Sitting curled up on the couch, Misha stared intently at the television, waiting for the evening news to start. Today, they would talk about Eric Anderson, the man who had taken so many young lives a few days ago, shocking the whole country.
The reporters had been digging up his past in a frantic manner, trying to understand why this tragic event happened. They wanted to know how a respectable man such as Eric Anderson could do such a terrible thing. But what the reporters discovered left them with a bitter taste in their mouths, making them wish they hadn't known.
With a grim expression on her face, the well-dressed woman on the television started the broadcast, and as she told the man's story, many felt conflicted, not knowing what to think.
Eric was a strict teacher who never favored anyone; if a student did wrong, they did wrong, and no excuses would be accepted. Everyone had to pay the consequences of their actions, regardless of what they did. With this in mind, when Eric surprised a few male students smoking and ditching school, he reported it without a second thought, ignoring their pleas. Unsurprisingly, the parents of said students weren't delighted with their children's behavior, and the teenagers were scolded and grounded. That resulted in the students being resentful.
One way or another, they wanted to retaliate against the teacher who dared to tattle to their parents. However, Eric was a figure of authority at school, and the students couldn't directly take revenge on him unless they wished to be expelled. Thus, they decided to vent their frustration on Eric's daughter instead.
Florence was a quiet girl who shared their classes; she was the kind who preferred to be alone. You could often see her sitting by herself in the library, reading books or drawing. She had very few friends and rarely spoke. Moreover, her friends were just like her, withdrawn and timid.
In other words, she was the perfect victim.
The bullying started smoothly and progressively became worse. At this point, the person on the television changed, the scenery too. Then, one of Florence's friends appeared on the screen and came forward to testify. Her trembling voice was small, barely audible. Although her face was blurred for privacy purposes, everyone could tell it took enormous courage for this shy girl to stand up and talk.
With her testimony, people learned that, for months, Florence silently endured the insults, then the vandalism done to her personal effects. She didn't talk to her father about it, not wanting to worry him for nothing. It was only a bit of bullying, and Florence thought that if she ignored the troublemakers, they would get bored soon enough and leave her alone, forgetting she even existed. Little did she know that she was wrong, oh so wrong.
Gradually, the bullying shifted and became closer to sexual harassment. Florence wasn't the most beautiful girl on earth, but she wasn't ugly either. She had a decent appearance, and the boys started to bother her about it, mainly because her breasts were well-developed. It made her feel uncomfortable, and after discussing it with her best friend, who attended another school, she finally decided to muster her courage and talk to her teacher about it.
But things didn't go the way she had hoped. The teacher said that she was imagining things and shouldn't spread false rumors. Self-centered girls like her were the worst, and she needed to realize that not every boy would flutter around her just because she was a bit pretty. If she wanted to get attention, she should do it in another way.
After being admonished by her teacher, Florence couldn't talk anymore, and she closed herself, feeling more numb with each passing day. In contrast, the boys became bolder, and one day, they cornered and dragged her into a bathroom seldom used. The girl on the television didn't elaborate on what happened there, but truthfully, it wasn't necessary. Anyone listening to her breaking voice could guess the horrors the teenager went through.
Afterward, Florence was never the same, yet the bullying and sexual harassment didn't stop. Students whispered among themselves, saying she was a slut and other unsavory things. It created nasty rumors that fueled themselves; the new hearsay was always worse than the previous one. But the classmates who said nothing weren't all that better either. They turned their backs on her, pretending they didn't see her as they didn't want to get involved in her problems. Maybe they would become the next target of those nasty rumors if they dared to talk to her. So, voluntary or not, they isolated the poor girl, leaving her alone to deal with her inner demons.
Because Florence wasn't in the grade her father taught, he didn't know what was going on, whereas the supervisors and other teachers who monitored her grade only thought that she wanted to be left alone, like the introvert that she was. Ultimately, Florence couldn't take it anymore and broke, hanging herself in her bedroom at the beginning of the holiday season.
And when Eric found her lifeless body, it was his turn to collapse.
Eric's wife died giving birth to Florence, but he never blamed her for her death. No, his baby daughter was his treasure, the precious memento left by the woman he had loved with all of his heart. He never remarried and raised his child by himself, pampering her as if she was worth the world. But despite being spoiled rotten by her father, Florence was a quiet kid who never did anything to trouble him. In Eric's eyes, she was even too calm, and sometimes, he wished she would cause problems.
But she never had the chance to.
Then the reporter asked if anyone could imagine how Eric felt when he brought down the cold body of his daughter, hugging it tightly with the vain hope that she would suddenly open her eyes and greet him with her usual smile. Somehow, Misha could. He had surely felt similar feelings as he hugged his sister's lifeless body. It was like being shattered from the inside-out while still being whole, the mind collapsing and the heart stopping beating. A part of him died that day, and he was never able to recover.
Even with her corpse in his arms, Eric couldn't accept his daughter's death. He wanted to know how his little sunshine could take her own life. Why did this happen? He investigated, asking her daughter's friends left and right, and soon found the cause, and when he did, he lost it.
The classroom in which he shot down everyone was his daughter's classroom. Probably, Eric wanted the boys who had driven Florence to death to pay with their lives. He also couldn't forgive the other students who had turned a blind eye to his daughter's suffering. He hated, even more, the teacher who could have helped Florence but chose not to, rubbing salt into the wound instead. And most of all, Eric hated himself for not noticing his daughter's distress before it was too late.
Once the broadcast ended, people felt as bitter as the reporters. At first, they thought of watching the evening news to fuel their indignation, and deep down, they wanted to hear about a crazy man they could despise and scorn. But after listening to his story, they realized that he wasn't a monster, only a human who lost his mind in grief.
What Eric did could not be forgiven, but if it had been their child in Florence's place… how would they have reacted? Even if they didn't go to such lengths, many thought that they wouldn't be any better. They would have had the urge to strangle the teenage boys. Or, at the very least, they would want to beat the shit out of them and make them regret being born.
Eric and Florence Anderson's sad story created contradictory feelings in people's hearts, and not long after, everyone started to condemn left and right. Whether it was the school, the students, the teachers, the parents of the boys, or even Florence and her best friend, no one escaped unscratched. But Misha couldn't care less about all of that commotion, struggling enough as it was with his own feelings.
Slouching on the sofa, Misha fell into deep thought after the broadcast. Though he would never admit it aloud, learning that the teenagers who died weren't all that innocent made him feel better and less guilty. And when that thought crossed his mind, he scoffed at himself, feeling disgusted by his inner self. So what if the kids weren't blameless? They didn't necessarily deserve to die.
Well, Misha wasn't so sure concerning the main bullies. If they had done that to his sister, he would be the first to kill them off, and he wouldn't give them a quick death.
Now, Misha couldn't bring himself to hate Eric Anderson, knowing why he had been so drunk on Christmas Eve. He still didn't like him, of course, but he couldn't hate him just as much as he did before.
Closing his eyes, Misha felt somewhat tired and maybe even a bit numb. Why were there so many tragedies? It was exhausting.
"What are you thinking about?" a gentle voice asked before someone poked his cheek, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Nothing much, just that some human beings are worth less than trash," Misha responded, grabbing his sister's finger. "Why are you poking me?"
"Well, you looked out of it," Masha shrugged. "Mom baked cookies. Wanna eat a few with me?"
"Yeah, sure," Misha nodded, a faint smile tucking the corner of his mouth.
Right. He didn't have the time to worry about other people's tragedies; he had his own to deal with. First of all, he needed to talk with his sister to avoid one of the many bad endings that plagued his previous life. He had been postponing the discussion for weeks; however, he knew he couldn't do that forever.
'Soon', Misha told himself, 'soon I'll tell her everything.'
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Mini theater
ML: Soon means next chapter, right?
Author: …I'll try.
MC: Don't worry, don't worry, take your time.
ML: …At this rate, it's never gonna happen =.=|||
MC/Author: *cute puppy eyes*
__________________________
Chapter revised on 2022-06-02
Edited by Clozed! ♥
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