“This case is hereby dismissed on account of mental instability. Ruelle shall be restrained in a high facility rehabiliation center and placed under strict watch.”
I sit on the egde of the cot in this rehab as the words resound in my head over and over. There’s an itch in my lower back that infuriates me to no end, however, the straps bind me so tightly I can barely move my fingers.
They call this a place for the mentally unstable. I think what they mean is that I’m a killer, yet somehow, the murder is hard to comprehend.
Her name was Mara who was a wealthy senior at my school, Easton High. She was popular and beautiful, spending every day of her last year trying to ruin me.
From breaking my things to tripping me in the hallway, drenching my locker in squid ink and making sure everyone knew I was worthless.
She was a heartless bitch.
No one believed my reports. Not the teachers. Not even the principal. The students made it worse, especially as they were my only witnesses but all turned a blind eye.
Of course they would. No one wanted to be on the bad side of the school’s biggest patrons. Who was I?
“You are nothing but a lowly orphan on a scholarship; a beneficiary of her family’s ‘kindness’. If I were you, I wouldn’t mess this up.”
At least that’s what the principal drummed into my ears every time I came with a different report. I figured it was useless to keep going, so I stopped.
But on that final day, she crossed a line.
I was already weary to the bones and wanted to just lay down somewhere when she sprouted out of nowhere with her lackeys, cornering me outside the cafeteria.
“If it isn’t the orphan. You know I still wonder why someone like you would still decide to continue leeching off my family’s goodness when you have yours to…oh wait, they deserted you.”
“Poor thing,” another girl echoed from behind her, feigning empathy. The other girls laughed like it was the best joke in history.
“Wait, is that why you were hanging around Collins the other night?” Mara gasped, turning to the girls who cackled like the witches they were.
Fear gripped my heart when she mentioned that. “I–I don’t want any trouble this time, Mara. I never told anyone anything. Please, let me go.”
She stepped close, narrowing her eyes with a wicked shine in them. “Of course, that was you he was telling me about.” Then she did the one thing I never saw coming. “Listen up, guys.”
Half the school turned toward her.
“Little Miss Orphan here lost her v-card to a junior on the night of the campfire last week.”
Pin-drop silence followed her shameless reveal, before snickers of laughter began to ring out.
And there it was in the open for all and sundry. My one moment of vulnerability hung like a dirty linen in broad daylight. My nails dug into my palm as she uttered some more derogatory sentences which they all laughed at.
They were having the time of their lives at the expense of my privacy with Mara cackling in that god-awful, high-pitched sound that grated on my nerves every time she opened her mouth.
Something inside me gave way.
It was a fast, hot blinding wave of rage. Everything, except the roar of blood rushing in my ears, went silent. For a moment, it felt like something else took the reins of my body and kickstarted it into action.
My right hand raised with my palm open, I slapped her.
The sound it made wasn’t a slap. It was a crack like something breaking under pressure.
She fell without a single noise or a struggle and the whole school broke out in a pandemonium.
As her head hit the ground with a sickening thud, the ground around her cheek instantly turned dark red. I stared at her and my palm. I felt it. That rush of energy that didn’t feel like mine before it quickly faded off like spent adrenaline.
Now, there was nothing but a heavy numbness.
Just like that, I put an end to my bully’s life. There was no preamble, no warning, no foreseeing it. My fingers trembled slightly.
Her family were enraged and called me a “murderer” and “ingrate”, cutting off completely all their assistance to the school and charging me straight to court. My foster family left me to my fate in the hands of these wolves as they tore me apart.
But then, the judge made that statement; the one that saved me from being sentenced to death and sent to this fancy prison with white walls and crazed wardmates.
As I lay here, pondering how possible it was for a person of my frame to be able to send her skull collapsing inward with just a slap, the door to my confined space rattles with chains and opens.
It’s the warden.
“You have visitors.” He announces in a clipped tone.
I can't pluck anything from how he sounds. Am I in worse trouble? Has the judge decided his sentence was too lenient and I deserve to rot in jail?
He unattaches my back cord from the wall, keeping the shackles on my feet as he escorts me to an office I remember very well.
Seated in front of the admin are two people with their backs turned to me; a man and a woman.
They both turn at the same time and after one look at each other, a grin breaks out on the man’s face.
They carry an air of dominance I’ve always noticed with Mara’s parents. Only…a lot more. Power and supreme authority; a fusion of which makes my gaze fall to my feet in intimidation.
I’ve never felt like this before.
“Ruelle?” The admin begins, gesturing to the couple as I force myself to meet his eyes. “These are your parents. They’re here to take you home.”
