“She’s a skank.”

“Don’t touch her.”

“You’ll catch a disease!”

And yet they still wouldn’t keep their gaze and hands off her.

Zara used to be sweet and angelic. Her older stepbrothers started looking at her differently when her tender, budding chest started to show.

The boys didn’t film or photograph anything for fear of getting caught. They focused on shushing her as they explored her young body under the cover of night.

Zara didn’t really know what was going on, but nobody cared. She didn’t know where to go or who to talk to. Who would believe her when she didn’t have any proof?

She tried to stay hidden in baggy clothes when she was thirteen to fifteen. She ran out of her usual shirts one day and threw on a top that fit more snugly.

Nothing else about her had changed—she still had her hair up in a ponytail and wore the same black clunky shoes she’d broken in years ago—but all eyes were on her bosom as she made her way down the hallway. Someone yanked her top from the back, and it was suddenly obvious that she had a voluptuous figure underneath all that fabric.

More attention from guys meant more attention from mean girls, too.

That’s when Zara gave in to the pressures of living life as a young woman. If nothing I do is right, I might as well do whatever I want.

She experimented with different styles—tighter pants, shorter skirts, body-hugging dresses—to see what looked and felt good.

By this time, her stepbrothers had moved out and were living their own lives. Living with her father and stepmother was like cohabitating with two cardboard figures as they both pretended she didn’t exist for different reasons.

Sex was a fast and furious way to get to know someone new.

Multiple guys aside, Ace seemed like a decent bloke who was different from the others. He didn’t leer or sneer at her, and wasn’t a boorish bore like most of her classmates. It didn’t hurt that he had a cool sense of style and was easy on the eyes.

After school one day, he asked her out on a romantic beach dinner date.

“Let’s keep it between us,” he whispered. “No need for any prying eyes on social media to know.”

She agreed, feeling the flutter in her heart that all girls feel when they think they’ve met their prince. For the first time, she felt that someone might finally make her feel a little less dirty.

Things happened so quickly that Zara wouldn’t have been able to recount the events if she tried. One minute they were kissing, making out, and the next she couldn’t see out of one eye. She tried but couldn’t scream with his powerful grip on her neck and jaw as he had his way with her on the secluded shore.

and this is who i thought / could be The One / i might one day have kids with / i could dream up a better life with / but he’s left me / here to / pass out / bleed out / did one thing right / put me out of my misery tonight

 

🦇🦇🦇

The sea washed away the blood as Ace placed Zara’s limp body into a large suitcase.

His grandfather’s boat that he’d borrowed was anchored a short distance away. He’d studied sea maps for years and went out as far as he could to toss her corpse and destroyed phone into a current that would sweep them far out into the ocean. He covered the rest of his tracks that night with fake alibis and got rid of every item he’d worn.

An eeriness permeated their school when Zara’s whereabouts remained unknown. It was mixed with a sense of relief that an evil seductress was no longer in their midst.

Golden Boy Ace went on to an elite college where he married a woman from a respectable family. The couple had a dreamy Ibiza destination wedding and they looked set to live happily ever after.

They didn’t see Zara’s spirit hovering near him as she mulled over what to do.

Her hatred for Ace and how he’d unceremoniously left her to die fueled the unrest in her soul, for she couldn’t rest in peace until she’d seen him suffer like she did. The scene of the perfect happy couple before her was exactly all that was wrong with the world—some people simply had a better start to life, and some of these monsters were even able to get away with heinous crimes.

At first, she thought of tearing out his testicles and watching him bleed to death.

But that would’ve been too quick.

Over the couple’s marital bed, she pondered when to possess his soon-to-be pregnant wife. Either way, Ace would never get a chance to spread his tainted seed.

He showed her the curse of being born a woman.

She’d show him the curse of staying alive.