Chapter 1

“Ah…!”

The pain was unbearable.

Xena Smith poured boiling water directly onto my hand!

My eyes widened in gut-wrenching pain, and I let out a heart-wrenching scream.

“Xena… Miss Smith, please let me go.

“I’m begging you.”

I tried to fight back, but someone held me down from behind.

I looked up at the bright red dress in front of me, desperation in my voice as I pleaded.

Xena’s laughter rang out, clear but crazed.

“Someone like you, a nobody, and you dare to think you’re worth comparing to me?”

At her signal, another splash of scalding water hit my face.

“Xena, look at her face. Doesn’t it look like a cooked lobster?”

One of Xena’s lackeys mocked, and then I heard Xena’s voice, dripping with malice.

“Mia Zeller, you should be grateful. Trash like you doesn’t deserve a pretty face like this!”

She took out a sharp knife and started cutting across my face.

I don’t know how, maybe it was the pain or just a desperate will to survive, but I suddenly broke free from their grasp.

Panicked, I bolted, with Xena and her lackeys hurling curses as they chased after me.

I came to a stop at the edge of a newly dug pit filled with water on campus. I stood at the brink, my heart pounding.

Xena saw this and laughed. “Mia, you’re not actually thinking of jumping, are you?”

She and her group crept closer, the click of her high heels echoing like a countdown.

“If you’ve got the guts, go ahead and jump!”

“Mia, your dad’s just a lowly worker, and your mom’s a janitor. Even if you die, no one would care!”

She laughed again and added, “Now that you don’t even have your face left, let’s see how you’re going to get guys to notice you!”

Her followers sneered, “Mia, you can’t attract guys anymore. Why don’t you just jump?

“Go on, jump! We’d love to watch!”

To them, my life was as worthless as a piece of trash.

My family was poor. My dad was just a laborer, and my mom cleaned houses to make ends meet.

I had nothing, just decent grades and a somewhat pretty face. Maybe that was why I sometimes received random love notes.

But that was enough to make me a target for Xena.

I had not done anything wrong, yet I was labeled a “slut,” a “whore,” and a “worthless piece of trash.”

These insults were just appetizers for Xena.

Every day, I lived in fear, dreading what new torture she had dream up.

Would it be a slap, insect bites, or a whip?

Scenes of past torment flashed through my mind. It felt like my existence was just for their cruel entertainment.

What was the point of living?

I looked at my reflection in the water, blood dripping down my face in a hopeless stream.

The days ahead would only get worse.

I forced a smile, glancing at Xena as she taunted me, snapping pictures with her phone.

“Xena, I’ll see you in hell.”

As their laughter echoed around me, I leaped into the ten-meter-deep water pit. Blood blossomed in the water like a cursed flower.

Their laughter turned into shock, fear, and horror, but I couldn’t see it anymore.