ACONITE ACADEMY (girlxgirlxgirl)

Chapter E; Grand finale

"Our last time"
40

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⚠️ guns, violence, abuse, bruises, obsessive behavior, death, murder, fire⚠️

Water.

This book started with water.

With rain.

And ended with fire.

And so this last chapter is going to start with water.

And burn.

Astrid gasps for air. She spits out the water that got in her mouth, and shakes off the droplets in her hair and over her face. It's ice cold, just like their laughter that echoes above her.

It's funny really. The same type of glass that Camilla broke in her hand is now holding the last bits of the see through liquid that they are throwing over her. Astrid ignores them. She ignores it all.

Is she strong for ignoring them or just so shocked? Shocked by the fact that her longest and only friend turned out to be the enemy in the end? The woman she considered her personal enemy became her lover, and the woman she loved as a friend turned out to be her worst nightmare.

"Aconite Academy" they said. "The best school in the world for your little girl", they said. And yet Astrid is strapped down to a wooden chair, wrists burning up from scars because of those ropes and eyes filled with tears. And yet she has been hit and torn apart day by day. The best school in the world, a paradise, a place of wonder and extraordinary abilities. And yet like everyone else she has done nothing but suffer since coming here. Day out and day in. It's either suffering in class or suffering in someone's hands.

Even with someone as strong as Adeline on her side, even after managing to turn her biggest enemy into a liability, she is still kicked to the ground and murdered from the inside out. A burning flame of rage fills her from the inside, but the ice coldness of their treatment, and the water splashing over her face calms it all down. Just like they always do. Press her down, press all of it down until there is nothing left. Astrid wasn't sure how much she could take before snapping. Then she realized that she snapped a long time ago, and nothing happened. She instead learned to live with the constant torture of life and eventually stopped caring. Piece by piece they take her apart. Now there is nothing left.

Isn't that a humans worst fear? That when you finally snap, it's not enough? That when you finally give it your all, it's all seen as pathetic and unhelpful? It kills you, Astrid knows that more than anyone. It makes her feel powerless. It makes her realize her lack of worth, and the the harsh reality of life. That at the end of the day we are here to survive and not love, and if we can not find a purpose of this life it's not worth living for.

Adeline's face lights up in her mind. Astrid didn't even realize she was crying until the girls around her started laughing harder. Astrid smiles through her tears. She does have something to live for, or more accurately, something to suffer for. Eventually all humans receive that gift, a person, or something to suffer for. And Adeline is her person. So she looks up at her roommates and decides, that if they punch her on one cheek she'll turn the other. And if they hit her on one arm she'll give them the other. If they tie up her left arm, she'll ask for the right one to be tied as well. Not because she doesn't have anything to live for, but because she has someone to suffer for.

"Maybe you think our friendship wasn't real Camilla, but I know you're just fooling yourself"

Camilla, who hasn't spoken up for the past ten minutes, finally laughs. After revealing the truth she allowed her roommates to do whatever they wanted to Astrid, before sitting down on the couch and waiting for Genevieve. Other than a slap to her left cheek and a punch to her arm, along with the water throwing, Astrid hasn't been subjected to much abuse just yet. Mostly just taunting, which she couldn't even register at the start from being so shell shocked.