Can you imagine it, Inspector?
Ella rolled up her sleeve and showed the bruise on her arm to Fairy, to Alice, to practically the whole class.
"Drizella hit me yesterday," she said, displaying a wound she actually got from falling. And of course, she wore that fragile, pitiful expression like it was part of her uniform.
"That's so cruel!"
"How could she do that?"
"Are you okay? I thought Drizella was a nice girl…"
The ones who used to doubt the rumors slowly started siding with Ella. Some of them even told her to go rest in the infirmary and clean the bruise with antiseptic. But Ella just shook her head.
"No." She gave them a soft, tragic smile and gently rubbed the bluish mark on her arm. "I'm used to it. Something like this will heal in two days anyway."
Then the stares came. One after another.
Side glances. Accusing stares. Eyes that judged, that looked down on us, that quietly sentenced us as guilty. The sympathy they had for Ella flipped in an instant and turned into hatred aimed straight at me and Drizella.
"Why are you guys so mean?"
"She's your own sister!"
"How can you treat her like that?"
Drizella, sitting beside me, clenched her fists. I saw her face turn red, her breathing getting uneven. Before I could calm her down, she was already on her feet, shouting at the crowd around Ella's desk.
"You're all so stupid!" She pointed directly at Ella. "Can't you see you're being lied to? Everything she said is fake!"
Then she told them what really happened. How she grabbed Ella's arm that day to demand an explanation. How Ella struggled to break free. How she tripped and hit her arm against the desk leg. Drizella explained everything in detail.
"I never hit her," she insisted. "She fell on her own!"
But do you know what happened next, Inspector?
A crumpled paper ball flew across the room and hit Drizella right on the head.
I turned toward the corner it came from.
Alice and Fairy. They were smiling. Laughing. Amused at how red Drizella's face had become.
"Liar!" Alice shouted.
"Just admit it. You've been bullying Ella for a long time, haven't you?" Fairy added.
"There's proof now."
The whole class started whispering. Every desk. Every chair. The scattered books. Even the pens on the tables felt like they were silently accusing us.
The days after that were heavy, Inspector. Nothing but bad memories. Memories I wish I could delete.
Before, it was only Fairy and Alice who bullied us. After that day, it was almost everyone.
Paper balls flew at us from every direction. Inside them were words like "liar," "abuser," "evil stepsister." The same insults were scribbled all over our desks in messy black ink.
And It didn't stop in the classroom. In the corridors, someone would always try to trip us while we were walking. Our lockers became targets too. Through the narrow gaps, they shoved in hate letters and trash. Oily, sticky food wrappers soaked in disgusting sauce.
Can you imagine it, Inspector? The smell. The filth inside our lockers.
I swear, I couldn't take it anymore.
That locker used to hold something precious. The Prince once slipped a love letter inside. There was even a photo of me and him taped to the door.
Now it was filled with garbage.
You can check it yourself if you want. The key's in my bag.
The forensics team already examined it? That was fast.
"The cuts on your arm?" you asked.
So you noticed, Inspector. You really have sharp eyes. I tried to hide them.
It's embarrassing to admit, but… maybe you already guessed.
Yeah..., so....
I once... tried to kill myself.
I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to hide it. I just… don't feel comfortable talking about it.
"Suicide" sounds so pathetic. So weak. I prefer to call it "self-execution." Like Saint Joan of Arc. Like Queen Marie Antoinette. Women who stood tall before death. Burned. Beheaded. And they didn't tremble. Because the lives they endured were far crueler.
I thought I could be like them, Inspector. Die with pride. No regrets. No more people bothering me. With my "self-execution," I thought I could finally be free.
But as you can see… I failed.
I didn't die. I'm still here. Sitting in front of you. Telling you everything.
Mama saved me.
I don't know whether I should feel grateful or disappointed. I had prepared myself. I had forced myself to be brave.
In the locked bathroom, I held a razor with trembling fingers. The cold metal against my skin made me hesitate. I was scared.
Three, two, one…
I counted inside my head. Over and over. Three, two, one. Three, two, one. Trying to strengthen myself.
Until finally… a small cut appeared.
Blood.
My blood.
It flowed down from my wrist and dripped onto the wet tiles.
When my body started to feel weak and everything around me grew dim, I thought that was it. I thought I was going somewhere beautiful. A garden full of flowers. A place where the Prince and I could be together forever. Heaven. Wonderland. Whatever you want to call it.
But I woke up in this world again.
In a hospital room.
Mama was asleep beside me, holding my hand. When I called her name, she woke up and smiled through her tears as she hugged me.
For a moment, I was happy to still be alive. Mama and Drizella visited me every day.
Even… Ella.
"Ella promised Mama," Mama told me one day at the hospital. "She'll stop lying. And she'll tell her friends to stop bothering you and Drizella."
It was hard to believe.
"Mama has punished Ella," she said.
I asked what she meant by that.
"I took the photo of her and her real mother from her room. I confiscated it."
If I think about it now, maybe I felt a little sorry for Ella. I know she misses her real mother so much. But at that time, I was too weak to argue. Too tired to care.
Because the only thing on my mind was Prince.
Prince who came to visit me, bringing a basket of fresh fruit. Prince who smiled at me again. His scent I had missed. His warm skin I wanted to touch. His voice… the way he said my name.
"Get well, Anastasia."
Can you imagine that, Inspector?
"Can't wait to see you smile again."
Do you know how embarrassed I was? How red my face got? How happy my heart felt seeing him again, looking into his sparkling eyes?
Prince. My first love.
So why…
WhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhyWhy?!
Why was Prince dancing with Ella, Inspector?