003: REBORN DESTRUCTION

POW!

The slap landed hard against my cheek, sending me stumbling back three steps. I tasted blood at the corner of my lips and I smiled.

Ouch.

I knew that slap was coming. And I let it happen.

My eyes darkened as I stared straight at Calla.

“Mum, I really don’t think she did anything,” Calla said softly, rubbing her mother’s arm, pretending to calm her down.

“Who said she didn’t?” Madam Ye spat. “Stop defending that mistake of a child. She’s not a good person, even her own parents didn’t even want her!”

Her finger jabbed toward me like a weapon.

Calla… did she really think she was a good person now? In my past life, she was the one who provoked her mother to assault me in front of the orphanage kids. She had lied that I stole her necklace. But that wasn't the case.

“I didn’t steal it,” I said quietly.

Madam Ye’s eyes flared. “How dare you talk back!” she yelled, raising her hand again to land another slap.

Calla suddenly stepped in front of me.

“If you hurt her, hurt me too,” she begged.

A sneer tugged at my lips. Acting? Did she think she was the only one good at it?

I shoved her aside. She crashed to the ground, and her mother rushed to her immediately.

“You damned child!” Madam Ye screamed at me, clutching Calla to her chest.

“Mum… it hurts,” Calla whimpered, throwing me a tearful look.

I held her gaze, unblinking.

“Twenty strokes. Whip her until she confesses and begs for her life!” Madam Ye ordered.

The guards moved toward me, but I raised my hand, stopping them.

“Confess?” I asked calmly. “Madam Ye, are you blind?”

Her face twisted into a scowl.

“Just because it was found in my room means nothing!” I shouted, folding my arms beneath my chest. Then I turned to the other kids, the ones my age, the ones who knew me.

“Do any of you think I did it?”

“I don’t think she could.”

“She’s the most well-behaved among us,” a few girls murmured.

Calla stood up abruptly.

“There was evidence in your room!” she yelled. “Even the surveillance caught your face! Can you escape that?”

I laughed.

She was lying. About the theft But she does have proof. She had planned this carefully.

The necklace? She had given it to me. There was supposed to be a college party soon. I had wanted something simple—sparkle, nothing more. I asked her innocently. She agreed. Then turned it into this.

In my past life, I endured worse than slaps. Much worse.

“Whip her!” Madam Ye screamed.

“I can’t believe she’d do this!”

“So upright-looking, but rotten!”

“I heard she was abandoned at the orphanage gate. No wonder her mother didn’t want her.”

“I would be ashamed if I had a child like her.”

The words flew like knives.

I didn’t defend myself. Why waste saliva on people who never listened? They watched me get whipped before. No one ever stepped forward.

“She lent it to me,” I said quietly, staring at Calla.

“I didn’t!” she screamed, her lips trembling convincingly.

“You didn’t?” I raised a brow.

“Y-yes,” she stuttered.

I laughed. I stretched my hands forward.

“Okay then. I accept it. Beat me.”

Shock flashed across Madam Ye’s face. “What are you planning now?” she yelled.

“Planning?” I tilted my head. “I just confessed to a crime I didn’t commit. I don’t want to argue. How is that planning?”

Her eyes darkened but Calla smirked.

“Go on,” I said coldly. “I accept your false accusation.” The guards hesitated, waiting.

“Whip her thirty times!” Madam Ye screamed.

“She doesn’t even look remorseful.”

“I once wished I could be like her. Disgusting.”

I shot a sharp glare at the girl who spoke. She flinched instantly.

Yes....I wanted the pain.

After being stabbed twenty-seven times in my previous life, should I still be normal? No.

They kicked my legs out from under me. I hit the ground hard. It had been years, but these same whips had already scarred my body once. They would again.

They dragged me to the cross-like structure Madam Ye called it 'the Confession Stand.'

Here, beating children was called correction.

We all believed it. We grew up believing it.

My hands were tied.

“Confess, Anna,” Madam Ye demanded.

I stared at her with dead, emotionless eyes.

“Confess what?” I asked lazily, rolling my tongue against my teeth. “Do whatever you want. My confession means nothing.”

Her face turned red with rage.

“Do it!”

SWOOSH!

The first strike landed.

I swallowed the scream and glared at her.

The second.

The third.

Tears burned, but I refused to let them fall. This pain was nothing compared to betrayal. Nothing compared to what my heart had endured.

I looked at the other orphans—shock, fear, silence, except one. Dominic.

Seventeen. Two years younger than me. The only friend I'd ever had here.

“I’m okay,” I mouthed, forcing a smile.

He didn’t look convinced.

“That’s enough. Everyone inside,” Madam Ye ordered.

They left. Even Dominic. I didn’t blame him. He had no power here.

She left me tied up, bleeding, my wounds unattended. My flesh burned with every breath. Blood dripped onto the ground.

And I laughed.

Good....This was exactly what I wanted.

The sky roared. Rain poured down like the heavens were furious too.

I closed my eyes, letting the rain wash over my torn skin like a cruel caress. I opened my mouth, thirsty, letting the cold water fill me.

It didn’t hurt. Not anymore.

Blood bloomed across the floor beneath me.

My gaze sharpened.

“One…”

“Two…”

“Three.”

Honk. Honk.

A devilish smile crept across my lips as I whistled softly.

“Here comes the Grim Reaper.”