Ripped Away

Year One: Warnings, What Was Lost, and Love

Heracles went to see the mirror every night, after leaving her lab for the day. She slept even less as a result of this, and she began bringing pillows and blankets with her in case she was blessed with the rare reprieve of sleep while she stared into the mirror.

Every night, Heracles would sit in front of the mirror for hours, staring at the image within with longing eyes. In place of her reflection, the reflection of a tired and worn girl, was a cheerful girl with shining green eyes and a smile as bright as the sun, surrounded by several young men and a single cat-like creature. Every night, she would reach out for the people beyond the glass, calling out to them. She would caress their faces and talk to them, urging them to talk to her. To come get her and take her from this horrible world. To take her home, so she could finish off her three remaining years of schooling at Night Raven College with her friends and achieve great things with them, like she had promised them all.

'Why can't they see me? Why can't they hear me? I'm here guys, I'm here! Why won't you talk to me?!', Heracles screamed in her head one night. It was well after Christmas break had ended. Everyone was back in the castle. She had been repeating the cycle of longing and frustration for weeks, and even though Heracles knew deep down what she saw in the mirror was fake, she didn't want to believe it. She didn't want acknowledge that the smiling faces in the mirror weren't really her friends. That they weren't really her boys.

Heracles placed her hand gently upon the glass. She watched with sad eyes as Vil seemed to scold the her within the mirror for having her uniform tie in a crooked bow (because that girl in the mirror wasn't her. She was too happy, too bright. Heracles hadn't been like that in a long time). The beautiful blonde kneeled down and fixed the tie while the Heracles in the mirror giggled. Heracles could almost hear his mutterings.

'Apple Blossom, you need to take better care of your appearance! Remember, first impressions are everything! If someone meets you for the first time today, do you want their first impression of you to be a crooked bow?', Vil would say gently as he got the bow around her neck just right.

Heracles snorted bitterly. She hadn't taken much care in her appearance for months now. As much as she knew taking care of herself was important, she felt her research came before self-care, even though she knew her friends in Twisted Wonderland would disagree. Since she had arrived at Hogwarts, she had only worn makeup to cover the bags under her eyes so she wouldn't worry Neville or the twins. She still kept up with her basic hygiene, but her hair was usually a mess and her skin had seen better days because of all the new scars she had (working with sharp metals and glass all day in a dimly lit lab tended to do that). Heracles ran a hand through her blood-red hair and sighed at all the tangles. She would have to brush it later.

Heracles watched with bitterness, envy and sadness as her mirror-self was hoisted onto a grinning Leona's shoulders with a giggle while Vil scolded Leona soundlessly for being so rough with her. Why couldn't that be the real her? Why did she have to be stuck in a school she hates, with people she hates, in a world she hates? She hadn't done anything to deserve this! She had done her best to be helpful and kind to those in Twisted Wonderland, and this was the thanks she got?! Being sent into a world that didn't give two shits about her and left her on a fucking doorstep because they didn't want to deal with her?! It wasn't fair!

'Life's not fair, is it?', Leona had told her once, before his Overblot, before they became friends, and Heracles was now inclined to agree. Life wasn't fair, and it never would be.

Heracles clenched the hand that caressed the glass of the mirror into a fist, a furious scowl on her face. But that was okay, she thought. Because if life wasn't going to play fair, then she wouldn't play fair either. She hadn't been playing fair since she arrived on earth, and she wasn't about to change her tactics now.