Chapter 33 THE CONFRONTATION
"What's happening to me?" she whispered, her voice failing as more blood surged from her nose, staining the grass beneath her.
The flow didn't stop. It became worse, a thick crimson stream that soaked through her fingers and began to ruin her white sweater, spreading like a gruesome flower across the fabric. Her head felt like it was being split open by an axe.
"Anya!"
The panicked voices of Marisa and Klara broke through the ringing in her ears. They came skidding into the garden, their faces turning ghost-white at the sight of her sprawled on the ground bleeding.
"Oh my God! Did Raina do this?" Marisa asked, dropping to her knees and reaching into her bag for a handful of tissues. "Did that bitch actually hit you?"
Anya could only shake her head weakly. She couldn't find the words to explain that the pain wasn't from a punch, but from a truth that had forced its way into her mind.
"Let's take you to the school's clinic. It's getting worse!" Klara urged, her voice trembling. She reached out to help Anya sit up, her eyes wide with terror at the amount of blood.
But then, the air around Anya seemed to shiver. A sudden, unnatural coldness swept through the garden, and the pressure in Anya's skull snapped.
As quickly as it had started, the bleeding stopped.
The girls watched in stunned, breathless silence as the blood on Anya's face and hands didn't just dry... it seemed to be absorbed back into her skin or evaporated into the air.
Within seconds, her skin was porcelain clear. Even the deep red stains on her white sweater began to fade, the fabric knitting itself back to a pristine, untouched white right before their eyes.
"Where the fuck did the bleeding go?" Marisa gasped, her hand frozen in mid-air with the tissues. "It's... it's gone. Anya, there isn't a single drop left"
Anya stared at her hands. They were clean.
"Excuse me, please" Anya said with shaky voice.
She stood up and walked out of the garden without looking back, leaving her Klara and Marisa paralyzed by what they had just witnessed.
Klara and Marisa glanced at each other, the silence of the garden feeling heavier than ever.
"That was… weird, right?" Marisa finally asked, still staring after Anya.
Klara shrugged, her lips pressed together. "Yeah… really weird"
Meanwhile, Liana had stormed straight back to her hostel room. She didn't just want her earrings back, she wanted Raina gone.
She slammed the door open and didn't even stop to take off her jacket. She lunged for Raina’s side of the room, grabbing a suitcase from under the bed and throwing it on the mattress. With a violent jerk, she began sweeping Raina’s books and folded clothes off the desk and into the open luggage.
"What are you doing?"
Raina stood at the doorway, her eyes red and puffy from crying in the garden, but her voice held a note of panicked shock as she watched her belongings being handled like trash.
Liana didn't even look up. "You're leaving this room today! I can't be living with a thief!"
"Why the fuck will you be accusing me? I didn't take anything from you!" Raina screamed, rushing forward to grab Liana’s wrist, trying to stop her from dumping a stack of sweaters into the bag.
Liana shoved her back with a strength fueled by adrenaline. "I don’t care! I know you did it. You’re quiet, you’re weird, and you’re always 'battling' something. Well, battle it somewhere else! Just leave this room!"
Raina stood her ground. "I have the right to be in this room as much as you! It's my room too and you can't just tell me to leave!"
"Watch me!" Liana hissed, reaching for Raina’s laptop.
"Don't touch that!" Raina lunged again, and the two girls began to scuffle, a chaotic mess of hair-pulling and muffled shouts.
"Just leave me alone!" Raina shrieked, her voice cracking with desperation.
In the scuffle, Liana’s foot caught on the edge of the bed, sending her stumbling back. Her head connected with the wall with a sickening thud. For a moment, the room went still. Liana winced, pressing her hand to the back of her head, her chest heaving with ragged breaths.
She didn't say anything, she simply looked at Raina with a gaze so full of icy loathing that it felt sharper than any insult. Without a word, Liana gathered her dignity, turned on her heel, and walked out, slamming the door so hard the glass in the window rattled.
Raina stood frozen in the center of the room, her belongings scattered like wreckage around her. The silence that followed was suffocating. Then, the dam broke.
"No!!!" she wailed, collapsing on the floor amidst her crumpled sweaters.
Her hands shook violently as she reached for her phone, her vision blurred by a fresh wave of tears. She scrolled through her contacts with frantic swipes until she found the name.
The line clicked open.
"Hello Margo, please tell me you haven’t sold the gold earrings?" Raina rushed out, her voice a high-pitched whimper.
There was a brief pause on the other end, followed by a heavy sigh. "Um, not yet, but the buyer is coming in the next hour. Why? Is there a problem?"
Raina let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, her head dropping forward. "Thank goodness! Where can I come meet you? I'm not selling it anymore"
"What! Why? Are you insane?" Margo’s voice rose in disbelief. "The money from it will solve half the problems, Raina"
Raina leaned her head against the side of her bed, her silent sobs racking her frame. "Just... just don't sell it anymore. Please"
"Fine," Margo snapped, clearly frustrated. "Meet me at our usual spot. I hope you won’t regret it though. Buyers like this don't wait around"
The call ended with a sharp beep. Raina curled into a ball on the floor, the cold tiles pressing against her cheek. She had the earrings, but at what cost? Liana knew. Or at least, she suspected enough to make Raina’s life a living hell.
And then there was Anya. The way Anya had looked at her in the garden...the way she had looked through her haunted Raina more than Liana’s rage.