Chapter 239: When Panicked, Cut-in

{Telana...why...}

’Why is she stretching like that? Why is no one else noticing her? How is Zhen Hai not noticing her movements? Why is she stretching like that? Why, why why?’

Before her very eyes, Telana’s deceased mother didn’t move from behind Zhen Hai’s chair...she moved through it.

For reasons beyond her understanding, her ghostly mother had phased her head through the chair, her neck elongating all the while like a creeping viper, sneaking along a tree branch before lashing out against it’s prey. Adding onto this effect, Telana’s mother began to snake and wrap her limbs and neck around Zhen Hai’s body, coiling around and around like a rope around a barrel.

Zhen Hai didn’t notice at all, or rather...it looked as if the ghost was starting to move him around as she extended even closer and closer to Telana.

’How is he not noticing? Why is he not noticing?,’ Telana repeated to herself.

The ghost was so clearly touching and messing with Zhen Hai’s form, how could the brash young man not notice?

Through the corner of her eye, Telana carefully observed daughter for a reaction. Surely her own flesh and blood would be able to see this specter, right?

Turns out...no.

From what she could see, Gianna’s focus was solely on Zhen Hai, a look, that Telana snuffed out several times before, plain on her daughter’s face. She never did understand her daughter’s taste in partners. She should just let mother dearest make that decision for her.

Telana snapped her attention back towards the same direction as Zhen Hai, but as she did, her eyes landed on Zhen Liu by accident.

Now this wouldn’t be so bad...but in her eyes, Telana didn’t see Zhen Liu. Instead, she saw a certain smiling shadow, that’s been haunting her head in a most... unpleasant way...but only for a moment.

When she doubled over to see confirm what she had seen, all she saw was the Fourth Young Master of the Zhen Clan looking a tad...bored.

’Contemptuous youth! At least have the manners to look like your-’.

{Telana... Why...}

’Shit!’

Evidently, Telana was so oddly focused on Zhen Liu, that she failed to realize that her mother’s ghost was now directly in front of her.

Her long, tendril-like hands and head was dangling near her now, the distance between them so short that Telana could feel her breath on her face. It was like maggot juice and rotting meat...

{Telana...,} Marianna said she titled her head upward to stare at her in the eyes again.

{I couldn’t... breathe... Telana...I could taste...nothing...but iron...}

That same feeling of powerlessness that assailed Telana earlier that day suddenly overcame her, as Marianna began to wrap her neck and arms around Telana’s neck.

The process was slow and deliberate. Such a pace would normally be easy for someone with Telana’s power to just break like it is as nothing...but that didn’t happen...because she couldn’t move a muscle.

’Why... can’t...I...move?!,’ she mentally screamed and struggled.

Telana could feel her arms, her legs, her everything. All her body parts were present.

Nothing was numb, cold or severed from her, she wasn’t being held down by anything, but it was like her body didn’t want to responsed.

{Do...you... know...how...it feels...to suffocate?,} Marianna asked once her head was positioned above Telana’s head. Telana couldn’t even tilt her head up to look.

{Do you...want to...find out?}

Marianna’s hands began to move like snakes, her finger tips facing Telana in the same manner as a snake facing a rat.

With this motion in mind, Telana expected Marianna to strike like a snake and snap at her throat...she didn’t expect her mother to slowly, inch by horrid inch, shove one hand down her throat whilst the other hand, oh so slightly, pinched her nostrils shut.

’Can’t breathe...,’ Telana panicked. At this point, surely someone must now see, that she is being attacked by her own mother...right?!

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<Oh shit! Looks like things about to go really sideways! She’s starting to look blue over here...and her arm is starting to flop...oh shit, she might be having a heart attack!>

=I can see that Pathos. It appears her [Regret] is getting stronger, the more she mentally tries to repress it. Hmmm...=

<Wait...I know that look, what are you thinking?>

=Perhaps...we should help Zhen Hai leave a better impression on the Corrada Family...=

<What do you mean?>

=Well first off, you think our lord knows how to work a defibrillator?=

<Ohhhhhhh. How very soap operatic of you.>

=Please, medical dramas are at least slightly more scientific.=

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"And so, Lady Corrada, I-"

"Hrk!"

"Lady Corrada?"

*CLATTER!*

"Mother!"

Zhen Hai was in the middle of assuring Telana Corrada that his grandfather would serve as an excellent protector and guide for her daughter...when all of a sudden, she collapsed to the ground and began to act like she was choking.

Scratch that, she was choking.

Zhen Hai didn’t understand how or why, but Telana began to claw at her own throat, as if trying to tear the grip off an invisible force, another hand swiping left and right in front of her, as if trying to push off some kind of invisible attacker.

Both he and Gianna attempted to use aether to detect if an outside force was attacking, but they couldn’t find anything!

In desperation, decorum be damned, Gianna attempted to cut open Telana’s dress in order to free up air flow so that she could breath better. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to do anything.

Whatever was happening appeared to be internal, but they couldn’t figure out what. Luckily for them, there was an unusually cool-headed fellow in the same room as them.

"Shit! What do we do, what do we do?!," Gianna began to panic.

Zhen Hai couldn’t think of a good answer on what to do, thankfully Zhen Liu had something to say in his stead.

"Gianna," Zhen Liu suddenly said with a reinforced voice, "does your family have a physician on the estate?"

The Corrada Family heir nodded in rapid succession, a sharp change from her usual haughty demeanor.

"Go get them, and bring them here ASAP. Zhen Hai and I will try to make sure she doesn’t end up dying," Zhen Liu bluntly said as he grabbed a throw pillow from the parlor’s couch to place under Telana’s head.

Zhen Hai and Gianna were initially confused, until they realized it was to prevent Telana from cracking her own skull.

"What are you doing? Go!"

"R-right!"

Gianna bolted out of the room, leaving the two Zhen Clan heirs alone with the matriarch of the Corrada Family. Luckily for the Corradas, these two were actually putting in effort to save the later’s life.

"Cool, now that Gianna’s gone, I can finally put into motion the actual way of saving Lady Corrada’s life," Zhen Liu declared.

Zhen Hai was now significantly more baffled by his cousin’s demeanor.

"What are you-"

"Zhen Hai, I’m going to hold down Lady Corrada’s arms. What I’m about to do you will help you save her life, but it’s gonna get...weird," Zhen Hai interjected. A second later, he pulled out a weird looking hand cannon with a square slot on the side.

"What the fuck is that thing?," Zhen Hai asked.

Zhen Liu didn’t respond, he just pulled out a weird looking talisman that had the picture of a blue frog woman on it and placed it into the weapon.

The sound of rhythmic drums filled the air.

{Possession set! Electrifying Diva: Ready!}

"A crash course in how to use a defibrillator. Sorry about this."

The next thing Zhen Hai knew, Zhen Liu shot him in the face with a weird blast of energy.