Page 119 of Damsel in Disguise

I was suspended for three months because I took the blame for her being caught with a boy in the restroom.

Then someone spread a rumor that I seduced her boyfriend—a boyfriend she didn’t even care to mention to me, the same boy she was making out with in the boys’ restroom.

The entire class whispered that I betrayed my best friend. And the worst part is, she never once defended me.

Even when Refayla revealed their prank about ‘testing my character’—something they apparently cooked up during a sleepover I couldn’t attend because I chose studying over a wasted night talking about nothing but boys and gossiping ill about other girls—I cried and looked to Athena for something. Anything.

She just said they’d done the right thing.

I broke. I cried so hard my whole body ached from physical pain.

Refayla tried to soothe me, but I shoved her hand away and ran like a coward. Behind me, I heard Sadie laugh and say, “Let her be. Bitch will come back crawling on her hands and knees.”

The next day, they made sure her words stuck.

The whole campus buzzed with it—slut, homewrecker, seducer, liar, attention-seeker, pick-me, and whatnot.

My name was dragged through every hallway until the name Ariella Keinston turned into a punchline.

My dad had to pay the entire school to shut them up because I refused to transfer.

I wasn’t going to give them that satisfaction.

On the fifth day of being publicly flayed alive, I started watching them. Their routines, their habits… every move they made.

And now there goes the rest….

Asher pulls me into a hug. I didn’t even realize tears were already streaking down my face until he cups the back of my head, shushing me, telling me he’ll take care of the mess himself.

Our family, especially Mom and Dad, won’t know about any of this, that I killed them.

He promised to keep this only between the two of us.

He thinks I’m crying because of what they did to me. But he’s wrong.

I’m crying because I know I’ll never be the same again—at sixteen years old, I unalived two people without blinking once.

I’m crying because, even dead, they successfully ripped away the last piece of innocence I had left.

Losing innocence isn’t always about losing virginity. Sometimes it’s about losing the final shred of sanity you were desperately holding on to—the little white drop floating in your pitch-black soul.

And now I’m something in between. Too grey to be black, too black to be grey.

One thing I didn’t tell my brother. The picture of the man they used for their little prank? He’s my permanent obsession now.

Not a fantasy, nor a phase anymore, but something far more rooted. I’ve already concluded that he belongs to me, even if I’m not entirely sure of his existence.

All this I did… I did for him.

And so I’d leave no corner of the world unsearched to haunt him down. And from this night onward, my hands won’t tremble to kill anyone who gets in the way.

38. WARD

alistair

Ariella has been transferred from the jail to Halcyon Institute for Neurocognitive Rehabilitation. It’s one of the most restricted psychiatric wards in the UK.

They’ve concluded her homicidal tendencies took root far too early—sixteen to be specific—and are a liability to society. Another influence of the Triarch Dominion.