Chapter 35 Nightmare
Vanessa's POV
The pain medication pulled me under like a riptide and when I opened my eyes I wasn't in the hospital anymore.
I was standing in the hallway of high school, fluorescent lights buzzing overhead and the smell of floor wax and cafeteria food thick in the air. Students rushed past me, laughing and shoving each other, completely oblivious to my presence.
I looked down at my hands and they were smaller, softer, sixteen years old again. I was wearing my old school uniform, navy blue skirt and white blouse perfectly pressed, surrounded by my friends who smiled at me.
Even as a beta's daughter I had power here, influence that came from my family's position in the pack, and I commanded respect and envy from everyone around me.
"Did you hear about the new transfer student?" Chelsea asked, leaning in close. "She's from some tiny border pack and she's an omega."
The word dripped from her lips like poison and we all wrinkled our noses in disgust.
The hallway shifted and I was in the cafeteria, sunlight streaming through tall windows. The doors opened and she walked in.
Mia Wilson.
She was tiny, maybe five foot two at most, with messy chestnut hair that looked like she'd barely run a brush through it and clothes that were clean but obviously secondhand. Her eyes were downcast as she walked toward the lunch line and her shoulders were hunched like she was trying to make herself invisible, trying not to take up too much space in a world that clearly didn't want her.
She looked so fragile, so weak, so pathetic, and I felt instant revulsion rise in my throat. There was something about her delicate features and soft demeanor that made me want to crush her.
Then Ethan stood up from his table across the cafeteria.
Ethan, my boyfriend, the alpha heir from the neighboring pack who was supposed to be mine and only mine, walked right past our table without even glancing at me and approached Mia with a gentle smile.
"Hey," he said to her, his voice warm and kind in a way he hadn't spoken to me in months. "You're new, right? I'm Ethan. Do you want to sit with us?"
Mia's eyes went wide with panic and she stared down at her tray, her whole body going rigid like she was too terrified to even answer. Before she could respond Ethan just reached out and gently took her elbow, guiding her toward his table.
I felt something ugly and violent twist in my chest watching him touch her, watching him treat her like she was something precious that needed protecting.
Over the following weeks I watched Ethan pull further and further away from me. He started making excuses not to spend time together, started defending Mia when my friends made cruel comments, started looking at her with something in his eyes that he'd never shown me.
I knew what was happening. The disgusting omega was using her body to seduce him, playing the helpless victim card to manipulate his alpha instincts. It was exactly what omegas did, using their dirty bodies to seduce alphas who should know better.
I started small with my retaliation because I needed to be smart about it, needed to make sure nothing could be traced back to me. I smiled at Mia in the hallways and offered to help her with schoolwork and invited her to sit with us at lunch, all while my friends spread rumors behind her back about how she was sleeping around.
Then I brought her hot soup one day when she'd been sick, waited outside the bathroom with the cup in my hands, and when she came out looking pale and grateful I tilted it just enough that the scalding liquid spilled directly onto her arm. Her scream echoed down the hallway as her skin blistered and turned bright red and I made such a scene crying and apologizing that everyone believed it was an accident.
I dumped rotting meat in her locker so it would smell like death every time she opened it. I locked her in the changing room before a major exam so she'd miss it and fail.
And every time Ethan defended her, every time he showed her kindness or concern, I hated her more.
The memory shifted and I was hiding behind bookshelves in the library, watching through gaps as Ethan cupped Mia's face in his hands and kissed her with a tenderness that shattered something inside my chest.
"I don't love Vanessa anymore," he whispered against Mia's lips. "I haven't for a long time. You're everything she's not, Mia. You're kind and sweet and genuine. I want to be with you."
I stood there frozen in the shadows with my hands clenched into fists so tight my nails drew blood from my palms, watching the boy who was supposed to be mine choose some pathetic omega over me.
Three weeks later Chelsea pulled me aside with news that made my world tilt sideways.
"Mia's pregnant," she whispered, her eyes wide with scandal.
The humiliation crashed over me like a tidal wave. Everyone would know that Ethan had chosen her, that he'd gotten her pregnant, that I'd been replaced by some nobody omega who didn't deserve to breathe the same air as us. The thought of her carrying his child, of her having the future that should have been mine, made me want to scream until my throat bled.
I made my decision in that moment, standing in the hallway with my heart turning to ice in my chest.
The memory shifted one final time and I was on the roof of the old teaching building, the abandoned section of campus that no one used anymore. The afternoon sun was warm on my skin and my four friends stood in a semicircle around Mia, who was backed into the corner with her arms wrapped protectively around her slightly swollen belly.
She was crying, mascara running down her cheeks in black streaks, her whole body shaking with terror.
I said, looking down at her. "An omega who thought she could seduce my boyfriend and get away with it. Did you really think you could trap him with a bastard child?"
"Please," Mia begged, her voice breaking. "Please just leave me alone. I'll transfer schools, I'll go away, just please—"
My friends laughed, cruel sounds that echoed across the empty rooftop.
"Omega trash," Madison sneered.
"The baby will probably be just as worthless as you are," Chelsea added.
I crouched down in front of Mia and reached out to pat her wet cheek with false gentleness, my voice sweet and kind. "Do you know what omegas are good for?"
She shook her head, fresh tears spilling over, and I let my hand drift down to rest on her rounded stomach. For a moment I just stayed there, feeling the slight swell under my palm, and then I stood up and lifted my foot.
"They're good for nothing," I said flatly, and drove my foot into her stomach with every ounce of strength I had.
The sound she made wasn't human, a high-pitched wail of pure agony that seemed to echo across the entire rooftop. Blood immediately began soaking through her jeans, dark red spreading across the denim, and she collapsed onto her side with both hands pressed against her abdomen.
"My baby," she sobbed, the words barely coherent through her pain. "My baby, please, my baby—"
I stood there and watched her bleed, watched her curl around the dying life inside her, and felt nothing except cold satisfaction. She deserved this for thinking she could take what was mine, for being a disgusting omega who used her body to seduce my boyfriend.
I walked to the roof access door and pulled it shut behind us, the lock clicking into place with finality.
Even now, reliving the memory in this nightmare, I felt the same justifications rising in my mind. She was the one who got pregnant out of wedlock, she was the one who seduced my boyfriend, she was a weak omega who couldn't even protect her own child. It wasn't my fault that her body was too fragile to handle a little kick. If she'd just stayed in her place, none of this would have happened.
It was her fault, not mine. She brought this on herself.
But the rooftop around me started to change, the warm afternoon sunlight bleeding into blood-red darkness that spread across the sky like an infection. The smell of cut grass was replaced by the stench of rotting flesh and decay, thick and cloying, coating the back of my throat until I gagged.
I tried to run but my legs wouldn't move, my body frozen in place, and I watched in horror as thick black fog began pouring out of the corners of the rooftop, spreading across the concrete like living oil.
A figure emerged from the darkness.
Mia stepped forward and she looked exactly like she had that day except her stomach was torn open, blood and worse things spilling out of the gaping wound that should have held her child. Her eyes were completely black, no whites or irises visible, just endless darkness, and blood-red tears streamed down her pale cheeks in rivers that stained her skin.
"Vanessa," she said, and her voice echoed like she was speaking from the bottom of a deep well. "You took my baby. You took everything from me."
I tried to scream but no sound came out, my voice trapped in my throat as Mia's hand shot forward and wrapped around my neck with inhuman strength. Her fingers were ice cold, so cold they burned, and I felt my airway closing as she lifted me off the ground like I weighed nothing.
"Please," I choked out, my hands clawing uselessly at her arm. "Please, I'm sorry—"
"You're not sorry," she hissed, her black eyes boring into mine. "You've never been sorry. You thought you could kill my child and walk away. But I'm here now, Vanessa. I'm here and I'm going to make you feel everything I felt."
Pain exploded in my abdomen, sharp and tearing like something was ripping me apart from the inside. I looked down and saw blood soaking through my clothes, spreading in an ever-widening stain, and I realized with absolute terror that I was feeling what she felt, the exact moment her baby died inside her.
Mia's grip tightened around my throat and I felt darkness rushing up to meet me, cold and absolute. Her other hand pressed against my stomach and something inside me was dying, withering, being destroyed by the same cruelty I'd shown her. The pain was unbearable, worse than anything I'd ever felt, and I couldn't breathe and I was dying, I was actually dying.
"Now you know," she whispered, and the world went black.
I heard shouting from somewhere far away, the sound of machines beeping frantically, my mother's voice screaming my name. Then something invisible grabbed Mia and yanked her away from me, her fingers torn from my throat, and she dissolved into black smoke with a shriek of rage.
I opened my eyes and gasped for air, my lungs burning as oxygen rushed back in. I was in the hospital room, the fluorescent lights too bright overhead, nurses rushing around me with syringes and equipment. My mother's face hovered above me, her eyes wide with terror and tears streaming down her cheeks.
I reached up with shaking hands and touched my neck, felt the raised welts like fingerprints burned into my skin, physical proof that what I'd experienced was real.
"Mia..." I gasped, my voice raw and broken, my whole body trembling. "Mia's going to kill me..."