Lily's POV
Once upon a nightmare, I used to believe monsters only lived in stories. That they wore claws and fangs, that they hid beneath beds or lurked inside closets.
Ha. Naive little me. Turned out…..I was so wrong.
My monster — as I liked to call her — wore designer shoes, painted her lips red every morning, and sprayed expensive perfume that clung to the air like poison. My monster smiled in public and played the role of the perfect mother, but when the doors closed, she bared her real teeth.
Her name was Maria. My mother dearest.
She gave me life, yes. But she also made me wish for death.
And I'd never forgive her for that.
★
Not when I remembered being eight years old, sitting in the dark of our kitchen, hugging my knees while my stomach growled so loudly it hurt. I had begged her for food, just a piece of bread, and she had looked down at me with... disgust. Me who was supposed to be her child.
"Why don't you crawl to the neighbors, huh? You're good at begging, aren't you? Useless little brat."
That night, I did crawl. I knocked on the neighbor's door and asked for leftovers like a stray dog.
Not when I remembered the nights she locked me in the storage room just because her boyfriend didn't want to hear me cry. I remembered the sting of her hand against my cheek when I dared to ask why she didn't love me. I remembered her voice calling me a mistake—over and over, until I started to believe it.
But the worst memory wasn't the hunger, the beatings, or the loneliness.
It was the way she ruined the only good thing in my life.
Berlin.
He was the first person who ever treated me like I mattered. He wasn't family, not by blood anyway, but he was more of a home than Maria ever was. He gave me food when I starved. He bandaged my wounds when I stumbled in from nights of neglect. He listened when no one else cared. He looked at me like I was human when my own mother treated me like trash.
He was everything.
He was my everything.
And she destroyed him. Till there was nothing left.
★
Three days after he was buried, I was still kneeling in front of his grave.
The world around me had kept moving. Birds sang. Cars drove by. The sun rose and fell. But for me, time had stopped the night he died.
My knees were numb from kneeling on the hard dirt. My lips were split and dry. My eyes burned, but no tears would fall anymore. I had cried them all out. What was left was emptiness, a hollow ache inside me that felt worse than death.
The gravestone was cool beneath my fingers as I traced the letters of his name. Berlin. Even his name felt like a wound.
"I don't know how to breathe without you," I whispered, my voice hoarse. "You should have let me die that night. Why did you always have to play the hero? Because now that you're gone…..life isn't worth living. I need you, Berlin. I need you."
The words scraped out of my throat like broken glass. I swallowed, staring at the ground. I wanted the earth to split open and swallow me whole.
But instead of silence, I heard it.
The sharp click of heels against the wet earth.
I froze. My body recognized that sound before my mind even caught up.
Click. Click. Click.
She was here.
I didn't need to turn around. Her perfume….that sickly sweet, suffocating scent, wrapped around me like a noose.
"Enough of this pathetic tantrum, Lily," she snapped. Her voice was like ice, sharp and cold. "He's dead. Get over it. Do you know how embarrassing this is? People are starting to talk."
Slowly, I turned.
Maria stood behind me, arms crossed, eyes narrowed, lips curled into that familiar sneer. Perfect makeup. Perfect hair. Like she hadn't just spat on the grave of the only man who ever loved me.
"Are you satisfied?" I asked, my voice flat and hollow.
She cocked a brow. "Satisfied with what?"
My throat tightened. I gestured weakly toward the grave. "He's gone. You finally won. Are you happy now?"
She scoffed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Don't be ridiculous. I had nothing to do with his death. He was just some old fool who fell for me. Men like him are replaceable."
Something in me snapped.
"You might as well have pulled the trigger yourself."
Her painted lips parted in mock shock, then curled again. "Don't speak to me like that, you ungrateful brat."
And that was when I felt it. This….snap inside me. The thread of control I had held onto all my life snapped like glass under pressure.
My hand found a rock near the gravestone. I didn't think. I didn't have time to. The world went red.
I struck.
The rock slammed into her temple with a sickening crack. She stumbled back, her eyes wide with disbelief. Blood ran down her perfect face, staining her expensive foundation.
"You crazy little….."
I struck again. Harder.
Every blow was a memory:
—Her hand across my cheek.
—The nights locked in the dark.
—The hunger that gnawed at my bones.
—Her laugh when I begged for love.
—The moment she dragged Berlin into her twisted life and ruined him too.
"You starved me!" I screamed, my hands shaking as the rock came down again. "You hit me repeatedly when I begged for love! You called me a mistake! You sold me to monsters like I was nothing!"
Her legs buckled. She hit the ground, choking, blood bubbling at her lips.
"And you ruined him too," I sobbed, voice breaking. "You ruined the only person who ever loved me!"
Her eyes fluttered, wide with confusion. She choked on her own blood. "Why…?"
I leaned closer, my tears finally spilling, burning hot on my cheeks. "Because you never deserved him. And you never deserved me."
Her eyes rolled back. Her body went still.
Silence.
I stared down at her lifeless form, chest heaving, arms trembling, blood dripping from my hands. The rock slipped from my fingers and hit the ground with a dull thud.
It was done.
The monster was dead.
That was the end of my nightmare. Or was it?
★
I don't know how long I knelt there. The sky grew darker, clouds gathering, until the first drops of rain hit my face. I closed my eyes and let it wash over me, cold and heavy, mixing with the blood on my skin.
And then the sounds reached my ears.
The sirens.
At first distant, then closer, louder, until red and blue lights bled across the graveyard. I was supposed to run.
But…. What was the use?
Boots pounded against the ground. Shouts echoed through the air.
"Hands up! Drop it! Step away from the body!"
I didn't move.
Rough hands grabbed me, shoving me to the ground. My cheek pressed into the wet dirt. My arms were yanked behind me, wrists bound in cold steel.
I barely felt it.
"I did it," I whispered, my voice steady, calm, broken. I turned my face toward Berlin's grave, staring at his photo through the rain. "I got revenge for us. You can rest now."
The officers shouted commands I didn't hear. My body was dragged upward, shoved toward the flashing lights.
But I didn't resist.
Because the truth was simple.
The living part of me was already gone.
And what remained was nothing more than a ghost in a shell.