Read The Brilliant Engineer Who Became a Villainess :: Chapter 6: Conflicting Feelings - Part 1

The Brilliant Engineer Who Became a Villainess

Chapter 6: Conflicting Feelings

[Scene: Caelia is sprinting through the door, wrapping her nightgown around her nose and mouth. Inside, the air is heavy and unbreathable. Flames lick the ceiling beams. She first searches for Mrs. Poppy in her bedroom, finding a pathway to it.]

CAELIA - INNER THOUGHTS:
I’ll swiftly get Mrs. Poppy and rush her outside.

I don’t care if my life gets thrown away.

[Caelia makes her way into Mrs. Poppy’s room.

Mrs. Poppy is lying in bed, scared, noticing Caelia arrived.]

CAELIA:

“MRS. POPPY!”

MRS. POPPY:

“CAELIA! PLEASE LEAVE THE HOME! PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF!”

CAELIA:

“I’M HERE TO SAVE YOU!”

[Caelia goes into Mrs. Poppy’s room and has Mrs. Poppy lean on Caelia for support.]

CAELIA:

“Hold on Mrs. Poppy, we will be out here in no time!”

[They make it out of the bedroom. Caelia darts back through the collapsing hallway. Just as she clears the doorway, part of the roof gives in behind her. Caelia stumbles and falls down.]

CAELIA - INNER MONOLOGUE:

I can’t back down from this… I must get out of this home.

[Caelia starts having a coughing fit from all the smoke. Mrs. Poppy becomes unresponsive.]

[Cassian then rushes forward into the flaming house, checking in both of them, holding his breath. He then holds both Caelia and Mrs. Poppy on each side, lugging them outside.]

[Scene: Outside the home, Caelia drops to the ground and has a coughing fit. Mrs. Poppy is unresponsive but still breathing. The house is completely engulfed by flames and help has finally arrived to clear the fire.]

[After letting Caelia regroup, Cassian looks at Caelia, visibly angry.]

CASSIAN (urgent):

“CAELIA, ARE YOU INSANE?”

CAELIA:

“Mrs. Poppy is safe, that’s all that matters.”

CASSIAN:

“THAT’S NOT ALL THAT MATTERS, CAELIA. YOU GOT HURT!”

[Angrily, Cassian leaves the scene and goes back to the guest house. Caelia is left in silence.]

[Scene: A bit later, the flames are put out, the house blacked and smoldering. Caelia is watching in silence the fire being put out and oversees the medics helping Mrs. Poppy.]

MEDIC (to Caelia):

“Mrs. Poppy will be fine, she’s gonna go to stay at the hospital for a bit.

You had a lot of courage jumping into the flames and saving her.

Would you also like to be checked?”

CAELIA (relieved):

“No, I’ll be okay. As long as she’s okay, that’s all that matters.”

[Caelia then remembers Cassian say: “THAT’S NOT ALL THAT MATTERS CAELIA, YOU GOT HURT!”]

CAELIA:

“... On second thought, could I also get checked as well?”

[Scene: The medic checks Caelia and clears her. Caelia then finds a place off on the side to relax and have a bit of space. Nearby, three townsfolk have gathered around the home that is now dust and are talking amongst each other. One of them is Annalise in disguise, wearing her dark cloak with the hood up to cover her identifiable golden hair.]

VILLAGER A:

“Didn’t Mrs. Poppy just move back in yesterday? How is the house already up in flames?”

VILLAGER B:

“Yeah.. Didn’t Lady Caelia just finish renovating the house?

It’s not cold out right now, so why would Mrs. Poppy use the fireplace?”

VILLAGER C (Annalise disguised):

“Do you think it was an accident or…

Was it because of the renovation?”

[Caelia flinches while overhearing this conversation.]

VILLAGER A:

“N-No! Of course not! That couldn’t be! Lady Caelia worked so hard on it she must’ve checked it over and over! Maybe it was just a freak accident?”

VILLAGER C (Annalise disguised):

“Lady Caelia is a woman after all. Women shouldn’t be doing anything like this to begin with.

They always make mistakes.

Let’s say Mrs. Poppy tried out the fireplace, how did the entire house end up in flames if there wasn’t a design issue?”

CAELIA - INNER MONOLOGUE:

No way. I triple checked everything, Cassian made sure everything checked out as well! ! I made sure that the home was clear to have a fireplace!

Or maybe… Was I wrong? Did I make a mistake somewhere?

Did I… Cause this..?

[Anxiety looms over Caelia’s face.]

I knew it. I can’t do anything at all. I caused this fire…

I caused… Someone to get hurt.

VILLAGER A:

“I don’t think it makes sense, she also had that engineer who was a man too, he must’ve watched over things as well.”

VILLAGER C (Annalise disguised):

“But what if it’s something bigger? Isn’t the new empress being chosen soon?

What if this is all a ploy to make her look better?!

Think about it:

She was always known as a wicked witch and if she’s a new empress, she can’t have a reputation as a witch.

So, what does she do? She goes into poor towns like ours and does philanthropy to win our hearts.

AND to make herself look better, she starts a fire and then she saves someone from a fire! This was all definitely on purpose!”

VILLAGER A:

“You know what, that makes so much sense! That witch almost tricked us!”

VILLAGER B (yelling out to the crowd):

“EVERYONE, LADY CAELIA IS A WITCH. THIS WAS ALL A PLOY.”

[Overhearing all of this, Caelia puts her knees up to her face and quietly cries to drown out the noise.]

[Villager C (Annalise), smiles an evil smile and leaves the scene to go back to the palace.]

[Scene: After a good while of crying alone, Caelia mustered up the courage to go back to the guest house. There, Cassian was sitting by the window, waiting for her.]

[Caelia and Cassian look at each other. Cassian notices her red and puffy eyes. He immediately rushes over to her and stands next to her.]

CASSIAN (worried, frantic):

“Caelia, are you okay? How is Mrs. Poppy?”

CAELIA:

“Mrs. Poppy is okay, she’s at the hospital right now. I also got cleared by the medic.”

[Cassian sighs of relief.]

CASSIAN:

“Caelia, I'm glad you’re okay.”

[Caelia stays quiet, averting her eyes away from Cassian and goes to walk toward her room.]

[Cassian grabs her wrist.]

CASSIAN:

“Caelia, I…I’m sorry for yelling at you, I was just very worried about you.

I was very scared you would get hurt.”

CAELIA:

“It’s okay Cassian, I know you mean well. But I couldn’t stand there and not do anything.

[Caelia starts shaking and crying again.]

But you know? I think the fire was my fault. I caused it. I think I didn’t check the fireplace clearance enough which was what caused this fire.

Mrs. Poppy wanted to live a new life and yet… because of me, I almost took that away from her.

…I should’ve died in that fire.”

[Caelia drops to the ground and starts wailing. Cassian then squats down to her eye level and then hugs her.]

CASSIAN (gently):

“Caelia, something here doesn’t feel right. We definitely checked the fire clearances multiple times and made sure it was okay.

And you said it yourself, the fireplace was your favorite just because of how perfect it was.”

CAELIA (hysteric):

“E-Everyone in the village thinks it’s my fault! A-And it is!”

CASSIAN:

“Can you look at me for a second?”

[Caelia looks up to Cassian. His starry blue eyes staring down at her stormy cloud eyes with a resolve she’s never seen before.]

CASSIAN:

“Something here doesn’t add up and I can assure you that you did not cause this. Please do not convince yourself that.

Caelia, you are a brilliant engineer who cares so much about people, there’s no way you did any of this.”

[Caelia’s tears subsided for one second as Cassian ended his statement. The room fills up with silence as they stare into each other’s eyes.]

[Cassian takes a quick glance at Caelia’s lips, with that first moment of temptation, he immediately stands upward.]

CASSIAN (looking away and blushing):

“Caelia, just know that we will get to the bottom of this. Please don’t ever think to yourself for a second that this is your fault.”

[Cassian then lends a hand out to help Caelia get up and Caelia accepts it. They hold hands for a little longer than necessary.]

CAELIA - INNER MONOLOGUE:

I can only think of a handful of times where someone unconditionally supported me.

Like the times when my parents would argue to my teachers about grade rounding.

Or when during interviews, I would inflate my knowledge so badly that I would convince myself that all I was advertising to do, I could do on a professional level.

But this… This is the first time someone has ever supported me for being me, unconditionally.

(heart bump)

[Caelia’s face becomes red from blushing. She removes her hand from Cassian’s and walks towards her bedroom.]

CAELIA:

“I-I think it’s time for me to rest. I am very tired.”

CASSIAN (disappointed that the moment ended):

“Y-Yeah… We both should rest up.”

[Before Caelia closes her bedroom door, she pauses.]

CAELIA:

“Cassian… Thank you.”

[Caelia closes her bedroom door.]

[Scene: The next morning - loud noise of chatter outside of the guest home. Villagers screaming, “CAELIA ARDENT IS A WITCH!” Caelia wakes up to it and uses her pillow to cover her ears to drown out the noise.]

CAELIA - INNER MONOLOGUE:

I want this to end!

My thoughts are so conflicted.

Cassian half convinced me that there might be something bigger happening.

But hearing everyone call me a witch is convincing me that it really is all my fault.

AH! I DON’T KNOW!

[Caelia hears a knock on her bedroom door.]

CASSIAN:

“Caelia, are you awake? We have to leave.”

CAELIA (uncovering herself from the covers, confused):

“Yeah. We should get ready to go to the school.”

CASSIAN: