Chapter 4
795words
But this woman hadn't clawed her way to social media fame by being easily intimidated.
After a moment's panic, her expression hardened with resolve.
"Morgan Blackwood! Who are you to question me?" Evelyn shouted, her voice shrill with righteous anger. "Are you going to keep up this charade? Do you dare admit, in front of millions of viewers, the crimes your family committed?"
She jabbed her finger at me accusingly. "It was your family that destroyed mine! Shouldn't you be the one bearing the guilt of that catastrophe?"
I stared at her face—once so familiar, now twisted with hatred—feeling a profound disappointment. "Really, Evelyn? Who's this performance for? Is there some other version of events I should know about?"
The production crew watched our confrontation in total confusion.
"Version of events?" She cut me off with a bitter laugh. "The truth is you destroyed everything I ever had!"
She turned dramatically toward the camera, tears perfectly timed to fall from her eyes.
"Everyone thinks we're natural enemies. But what they don't know is that we were once inseparable friends."
Her voice became wistful and distant. On the livestream, childhood photos appeared as if on cue—two little girls with pigtails, arms around each other, smiling with innocent joy.
"Morgan and I grew up like sisters. We studied magic together, shared secrets, even made each other amulets infused with our first magic—tokens of our unbreakable bond."
As she spoke, she pulled out a faded moonstone bracelet from beneath her collar. I instinctively touched the small wooden owl figurine I'd carried in my pocket for years.
"I thought we'd be friends forever." Her voice cracked with emotion. "Until that day—the ritual that changed everything."
"I was young and curious, eager to prove myself. I found an ancient familiar container in your family's forbidden chamber—rumored to hold immense power. I… I just wanted to look. Just one peek."
Her story dripped with innocence, painting herself as a child who'd made a simple mistake.
"How could I know that opening it would release a cursed familiar? It unleashed a disaster I couldn't control! I begged your family for help, but what did you do? The mighty Blackwoods, to protect your precious reputation, watched my family be destroyed by the curse, then blamed everything on me!"
She fell to her knees, sobbing for the cameras: "I'm the real victim here! Your family's cold-heartedness caused that tragedy!"
The livestream comments section erupted:
"OMG PLOT TWIST! Morgan is the villain?!"
"Poor Evelyn! She's been through hell!"
"Morgan always seemed shady! Two-faced witch!"
I listened to her accusations in silence, watching her masterful performance with growing disgust, any lingering fondness for our past friendship withering completely.
"Are you done?" I asked coldly, my quiet voice cutting through her performance like a blade.
She froze mid-sob, her tear-streaked face lifting toward mine.
"That was quite a performance, Evelyn." I approached her slowly, looking down at her crumpled form. "Unfortunately, it's nothing but lies from start to finish."
"Let me tell everyone what really happened." My voice, amplified by the microphone, broadcast to viewers worldwide.
"Yes, we were once inseparable friends. But the disaster wasn't caused by innocent curiosity—it came from your insatiable greed and obsession with power!"
I stared directly into her eyes, stripping away her facade: "You didn't 'just look'—you stole the key that reinforced the seal and deliberately released that cursed entity! You wanted to bind it to yourself, to gain power you hadn't earned and didn't deserve!"
"And when your ritual failed, we didn't refuse to help! My grandmother—the Blackwood matriarch—sacrificed her life force to contain what you unleashed! She gave her life to save everyone, including you!"
"And you?" My voice trembled with cold fury. "After my grandmother died because of your recklessness, what did you do? You showed no remorse. Instead, you stole our family's ancestral familiar—that very cat in your arms—and disappeared. You reinvented yourself as this innocent, persecuted social media witch who weeps on camera and plays the victim!"
The color drained from Evelyn's face as I spoke. Her body began to shake uncontrollably, her manufactured grief giving way to genuine panic.
She was unraveling, this time for real.
"No… that's not… that's not how it happened," she stammered desperately. "It's the curse! Both our families are cursed! No one could escape it! It wasn't my fault!"
She was desperately trying to shift blame to some nebulous curse.
"Even now, you refuse to take responsibility!" I said, disgusted.
"SHUT UP!" Evelyn's composure shattered completely. She screamed as dark energy erupted from her body like a tidal wave. "You self-righteous bitch! I'LL KILL YOU!"
