The Fall

Seraphina PoV

The cripple looked at me. Pleading with her eyes, with her everything. I walked away.

She doesn't know. She doesn't get what you have to do to pursue perfection, the expectations crushing down on you, choking you. She doesn't have to deal with that, because she is free, and I am not.

I heard her screams, her cries for help and mercy, and I kept walking. It wasn't worth it, it would never be.

She ran. Past me, faster than my slow walk.

"Thanks a bunch."

I felt anger, or maybe it was shame.

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The triple chocolate cake, a desert of legends, it's taste whispered between the few students that were fast enough to get a taste. I would have it today.

However, I couldn't run, couldn't ruin my image of perfection. Could not dissapoint those with expectations in me. Even the cripple was faster than me, far faster, running past me in the hallway.

I didn't get there in time. I didn't get any cake. The cake is a lie.

I was dissapointed, atleast until I saw that the cripple had one. Normally I would never even consider doing this, but I really wanted that cake, even if I had to take it.

"Hey, cripple."

She glared at me and responded, "What do you want, my savior?", the last words dripping with contempt and anger.

"Your cake. Hand it over."

"No way, why would I even do that? This cake belongs to me!" She wasnt even looking at me as she dismissed me, as if I wasn't above her. I did something I knew I would regret, and pushed that orb, that light inside me into my body, into every part of myself, through the channels inside me. I was angry, very angry, and I don't even know why.

"Dont make me say it again." I said, as I reached my hand out so she could hand it over. She was shaking, and doing it so slowly, at a snails pace, almost as if she wanted to not do it, but she had to. Even now, she wasn't looking at me, instead choosing to look above my head, as if I was far taller, or even someone else.

She was truly shaking like a leaf in the wind, I guess cripples just are this pathetic.

The cake was so close now, so close I could almost touch the plate. She stopped shaking, for just a second, and she flipped the plate away, throwing it onto the floor.

"Oops, my bad." She was mocking me, mocking me with the rest of them, pushed me below the weight of their expectations again, choking once more. I let it go, onto this insect, this bug, this...cripple.

She flew like a kite with it's strings cut, until she hit the wall, and the blood was flowing down her face, and then for a second I thought it was over, thought she knew she was beneth me. Lower. Lesser.

It wasn't, as her eyes, half closed still gazed out at me, but now it wasn't contempt that was staring into me. It was hatred, not jealousy, not envy, but hatred and amusement. For just a second those orbs of gold forged of hatred stared at me, but it felt longer. Far longer.

I turned and left, but only I would know I was running, running from being judged again.

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I ended up having to work with that failure for a project. She complained to the teacher, like she was the one that would suffer, like she would betray others expectations. Like she would fail due to me.

Very well, I will have to do it myself.

"Hey," it shamed me that I didn't know her name before, I had to be better then the rest, and had to look it up, "Jane, I will do it myself, just read the cards for the presentation."

She glared at me with hatred, with anger, but it nothing on that day in the cafetaria, as she responded. "No, I'll make my own cards thank you very much." She turned away from me, like always, dismissing me like I was nothing.

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We got a B-. A B-. Not even B+ or A-, but B-. Unacceptable.

I stormed out of the classroom, the cripple choosing to stay put, complacent in mediocrity, complacent with failure. The cripple's refusal and belief that it was good enough disgusted me on a level far deeper than it should have been.

She was the lowest of the low, happy with failure, with a participation award.

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I saw the failure's beeline towards me, past the other tables in the library. Where other's might have made me pity them for their failure, all I felt for the cripple was anger.

"Hey Seraphina, let's work together for this part so we do better this time." It made me angry, they way she was trying to drag me down. Make me a failure like her.

So, I did something. I squashed her against a wall, pressing her into it, making her understand who was better. She didn't get it, she didn't understand.

"Listen here, you failure, I dont want your help, I dont want to be near you. What we well do is that I will do the work, and you will read notes I give you, or I will make your life hell. I will break you." I hissed out the last part of that threat, my scorn for this insect hidden in my anger for it.

Then I left, not giving her a chance to reply. I don't know what I would do if I had to listen to her anymore.

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Jane actually did what I told her, for once, and for that effort we got an A. Passable, I suppose. She seemed so happy about it before in class, she even talked to me for some time. I just looked at her, silent, until she walked away.

She ran past me in this hallway. She looked at me again, pleading. This time I almost moved to help her. Almost, but I still turned around, and walked away. She kept running, Crail and Lin after her.

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Jane PoV.

They were after me. I don't know why, they said it was for using Seraphina, but I think they just wanted to have some fun beating the local cripple. They were faster. Not by much but as I ran into the city, not many people out this time during the day, so I found no help, and they were catching up, so I did the next best thing and I turned into an alleway hoping to lose them.

I didn't. They held me down, kicked me, and punched me. One of their hands stopped hitting, but was doing something that was far worse.

The voice I heard in that hospital urged me to reach out again. I listened this time.

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Crail PoV

She wouldn't tell anyone what happened, what would happen. The freak would just limp back to the infirmary again and said she tripped or something stupid like that. No one would care about the cripple's accusations even if she talked.

Then, she changed. Her despair morphed into something else, smile appearing, and her eyes started glowing a malevolent gold. I froze, and as her hand landed on my face I felt pain, almost indescribable for an instant. Less then a tenth of a second but it felt like so much more.

The last thing I saw was those glowing suns of hatred, but not burning, not like before, but cold, and it froze me. Forever.

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Lin PoV.

The cripple changed. She changed into someone, something, a part of me whispered, something to run from, else.

Crail collapsed as the bitch touched him. Fell like a puppet with it's strings cut and from behind her he rose again. Like a specter of what he once was, somewhat translucent, yet not fully, and dark in color. It looked like him but warped, like his arms being larger then before. Then it was infront of my face, clamping down on my wrist, and one of the freak's hands were laid on my face, over my eyes.

It went dark.

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Jane PoV.

Everything was so much clearer now. The veil was gone from my vision, yet it still clouded my memories.

I was injured. I could fix it. I didn't, not when it would hurt my servants, no matter how temporarily. I only had two now, and I knew I couldn't be found before I gathered more. Only William's heartbroken face, so easy to imagine, stopped me from slaughtering the men and women in the buildings around me like sheep.

I vomited until I couldn't anymore, both at my thoughts and at my actions.

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Seraphina PoV.

The failure wasn't glaring at me like she used to. She just sat down, as if she was beaten. As if she had understood that I was above her and she was below me. She didn't complain when I told her I would do part three alone.

I noticed Lin and Crail didn't show up. The teacher didn't even call their names.