Cinderella's Ghost

Chapter 18: Heartbreak

See that pretty cover up there? It was a cover made by the awesome @elvionina a few years back, when I first thought up of this story. :) Thank you so much once again!

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Chapter 18

I felt like I was back to the time when Carrie found me out. Almost. This time, my heart was beating faster than ever, all the insecurities seeming to use this weakness to their advantage, making me wonder why I didn't stop trying to take risks earlier. I tried taking deep breaths from where I stood. Jarell's attempts to calm me were wasted as I focused only on the door in front of me. Finally, I decided to open it. I stepped in slowly. For the first time in a while, I did not announce my arrival home. I entered the living room, expecting Carrie to be there, only to find it empty. A sound from upstairs immediately caught my attention. Lilla and Lina. They were in my room.

"Shit," Jarell growled, and turned to look at me.

I didn't need a cue from him. I found myself running up the stairs in record time, then turned to enter my sanctuary. The sight in front of my made me gasp and sigh in anguish.

It was in utter chaos, as though a tornado had run through it. My dresser table was overturned, lying on the floor beside my bed, the only thing untouched. The precious porcelain vase I had used for the golden flower was broken into pieces, and the flower was left naked. My wardrobe was ransacked. Every little thing inside it was removed and scattered around the floor. Photographs were out of their compartments in the photo albums, some of them torn into tens of pieces. I imagined Lilla and Lina tearing at them, at the photographs of my parents, and felt anger boiling from the very depths of my soul.

I stepped forward, quickly reaching Lilla, who was going on to tearing at my clothes. "What in the world are the both of you doing?"

They looked slightly shocked by my presence, seeming to have been so into what they were doing that they had failed to realise I was there. At last, both directed smirks at me.

"Well, well, look who's finally home," Lilla said.

I grabbed at the shirt she was holding on to. "Let go," I growled.

"Fine," she said lazily, and she did. "It's just some cheapo shirt anyway. You should just throw it away and make yourself look less like a beggar."

"Get out of my room!" I shoved her.

Lina scoffed. "Only mom is allowed to tell us what to do, not you." She bent down to take another photograph. It was of me, as a baby, in my mother's arms. She held it, making a move to tear it. "No!" I rushed forward, but Lilla held me back, and I watched helplessly as the photograph was torn again, and again, each tear sending waves of pain through my heart.

"Aww, look at her, she's crying!" Lilla laughed beside me. "We should totally take a video of this and show it to Simon, Lina. He'll have a fit he didn't get to see this spectacle live."

Lina brought out her phone. I made a grab for it, and it dropped to the floor. She bent to retrieve it. "Hey, you've broken the screen!" She pushed me hard with rage.

"Why are you doing this?" I screamed.

"Actually, we have our mom to thank. She was the one who put this idea into our heads, you know, if we ever come home early on one of those rare days and find that you're not home, to come in here and wreck everything. But this is also the revenge we seek." Lilla frowned. "We don't know what you did and said to our friends, but it was no thanks to you that they left us. Only Simon's willing to hang out with us now, and maybe even Jarell, but sadly he's in the hospital fighting for his life, and it's not helping us feel any better."