I regained consciousness shortly. At first, I thought it was just a dream because why would my best friend back-stab me and side with my enemy? Unfortunately, I was reminded of how harsh reality has always been.

I opened my eyes and found myself lying on some wooden surface. I heard the sound of water crashing and knew I was still somewhere by the lake. My hands were tied behind my back with rope, and so were my legs.

I looked at the sky, the full moon shining bright, and then at my surroundings. I wasn't at the lake. I was lying on the tip of a wooden bridge that had broken, and I had gone right to the edge of a cliff. How did I get here?

"You're awake!" I heard Lannard and quickly turned my head to the other side to see him there, surrounded by his friends. Besides him was Micah in his arms. "You're just on time for the main event."

"What is this?!" I asked Micah. I ignored Lannard and hoped that this had to be some prank. A part of me still believed that Micah would never betray me.

"It's over, Kaya!" She said and walked to me. All I saw in her eyes was hate. "I am so sick and tired of you! You always get praise. Your parents are rich, and yet you complain about them every day. You don't even have a curfew as you do whatever you want. Despite that, you're the perfect student in school, and you're an omega! You can have kids while I can only ever dream of having kids."

"What?" I needed clarification. "You're doing all this because you're jealous?!"

"Oh, shut up! With you out of the way, all the colleges will look for a replacement, some student to take your place because it would look bad for them not to have a genius high schooler joining their programs early. And who else other than me?"

Unbelievable. Micah disgusted me, and at that moment, I wanted to strangle her. Micah was sick in the head. "You won't get away with this!"

"Oh, please! Your father never comes home and only does it for special occasions. Your mother sleeps with the school principal, and you spend most of your days in the forest wandering off in the dark. So when someone does find your body in the ocean, they'll all think, hey, this kid always went into the dark. Perhaps the alpha of the dark woods or some bandits got him eventually and killed him!" She smiled wickedly. "Fact of the matter is, nobody cares about you, Kaya. Nobody ever will. I'm only doing you a favor by getting rid of you immediately."

"Micah..." my voice broke. Her words were like venom, and hearing my best friend say these things hurt. It hurt even more to learn that she didn't value my life.

"Goodbye, Kaya!" Her boot stepped on my stomach, and then she pushed me over the edge of the bridge.

"W-wait...noooo!"

And then fell off. I couldn't stop my fall, and I saw as if my own life was about to slip away before my eyes. I felt something tug on the rope, making me fall even faster, and when I looked, I saw a rock falling ahead of me. It was going to pull me to the bottom.

Tears flew from my eyes, and I closed them before my body landed in the water, and I was in deep. Was this how it was all going to end? My opportunities and dreams all just snatched away from me?

Were the people of Icedale truly that cruel? My lungs were aching and needed some air. But my hands and feet were tied, and this rock was too heavy. And even if I tried to go up, the rock was the only thing preventing the crashing waters from throwing me around like some rag doll.

My chest tightened, and my lungs screamed for air. My instinct kicked in at that moment, and the part of me that still wanted to fight surfaced. I spent my last moment struggling with these ropes as the stream carried me further away.

I got my feet out simply by pulling them out of my shoes and socks, detaching from the rock still attached to the rope around my boots. I then began kicking my legs with everything. I only had to feel my back hit a rock hard. At that moment, I passed out, and black spots appeared before my eyes.