The tension between Melissa and Hazel was noticeable in the classroom, during all the last classes, in the rare times their gazes met, it always seemed heavy...

It was difficult to approach Hazel, even without people around her, with everyone, she only spoke when necessary, and I myself got quite nervous sometimes... As much as I loved her, it was difficult to have a chance to really talk to her... But, especially today, Melissa didn't seem much different either, keeping her distance even from Annabeth, with whom she used to walk, and now that Alex was trying to approach Hanna, just like when we were younger, she really seemed more alone...

I was leaving the school, when I could observe someone in the corner... A crying girl.

There was almost no one left in the school, many students just ran out to leave as soon as possible, and I was waiting for an opportunity to talk to Melissa.

And there she was.

Crying, alone.

Looking at her phone.

But something seemed strange.

"Me-Melissa? Are you okay?" I approached her, hidden in a corner of the school hallway, sad and huddled, very different from the brave Melissa I knew.

She didn't respond, in fact, she didn't seem to have heard when I spoke, so I approached and repeated.

"Melissa, are you okay? Even if you don't want to talk..." She fell to her knees, letting her phone drop to the ground. It was open on a messaging app, I didn't want to seem intrusive, but I knew I wouldn't get anywhere if she remained paralyzed, so I picked up her decorated phone to read a long message with a photo attached...

'Your "boyfriend" is hanging out with a girl from his college. He told me you're a stalker and that you sent threatening messages to all his ex-girlfriends. They love each other very much but can't make it official because you keep looking for him at college. Please, let them live happily, if you keep bothering him, I'll have to take drastic measures.'

A message from an unknown number, and right below this text, a photo, of a slightly built boy kissing a girl with dark purple hair... She looked like Miss Hazel, but it was clear that she wasn't her. The girl in the photo wasn't wearing glasses, her face had similar features to Hazel's but was different enough to know that they weren't the same person, and she didn't have the mole next to her left eye that Hazel had, it was a charm that made a lot of difference.

"Hey, Melissa!" I crouched down and squeezed her shoulders, but... She didn't do anything. Her eyes stared fixedly downward, and she whispered something strange...

"It's all your fault... It's all your fault... It's all your fault..." She seemed to be in a trance, it was as if nothing existed there, she didn't cry or react, it was like an empty shell.

No matter what I did, she was in a complete state of shock.

Her body was cold, but she had started to tremble.

Her whispers became louder and louder.

Melissa, what was happening to you?!

"Rose... This person... Isn't the Melissa you know."

Anima had come out of the necklace, it was already getting dark, so no one seemed to be around, but... Her gaze was more worried than usual.

"Anima?! What do you mean by that..." Melissa got up forcefully and shouted

A gigantic scream that seemed to crack the glass windows, the glass shards began to gather on her body, she was bleeding... Bleeding, but it was as if she felt nothing...

Those glass shards slowly turned into a crown of thorns on Melissa's head, her body was shrouded in shadows and the veins on her neck became visible, bulging in a sickly green, almost like poison, while her cheeks were flushed, but in such an unrealistic way that it was more like she had been beaten and cried a lot, and less like she was wearing makeup.

Her eyes opened

In an equally vibrant and venomous green, not the normal blue that I always saw shining in her eyes.

Those eyes, surprised, malicious, big... Full of hatred for anyone who looked at them.

"It's all your fault!" She screamed, a scream that made my ears hurt, almost as if I could slowly lose my hearing. As much as she used to tease me, Anima seemed distressed.

"That's... The Queen of Envy."

"What are you talking about, Anima?!"

"Quick, transform! Her rage is much, much greater than that of the Beast!"

Without thinking much, I just held the necklace tightly and repeated those words,

"My blood boils with anger and pain... For the love that burns bright in red... I will destroy everything and shatter emotions!"

That feeling of power came again, but unlike when I was fighting Carter in the form of a giant furry monster, this time I wasn't sure what I would do...

Melissa's heart was filled with pain... That Melissa who was always confident... That Melissa I had known all my life... Even though we were no longer part of a united class as we were years ago... She was still the same Melissa.

"Please, Melissa, let's talk!"

She didn't listen to me, her screams continued and created even more glass shards and collided against my body. She cut me, made me bleed... Even by shooting at some glass shards, I couldn't be fast enough to change the trajectory of all of them, and even so it seemed that she still wasn't using all her powers against me.

"You won't be able to talk to her like this, Magenta... You need to make her heart shine!"

"And how the hell do I do that?!" I said, while trying to dodge the glass shards, if it continued like this after I stopped being Heartbreaker Magenta, I would have trouble at home...

"You need to know... The reason for her anguish. And make her feel the suffering!"

"What?! I'm already screwed here and you want me to make it worse?!"

"If you want to die here, then do nothing, but if you want her to return to normal, you need to confront her!"

The face of that monster that at some point was Melissa was getting more and more red, it was almost as if her eyes were going to release blood from how wide they were.

"Melissa... This is... About Hazel, isn't it?"

Her face became even more enraged, she shouted again, and the glass shards started to turn green...

It was poison. The same poison that was in the veins of her neck. And it hurt even more than the normal shards.

"Wait, I want to talk! I don't want to humiliate you! It's not exactly about Hazel, but about the girl in the photo who looks like her, isn't it?!"

That monster approached faster than I expected. Those shadows formed tentacles, and soon from the bloodied glass shards, that monster formed a small knife, made to kill animals, and then tried to hit me, and at that moment, something in that darkness of her chest began to glow red.

She was still trying to immobilize me and stab me, so I dodged and shot at her tentacles. I didn't really want to hurt Melissa, but I had no choice but to defend myself in that state by shooting a bit with the magical weapons.

"Magenta, try to reach the red glow and remove the crystallized heart from her chest!"

I heard Anima and then approached Melissa again, the 'Queen of Envy' as that bunny had called her... I shot at her body to get her attention.

"Hey, ugly, I'm here, you see?!"

She seemed annoyed by the insult and tried to attack me again, this time also controlling several other glass shards, but I knew what I needed to do... I couldn't stop now.

Even though she wasn't the friend I once had anymore, even though she started thinking she was better than everyone in the class as we grew up, she still helped me when I needed to, she still kept company with Hazel over these years... And she had an answer I needed.

I shot more accurately at the glass shards, which made the monster Melissa itself surprised.

"An opening!" I said, when I shot at the bloodied glass knife, breaking it into several pieces, and then went straight for the darkness-made chest.

My hand seemed to disappear into darkness when I touched that infinite black void, but it was harder to remove the heart than the first time, both because of the resistance that body had to give up the crystal and because of the agonizing screams of the monster, but after enduring a few more scratches and agonizing screams, I finally got it, freezing time while holding that crystal with a mysterious red glow similar to blood, while the Queen of Envy was paralyzed, even though her expression still showed agony and pain.

"Now... I just need to break this... And move on..."

"Is this really what you want, Heartbreaker Magenta?"

"...What do you mean?"

"Don't you remember our conversation? This heart is not only the cause of Melissa Schutt's transformation into the Queen of Envy. These are her crystallized feelings. It simply took the form of the hatred that manifested her inner monster, but its destruction..."

"...Will turn Melissa into a lifeless shell... Just like Carter..."

"That's right." Anima seemed a little upset for not letting her speak. But she also talked a lot. "The decision is yours, to purify or destroy, you are a Destroyer, after all. But now you know... That there are consequences to killing souls, just like killing bodies."

"...You make it sound like I'm really a killer."

"You are. You killed Carter Fullmer's passions. His spirit manifested in the Devouring Wolf, but the human being is much more than their inner monsters, who knows if you had let him live..."

"I don't want to hear it! Just tell me how to purify this already!"

"I see you've chosen the harder path. I'm proud of you." As if it were an option, after you called me a murderer.

Feeling words echoing in my heart, I touched that red-glowing heart crystal pulsating with hatred and said, "Open your heart to me, Queen of Envy!"

As soon as I finished speaking, my body was taken over by a cold sensation, not a normal cold, but as if the warmth that made me live no longer existed, all I saw was darkness, even though I didn't feel like I had closed my eyes, and then... I found myself watching a Melissa wearing a crown and a princess dress, sitting watching a mirror.

Her eyes were fixed on the mirror, which didn't reflect her, but rather told a story, her face was fixed, but I couldn't touch her, as if her body repelled me.

Throughout my life, I was always loved. Or at least I thought I was loved.

Those words came from the mirror, leaving me hypnotized, unable to move... Reflected in the mirror was a little Melissa, loved by everyone and well taken care of, her parents' princess.

It was easy to be kind to everyone around me. It was easy to have friends I trusted. It was easy to exist,

The more I grew, everyone said I was beautiful, daddy and mommy raised me well, mommy was always home and taught me how to become a prettier princess every day. Daddy wasn't always home, but whenever he came back from his long trips, he brought lots of presents, we ate at fancy restaurants and he always read me a fairy tale before bed.

All this was good, everything was fine, until...

Mommy committed a sin.

The sin of growing old, and Daddy ended up falling in love with another girl. An intern from his company, with black hair like coal and skin as white as snow.

Mommy cried so many times, even if she wore all the makeup in the world and altered her face in every humanly possible way, she couldn't go back to being beautiful, couldn't compare to that Snow White. She was kind to me, but the more she infiltrated our home, the less attention Daddy gave me, but...

Even without Daddy's love, I found the love of my Prince. At 14, when I was in the schoolyard crying when Monmy decided to run away from home out of shame for her monstrous appearance... A boy spotted me... He looked at me with tenderness and caressed my golden hair.

"Why are you crying? A pretty girl like you should be smiling."

He was older, knew a lot that I didn't, he could drive, and could teach me so many pleasures that my heart couldn't handle. Even without Daddy's love, I had become His princess.

He... Nicholas Evans. The boy everyone desired. The boy who loved me. My Prince.

Nothing could separate me from my Prince, after all, I was his princess.

Even if he didn't go out with me when he was with his friends.

Even if he always fought with me when I stepped into his college to see him.

He always said he was doing his best for me, after all, I was his princess, wasn't I?

But... There was a girl I noticed once. A girl with almost black hair, beautiful pale skin, and a seductive smile, walking beside him... Smiling with him...

I didn't know who that girl was...

But she looked a lot like my classmate. Their faces were almost identical, if not for a few details, and the complete lack of any smile from my classmate.

But... As she grew and flourished with the virtue of beauty, being by her side was comforting.

It was as if, by getting closer and befriending that classmate, I could control her other version, the cheerful version, who once hugged my Prince as if he were hers...

I told her what to wear, introduced her to boys, invited her to my house...

And still, she continued to reject what I suggested to make her life better.

Why didn't she want what was good?! Mommy had taught me all the beauty tricks, how to win men over and ensure happiness as a princess, so why did she reject everything? Was she crazy? Or... Did she want my prince?!

That classmate... She ruined the guy I had made court her... And my Prince... Had chosen the other girl.

He had chosen her a long time ago.

Yes.. I knew

I knew that every time he smiled at his phone, he smiled because of her.

I knew I had never been his princess, but rather his mistress.

When he took my innocence and brought me pleasure... When he said I was beautiful while I cried...

I was never his princess.

That girl, with beautiful pale skin, almost black hair, but with a hint of mystery in purple, and with that enchanting smile...

She was his Princess.

And I had committed the same sin as Mommy. I had become ugly in his eyes.

And because of that... Because of this sin... It was inevitable.

That I would hate you, his Princess, and that girl with dark purple hair and deep blue eyes who studied with me. You would have made her your princess if you had seen her, after all, the only thing that differentiated my classmate from your true Princess was that my classmate didn't smile.

And you hated it when I smiled.

So, it's inevitable that I will become a witch, isn't it?

After all... If I wasn't the princess of the story... All that's left for me is putrefaction, and becoming a witch, just like Mommy.

Melissa's hands, which were paralyzed at one moment, were now squeezing my neck tightly. That girl... Her face was beginning to slowly shatter...

But...

"If killing me will make you feel better... There's nothing I can do."

Tears streamed down the lifeless eyes of that dream version of Melissa, and her chest glowed again. Her hands left my neck and her knees fixed themselves on the ground, like a doll, her heart glowing with that mysterious light.

“Please... I don't want this agony anymore.” That Melissa, who seemed to exist more in imagination than in reality, spoke weakly, and the shiny heart-shaped pendants embedded in my magical pistols seemed to shine brighter than usual.