VILLAIN

Chapter 14

I didn't know where I was going, and I frankly couldn't have cared less. I just ran, as far and as fast as I could, until I couldn't breathe and my legs were aching. Then, I collapsed onto the forest floor, curled my legs up to my chest, and tore up grass with a vengeance. Angry tears fell down my cheeks, and I hated how much Max's words stung.

I hated it because they shouldn't have even mattered. I didn't even like him, and I knew he didn't like me. He was mean and selfish and arrogant and stupid. Why did I care what he thought? I shouldn't. I didn't. Did I?

I groaned, because I knew deep down that I did care, not because it mattered that he thought I was a horrible person. But because I was really, really scared that he was right. Try as I might, I couldn't get his sharp words out of my mind. Instead, they just kept repeating, over and over, like a broken record.

You're still the same witch you always were.

I buried my head in my knees, hating how much it hurt. Why did I care? I knew what I was...right? I wasn't a witch. And I wasn't a failure. I knew that, didn't I? So why did it sting so much? I didn't care what Max said. I didn't care what he thought, right? He was wrong about me, and he always would be. He shouldn't have been able to say anything to make me think differently. So how come he had? I hated it – how someone I didn't even care about had the power to make me feel like such a useless person. Nobody should be able to do that. Nobody should have that power. But he did, and no matter how hard I tried to convince myself otherwise, his words cut deeper than his sword ever had.

I lifted my head, glaring down at my stupid, beautiful dress. I hated that too. Hated how it made me feel. Hated how Max had been able to see right through it, down to the insecure, frightened girl underneath it. I clawed at it with angry fingers, suddenly itching to be rid of its perfect softness. When the petals didn't rip, I grew desperate, ripping at my stupid, pretty hairstyle.

How foolish I'd been! I had let a silly dress make me feel like a completely different person. But I wasn't a different person, and no amount of lovely dresses or fancy hairstyles could change that. I was Mary-Elizabeth Moira Queenston – I always had been and always would be. This dress? This hair? It wasn't me. And it never would be.

I clawed out the flowers, ripping out strands of hair through my frantic moves and not even caring. When I had finally succeeded in disassembling the beautiful braid the fairy queen had meticulously created for me, I let out a quiet, angry sob. Destroying my hair hadn't made me feel any better, and somewhere deep down I had known it wouldn't. I was foolish and immature. I couldn't even handle a harsh word without breaking down into a mess of a person, and I hated that. I hated all of it. And I was done with it.

I stood up, angry determination filling my mind. I looked around, finding the tallest tree I could see. And then I climbed it. I didn't just climb to a comfortable spot, didn't stop once it got challenging, and didn't even once look down. I just climbed, as fast and as high as I could, only stopping once I'd reached the very top branch. There I sat down, letting out a long breath.

I stared at the sky, full of stars, leaning back against the trunk of the tree. There was a spot in my chest that still ached over what Max had said, and the traces of anger still boiled in my stomach when I thought of it. But slowly and surely, I let the silence heal me. I was out of breath from my climb, and somehow it felt good to feel my lungs burn with the exertion. I closed my eyes, taking deep, shaking breaths in and out. My eyes still burned with tears, but they came slower now, trailing down my cheeks bitterly as I sat there.

I wasn't sure how long I was there, exactly, but the sky had long lost the hints of dusk, the light of thousands of stars sprinkled through the blackness. I listened intently to the night, letting its peacefulness slowly mend me. For the longest time, I heard only crickets chirping and the gentle wind rustling the tree's leaves. Then, after what had to have been several hours, I heard the sound of another person climbing my tree, and I begrudgingly opened my puffy eyes.