Chapter 2
1130 Words
The times I was grateful to be with her—those quiet, tender moments when I’d chatter endlessly about how my day went and she’d listen without a single complaint... when she would brew me tea while I baked her cookies—those were everything to me.
Simple. Warm. Fleeting.
They were my only refuge. My sliver of happiness in a world that hated me.
Yet now I realize…
It was all a lie.
I was wrong to think that we could at least find comfort in each other—that even if the world despised us, we could hold on to each other and breathe freely, even just for a moment.
It was all a delusion.
She wanted me dead.
And all the while I smiled beside her, oblivious... she was planning ways to poison me.
The thought struck me like a blow to the chest. My breath hitched. My hands trembled as they flew to my throat.
The tea.
The one she brewed so carefully with her delicate hands.
I felt my stomach churn violently. The realization burned like acid. I staggered back, trying to stifle a scream, holding back the urge to vomit. My legs gave out, and I fled from the hall in a panicked daze.
I collapsed onto the ground, knees hitting the dirt, body trembling from the inside out. My sobs threatened to erupt, but I bit my lip, trying to hold them in. The pain was unbearable. Not just in my stomach—but in my heart.
Then… I felt a presence slowly approaching.
I looked up slowly, my blurred vision adjusting to the white silhouette before me.
Alana.
The priestess of the moon.
The woman chosen to bear the next Luna.
My mother.
And the one who loathed the day I was born.
A stabbing ache pierced through my chest when her cold, unreadable gaze met mine. Her eyes were pale, misty, like winter frost.
No warmth.
No familiarity.
Only disdain.
“Did you know?” I asked, voice trembling with betrayal.
Her expression didn’t shift. No surprise. No anger. Not even guilt.
“The fact that many people want you dead?” she said calmly. “Or the fact that Elara—your twin—is slowly killing you?”
Her voice was emotionless. Like she was reading a fact from an old book. Like my suffering was irrelevant.
I thought hearing the truth would bring me some peace. But spoken so casually... it was worse than any poison.
It hurt more than the betrayal itself.
“I never asked to be born…” The words escaped my lips, broken and small, as tears spilled down my cheeks.
I wanted—needed—her to deny it. To take it back. To tell me I mattered.
Instead, her response buried the last of my hope.
“I never asked for the two of you either,” she said bitterly.
And I felt it.
Her hatred.
Unrestrained and heavy in every syllable.
“Fate is cruel, child,” she added, turning her back to me. “For you, for your twin... and for me.”
Then she walked away, leaving me hollow.
I didn’t understand what she meant. I didn’t want to understand anymore.
I was tired.
So tired of trying to make sense of a world that never wanted me.
I ran.
Past the elders’ hall. Past the villagers who stared. Past the whispers and mutters and the silent curses they’d cast behind my back.
Let them stare. Let them hate me.
Tears blurred my vision as I reached my cabin. I slammed the door shut and screamed. A scream that clawed its way out from the depths of my soul.
One of heartbreak.
Rage.
Despair.
I didn’t know how long I stayed curled up in a ball, sobbing until my throat was raw, wishing I’d never existed.
Until a knock pulled me out of my numbness.
“Who is it?” I asked, voice groggy and broken.
“It’s Lara,” came the soft reply.
Her.
Even now, her voice was sweet. Gentle. Like an angel’s. Like someone incapable of hate.
But I knew better now.
“What do you want?” I asked, my tone cold and sharp.
“I was told you hadn’t eaten dinner yet,” she replied carefully. “Would you like to eat with me?”
I opened the door slowly. And there she was.
Her face was calm—eerily so. Too calm for someone who had tried to kill me.
Was she that confident I wouldn’t find out?
A bitter chuckle escaped my lips.
“Eat with you? What for? So you can poison me again?” I snapped.
I waited—hoped—for a flinch. For guilt. For some sign of regret. But there was none.
That drove me mad.
“You can stop pretending,” I hissed. “This farce... this lie of a relationship we call family—it’s over. Twin? Sister? That doesn’t mean anything to me anymore.” I stepped forward.
“I trusted you,” I continued, voice rising.
“All my life, I endured because I had you. I held on because I believed in you. And yet... you wanted me dead?”
Elara met my gaze, and a smile formed on her lips—twisted, cruel, and unnatural on her otherwise angelic face.
“A twin, huh?” she said mockingly.
“I don’t consider you my twin. Or family.” Her words sliced through me, deeper than any blade.
“You want me to stop pretending?” she said.
“Fine.”Her eyes darkened. “Then get lost. Or just die.”
Hatred soaked every word. Her voice trembled with it. Like she had held it in for far too long.
I stood frozen. Not in fear... but in shock.
In that moment, the tears stopped.
My bright amethyst eyes dimmed with sorrow.
I turned and walked away. Aimlessly. Through the trees. Past the edge of the village. Into the northern forest, where the world fell silent.
Eventually, I reached a massive lake. Its surface shimmered under the glow of the full moon.
I stared up at the night sky. The moon glowed so brightly, as if mocking me with its purity.
My knees gave out again, and I dropped to the cold ground.
I placed my dagger against my throat. My fingers trembled, but my resolve didn’t waver.
If the Moon Goddess truly watches... then let her see me now.
Let her witness the girl no one wanted.
Let her witness the fate they forced upon me.
And as I shut my eyes, a final prayer echoed in my mind:
“May those who cursed my existence burn in hell.”
- Writer
