Hellspawn

Trigger Warning: I don't usually do these, but this chapter is DARK. It's mostly exposition, and you won't be lost if you skip it. Mental health issues, addiction, and sexual **** references inbound. You have been warned.

Once upon a time, there was a girl. This girl was called Scarlet Cray. Yes, I know you're aware of who she is, but stick with me; I'm doing a bit here. Scarlet was a harmless girl, really, never excelling at anything in particular but always friendly to her peers and respectful to adults.

This, needless to say, could not be allowed to stand.

Enter Amanda. Amanda was the definition of "peaked in high school" queen beeism. The thing being that teen social capital is like copyright; you've got to wield it to prove you've still got it. So who could be a better target than sweet little Scarlet? The girl that would never fight back. As they grew older, Amanda's behaviour set the standard for most of the school, who began to avoid Scarlet out of fear of being persecuted by association. And such is the woeful tale of simply being nice in a world that isn't built to cater to you. Scarlet faded into the background, and no one heard from her again.

Just kidding.

Enter Elise. She decided, after a single class with Scarlet, that Amanda's **** of her could not stand. And neither could Amanda, after Elise cold-cocked her right in the middle of her smug "Regina George" face. It was only a single act, but it brought Amanda's life crumbling down. You see, this act made God bleed. Amanda's social capital fell to the ground as stories of her treatment of Scarlet spread throughout the school and to her family. Her parents, instead of standing up for her, were ashamed of her actions, forcing her to transfer schools... Only for Amanda not to be willing to start from square one, resulting in more **** and more anger.

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." As the old quote goes. And Amanda was angry. Endlessly angry. Her parents had turned their backs on her, her friends had their own problems, and every relationship she had turned out to just be a shell. Amanda would go through periods of crippling depression and the unbridled manic fury. A dozen doctors gave her parents a dozen different diagnoses, but all agreed on one thing: Amanda could not be left unattended.

So her parents sent her off to a facility, completely unattended. What did you think some rich arseholes were going to do? Look after their child? Nah, she wasn't serving a purpose, so off to an asylum she went. Now, it's important to remember that most psychological hospitals are good places with caring staff... But that would mean having her be visible, and Amanda's parents couldn't manage that. Needless to say, Amanda was not taken care of. No one who goes into a mental health hospital and comes out heavily pregnant has been treated well.

Yeah, you didn't think she was let out the first time because she'd recovered, did you? Gotta make sure the victim gives birth outside of the hospital so no one questions it. If that sounds like a horror show, the good news is that this is where a good guy enters the story. Mr Cyprus. First name Bob, but how much less impressive is that? Mr Cyprus was a small businessman who also helped to run a homeless shelter. When Amanda arrived, she looked like she'd been broken every way someone could.

You know how this story goes. Boy meets girl. Girl is already pregnant. Boy and girl fall in love anyway. Girl starts taking her medication properly for boy. Girl is stable again for a while. Girl has baby. Boy and girl welcome baby, and boy signs birth certificate. Girl struggles with early motherhood. Girl meets other boy. Girl gets pregnant again. First boy is heartbroken. Second boy is barely in the picture. Girl ends up alone with two babies now. Girl stops taking meds because she was too dependent on boy one to keep going without him.

From there, imagine a vicious cycle of barely keeping it together, hating everyone in the world, and hating yourself for bringing children into said hateable world. It may not surprise you to hear that when her daughter had grown up to teenage status and announced to her mother in an argument that she was in love with a girl, Amanda's thought was simple. Just like her. Just like the one who took everything from me.

You know what happened for Echo after that. The good news is that, after this event, the police put Amanda in a real institution that genuinely did help her with her mental health breaks, as well as her **** and **** addictions. Oh yeah, I skipped those bits; just trust me, they were as awful as the rest of Amanda's story. But eventually, she was released into the custody of her now-adult children. She wasn't exactly civil, but given her story, it'd be hard to expect it, wouldn't it?

So that's the story of Amanda, who made life miserable for everyone and had the worst misery inflicted on her. The good news is this story isn't over yet. I think even those who were considered monsters can get a happy ending.

Don't you?