Kill The Luna

31

This girl was a complete and total lunatic. She was a walking, breathing madwoman who belonged in a high-security asylum. The burning rage inside my chest was so intense that my knuckles turned white, my entire body shaking with the absolute, raw urge to break out of this crowd and punch her straight across the nose until her face shattered. The two female guards finally let go of my wrists, stepping back into the circle with smug smiles, leaving me standing all alone right in the middle of the dusty field. Everywhere I looked, people were covering their mouths with their hands, their eyes wide with cruel amusement as they giggled and pointed at me.

To make the entire situation a million times worse, the thick protein liquid she had poured all over me was a bright, staining red color. I looked down at my outfit, my heart sinking into my stomach as I saw the sticky, dark goo dripping heavily onto my pristine white shirt, ruining the fabric completely and making me look like a bloody, messy disaster.

Lucy took a dramatic step backward, raising her arms high into the air as she turned around to face the massive crowd of warriors, her voice booming across the training grounds like a professional performer. "Listen up, everyone!" she shouted, a wicked, venomous grin spreading across her beautiful face. "I would love to formally introduce all of you to the absolute newest member of our pack! She actually pulled me aside earlier and desperately whispered a deeply disgusting personal secret to me, begging me not to tell a single soul. But I am so incredibly sorry, everyone, I just cannot keep this hidden from my pack family!"

She paused for dramatic effect, her eyes gleaming with absolute malice as she pointed a finger directly at my face. "She told me that anytime she is on her monthly period, she actually collects her own menstrual blood in a cup and drinks it together with her biological father! She claims that is the real reason why she is always so shy, why she has such terrible social anxiety, and why she is so completely weak! It’s because her own daddy is constantly f*****g her behind closed doors since absolutely no real man in the world wants to touch her!"

The crowd let out a massive, collective gasp, the whispers turning into a roaring wave of disgusted laughter. But Lucy wasn't even close to being done. She leaned forward, her voice dripping with cruel mockery. "And that's not all, everyone! She also confessed to me that sometimes, when her daddy is out of town and she is too desperate to find any other man to f**k her, she actually goes into the kitchen, grabs a regular metal spoon, and uses it to satisfy herself!"

The warriors were practically howling with laughter now, slapping their knees as the humiliating lies echoed through the open air. Suddenly, a loud voice shouted out from the middle of the amused crowd, "Wait, a spoon?!"

"Yes, a spoon!" Lucy yelled back, tossing her head back as she scoffed in absolute contempt. "I mean, what else do you really expect from a pathetic, worthless loser like her? Honestly, I don't even want to mention the disgusting part where she told me she usually stuffs raw hotdogs inside her private parts to get them wet before she takes them to the kitchen and fries them for breakfast!"

The roaring laughter instantly tripled in volume, the sound bouncing off the walls of the estate and crushing my spirit. I slowly looked around the massive circle, my heart breaking into a million pieces as I saw the faces of these strangers. People who didn't know a single thing about my life, people who had never spoken a single word to me, had already completely judged me and turned me into a disgusting, pathetic laughingstock before they even bother to learn my actual name.

The mocking noise reached a deafening peak, and the surrounding crowd completely turned their backs on me, raising their fists into the air as they began loudly cheering for the bully.

"Lucy! Lucy! Lucy!" the crowd chanted in a rhythmic, booming roar.

Lucy began spinning around in slow, triumphant circles in the center of the dirt field, taking a prideful, arrogant victory turn as she soaked in the loud praise of the pack members. She finally stopped, looking over her shoulder to lock her eyes onto mine. Her face carried a smug, challenging expression that practically screamed, *Yeah, I just completely destroyed you. What exactly are you going to do about it?*

I tightly clenched my jaw, my breathing coming in short, ragged gasps as I forced myself to look away from her. I turned my head toward the edge of the circle and caught sight of Ella's face. She was completely pale, her eyes wide with absolute terror and panic as she looked at the aggressive warriors around us. She gave me a desperate, pleading look that clearly signaled, *Please, Fedora, let's just turn around and go back to the room before this gets any worse.*

Looking at my terrified friend, I made a conscious choice to turn around and walk away from the noise. I wasn't doing it out of defeat, and I certainly wasn't doing it because I was scared of Lucy's threats. I was doing it solely to protect Ella from getting dragged into this mess. But deep inside my chest, a dark, freezing cold promise took root in my heart. *I swear to God, I will come back for her,* I thought, my eyes narrowing into slits as I turned my back on the laughing crowd. *I will make her deeply wish she had never even heard the name Fedora in her entire life. Because I am absolutely not the forgiving type. I don't forgive, and I never forget a humiliation.*

I forced my legs to move, holding my head as high as I could through the thick cloud of my own shame as I started walking back toward the estate. The mocking crowd slowly shifted away from me, stepping back to avoid touching the sticky red liquid dripping from my clothes as if I were a diseased animal. I kept my eyes focused entirely on Ella, picking up my pace until I finally reached her side. She instantly reached out, her trembling fingers wrapping tightly around my hand to offer me whatever comfort she could.

But before we could even take a single step away from the training field, a sudden, heavy shadow flashed in the corner of my vision. Another heavy leather training ball came flying through the air with a brutal, bone-crushing amount of force, striking me squarely on the side of my head. The violent impact sent a white-hot explosion of pain straight through my skull, completely knocking the consciousness out of my brain as it sent my body crashing hard onto the solid, unforgiving dirt floor.