"This is for me!" Acacia gritted out as she slammed the pipe down on his face, his body hitting the ground."This is for Mirkil!" She hit his face with more force and speed, "And this is for Christine, you bastard!Damn you! Damn you!!" Acacia''s voice choked with tears falling down her cheeks and she hit his face once more. The pain on her face, the ache in her stomach and the numbness of her right leg seemed to all disappear as her anger took over her very soul. She didn''t know how long she was hitting his face until her arms grew tired and she stopped.


    His face was completely battered and disfigured. Blood stained every inch of his face and she slowly wiped the tears from her cheeks.


    ''What have I done?''


    Acacia slowly looked down at the pipe that was now stained with blood, her entire body shuddered at the sight and she backed away from him. Her sharp pain struck her leg and she immediately knelt down to the ground, the numbness of her right leg spreading to her hips and waist.


    ''Do not think about him. Do not think about him.


    She chanted in her head as she crawled on the pavement towards Christine and Mirkil''s bodies on the ground.


    "Hey..." Christine smiled weakly at that sight of her friend reaching out to her.


    "How are you feeling?" Acacia asked and looked at her hands covering her stomach and her uniform stained with blood.


    "For starters, I feel really weak and lightheaded." Christine closed her eyes and sighed.


    "You will be fine, someone will come and we will be..." Acacia folded her hands tightly until her nails dug into her palm.


    "....Acacia, I don''t think I will be fine."


    "You will! You have to..." Acacia gritted her teeth and took deep breaths to calm down.


    "I hate to break the sweet moment but I feel kind of left out." Mirkil spoke out with his hand on his stomach. A pool of blood surrounding his body.


    "You''re alive...?" Christine questioned in a weak voice.


    "Yup, my body is trying to heal itself but it can only fix the minor damage." Mirkil mentioned.


    "I see," Acacia glanced at his body for a moment before looking back at his face.


    "The bastard is dead?" Mirkil inquired with a hint of curiosity.


    "I think so." She glanced at the limp body of the man on the ground.


    "I wasn''t expecting you to break his face." Christine commented.


    Acacia let her body rest against the floor as the numbness started to spread to her second leg.


    "Well I wasn''t expecting you to bite him." Acacia replied.


    "Strangely enough, I''ve always wondered how being stabbed would feel like if I became a hero. So far the experience is more unpleasant than I imagined." Mirkil said in a soft voice.


    "You are weird." Christine said.


    "Definitely weird."


    "I thought you were both used to it ." Mirkil smirked as he watched the sky and the clouds.


    The three of them stayed in silence, not uttering any other word to each other as they enjoyed the quiet moment between them until Mirkil spoke up.


    "I was excited about graduation and moving to the next level in my life..."


    "We were all looking forward to graduation." Acacia murmured weakly and her vision blurred slightly.


    "How about we close our eyes and imagine we are graduating, dressed in our graduation outfits, writing our wishes in a paper and burning it up by the bonfire so that it comes true."


    Acacia closed her eyes and smiled at the fake imagery in her head, dancing around with her friends as they took numerous photos and collected their certificates.


    "That made me feel a bit better." Christine slowly closed her eyes and her figure slowly slumped to the ground.


    "You can also imagine me asking you to be my girlfriend.


    "What?"


    "Will you be my girlfriend?"


    "Are you really asking me that, right now?"


    "Well, I was planning to ask you during our graduation but my insides are... spilling out and the world is ending. So just pretend I have flowers and I look incredibly handsome in a tailored fitted suit."


    "...yeah I''ll be your girlfriend." Christine chuckled and opened her eyes to look at him only to catch him already staring at her with a small smile on his face.


    ''His timing is unbelievable.''


    Acacia slowly opened her eyes and stared off at the sky, she waited for her friends to talk but neither spoke up. Four minutes passed and she heard the sound of something like a machine.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "Hey guys?" I think I hear something''


    Acacia turned her head to look at Christine but she didn''t move, her eyes were open with a smile on her face but she wasn''t blinking. Acacia was confused and crawled on the ground, dragging her legs against the concrete as she reached her side and pressed her hand on her chest and waited for the familiar beat of life.


    ''No..''


    Acacia took a deep breath and removed her hand, shaking her shoulders desperately.


    "Wake up! Dammit!"


    She turned her head to face Mirkil but noticed that his eyes were also open with a small smile on his face. Her breath hitched and she crawled over to him and tapped his arm but no response, she didn''t know what to feel in that moment and just sobbed, the lump in her throat felt heavy as she tried to wrap her head around it.


    "Are they just gone? Just like that? So easily? We were going to graduate or maybe I''m in a realistic dream, a horrible dream that will soon be over. Yes...a bad dream... Christine is probably waiting for me at school, my mother and father are  waiting for me downstairs for breakfast...my brother is on the news as always."


    She held her head in her hand and muttered to herself like a prayer, waiting for the prayer to be answered as she refused to look at her friends bodies. She saw a red butterfly landing in front of her, her mind momentarily distracted by the sight.


    "Acacia?"


    The familiar voice jolted her senses, the sounds of boots on the ground as the figure walked towards her and the butterfly flew away. She raised her head to see a tall man with short brown hair and blue eyes, donned in an elegant white attire.


    "Lucian?" She said weakly.


    "Oh sister, you look horrible."


    "Lucian please, help them." Acacia looked up at her brother and pleaded.


    Lucian turned his head to see the sight of her friend''s lifeless bodies on the ground.


    "I don''t think they can accept help anymore, Acacia." He replied and his gaze flickered everywhere, taking in the pipe, the man on the floor with his face bashed in and the dark spots on his sister''s legs.


    "Looks like you had quite the adventure, I''m guessing you were attacked by that man."


    "Yes...he acted weird and suddenly started to attack...." Acacia groaned and felt another pain strike her legs upwards to her waist.


    "You were poisoned and by the spots, I''m guessing it was by the mangold lizards. Strangely enough, you should be dead by now but no. You are still kicking."


    "Excuse me? Look, I need a healer and maybe they could still save my friends." Acacia sighed heavily.


    "Now why would I do that? Your friends are dead and I have been waiting for this opportunity to kill you." Lucian smiled sweetly and crouched down to her level, removing the headband from her head.


    "Why?" Acacia asked with a look of disbelief and her stomach started to feel numb.


    "Well it all started before you were born, I think you were a few months or weeks. I can''t recall properly. Lucian played with her headband as he spoke. "Our dear mother got pregnant with you but she didn''t want another child for father. They didn''t see eye to eye in most things, so when she got pregnant again she tried to get rid of it. I was hiding in her closet to surprise her when I saw her coming inside and swallowing the pill and waited for hours but nothing happened. She went to the bathroom and I sneaked out of the room like nothing happened."


    ''Mother tried to...kill me?''


    "She doesn''t know I saw her but I didn''t understand then, until far later when I was fifteen? I think so. I then realized that you were supposed to die but you refused. At first I didn''t care whether you had abilities or not, I just didn''t want you to stand in my way. I thought, since you had no abilities you would stare hidden in a corner but no, my dear sister just had to make herself known somehow." Lucian slowly stepped on Acacia''s hands, twisting the heel of his boots against her flesh as she cried out in pain.


    "It was so irritating watching you become the best in your classes, win awards from useless academic contests. What did I hate the most? Was how you saw me as your equal, it was laughable at how prideful you were because grandfather showed you a bit of respect." Lucian scoffed and broke the headband in half.


    "So the thought of me being equal to you is enough for you to want to kill me? Are you really that sick in the head? Isn''t your fame and attention enough?" Acacia glared up at him. He rolled his eyes and removed his boots from her hands.


    "I guess I am sick in the head, I don''t know why every time I see you. There is this urge to end your life, like an itch that I absolutely have to scratch. So don''t blame me sister, I am simply helping you. You can live a good life in your next life or have fun with your friends in the afterlife."Lucian smiled and slowly water materialized out of thin air and formed around his skin, taking the shape of a blade.


    "Even though I was jealous of you, I never wished you ill. Never..." Acacia replied in a murmur.


    "Spare me the theatrics, the Algernon family has no use for you, just think of it as a kind gesture. I''m ending your life instead of letting you suffer until the poison reaches your heart." Lucian''s smile dropped for a moment before he smiled again."Don''t bother screaming, I covered the entire space with a barrier so that we can have some privacy but might spare your life if you beg ."


    "May your life be damned." Acacia mumbled out in a weak voice.


    "Tsk and I was looking forward to seeing you beg but oh well." He clicked his tongue and positioned the water blade against her back, stabbing her without hesitation. "Goodbye Acacia Algernon."


    Her body went limp on the ground and she coughed out blood while watching his leaving form. The scent of her blood filled her lungs.


    ''This is the end, I can see it clearly. I''m beyond saving, beyond the point of no return. I''m dying and everything is hazy, I can''t make sense of it all. I feel light-headed, but my head''s too heavy to lift. The irony. If only I could wipe that smile off his face and kill him, if only I was strong enough, if only...''


    The red butterfly flew back and landed on her face.


    ? Do you really want to kill him? ?


    ''Yes.''


    ? Delightful ?


    ???? ???? ????


    "Hey! Look over there! It''s an egg or something?"


    "Don''t touch it!!!"


    "It looks weird."


    "What if it''s a beast? Maybe we can raise it!''


    "I said don''t touch it!! Are you trying to die? You know what?  Go ahead, my blood pressure will finally reduce when you are gone."


    ''So many voices...''


    ''Where am I?''


    "I''m gonna touch it."


    "Boss we found something weird and huge and Kel wants to touch it!"


    "He will be fine, hopefully."


    ''What''s huge? Why is everything so sticky, I can''t open my eyes.''


    "It''s so hard."


    "And he is touching it."


    Bang! Bang!


    ''What is that?''


    "It broke! And liquid is coming out."


    "Why would you break it?! Don''t lick the fluid, you imbecile!"


    "Aww...hey there''s a hand in here!."


    "....is there a person in it?"


    "Holy heavens, there''s a person in it!"


    "Is the person dead?"


    "Um, there''s a pulse on the wrist... Yay! A new member of our family!


    "Don''t be ridiculous, they could be dangerous."


    ''is it me?''


    Air exploded into Acacia''s lungs, jolting her awake. Her body shuddered violently in the unexpected embrace. Her body felt sticky and watery.


    "It''s a little lady."


    "What should we do with her boss?"


    "Well, she isn''t food and she is alive, maybe a beast kept her in its cocoon or whatever. Anyways we are taking her in."


    "Do you all have no sense of potential danger?''


    "I''m sure we will be fine, Felix."


    "Hey girlie! How did you get stuck in there?"


    Acacia felt a finger pressing her cheek but didn''t respond as she felt sluggish. She blinked and took in the unfamiliar faces.


    "Don''t overwhelm her."


    "I''m sure she is fine, also she got wings! We finally have someone that can fly."


    ''Wings?'' What wings?!''