RE: Life as a Tree

(( Trigger Warning: Bullying, Violence ))

The wooden beams smoldered and shattered under the weight of the ceiling. Spark whizzed about as they crashed onto the floor, sending screaming students scrambling from the wreckage. One room caved in, then another, then another… Soon, the hallways were no longer passable, and wailing teenagers choked inside the smoky, burning barricades.

From the top floor of the three story high school, inside the surveillance room, a lone girl cackled maniacally as she watched the destruction and death.

"This is it! This is what I wanted! Die! DIE you ****s!"

She roared in delight at her malevolent handiwork. Her enormous belly and excess fat shook giddily. She whacked her thick thigh repeatedly in exclamation. Her eyes squished in raggedy eye smiles. She was drunk, crazy from satisfaction at the success of the school-wide arson.

The faculty, the staff, the janitors.. She was a ghost in all the adult's eyes. No one paid attention to her as she deviously calculated and set up her plan the entire week. No one saw the gunpowder, the gasoline, the bombs surrounded by flammables planted right in every classroom.

She had lured the security away from the surveillance room after automatically triggering the first bomb on the opposite side of the school. Once the guards were gone, she had entered and locked the room from the inside. Then, she had triggered more bombs and ensured that all the security and faculty were too distracted to return.

After all was said and done, she comfortably viewed the school cameras as if watching a movie unfold. In a half an hour, the whole school was on fire and crumbling to smithereens. And to every escapee's horror, all the exits were blocked by raging flames.

At this point, the obese girl decided it was time for stage two.

She flicked the switch on for the speaker and tapped the microphone in front.

"Hello, hello. Testing."

Everyone inside the high school and the few that escaped outside, although not unscathed, whipped their heads confusedly up at the voice over the intercom.

"Do you recognize this voice?"

A low, sinister giggle resounded throughout the school. Very quickly, people started piecing the sudden appearance of the girlish voice and the calamities together. Some of the adults began racing toward the third floor in realization.

"Of course you don't. You never heard me speak after all. But I'm sure you'd recognize my face if you saw it. After all… every one of you has picked on me at least once.

"Hehe, I'm sure you had fun, right? So you wouldn't mind if I had some fun, too? This is Rialyne by the way. Don't worry, I'll make sure that you have the time of your lives… We'll all go out in a bang..together. Right? That's the way it should be, classmates should stick together. I'm sure you all know that concept…"

Everyone shuddered at the girl's words. It all made sense, no matter how horrifying it was. This was the school's rag-doll, punching bag, errand girl. She was terrifyingly ugly because of her shrunken, blemished face due to the excess of fat and oil, and her rolls of fat that jiggled as she shuffled. The sight of her disgusted everyone.

However, she hadn't always been like this. She had never been beautiful, but she too was once attractive enough to live a normal life as an average person. It all started the day that her home caught on fire… She had lost not only her house, but she had lost her parents, too. They had never been rich; they worked paycheck to paycheck to afford the private school and give their only daughter the best education they could. Thus, they had very little saved, and Rialyne was left essentially penniless.

Out of pity, the school allowed her to continue studying for free. She had always scored in the top 5%, so the school board deemed it reasonable. Initially, it was a beacon of hope for Rialyne. But all too soon, her downfall began.

And it had all begun with the burn scars that covered various portions of her body like tree bark…

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(( By the way, I'm NOT advocating for arson or school violence. I'm just hella unoriginal and can't think of any other way an angsty teenager would retaliate to bullying and end up with burns. So, please don't do arson or other crimes. </3

Be kind to others because we don't know what people are going through.

Be kind to yourself because you are beautiful the way you are, inside and out!

This journey will be a healing process for Rialyne. ))