drag them both to the deepest part of hell.

Olivia swallowed hard, her tiny heart pounding against her chest. This was the reason she didn’t want Lois to have bad blood with Jenna. There is evil and then there’s Lois. It was only when she wanted to be. Olivia just didn’t want the young woman to cross that line.

"I don’t see the councilmen or their soldiers..." Jenna realized, looking around the place to confirm her words. "This is not a punishment... it feels to me like you’re informing me first."

Rachel rubbed her tongue over her lips; the past few hours made her feel like she had lost a few years of her life.

"Jenna, you don’t understand what I’m saying, do you?!"

Jenna nodded. "I understand perfectly, Lady Rachel," she replied with a nervous smile.

"You told this to me because you don’t... no... you want to help me."

Rachel opened her mouth and then closed it; her eyes betrayed her. "I don’t know why I’m here, but you’ll hear soon from the council. That is all." She turned, but Jenna grabbed her dress.

"Please... Lady Rachel. Don’t do this... please," Jenna begged, her voice shaky. Rhane was almost there; this was supposed to be the end. The last was here to come and everything would be over.

Jenna didn’t want it ruined by one woman’s jealousy. Her heart drummed again noisily in her ears.

"Help me just this one time... please... you can close your eyes to this... I know you can." Jenna pleaded. She hated that she was in this situation, begging, but that was the only hope. Stubbornness wasn’t going to cut it right now.

Rachel sucked in wry air and turned her head to the side. "If I don’t do it... another will. Now choose; who you’d rather have report to the council...me or Lois."

"Oh heavens... will you let a man’s entire effort go to waste? You’re a good woman, Lady Rachel, and I know it. Please."

Rachel wriggled free from Jenna’s grasp. "I am a good woman, which is why I should do the right thing! And you should have known better as a grown woman once married what you should do, not—"

"Nana... please..." Olivia joined in, her eyes glistening. "Jenna, she is good, and the man she loves too... they love each other. Will you have them separated?"

Rachel’s lips trembled when Olivia spoke, the child she had suckled from her. Rachel never wished to see her cry; the reasons behind her birth were already tragic enough.

"I—Olivia! What do you know about any of this?"

Olivia stood straight. "I know it makes me want to believe... that one day I’ll love someone and I’ll wish to trust them and spend the rest of my life with them. Jenna shows me that with her beloved. So please... forgive them."

"They should have known better; being caught again and again is crossing the line. She will have to pay the price for disobedience."

Jenna saw the resolve in the woman’s eyes —this was it.

"And yet you never told the council that day when you saw us in the room. You knew something was wrong, so if you’re such a woman with a pure sense of righteousness, turn away from such a crime!" Jenna retorted, feeling her world crumbling around her.

Was she and Rhane really going to be separated? Never. Jenna grit her teeth. She’d rather push a stake through the dark heart of Lois so they would all perish together in the hell she had made.

"That will be all. Get ready to receive your punishment, Jenna." Rachel turned; her knees quaked.

She had asked herself the same thing after that day, the night when she caught Jenna in a room with her dress and hair disheveled. Rachel knew immediately what had happened in that room; she wasn’t a child.

What she didn’t understand was why she had closed her eyes to it.

"You support me! You support my love... Rachel, please... one more time. Help me."

Rachel tried to silence Jenna’s words; it broke her heart to hear the girl cry. But it would have been avoided if she had done what was right the very first day.

This was what happens when one decides to hide the truth.

"My lord," Rachel began when she got to the leader of the council, "one man and three women should be punished today...."