By One's Self

Five years after the fall of the Queen and Death of Lily... Olivia sat, huddled in the corner of a dark, damp region of Roekenn's market place, a bleeding scar marring the side of her shadowed face. She raised a hand and wiped the drops of blood from her left cheek, only for it to be soon replaced a by tear; a tear that stung her face upon trickling over her wound.

Would her pain ever stop?

Cradling her injury, Olivia rose from her secluded sentence, her head hanging low in shame. Reluctantly, she made her way over to her older sisters, Scyllia and Matilda. She longed for their sympathy, their love, their care...

But it wouldn't come, it never would. She was foolish to think otherwise.

Scyllia stood with her arms crossed, small, but dominant over her younger siblings. She never showed either of them compassion and only expected perfection. Anything less would result in an awful punishment unfit for anyone, even the lowest criminal on the face of the Earth. Death would be considered a good thing when it came to her type of punishments.

"Well, Olivia? Have you learned your lesson yet?" Scyllia growled.

Olivia's voice was winded and frail, exhausted from the day's cruel trials. "...Yes."

Scyllia motioned for Olivia to stoop down to her level. Olivia obeyed, but her only reward was a hard slap across her already bruised face.

"You will address me by my NAME when questioned!" The elder spoke harshly, her voice filled to the brim with sickening venom.

Olivia felt like dropping dead right there. Why was Scyllia so mean to her? She was tired of hurting, tired of suffering, tired of it all.

She wanted it to stop. She needed it to stop.

"Well?" Scyllia demanded.

"...Yes-" Olivia couldn't finish her sentence. She choked on her words and collapsed to the ground in a heap, crying into her blood-stained hands.

"SILENCE!" Scyllia commanded. Grabbing a rusty iron beam near some dirty trash cans, she beat Olivia with it several times. With each hit, Olivia cried and begged for her stop, but Scyllia ignored her cries and continued on with her violent slaughter.

Matilda stood off the side, watching Scyllia deal with Olivia. She was the middle sister; sort of an oddity, compared to Scyllia and Olivia. Some labeled Matilda as either the quiet, mysterious type, or a complete idiot, unable to give anyone information or an opinion.

Satisfied with Olivia's pleas for mercy, Scyllia held the iron bar firmly in her grasp; which was now dripping with Olivia's blood and slightly bent from its usage. Slowly rising to stand, Olivia panted in pain and anger at the same time. Her side ached and throbbed with each exhale of her lungs, sore for her screams of agony and her most current punishment.

Clutching her side with one hand, she held head with the other, pulling her hat down to further cover her face. She didn't want to show Scyllia how scared she was, or how weak she seemed.

Scyllia dropped the iron pole onto the cold, hard pavement with a loud clang. Traces of Olivia's blood seeped from the dented rod onto the uneven, broken concrete. Olivia uneasily watched it slowly spread over the ground. She soon felt a warm substance spreading under her hand, as well. Removing her glove from her side, she saw more blood spill out. It wasn't a trickle anymore...

Now it was actually flowing.

Without another word to Olivia, Scyllia motioned for Matilda to follow her. Matilda slowly nodded and the two disappeared into the shadows, leaving Olivia to lean against an abandoned house in pain. Letting a shaky breath escape her bloody lips, she slowly sank to the ground, grasping her wound tightly.

She lowered her face for a second, and then looked up to notice that Scyllia and Matilda had departed. With her sisters gone, a sigh of relief escaped her tender body. They would probably be away for about three hours, at the most.

The day was almost over and the Glowerorbs had already begun to close, the lights’ loss making it harder to see.

At last, she could finally rest... Scyllia's means of punishment had become increasingly more brutal ever since Zied’s plans had started to fall apart.