Life on Earth

"I, Bella Fern, challenge you, Nessa Grace, to a sword fighting challenge… to the death! Do you dare accept?" Said a tall, black-haired beauty. She looked at the girl standing in front of her with disdain. Her red lips formed in a sneer.

"Ms. Fern! How could you suggest that?! This is illegal! Murder, fighting to the death is against the l-" Nessa's mother, Annabelle, was furious, she began to yell at the girl who had just barged into their house.

"I wasn't talking to you, old lady." Bella said with a snicker.

"I see that you're not sure if your precious has the capabilities to beat m-" "I accept."

Nessa cut in.

"Great. You know where to find me. 2 pm tomorrow." Bella gave a sinister smile and a petty wave, "See you then."

She turned around and walked out the front gates, stepping over the bodies of the guards with either missing or dislocated limbs and jaws. She turned the corner and got into the car that was waiting for her.

"Do you really have to do this?" The driver asked.

Bella turned to look at the person sitting in the seat next to her.

"Brother, do you see the way people look at me? They pity me. They pity me because everytime I accomplish something, she still can match that achievement with something just as good. Just as great." Bella gave a sad smile.

Her grandfather had always told her that she needed to be the best at everything, to never let another person be at the same level as you, she was always told she needed to be on top. And she did.

She beat every opponent that came her way.

At age 7, she had mastered Kyushu Jitsu and had begun to learn Ansatsuken in secret because when she had mentioned learning the way of assassination to her parents, they became extremely angry.

At age 14, she had mastered Haidong Gumdo, a sword fighting technique, and other than Nessa, she was unrivaled in the way of the sword.

Bella clearly remembered the day in the martial arts arena, when her mastery of Kyushu Jitsu was announced by her academy.

Just 2 days later, the Grace family released the news that their precious daughter had also mastered the same exact kind of martial arts, at the same age. It was then, when people began to pity her.

She had just become the youngest female to ever master Kyusho Jitsu, which she had been practicing ever since she knew how to walk, when somebody else said that they did the same thing too.

She had her thunder stolen, her achievements that had once been seen as god-like and impossible, looked a lot less impressive then they did before.

She ground her teeth.

For every outstanding achievement she made, Nessa would always come out with one that was just as impossible. Or worse, more impossible.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow she would show everybody that she was better than the Grace family daughter.

That way, nobody would ever pity her for being evenly matched ever again. Starting tomorrow, her life will be different.

Starting tomorrow, there would be no Nessa Grace left in this world to make her life miserable.

Starting tomorrow, she was an unrivaled goddess.

All of a sudden, the car stopped, pulling Bella out of her thoughts. She looked over to see her brother, Darren, staring at her. "You chose a fight to the death, didn't you?"

Bella chose to ignore him.

He sighed and said, "Bella. You know that there is no way for you to be 100 percent sure you can win this. If grandfather knew you were doing this-"

"But he doesn't. Does he?" Bella said, her words cold as ice.

Darren paused for a moment. "No, he doesn't. But he should."

Bella continued to look out the window. She knew she should tell her grandfather. But, she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

The car pulled up in front of their mansion. She swiftly opened the car door and walked into the house. The servants all bowed and greeted her when she walked past them, but she didn't give them a single glance. She just walked up the stairs and shut herself into her room.

Her parents were on a business trip. Only herself, Darren and her little sister Tonya were home. Other than the servants of course.

She gave a sigh and pulled out her favorite letter paper from her desk drawer. She wrote a letter to everyone in her family. Her mother, father. Her siblings each got one too. And finally, her grandfather.

The letters for her other family members had been much easier to write so… why was it so hard to write this one to her grandfather?

For her little sister, she had written how much she loved her and if she were to lose this challenge, all of her belongings would go to Tonya when she turned 14.

For her parents, she apologized for doing it when they were not here. Not that her father and step-mom would care enough anyways. They wouldn't keep somebody who couldn't beat a Grace in the house.

The Grace family was their biggest business rival.

So if Bella could eliminate their only heir, they would be fine with it, even at the cost of their daughter's life.

To her brother, she just said to watch over Tonya.

Then she said that the box inside of her closet, behind the green pair of high-heels was for him. It was meant to be his birthday present.

The present was very simple.

It was merely 3 small bottles of sand with a seashell charm.

But those bottles of sand were each from the day that one of them had been born.

Each child she had, her mother had gotten a bottle of sand from the beach by their house.

That was, before mother died. Mother died shortly after giving birth to their little sister. That night, Bella had gone out to get the sand herself. She planned to give the bottles to her brother for safe keeping.

For her grandfather, she decided to write one thing… I'm sorry.

She put them each into their own pale pink envelope and wrote their names in cursive, her favorite way to write and laid them on her desk. She decided that she would burn them if she won the fight. If she lost, they would be the final things from her to say to them.