Cinderella: A Fractured Fairytale

Fifty-Nine

Chapter 59

Ethan's POV

***

She never loved me.

The reality stared me in the face, though I longed to run from it. To go back to how everything was before.

But even then, even when I had been happy...

It had all been a lie.

The darkness pressed in, almost a tangible substance. I could taste it, feel it.

Hear it.

The voices had always haunted me. You're hopeless, they said, you're doomed. Your destiny is to become exactly who your father was, exactly who your brother is. You'll never escape it.

Fop a long time, I had believed Ana would be the one to save me. To keep me from walking down those roads of darkness.

And now the truth, the terrible, twisted truth, had come out.

She had never been meant to save me.

She had never been meant to help me.

Instead, she had been a warning. She had been the one to show me everything I could never have. When I'd reached for it, it had slipped through my grasping fingers.

And now I was slowly breaking.

I had thought I could do it. Win her heart back, memories or no memories, but it was obvious that she didn't care for me. And while she was busy making eyes at the prince, all I could do was curse myself for hoping. For wishing.

Hope is the root of all disappointment. All sorrow. All pain. I realized. If I hoped for nothing and received nothing, I would never be disappointed.

Hope is a beautiful lie. But despair is a terrible truth.

And then.

What's the point of going on if I had no future to live for? If all I can ever hope to become is a bitter villain who only desires to cause pain for others, how can the better choice be life?

Is death sometimes better?

A sudden pain attacked my chest, and I gasped, doubling over. My heartstone was flickering wildly, as if unable to decide whether or not it wanted to keep glowing. I felt my magic dying inside of me.

No!

Hold on a little longer. the voice inside me whispered. Maybe there's still hope. Maybe Ana will warm to you. Maybe.....

Maybe.