Volume 1 - Chapter 6: Laughter That Brings Despair

Cathedra followed the two delinquents and Diane all the way to an abandoned building in the middle of an unfamiliar neighborhood. The ramshackle old building was situated miles away from the orphanage and Cathedra was getting worried that she would get in trouble for not being back by dark because she delayed setting her course for home right this moment.

Nevertheless, Diane's out-of-place petite figure in the midst of rough, unruly guys strengthened Cathedra to never waver in her resolve.

The man with dragon tattoos and the dude with the man bun snuck out in the back, and ushered Diane in. All three of them disappeared from Cathedra's view due to the abundance of litter and refuse that has piled up all over the years. Cathedra waited for a few minutes before following after them, for fear of being discovered.

The overgrown weeds barricaded the entrance, which worked in Cathedra's favor of concealing her. Crouching low enough to avoid being seen, she peeked at the broken windows and strained her eyes to adjust to the darkness outside.

Diane and the two delinquents were walking towards the other side of the wall, where Cathedra could barely make out the figures of two people being bound and gagged.

All of a sudden, the dude with the man bun drew out a pocketknife and directed it towards Diane. Cathedra wanted to call out, scream, charge in like a hero and save the day but what can she do against two muscly, well-built, and armed men?

She knew she had to do something to save her friend but even her knees were about to give out and buckle under her weight at the sight of the weapon. Coaxing herself to move lasted for only an instant, but to Cathedra, every torturous second felt like an eternity.

"Move. Move. Move, dang it!"

Just as the knife was inches away from Diane, Cathedra punched her legs so hard to restore the feeling back in them. She manage to run inside the building and screamed as she threw her school bag at the man bun dude's face.

"Diane, run!"

Instead of running for her life, Diane stood frozen at the same spot and stared at Cathedra wide-eyed.

"Why aren't you running? Get away from him before he hits you!"

At her statement, Diane broke out in a fit of laughter. Man bun dude threw away the schoolbag that landed in his face and rubbed his nose with a light chuckle. Dragoon tattoo dude laughed vehemently while clutching his stomach.

"What's going on?" Cathedra asked, bewildered.

Diane laughed for a few more seconds until she snapped back in attention. This time, her eyes bore anger and malice.

To Cathedra's surprise, it was all directed at her.

"If only you didn't stick your nose where it didn't belong, I would have had more fun playing games with you, Cathedra." Her sugary sweet voice was laced with an ominous aura that made Cathedra step back in fear. She sounded different, like a demon was possessing her body and was using her face and mouth to act and speak like Diane.

"W-what do you mean?"

Diane gave Cathedra a sinister smile and walked towards man bun dude. She pried the knife from his fingers and caressed the sharp, icy tip with her thumb.

"Do you know how sickening it was to pretend to be your friend? But you know, unless I go out and do something normal and girly like that, people might get suspicious."

For every step forward Diane took, Cathedra stepped backward. Their footsteps and Diane's hurtful words echoed loudly in Cathedra's mind that she couldn't believe this was even real. She wanted to protest, to scream and beg for her to wake up from this nightmare.

But no matter how hard Cathedra begged, she couldn't wake up from reality.

"It was quite rewarding, though, having someone like you around me. You looked like a puppy who would be more than willing to slit her throat if ever I ordered you to. Sometimes, to get over the disgust of having to put up with your company, I imagine myself tying you up and cutting up your fingers one by one to hear your wonderful screams."

Cathedra's back collided with the wall. She felt a myriad of emotions at once: helplessness, despair, fear, just to name a few. She wanted to crawl up into a ball and just drown herself in tears but that can wait. For now, she has to figure out a way to survive.

Diane halted in her tracks and glared at Cathedra.

"But then that blasted fairy tale story of yours!" She roared in rage. She dashed toward her, face contorted in rage and fury as she bared the pocketknife towards her face and slashed at Cathedra's cheek. Cathedra cried out in pain and collapsed on the ground as she lost her footing. Before Cathedra could even gather her wits about, Diane was on top of her, pinning the pocketknife to the ground an inch away from her neck.

If Cathedra moves, she's dead.

"I've always hated those two words. Fairy tales." Diane sneered, "Spreading the world with lies that a prince with a white horse saves the day. No matter how much I waited, no one saved me. No one!"

Diane punched Cathedra in the gut to let out her anger. Cathedra doubled over in pain, seeing black spots in her vision.

"My mother believed in fairy tales. She married my father out of 'true love'. But what the fairy tales didn't tell her was that my father would end up becoming a drunkard and relentlessly beat her up every night. One dark and stormy night, in one of my father's drunken spells, he crashed into a post and died. Mom ran away and swore to never love again.

"But what do you know? She met a wealthy widow with two daughters. The two of them 'fell in love' and my mother remarried the second time."

Cathedra tried to break herself free from Diane's hold but she was unshakeable. Diane continued with her narration as though Cathedra's interruption didn't even take place.

"'Just like Cinderella, with genders reversed', she would muse to me every time. And just like Cinderella's story, my mother died one day, leaving me alone with my stepfather. Alone for him to do whatever he wanted. Alone for him to do whatever he pleased with me.

"And so I killed him. I killed him in the most gruesome way I could ever think of that time. Did a prince save me? No, unlike that helpless Cinderella, I didn't wait for someone to save me. I saved myself!"

"What does that have to do with me?" Cathedra blurted out.

Diane stared at her coldly. "Why are you one of those liars, Cathedra? Why do you write of a fantasy life where everyone lives happily ever after like there's no sadness in the world at all? Do you want to live a fairy tale life so much that you would do anything to live out your fantasies? So much that you force upon others your delusions of seeing things that are not real at all?"

Cathedra felt her heart being ripped to bits. And here she thought Diane believed her. And here she thought that for once, a friend would side with her and tell the world that she wasn't a liar.

It rent her heart to pieces to know that even their friendship was lie.

To Cathedra's surprise, Diane stood from her position and released Cathedra from her hold. Diane grabbed her by the hair, all the way to where her two delinquent lackeys were watching with amusement.

"Up."

When Cathedra didn't do as she was told, Diane pulled her hair to force her to sit up. Now that her eyes were well adjusted to the darkness, she saw who the two people who were restrained in the shadows.

Kevin Stoll and John Blaine.

"What are they doing here, Diane? Why are they bound and gagged?" Cathedra asked out loud, not because she wanted to know the answer, but because she refused to accept the answer she already knew.

Diane smiled a sinister smile that reached all the way to her ears, as though she looked forward to how she would enjoy what she was about to do.