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The plan. The plan was supposed to be perfect. Absolute perfection. Nothing should’ve gone wrong.

I waited years for it all to become mine.

I was the true master of this empire. I was going to cleanse the darkness and finish it once and for all. The Alacteon shouldn’t exist. Its evil shouldn’t plague this world anymore.

Not him. I was never supposed to be him.

Who gave him the right?

Who decided this fate for him?

It was my fate.

My mission.

I was special. He never was.

Close. I was so close that I tasted it. It was sweet. Beautiful. I could still feel the faint taste of the sweetness lingering on my tongue.

Until he fucking took it away.

Ripped it away

But now it’s not. All because of him.

HIM.

He ruined it.

Ruined everything.

No. No. NO.

Black ink bled into my skin as the tip of my pen dragged across the page over and over again. The pages started to rip one by one till a gaping hole stared at me.

He doesn’t know who I am.

He wouldn’t.

And he never would.

Who was he to give me a deadline and ruin my perfect plan?

I would give him one instead, and by the end, he would be one deep down in the grave, while I cleansed the evil from this city with my white hand.

PART III

CHAPTER 31

BELLE

“Ah, she is finally home,” Ella announced, looking up from her usual spot in the living room. Only her bright eyes soon turned to a shade of concern when she noticed my state. “Bellebelle,” she muttered in shock.

Ari snapped her attention from the TV, and with one look at me, she was on her feet, hurrying over to my side. “Who do I have to kill for making my sister cry?”

Something about hearing her scratchy, high-pitched voice made me want to cry all over again. Took me right back to the nights when she used to sing us to sleep. But they took it from her. They stole it from her. And now it hurt for her just to speak.

I shook my head, as warm tears continued to roll down my cheeks.