The Heiress Would Be Better Off Dead

Standing in the front of the grand manor looking up from the bottom of the ivory marble steps, staring at the monsters that called themselves my family, she no longer felt pain, no anger, just a calm resigned decision to destroy them all. One after the other. None of these bastards were going scot free.

Wearing my  worn out clothes and a duffle bag of my own belongings over her shoulder Alara looked up at the Morrell family, her biological family. “Welcome back Alara, i know these 2 years were hard but we are glad to have you back fully rehabilitated” Mom spoke walking down attempting to hug me, i took a big step back avoiding her touch, making her clutch her chest dramatically. “What the hell Alara, have you still seriously not learnt how to behave after all these months in that rehabilitation centre” Cedric my older brother chimed in looking irritated. she did not answer, there was no point wasting her breath on a dog who only knew how to bark. 

“Do you really have nothing to say, is this how you treat your family who took time out of our day to welcome you home” Father spoke with authority looking like he didn’t want to be here. She wasn’t phased by that tone anymore, not after everything. She looked at the big rose bouquet cedric was holding, cedric instinctively pulled it closer as if worried she would snatch it from his grasp “don’t even think about it, this gift is for Diana, her dance recital was today” he spoke with conviction like her simply gazing at the flowers was some sort of threat. 

“ I didn't ask…. I am going to my room now, I need rest” Alara spoke calmly, walking past them “Actually since you weren’t around we had to turn your room into a spare storage room for all of Diana’s costumes… the servants will show you where you’ll be sleeping, you understand right?” Mom spoke sweetly, expecting her to give in like she always did. “Tch.” Alara simply walked inside. The servant led her to the room in the attic a dark space, cramped with no storage, not like she had anything to store, she looked at the maid who refused to meet her cold gaze and nodded at her, the maid took the opportunity to escape the silent and suffocatingly tense atmosphere. Alara sat on the bed. It was firm but compared to the thin bug infested beds in that facility she was locked in, this was a luxury, hearing the car engine start outside she got up and walked to the window and saw her family getting in the expensive luxury car and driving away. It was only then she finally understood they had never truly come out to welcome her home, they just happened to be heading out to Sophia's recital when she bumped into them, their attempted show of civility was nothing more than a means to save their own conscience. It was not surprising, after all they could not even be bothered to send a car to pick her up, she had to walk all the way from the facility, and a good samaritan gave her a ride half way and then she walked the rest of the way. She wasn’t sad. She was done with these people, the only reason she returned to this house was to exact her version of justice.

She takes off her hoodie revealing the curling iron burns all over her body, back in the facility she was tormented by some other patients day in day out, whenever she messed up an order which was almost all the time her punishment was a burn to her skin, she had tried informing the facility’s authorities but they made it clear they did not care, the nature of the facility was corrupt the only people who got protection were the patients who had something to offer the guards and they hated Alara especially because they knew she was rich and thought she was holding out on them so they let it happen, even sometimes created opportunities for it to happen. Even now the skin was tender, looking at the scars in the mirror too long made her feel as though she was experiencing it all over again, her finger grazed over one of the burns she felt a sting of pain and put on the ointment.

This particular burn was given to her about 5 months ago, she had just gotten an order wrong and knowing what was coming she decided to make a run for the phone’s allowing herself fully believe if she could get to the phone, if she could call her family if they could hear the pain in her voice they would come and save her, running through the halls, weak from starvation and stumbling a few times as she made it to the phones she crashed into the wall hard unable to stop on time but she paid no mind to the pain she picked up the phone and dialed as fast as she could her fingers flying over the keypad as she put in her last food money for the month into the phone machine, the phone rang a few times, alara dripping with sweat silently prayed for her mother to pick up the phone, “hello who is this” her mother finally picked up her voice cold, she didn’t recognise the number, how would she, she had never bothered to call in the past, “hello mum, please help me they are going to hurt me please i-” Alara spoke fast, eyes darting around as her voice carried nothing but pure fear and panic. “Wow you are seriously still pulling shit like this, look i don’t have time for your games or your attention seeking this is exactly why i never bothered calling you, you’d just try to manipulate your way out of there, seriously aren’t you ashamed, Diana is out here working hard and making the family proud but you are in there bringing nothing but shame to the family, how did i end up with a daughter like you, if not for the fact your treatment ends in a few months, if it were up to me you would stay there another year, i am busy helping sophia rehearse” with that Mom hung up. In that moment it felt like a bucket of cold water was poured on Alara, her fingers went loose and the phone fell out of her grip and in her mind she heard a thread snap like the sudden realisation that no one was going to rescue her suddenly became clear to her. 

She picked up the tray of food and walked back to her abusers, “took you long enough piggy how about you get on the floor and crawl around for u-” before she could finish that sentence Alara griped the steel tray and slammed her in the face sending her dropping to the ground, Alara laughs a bit pushing her own hair back, Alara drags her bully back, kneeling over her, pinning her to the ground a smile plastered across her face alara punched her face over and over again till her knuckles were bloody and the bully went unresponsive. Alara got up still chuckling she turned to the others, “you saw nothing” Alara stumbles out her laugh echoing the halls as she returned to her own cell, from then on she became untouchable even by the guards, any guard who got on her bad side vanished losing their jobs, suddenly she was running the prison, but she was never fully herself she laughed at pain and cruelty alike and her eyes remained cold, soulless and dead, earning her the name of ‘the Joker’.