[Background Music: Sickick - I'm good]
The day after she died
"But... what about Alexandre?" Emilian suddenly inquired, harking back to her earlier statement: „Take note that if I ever want the female lead to be with someone, it has to be Jayden. It's a non-negotiable."
"What about Alexandre?" she retorted, tilting her head at him.
"He should serve as your male lead since he's your boyfriend," he expressed his concern.
"Not anymore," she emphasized, standing her ground. "Ex-boyfriend."
Emilian widened his eyes, as he wasn't aware of her breakup with Alexandre. What surprised him was her defiant attitude. To affirm his understanding, Marie-Rose seized the opportunity to admonish him for speaking ill of Alexandre earlier.
"And... no, I didn't leave Alexandre because his dxck wasn't erecting anymore," she clarified sarcastically before he could respond to her explanation.
"But you said... he was a good man. Why'd you leave him? You should practice what you preach," he expressed his confusion over what seemed like contradictory statements. Why did she take Alexandre's side and defend him if she was in love with another man? He even considered asking her if she left Alexandre to be with Jayden. However, he had never seen Marie-Rose and Jayden together. Until now, he thought she was only dreaming of him.
"How about I break your neck and see if that physiotherapy science of yours can help you? So that you can practice what you preach." she responded extremely aggressively, a departure from the demeanor he knew. Emilian wasn't trained as a doctor, she just alluded to the fact that he was the biggest proponent of the belief that she was involved with a doctor. The only doctor she knew of was Jean, from her psycho-pedagogy classes, but he wasn't a physiotherapist.
Marie-Rose suspected that Emilian was behind her monitoring as well because, the day after the incident with the picture of the young woman that appeared on Jean's profile, she asked him why he had removed it. To her surprise, Jean told her that he had never posted such a picture.
She instantly realized that her stalker had posted the picture to make her believe that her supposed love interest liked another girl, in a futile attempt to influence her to accept someone else. This was the main reason she had proposed the brunette characters, jokingly to a large extent. The stalker/s switched the leads' places from day one. She just playfully conformed, thinking they would leave her alone after they got what they wanted.
Taking apples when you like pears counted as a psychological workout in their twisted minds.
For some reason, the psychopaths tapping into her phone suspected a dark-haired man to be her main character's love interest or forcefully tried to propose one as such.
However, they didn't want it only in her novel; they wanted this in her real life too. Since they linked her to some people on her social media she had no ties to.
Picture encountering a man who perfectly complements you, only to have an unwelcome scoundrel intrude, falsely asserting to be his substitute. Undeniably disconcerting, isn't it?
The top was hit when she found herself as the alleged spouse of someone from another continent having the same family name as her. Only added him because she thought she had some roots on that continent, that's all.
It resulted this was the man she allegedly wasn't faithful to and whom she left to be with the younger man. What a story! Beyond any possible imagination!
Unfortunately, it wasn't possible because she couldn't command her heart to have a change of heart. She had always had a weakness for Alexandre's appearance; otherwise, she wouldn't have accepted him. It was his sickness that set them apart.
As for Jayden, she was crazily in love with him from the early days. Well, not quite day one, but soon after their first meeting, she found herself longing for him.
Moreover, Jayden was so much better than Alexandre in all possible ways.
The encounter with Jayden acted as a profound awakening, teaching her the essence of true love and how she desired to be treated by her partner. Although their connection was ephemeral, Jayden left an indelible mark on her life, a lasting imprint that time could not erase.
"Ah, and let me clarify further for you. Jayden never rejected me. Jayden never broke up with me. Jayden never hurt me," her words resonated with the confidence that justice pours onto people.
"So stop putting him into a dark light. Stop depicting him as a villain. As an asshole. As a jerk." They mistook him for one of the characters she discussed with Ovide. To make it even worse, they unwittingly mixed up real people in their talk—a perfect recipe for awakening the rage of the mad followers.
"Stop assuming. Stop inventing stories about me. It was people that destroyed us, not him." Even if they had to part ways, she knew he would remain in her heart forever. She knew her heart had stopped loving since the day she had to tell him goodbye. But it was the right thing to do.
She couldn't allow him to have such a miserable life, with all sorts of wrecked individuals on their trail. It was better if she allowed him to have a beautiful life, and he was happy. That would make her truly happy, even if she would never have a place by his side. Even if letting him go was a knife tearing up her heart.
It was neither her nor him that destroyed their love. It was people. People destroy beautiful things.
"And no, I don't think that he's crying over me," she spat another of her cruel retorts. "Now, I want my heart back in one piece. So, y'all, please move on and find another scapegoat because I don't want to see your ugly gossiper faces anymore. Because, if I ever lost something, it was myself. I am the person that I desperately need back into my life."
Whatever she tried to do to move on, it was never good enough. But she would survive somehow.
"No, I don't want to see your face in the face of my children. I didn't endure the humiliation to be with you," she declared. For now, she knew how the face of the father of her children should look. She wasn't stupid or stubborn not to move on, but in this life she preferred not to be involved with any man she didn't like. In her next incarnation she would surely recognize those eyes, because the eyes never changed. She would recognize that spark that laid behind his unmistakable personality. If Jayden ever taught her something, it was what true love means. So she wasn't going to lower her standards anymore.
She had achieved everything in life. She had a child. She had been in a long-term relationship. She had known true love. Even if in the reverse order. There wasn't much else she could wish for, except for a lifetime with Jayden.
She didn't know what she saw in him, and she didn't know what he saw in her. She only knew that he never betrayed her.
"But Marie-Rose, I found so many replacements. Even after I found a girlfriend, I still tried to make up for my mistake."
"Thank you, Emilian, but I don't need your help," her fierce resolve unleashed. "You know, Daniel's people especially sent brunettes to flirt with me, but I never asked for that. I never said brunettes are actually better looking than other types. It was just the novel. Alexandre had no brunette friend," she spat out her complaints.
"The org men took it for granted when I said I liked someone from my social media," she was harsh at this point. "I wouldn't have minded the teasing if I didn't specifically clarify I have nothing to do with the persons in my contacts list. But some people are too stubborn to take your words for honest. Some people seem to have caught the rabies in their determination to investigate false leads."
Indeed, her hacker let out high-pitched screech sounds much like a threatened bat whenever she was riposting or clarifying misunderstandings. The latter were only met by the involved people's public counter-clarifications, not by putting an end to the quarrel she never took part in.
Realizing that they were always targeting her discussions with her friends, many of them touching upon her novels, she decided to keep silent because it was not her intention to listen to their illogical arguments in their continuous attempts to wash their dirty faces and hands. The way they defended their own lies was hilarious, yet disgusting at the same time.
"But I wanted to mend my mistake… The girls set up that blind date for us, but you wouldn't leave Alexandre for me; you rejected me instead. I wanted to be with you, but you were involved with Alexandre and you wouldn't give me any attention."
"Emilian Sickeem! Please, don't spoil things worse than they already are. If you really wanted me, you would have fought for me, not retaliate on me, believe me. You would have found a way to tell me that you want to be with me," her anger reached its peak. "I never rejected you. I never knew it was a blind date, for God's sake, you were only a colleague at work. So don't give me this coward pussy talk; I don't like men who lack the balls," she put her teeth at his throat as if a predator. "Plus, I never wrote about you. I just liked that instance when we went to the bathroom at the same time to wash our hands. Reminded me of something."
"Perhaps you should have written about your own family's drama."
"Perhaps you should learn how to read and find out for yourself that I had no specific target when I invented my scenarios. These are common scenarios that everyone goes through. I don't see how I could have shamed someone specifically when heartbreaks and fails are a common dish everyone serves in their lives. It's not Karma. It's life."
"Nothing is accidental. Everything happens for a reason. Maybe there was a lesson for you to learn," he repeated the knowledge as he understood it from the coven, like a broken parrot. Another educated illiterate.
"Nothing can be accidental when human ill-will is at play. But this is neither God nor destiny. It's pure evil of people who deliberately go against me because they hate witchcraft, not my person. And because Daniel and you stood against me intentionally since you weren't able to tame your anger and your macho pride," her remarks lacked remorse, but she couldn't care less. She was not dumped; she was impeded to be with Jayden. It was so much different than any situation she knew of. "If not for Mimosa's hysterical claims about her boyfriend being stolen by her best friend, if not for the drama of Margarita and Lucas, if not for the hysteria created by some newspapers around our group, I wouldn't have lost Jayden. I had to let Jayden live. Live a normal life. I couldn't drag him into this."
She waited for him on a bench, hoping to meet him and find closure, but he never showed up that day. The only thing she could have done was to go to his door, but in her eyes, it looked like sheer madness. So she simply let it go, thinking that one day it would pass, and she would be whole again. Yet, her heart never healed. It was still bleeding because the persistence of some obsessed people didn't allow her to move on. Perhaps it was fate that didn't allow her to distance herself from Jayden? Who the heck knew anymore?
She wanted Emilian to know that she suspected his involvement in her spying. Perhaps there were cameras in her office, as there were in her home.
This was why she had parted from Alexandre, too. In this world lurked some extremely sick individuals, those who harbored such intense hatred for their fellow men that they seemed ready for the asylum, strapped in straightjackets. They fancied themselves the righteous hand of God, entitled to violate her most intimate moments with the only man who had cared for her in those days.
What they'd done was tantamount to rape, and it was her psyche that had suffered the consequences. All because they had misunderstood Marie-Rose's use of the word "humiliation" as she tried to explain an Eastern philosophy in her novel.
Should anyone expect her to show mercy to humankind after this? In the moment those depraved souls, possessed by demons, had lashed out at her, they had awakened her inner beast. She could not guarantee that, were they to die, she would not spit on their cadavers - these heartless creatures who pretended to be human when they were naught but beasts in heat.
At least she was spitting on their other face. In the face of their true nature.
And did they dare accuse Alexandre of mistreating her? She had a long ledger of their misdeeds to weigh against his. They were surely destined for the ninth circle of Dante's Inferno. And she would be there to witness their terror at their last judgement.
No mercy for them! Zero tolerance for abusers!
She was determined not to overcompensate, as victims of rape often did, full of self-loathing.
Therefore, she felt no remorse when she placed the heavy, dark curse upon them, black words heavy with pain as she uttered the dire damnation, justified retribution for the cruelty inflicted upon her. Her deeds sought to combat their evil, not match it.
"So, what do you have to say in your defense?" she asked, expressing her curiosity about why he killed her and how they were involved.
"Marie-Rose, I only followed your social media accounts. I never hacked into your private accounts. One of my tasks at work was to ensure nobody stole our research and know-how. But that was it; I never went farther than your public activity," he said in his defense.
"But... you stalked me, Emilian. You followed me everywhere. I'm sure I saw you on two occasions, but sometimes you were just hidden in the dark. Your bike included," she confronted his behavior. She realized she should have paid attention when discussing serial killers in the psycho-pedagogy course. His behavior was enough of a red flag to warn her about the outcome of his stalking.
"Yes, I did follow you... but I was told to. I was given a reason to, Marie-Rose," he admitted eventually.
She remembered discussing why people hated overweight individuals and the fact that society is overly preoccupied with external appearances. However, she recalled too little about the dispute regarding serial killers. She vaguely remembered mentioning that they might have facial features that could identify them, while Margarita, their teacher, countered, citing recent studies that suggested otherwise.
Yet, recalling the psychopathic stares of some wrongdoers, she was almost convinced that it was 100% true.
All of a sudden, she realized the striking resemblance of Emilian's girlfriend with Cathy. The only thing she could tell was that Cathy's eyes had nothing to do with the look of psychopaths. But, no, this couldn't be a simple coincidence anymore. She and Zoe, Daniel's girlfriend. Jolene and Cezar's wife. Cathy and Emilian's girlfriend. This was too much. All the resemblances pointed to the org as the source of something evil cooking. She mustered the courage to point out the truth.
"The only reason why this happened to me was because I was in that damn coven, which people abhorred so much. The only reason this happened was the hate between all these groups of people and their incessant hating each other," she told him, desperation in her voice. "The only thing I had to learn is that nobody wants my good. However, in the end, everyone got what they deserved. Karma." then she emphasized, "The rest only comes afterward."
Cedric had recovered her conversations. She could make good use of them. They were still working together, yet she noticed he refrained from talking about Jayden.
"Hmm, Daniel... You wanted everything on the records? Take it, baby! One at a time..." she added in a low voice to herself.