The next afternoon Mom opened the door to Mrs. Rowell and the rest of her family.
"Hello, good afternoon, Catherine. Very nice to see you."
"Very nice to see you too, Mary-Ellen."
"This is Light." Mrs. Rowell says showing my mom her newborn son in her arms.
"Oh he's a beautiful baby."
"He is."
"And who are these two?"
"My nieces Charlotte and Sienna."
Charlotte and Sienna.
Charlotte is Vrai's real name.
Shit.
"Nice to meet you two. I'm Catherine. You both seem like sweet girls."
They aren't.
"Come on in." Mom gestures them inside. "Kids, our guests are here! Come say hello!" , she calls to us from the door.
"Can't. Gotta go...do some important things..."
"Avia Amelie Caylor I told you to be nice to our guests and that includes greeting them."
"Ugh, okay." I walk over to the Rowell's and Lovelin's and the first thing I see is my mortal enemy staring me down with a grin.
I put a warm look on my face , fake smiled and held my hand out to shake even though I hate shaking hands with people. "Hello, Mrs. Rowell, I'm Avia."
Mrs. Rowell does her stupid over-smile again shaking my hand. "Yes, I remember you from Luna's party."
"Yep, that's me."
"Do you wanna meet the baby?"
Would it be rude to say no?
"Yes..."
"Mary-Ellen, how about we all sit on the couch?"
"Oh, yes. We should."
We all gather on the couch as I watch baby Light get passed around while everyone holds him and looks at him like he's the most adorable thing ever.
"Avia, you want to hold him?"
Hesitantly, I say "Yes..."
I really didn't want too.
Mrs. Rowell handed me baby Light and his little ice blue stared up at me. He smiled at me.
I'm actually warming up to this little squirt. Much quicker than I expected.
"Okay you can take him back now." I say handing him back to Mrs. Rowell.
—
I went upstairs to my room and forgot to shut my door, when I turned around I see Vrai staring me down.
"The hell are you doing here? Go away."
She just laughed , grabbed my wrist and held on to it as hard as she could , making sure I couldn't escape. "Not a chance."
She takes me to the bathroom and locks the door.
"What the hell? Let me out, now."
"I'll let you out after I do what I...or we...need to do."
"We?"
Vrai gives a signal and suddenly Romi and Khailea came through the window.
"What the hell? You guys pop out of fucking nowhere."
"Girls...you know what to do." Vrai says as Khailea and Romi push me into the bathtub.
Vrai pulls out a bottle of bleach from the cabinet and pours it all over my body.
"What the hell was that?" I yell.
"It gets better."
"Why are you still doing this , I think we're even."
"Avia, I don't go for even, I go for the win."
I pull myself up and grab a towel rack. "Eat this, kid!" I swing the towel rack at her and she ducks.
"So now you fight!", she scowled.
"You know, Avia. You're so dim. You should smile more." She takes out her switchblade and holds me against the wall sliding the knife across one side of my face from the corner of my lip to my cheek. She cut really deep and I bleed all over myself. She laughs and right as I least expect it, she flicks on a lighter and throws me back in the tub. "Face it , Avia. You've lost." Romi grabs my hair and makes sure that I can't get back up. "It's over, Avia." she moves the lighter toward me and lit my leg on fire.
I screamed as the flame grew and spread across my whole body. Just then I hear Dad outside the door, "Avia! Are you okay?"
I couldn't answer as I was in the worst pain I've ever been in.
I don't want to burn alive...
The girls leaped out of the window as Dad broke the door down.
The last thing I saw was Dad trying to put out the fire...before everything went dark.
—
I was standing on the edge of a cliff looking down at Em', lighter in my hand. Flames were everywhere. Everything was burning down in front of me.
"Avia!" I hear Em's voice call out to me. "Help! Please! Avia, stop!"
I look down at the lighter in my hands covered in ash as I feel a hand lightly touch my shoulder. Then I heard a voice, one I didn't recognize. "Avia...pretend you don't hear her. Let it all burn."
I hesitate for a moment flipping the lighter around in my hand.
"Avia!" Em' keeps screaming in agony.
I suddenly felt like I had lost all control of myself, like someone had taken over my brain .
"Avia!"
I glare at her. "Em', what's the point of screaming for help if no one's around to hear you?"
"Avia..." she put up her arm as if she was trying to reach for me.
"Sweet dreams, Em'" I lit a bridge between the cliffs on fire and it all fell on top of Em'.
I just stared in silence as it all came crashing down.
—
I woke up to the beeping sound of a heart monitor. I was in the hospital but I couldn't see because of bandages wrapped around my face.
Then I heard people come in the door.
"What's going on? Is she okay? Please tell me she's okay." I hear my mom cry, she was freaking out.
"Yes, she's okay. It's a miracle that there's no severe burns. Except for around her eyes a little, but everything else appears to be fine."
"Thank goodness."
"Avia, we need you to stand up. We'll guide you." The doctor says while I feel my mom take my hand. I slowly put my feet on the ground.
"There we go, you got it." Mom says softly.
They guided me into the waiting room.
"Is everything okay, Dr. Axford?" I hear Em' ask with concern in her voice. I can feel that she was worrying.
"Yes, sweetheart. Your sister is doing fine. However, her face..."
"W-what about her face?" Mom quivers.
"Well..."
Dr. Axford sat me in a chair and started to gently remove my bandages.
Once the final bandages were removed my family gasped and looks of fear spread across their faces.
"What's wrong?" I ask looking down at my arms. I was super pale...my skin had gone from tan to almost paper white. A string of my hair fell in front of my eyes, it was now black. I don't know how that could've happened. "Seriously, what the hell is wrong with my face? Why won't anybody say?"
"Avia, honey, it's that bad, I promise." Mom says softly.
I get up and go across the room to look in the mirror.
Holy shit.
"Mom, are you kidding? Not that bad?"
She has a nervous look on her face when I turned around to look at her. I then look back at myself in the mirror. My burnt eyelids , my pale skin, my messy dark hair. The scar Vrai drew on my face was stitched up.
"It's perfect."
"Huh?" My whole family says all at once.
"I love it!" My hands start to twitch and I laugh uncontrollably.
"Is she okay?" Mom asked Dr. Axford.
"Yes. Don't worry, Mrs. Caylor. This kind of behavior is normal for people on so many painkillers."
"When will she go back to normal?"
"I don't know. It varies per patient but usually just a few days."
"Oh, thank goodness."
"Cmon , Avia lets go home." She takes my hand and we all head out to the car.
—
The car ride was silent , the only sounds you could here were the radio and Dad flipping paperwork.
"Avia, do you want to watch a movie with me when we get home?" Blake asks.
"S-sure." I respond.
"Avia, you seem kinda shaky and jittery. I think you should rest when we get home."
"Yeah, Emmaline's right, Avia. You need rest." Mom says from the driver's seat.
"No. I'm fine."
"Avia, listen to us. We know what's best for you right now."
"Will she be able to go to school tomorrow?"
"I don't think so, Charles."
I was still twitching in my seat and I hear Vrai's voice in my head ,
"It's over, Avia, you've lost."
—
Once we got home Mom ordered Em' to take me upstairs.
Em' put her hands on my shoulders and I swung at her. She landed on the floor and I had accidentally hit her in the face , her nose was bleeding.
"Avia! What's gotten into you?" Mom shouts rushing to help Em'.
What the hell is happening?
It feels like someone else is controlling my body.
—
I headed to my room on my own and sat on my bed. I think I'm going crazy. Vrai made this mess. None of this wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for her. This was all her fault.
I opened my journal and took the dagger I had hid in it out from between the pages. I flipped around to the page where I had kept the pictures of Vrai, Khailea, and Romi that Rowan gave me and tore the whole page out. I held the page in my hand and stabbed all three photos repeatedly out of anger.
They are going to pay for what they did. Commit the crime, do the time.
