104 Loreley's Words and Agni's Past

Afterwards Olivia got her hot chocolate she sat down and picked up the letter again. She looked over the pages and sighed. "She must have really felt freed to write so much!" Olivia giggled.

"Agni has always been a little possessive and honestly it's horrifying. Looking back, if I never met Avery, I would have never known how psychotic she truly was. I mean she is pretty psychotic now but what she did to my birth father was on another level. Remember how we said she stalked your dad way back when, well...."

.....

Falicia Coblepot was a scrawny, awkward teen who mostly hide in the shadows. She had strange hobbies, a strange style and a stranger personality. She wore big round glasses that cover most of her face. Freckles that splashes across her face, and hair that was greasier than the cafeteria's mozzarella sticks and braid into two twin tails.

She was only 14 years old and she could care less what people thought of her. She didn't need anyone's attention or admiration she was already engaged to the most sought after guy, Avery Steel. Though they hadn't officially had their engagement party so she happily relished the little secret between the parties.

It was her last year of middle school and she would be made to go to Azeri Academy as dictated by her family's tradition. She hated that she was forced to attend a commoner's middle school, the only good thing about going to the school has it was within walking distance of Rosario Academy, one of the three middle schools for the Elites. She would always rush out of class when the bell rang to go catch a glimpse of the man she loved, Avery Steel.

She would always hide behind the big old oak tree, waiting for Avery to step out of Rosario Academy with his friends. She sighed and drool as she hugged the tree. It was a shame they had almost no contact what so ever. She could only sigh as she hid. They had only met once and he helped her out at the social event. She still carried his handkerchief ever where she went and sniffed it for courage.

The year had gone by like the wind and Falicia was feeling downcasted. She wouldn't be able to see her dear Avery everyday after class as her school hours were longer then his. She would vent out her fustrations by kicking any small animal that dared approached her or yank out blossomed flowers and pretend it was actually people. In her anger she would grind her teeth and it started to give her migraines.

She spent a majority of her vacation crying, that is until her family was invited to a charity event. All the prominent families were mandated to attend and though her family was not as wealthy as most, they were very influential because of their proud lineage of Coblepots. Dating back to the decade after the city was formed their family has been around selling confectioners.

At least it was a name to be proud of or else the families would have never agreed to their union. Falicia giggled uncontrollably when her parents gave her the news. She quickly ran to her calendar and marked the date so she could count down the days until she was reunited with her sweet Avery.

Finally it was the night of the charity event. Only one week until school started and Falicia was determined to make an impression on Avery. She giggled to herself during the car ride to the hall as her brother Dexter tried to create more distance between them and avoided eye contact.

The moment they entered Falicia scanned the hall and spotted Avery. She started to awkwardly talk to herself. "Step one, introduce yourself. Step two, turn on the charm. Step three, make him fall for you so he waits for you outside the gate after school." Dexter face palmed himself and started to side step away from his younger sister. He didn't even know how they could be related and often wished they weren't.

Falicia tried walking gracefully towards Avery and almost made it but suddenly the lights were switched off and spot lights were turned towards the stage. "Esteemed guests, we are here today to present to you some young minds and extraordinary talent. As you know we are the elite of society and as the elites we are to set an example to everyone in this wonderful city."

"We are here today to do our annual scholarship event. The hand picked youth will show there faces here tonight and then mingle with all of you. Depending on your impression of them you will write a cheque with a dollar amount on it and deposit it into this secured box. Everything will remain anonymous so that the students do not have to be pressured into having to return your kindness."

"So let's call out our 20 students who are eagerly hoping to get into the school of their dreams!" the announcer shouted and everyone started to applaud as the youth started to walk onto the stage. Falicia finally got to Avery and tugged on his sleeve. Avery looked over to her and continued to absent mindedly clap.

Falicia blushed red from head to toe. "Hello my name is Falicia Coblepot nice to see you again." she said loudly. Avery looked at her in confusion and was about to say something when the announcer called their attention again. "Our 19xx scholarship nominees!" he shouted and everyone erupted into cheers.

However Avery dropped his hands and jaw. His eyes were glued to the stage and his cheeks started to turn a beautiful shade of pink. Falicia tried to look where he was looking but couldn't see. So she tried getting his attention again. "Avery?" she called out but he gently tapped her hand. "So sorry could you please excuse me...I need to go o-over there... ya over there." he said as he moved away. Leaving Falicia all alone as he ran off towards the stage.

The week passed by and Falicia was hopeful that she would find Avery waiting for her outside the Academy gates, it was only the first day of school but she still hoped she had made some sort of impression on him. He wasn't there.

She hoped for an entire month that he would be standing there but day after day after school she was incredibly disappointed. She finally decided to skip a day of school, stepped into a public washroom and changed her uniform to make herself look like a student of Lewood Academy.

Since her overall presence was so poor she was able to blend into the crowd and no one questioned the new face. Once she made it inside she started her search for Avery, she ducked and hid behind the shrubbery, avoiding any teachers patrolling the grounds and by the time the lunch hour started she found Avery.

She spotted him talking to a petite, fair skin girl with wavy black hair and lips as red as an apple. They way that Avery looked at her was causing Falicia's heart to hurt but she couldn't look away. The girl did not look like she was interested in what Avery had to say but didn't make any effort to push him away either.

Falicia left the grounds in tears, she couldn't believe that Avery was looking at some else. Her parents were worried and were reassured that the engagement was still in place. It was the only thing that was keeping Falicia together, the fact that their was still an arranged marriage in place.

Four years passed in a blink of an eye. Falicia would skip school once a week to go see Avery at Lewood, the girl who she found out was Grace Allegria was just an orphan, trash in her eyes. There was no way that a union between them was ever possible and worse her younger brother joined Lewood and became best friends with Avery.

While she spent her years in school bullied, ridiculed and utterly alone. A majority of the bullying was cause by pent up stress, especially when word got out about a serial pet killer who liked to put the mutilated animals on display in front of the owner's house. Falicia found it humourous that people would be traumatize but such a small matter. She would often walk through the gardens yanking flowers up from their roots and pop the flower of with her thumb.

Her fellow students could not stand her as she giggled to herself when the flower flew up into the air and landed at her feet. "Oops your head is gone." she would laugh so she was marked as target for her cruelty to plants. Mind you it wasn't peaceful for the ones bullying either, rumour had it if you took the bullying too far with Falicia you would find yourself shivering in fear the next day. No one said why.

So when it was finally the day for the graduation ceremony she tried her best to doll herself up. Unfortunately she was not that talented and the maids tried their best to fix up her make over but Falicia was adamant that what she did to herself would be the most appealing to Avery.

It was the most humiliating day of her life. The Steel heads, Bernard and Clementina showed up but Avery was missing. She had even gone and boasted to her entire year that she had bagged the most sought after man. She stood in the middle of the stage after she received her diploma with heavy makeup, a gaudy dress and wearing platform heals.

Spotlights shone on her family and Mr. & Mrs. Steel. A few of her classmates stepped onto the stage. "Falicia Coblepot esteemed daughter of Jeremy & Bertha Coblepot. Proudest family in all of Rune City, who monopolize the confectionery market have now arranged a marriage with the Steel family! But dear me where is the husband to be?" everyone in the audience started to murmur as they eyed the two families. Some other girls came on to the stage and dumped a couple of buckets on to Falicia, destroying her overly quaffed hair, making her heavy makeup run and making the gaudy dress stuck to her scrawny body.

Falicia turned and ran off the the stage as the Steels started whispering to each other. The Coblepots excused themselves and chased after their daughter. Once they found her she was ready to commit suicide. Her parents cried and pleaded to her to rethink her actions but Falicia's will to live was long gone from her eyes.

That is until Mrs. Coblepot came up with an idea. "Falicia we are going to hold off on your engagement party..." she said slowly as she watched the muscles in Falicia's face twitch. "I want to take you to a special make over camp, way out to the Eastern Continent. With our influence and the Steels money we can have you transformed from head to toe and inside and out." she said cautiously and optimistically. Falicia's will started to come back into her eyes and she dropped the knife she was holding against her throat.

Mrs. Coblepot threw herself onto her daughter and started to cry. "Will it make Avery turn and look at me?" Falicia asked with a stoic face. Mrs. Coblepot guaranteed that any man with eyes would turn to look at her twice. So Falicia agreed to do a year long make over and come back a changed woman.

Mr. & Mrs. Coblepot decided to accompany Falicia to the Eastern continent, leaving Dexter in charge of their confectionery operation. Once they reached their destination Falicia was put under a strict schedule. 5 km run before dawn, if not completed the run would be doubled. 100 burpees, 50 crunches, 60 push ups and 15 minutes of jump rope before breakfast. If you couldn't complete before breakfast it would be doubled and you would be given a supplement instead of a meal.

Another 5 km walk was to start after breakfast but in heals. The length of the heal grew 1cm per day. If you stumbled, tripped or fallen over the distance of the walk increased by 1 km. You needed to have the walk completed by noon for lunch or you are punished by having a tire tied to your body the next day for the run. They would feed you boiled eggs, chicken breast and kale for lunch everyday and after lunch they would start your spa treatment.

Deep tissue massage, enriched clay facial masks first then an aloe facial mask and deep hair oil treatment. Then they would wrap your waist with a waist training belt and have you sit in the sauna room for an hour. The moment you got out they would have you drink a tall glass of soy milk to help promote the size of your breasts.

After all of that they expected you to shower and sit with everyone for a buffet styled dinner. Dinner would be a collection of high fiber fruits and vegetables, once you finished eating the group would participate in yoga. After yoga it as expected for the women to sleep at least 8 hours. For a year Falicia stuck to this program and couldn't help but admire the results.

Her beauty was radiating from every pore on her body. She thanked her teachers and was ready to go home, as she packed her belongings her parents told her the news of Avery Steel being disowned and eloping with another woman.

Falicia snapped and went on a rampage. It was never confirmed who killed Mr. & Mrs. Coblepot or who started the fire at the camp or how every student and teacher died that day but one fact remains. From the the blazing flames and blood curtling screams rose a new woman and she named herself Agni.