As if she'd been summoned by just the thought of her name, Adelaide saw a figure walking toward her, immediately recognizing the dark wet hair and hazel eyes. Eurydicia was coming toward her, gasps and wide eyes following each of her steps. Adelaide herself found her mouth open, staring out at the water as her sister emerged from the waves. In her swim clothes, not anything covering her. Adelaide wanted to scream, tell Eurydicia to get back in the water, to stop acting disgraceful, but she couldn’t find the words. She had gone into shock, eyes bulging and hands shaking. It probably looked ridiculous but she couldn’t focus on anything but what was in front of her.

The sight made one girl in a tight corset swoon, falling down to the sand, hopefully having a soft landing.

Nothing could get worse than this, Adelaide thought, still in a rational state of mind, but she was wrong. As Eurydicia got closer, there was a smile on her face, and her eyes locked with Adelaide. Almost immediately, Adelaide could tell what she was doing, and she scurried up from the sand too late though, her sister beginning to run towards her.

“Adelaide!”

No, no, no!

“Adelaide!”

She didn’t respond, but people's eyes were all turned toward her, horror written across their faces. Adelaide could not find the strength to move her feet, and she was left staring. People were whispering, she could hear them, hear the disgraceful thing they were saying about her. Something was clawing at her throat, making it hard to breathe as her lungs begged for air. The sun felt hotter than ever, beating down upon her with wrath, making everything do a slight spin around her. Everyone’s whispers were louder than ever. They were in her head, picking at her brain and becoming more like screams, holding as much spite as screams did as well.

“Adelaide!”

Maybe that one was the loudest, she couldn’t tell. She could barely distinguish one voice from the other, each one lapping over each other, struggling to be the one reaching Adelaide’s ears. It made her head hurt, along with her neck, and her arms, and her legs, and her chest, especially her chest. There was something pinching there, as hard as it could, sucking every trace of air out of there. It made the world before she started spinning, tilting one way and then the next. There was something surreal about it, something that made everything feel so much more in the present.

Adelaide had to force herself to tear her eyes away, locking them on the ground as her head and stomach grew nausea at the swaying. That’s when she saw her arms, paler than usual, so pale that they were white, and shining in the sun. Those weren’t her normal arms. She brought one of her hands up to her face, feeling hot, wanting to wipe off the sweat dripping down her face, but she only felt glass underneath her palm. She wasn't made of glass. She wasn’t made of glass! Her eyes didn’t blink, her mouth didn’t move, even as she tried to force them. Something was wrong, something was terribly wrong.

That’s when everything got even worse, and suddenly, an enormous pain went through her arm. It almost made her scream, but she couldn’t open her mouth and no noise would leave her throat. Everything finally stopped spinning, but instead, it grew colorful, brighter than Adelaide remembered it ever being. Now her eyes hurt, causing tears to burst forward, falling down her cheeks. Her name was called yet again, and she knew it was Eurydicia, but she was turned around so her back was facing her. She didn’t know how close Eurydicia was, maybe she was right behind her, causing yet another burst of insults to be thrown their way.

Another hot burst of pain came, this time across her face, and once again, she couldn’t shriek. This time, she brought her hands up to where the pain was, but as she did, she caught a glance of what was on her arm. A black crack spread across her skin, standing out from the perfect white, a mark on a beautiful background. The thing on the face felt the same, smooth and then dipping down, almost big enough to fit her fingers through. She… she was broken, her reputation falling apart, just as her arm was. A whole section of porcelain fell, falling onto the sound below, cracking into a thousand more pieces as it landed. Then another one went from her face, this one holding her eye. It seemed to fall slower, and Adelaide could see the horror in her eye as it fell, opened wide, perfectly painted, and then destroyed.

“Adelaine?”

Everything came rushing back, the porcelain disappeared, and the smashed glass was gone from between the pebbles of sand. There wasn’t any more pain, and she could breathe again, lungs taking greedy gulps of air. The whispers were gone, and only Eurydicia’s voice was in her head now, asking whether or not she was okay, sounding truly worried. Still, everything in Adelaide was screaming, telling her that nothing was right, that nothing was ever going to be right. She couldn’t stay here another movement, she had to leave, get away from all of the eyes scouring her body.

“Adelaide? Adelaine! Hey. Hey, answer me!”

Eurydicia stepped in front of her, her face appearing in Adelaine’s vision. The concern turned to shock as her eyes traveled down to Adelaine’s cheeks, no doubt seeing tears freely flowing. As soon as Adelaine realized where she was looking, she pushed forwards, sending her sister flying into the sand, clearing her path of escape. Each step she took while running felt a little heavy but she pressed on, avoiding anyone who reached out for her. She needed to get away. Something was wrong, something was terribly wrong.

“Adelaide!”