They looked far too alike!
So alike that it made his skin crawl.
It was as if the people who had just been carried out had simply fixed their hair and clothes, then casually walked back in.
Chris felt his palms begin to sweat. His fingers tightened unconsciously around the wheelchair handles, his nails nearly digging into the soft leather wrapped around them.
What... were these things?
Golems?
But he had seen Golems before—the Vampires and Werewolves onstage, as well as the troll hidden in the underground garage. Though lifelike in appearance, their eyes were vacant and their movements mechanical. At close range, their inhuman quality was obvious at a glance.
But these things before him...
Chris forced himself to keep breathing steadily, though his insides were already in turmoil.
These things could smile, display subtle shifts in expression, and make tiny gestures nearly identical to those of their originals.
When "Lady Margaret" passed by "Mr. Harold," "Mr. Harold" even naturally stepped aside to make way for her, offering a proper, polite nod and smile.
Suddenly, just before taking her seat, "Lady Margaret" stopped.
Chris followed her gaze and saw a sapphire necklace lying on the floor, its enormous gemstone flowing with the deep, unfathomable gleam of the Deep Sea beneath the lights.
It was the jewelry that the real Lady Margaret had dropped from her neck while the bodyguards carried her away.
Then Chris watched the "old lady" elegantly bend down, pick up the necklace with her white lace-gloved hand, and unhurriedly fasten it around her own neck.
Only then did she return to the seat that had belonged to Lady Margaret, sitting upright with her back straight and a faint smile at the corner of her lips.
A chill ten times stronger than before seized Chris's heart in