CHAPTER ELEVEN

Heli spent the next three weeks on the street. She didn't know what to do. She felt numb but also like she was on the brink of insanity at the same time. Whenever she tried to cry, nothing came out. Half of her face was still scarred, and she wasn't able to find any new cloth to cover them, but what felt unbearable wasn't the stares she received when she staggered around aimlessly on the street, but the constant agony in her heart. 

Maybe, if she hadn't been there, everyone would have been alive. If she hadn't been alive, she could have just…

Heli didn't say anything when someone grabbed her by the collar. She didn't say anything or cry out when handcuffs were strapped to her hands. 

"We've found her. The escaped Black-string who was originally locked up."

Now Heli was right back where she'd started. She was sagged against a familiar dark black prison, hopelessly crumpled. 

Her mattress was black.

Her pillow was black.

Her burned face was still half-black. 

Now there was no light shining through - only a deep, resentful black, punishing her for something that wasn't her fault. Now nothing mattered anymore. Anything she had gained, she was convinced she would lose, stuck in a never-ending cycle of misery. 

So now, she sat in the corner of the cell and fell into a deep slumber, awaiting her death. She didnt want to feel anything anymore. She wanted the end to all her suffering, and all her problems, and didn't want to think about anything anymore. Death was the answer to that. 

Then, her eyes flickered open as the cell was opened with a rusty squeal. There, standing was another elder. In their hand was a dark candle. The one thing that had caused everything she had been through so far. If only she had gotten grey or white string from the start. If only she was normal. 

Heli's eyes burned. It had gotten worse after she had been imprisoned. 

Then, with a short burst of mental energy, like a lightbulb in her head, it occurred to her. Maybe she wasn't meant to be a hero at all. Maybe, just like the elder had predicted, she was a monster. One of the deepest and darkest kind, broken beyond repair because that was what they had made her. No, if her string was white, it was simply a mistake. An error on the part of god. Because now, as she met the eyes of the elder, cold and lifeless, she was sure. 

She was a demon, monster, villain, archvillian. The greatest of the great. And if she couldn't be better, she was going to be oh-so-worse. 

She was going to burn the world the way they had burned her. 

Heli smiled for the first time in her life, but it wasn't a happy smile. The smile was bright and eerily glowing in the darkness. There were teeth in it but no heart. It was a chilling smile, cynical and grim. One that sent chills down one's spine and told them to run. The elder did exactly that, stumbling down the hall, letting go of the rusty cell door, and tripping over their own feet in the darkness. 

Then, a brick hit them in the head. The elder's neck snapped back with a sickening crack in the darkness. The candle fell and sizzled out of life in a damped puddle of black water.

Heli stood over the body. She didn't feel anything - grief, sadness, anger, happiness. Her heart was an empty shell, a cave, that the wind blew through. 

The Main character had finally snapped.