Pain for Suffering

Prologue•Experience

Echo
It all started on one fateful day. The start or softmore year.

I had just moved to a new town, out of state from where I grew up. My mom got a job up in Maine, where I reside now. We came up north from Florida. Big difference in weather, as you may expect.

What I didn't know about was what was waiting for me at school. Specifically, who was waiting for me. Her name was Julia Kil.

It was the second day. The first had been a breeze, my only worry being the blonde girl who kept glaring at me like I'd done something to hurt her. Her dark blue eyes always seemed darker when she stared, and they always had a certain glint to them when I was in sight.

She looked...so much more beautiful than I did. With her naturally tan skin, and luscious blonde wave. Her blue eyes only added to her beach-like appearance. My dead straight black hair and forest green eyes I had always hated, and the fact that my pale skin made me look almost ghost like. I hated my appearance.

But...one awesome thing from the first day was that this boy talked to me. Right when I stepped in, he approached me. He had beautiful golden hair, pale skin, and chocolate brown eyes. He told me how to get around the school, and where all my teacher's were. He was so dreamy...

Right, the second day. Back to then. I walked past the school gates, seeing her leaning against a tree, her gaze locked on something in the distance. She glanced towards me, instantly looking angry. She stomped over towards me, grabbing my elbow harshly and pulling me behind the tree she once leaned on.

"Listen here, freak. Stop acting like you own the school. Learn your place on the social spectrum." She hissed in a low whisper.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I whisper shouted.

"You...you talked to him. Ryan Ilix. The hottest boy in the school. I have my eyes set on him, bitch. Lay off."

"Correction; he talked to me."

Her scowl deepened. "Learn. Your. Place. Freak."

She walked away, into the building. To say the least, I already hated her. But I didn't even know the half of it.

Julia
My life was perfect. I was rich, good-looking, and the most popular girl in school. Everything was perfect...until that little freak Echo came along. She stole Ryan Ilix from me.

I watched her approach him on her first day. They talked for a bit, then she left. I stormed up to Ryan with a scowl, taming him off the sidewalk.

"Why are you talking to that freak?!" I screeched.

"Hey, woah, no need to overreact. I was just making sure she knew how to get around the place. Chill." He said calmly.

"Chill?! I am chill! Shut your pretty little mouth and explain!"

"How does that even make any fucking sense?!"

I stormed off. He left me no choice but to leave. I had things to take care of...

Echo
The physical pain started a month or so after she taunted me. Kicking, slapping, hitting, you name it. She'd do it to me.

I could only stuck up for myself that first day. The next, it was worse, and I lost my speech. I couldn't talk back anymore.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" She says tauntingly.

I shook my head frantically, trying to find my ability to speak again. I couldn't talk for the life of me.

"Are you too scared to talk?"

It haunted me like a ghost from a past beyond remembrance. Her taunting words, her cruel insults, her painful actions, everything. The way she'd ram her expensive shoes into my ribs every day on my shortcut through the woods. They made me feel safe, and she realized that, taking advantage of my safe place.

My tears stained my cheeks like yesterday's paint, my eyes were red and bloodshot like a strained scab or cut, and my bruises left marks like smudged pastels. She'd inflicted far too much pain for me to accept any longer, all through the halfway mark of junior year. It was time for payback.
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A/N
Just saying...but I'm incredibly happy with those similes in the last paragraph. (They have like in them, okay?) Anyways, I kinda crammed all this into one chapter/prologue because I write this book because I really want to write an extensive torture scene. So...pain next chapter? And a special thank you to Razor_Midnight for the awesome cover!