Played For A Fool

The Day It All Went Wrong

Excitement rushed through Cinder as she drove home. She thought of telling Peony that she had met Kaito Prince, grinning at the mere thought of how thrilled Peony would be. She would probably insist on coming to work with Cinder every day for the rest of their lives, though Cinder wouldn't mind the company.

Everything was just as it should be, even if Cinder still had Adri to deal with. She couldn't care less what kind of torture Adri had planned for Cinder, because seeing Peony happy was all that Cinder cared about. 

There had been times when Cinder had contemplated leaving the Lihn's house forever, leaving the Commonwealth, but Cinder knew that she couldn't leave Peony. Peony was the only piece of family that Cinder had left. Without her, she would be broken.

When Cinder got to her street, her heart was still happy and excited to tell Peony that she saw her celebrity crush. She was actually enjoying life, until she reached her house and immediately realized that something was wrong. 

There was an ambulance outside of the Lihn residence, and as she stepped out of her car and  closer to the scene her stomach dropped as she saw a small figure sitting inside the emergency vehicle, tears streaming down her panicked face.

 Peony sat inside with multiple medical personnels surrounding her. Dread curled inside Cinder's stomach as she tried to come up with reasonable explanations for why Peony would be sitting in an ambulance.

Hundreds of valid explanations left Cinder's mind as she stepped closer to her sister. There was a reason why Peony looked to horrified. She wasn't sitting in an ambulance for any trivial reason. Peony had a blue rash spreading up her arms, and that could only mean one thing. Peony had the blue fever. Letumosis.

Cinder was in complete shock. How could Peony have Letumosis? Peony was a perfectly healthy 14 year-old girl who almost never got sick. Letumosis wasn't even that common anymore, seeing how people got locked up to die right after it made its appearance.

Letumosis had sprung into existence one day when Dr. Levana Blackburn's lab experiment had gone horribly wrong. It spread like crazy to some, but left others completely unharmed. Some people were inexplicably immune to the disease, while others were utterly vulnerable. There was no explanation. No one, not even the brightest scientists were yet able to explain why some were immune, while others were not.

They called it the Lunar effect after the name of Dr. Blackburn's company. Those who were immune were called Lunars, but you didn't know if you were a Lunar until you are exposed to the disease.

Thousands died within the first weeks of the diseases existence, and thousands more had died in the twelve years that it had thrived, seeing how there was no cure. The disease wasn't even treatable. Once one contracted the blue fever, it was over. There was one result that came from the disease. Death.

Dr. Rikan Prince, Kaito Prince's father, had started the Letumosis Cure Foundation. He even had a new Commonwealth Hospital built just for the purpose of finding a cure for letumosis after his wife was taken by the disease, though not cure had yet been found.

Lead scientist Dr. Sage Darnel, who originally worked for Dr. Blackburn, had published so many articles and had so many near breakthroughs on the cure but never quite found it. It seemed impossible.

Cinder felt hopeless as she stared at her sister. Peony was one of the only good things in Cinder's life. She was the only reason that Cinder stayed with Adri and Cinder knew that Peony was the reason why Adri kept Cinder after her husband Garan had died of letumosis.

Garan had adopted Cinder when nobody else had wanted her. He had made her a part of his family and then died only a few short weeks later to leave Cinder with a wretched stepmother and stepsister who hated her. Adri and Pearl both hated her and Peony was the only one who had truly accepted her into the family.

It's not like Cinder was some demonic being just for looking different from most people. In the crash that had taken Cinder's parents and left Cinder an orphan, it had also taken something else from her. Cinder's left hand and leg suffered horrible third degree burns that had left the most hideous scars and left her without the ability to cry because of the severe damage to her tear ducts.

Sure, Cinder always wore long pants, boots, and gloves to cover it up, but Adri and Pearl still knew and hated her for it. They had even gone so far as to making her expose her burns as punishment when they were especially mad at her.

Pain was all that Cinder could feel, and she didn't even realize that she was running toward Peony until two strong arms grabbed her and held her back. "Cinder," Peony sobbed, "I'm sick!" Cinder struggled to break free from her captors. She had to see Peony. She couldn't let her die alone in that terrible place.

"Peony, you're gonna make it through this. They are going to find a cure. You're not going to die!" Cinder yelled. She tried to shove away from the monsters keeping her away from Peony, but they wouldn't budge. "Let me go! I need to see my sister!" Cinder screamed at her detainers.

One of them looked at her sympathetically and said, "You can't see her, she has letumosis."

Cinder screamed, fighting like a caged bear to get free. She tried everything in her power to break the grips of those holding her, but it was no use. Cinder watched, every nerve screaming as the ambulance door closed and drove away taking all of Cinder's hope with it. The two that were holding her let go of Cinder and she fell to the ground, completely numb.

Cinder didn't know how long she sat there staring absently at where the ambulance had just been. It could have been days for all that Cinder knew. She was shaking, but no tears came. They would never come, and Cinder hated herself for it.

When she finally picked herself off the ground, she climbed up the steps to her apartment. She knew that Adri would be there and that she would not be pleasant.

Cinder opened the door and was not surprised to see Adri sitting on the sofa. She tried to avoid eye contact and leave but Adri stopped her. "Cinder," Adri whispered threateningly, "I want you out."

Sagging, Cinder felt fear wash over her. She had expected this, but it was still hard for her to process. "Why?" She asked. "Where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to do?" Cinder regretted saying it the second the words left her lips.

Adri was furious. "You know that Peony was the only reason that we kept you, you disgusting creature! You've never been anything but a burden on this family and it's time that you finally leave us!" Adri snarled, and Cinder almost expected her to spit at her feet.

Cinder began trembling again, except this time it was with anger, not grief. "I didn't ask to be like this!" Cinder yelled, losing her cool.  "I didn't ask for to get in that car accident and for my parents to die! I didn't ask to get nearly burned alive! I never wanted ANY of this!" Cinder screamed. She was seething. How could Adri stand there and blame her because of fate? It wasn't fair, but when had Cinder's life ever been fair?

"You've got three days to find a place before I want you out, or else I'm calling the police." Adri threatened. "I don't ever want to see you again." Adri whispered in a dangerous voice. Cinder knew that her decision was final and that there was no point arguing.

Cinder left and went to her closet of a bedroom. It technically couldn't even be called a bedroom because there wasn't a single window. Cinder flopped down onto the bed and screamed into her pillow. Cinder was being kicked out. She didn't have a family, a home, friends... She did have Iko, and a couple other people who she might be able to trust, but no one that she could burden herself upon. Peony was going to die and Cinder was completely alone.

Cinder felt guilty for being so selfish. Peony was alone in some secluded hospital room knowing that she was at death's doors. She was just as alone as Cinder and had even less hope. 

Sitting up straight, Cinder took in a deep breath, counted to 5, and then let it out. She fixed her thin brown hair into a messy pony tail and took in another calming breath. She could figure this out. She couldn't give up hope. She could happily live her life without her wretched stepmother and stepsister and maybe, just maybe get over the horrible heartbreak that was Peony.