Chapter 5

He had a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a grocery bag in the other.

Emily immediately threw herself into his arms, sobbing.

"I was worried Georgina was depressed. I came to check on her, but she let her stray cat attack me!"

"What if I get rabies?!"

Julian already hated pets. Hearing this, his face darkened instantly. He snatched Phoenix out of my arms.

"Georgina, I came back hoping to make things up to you."

"I didn't realize you were this malicious. I am completely done with you."

"No wonder you failed your grad school application. People like you deserve to fail!"

He raised Phoenix high above his head and threw him hard against the floor.

A sickening splash of red and a sharp, choked cry exploded in front of my eyes.

I watched Phoenix twitch, his little body slowly going completely still.

It felt like my last thread of connection to this world had snapped.

I stood frozen for a few seconds. Then, a huge rush of warm blood poured from my mouth.

Before I lost consciousness, I saw Julian rushing toward me in a panic.

"Georgina! Georgina, what's wrong?!"

"Call 911! Now!"

When I woke up again, I was in the hospital. The whispered conversations around me made me feel like I was buried in ice.

"She actually woke up. How does someone like that still have the nerve to live?"

"Exactly. Real mental illness isn't like this. She’s just faking it for sympathy. It's disgusting."

With shaking hands, I pulled my phone from my pocket. It took three tries to type my passcode.

I opened Instagram.

#Abuser Georgina#

#Faking Depression As A Fashion Trend#

#Bipolar Or Just Evil#

Several tags were trending.

I clicked on the top post.

Emily had posted my photo with a long caption.

"This is my high school classmate, Georgina. She has always been paranoid and hostile."

"Lately, her behavior has been extreme. She abused her pet cat and drove her husband out of the house."

"She claims she has bipolar disorder because she failed her exams, but we all know she's just a toxic person."

The attached photo was Phoenix lying in a pool of blood. The comment section had thousands of replies.

"She's giving actual depressed people a bad name. Can she just die?"

"How could she do that to a cute little cat? Monster!"

I wanted to defend myself, but my hands shook so badly I couldn't even type.

The screen blurred. Everything around me felt stretched out.

What finally snapped me back to reality was a medical chart being slammed onto my bed.

"Dr. Lucas, please calm down. Don't waste your energy on someone like her."

"Calm down? I was the one who diagnosed her!" Dr. Lucas hissed, glaring at me with pure disgust. "I can't believe I actually helped such a monster. I feel sick."

My phone kept buzzing.

Emily had posted photos of my pill bottles, videos of my manic episodes, and all my personal information in the comment section.

Soon, I was completely doxxed.

People made memes out of my photos, and someone found my old school.

My email was flooded with hate, and my DMs were a swamp of slurs.

A text from an unknown number came through:

"Julian knows about all of this."

"He told me to teach you a lesson. Don't think just because you're 'sick,' everyone has to bow down to you."

"Since you loved that beast so much, why don't you go join it?"

Looking at the words on the screen, a smile slowly spread across my face.

She's right.

At 3:00 AM, I dragged myself to the hospital's utility closet, a blind spot for the security cameras.

I slowly pulled out the bottle of sleeping pills from my pocket.

I opened it and poured all of them into my mouth.

The pills, which used to taste bitter, now tasted sweet.

As I closed my eyes, I thought I heard a faint meow.

Phoenix, I'm coming to find you.