Fate My Darling

Replaced

5 Years Later

I stared out the window, my white hair flowing with the wind. My new name, one that I got from the orphanage, is Lilac. One of the girls had named me that when I was one, saying that I reminded her of a lilac fairy. We had a lilac bush in our garden, it was elegant and white, sweet yet aloof from the world. All of my friends say that it suits me, for I never talk much. My white hair and golden eyes had many people wondering where I could have come from, and they said that my looks were uncommon for a commoner.

I have gotten many adoption offers, but I have turned them all down, waiting for the day that my family will come and get me. They are surely searching for me now.

I got down from the ladder and the high window and dusted my dress off. It was a light yellow, something that some of my friends had gotten me for my birthday. Birthday. I don't know when my birthday was, when I was a baby no one mentioned the date. So my friends gave me a new one, the 14th of September. The day that I was brought to the orphanage.

I left the quiet shed and went inside of the orphanage. It was a small cottage that only housed 6 inhabitants. I was immediately tackled in a hug the moment I went inside. Callie, a cute, energetic little girl around my age was hanging off of me.

"Hey, can you pleeeaase travel to town today to pick up the groceries? I reeeaaally want to finish my game of monopoly with Jax. I was winning!" she begged with puppy eyes. Before I could answer someone else did.

"Nu-uh! You were so not winning!" I heard another childish voice that grabbed ahold and tugged on my left side. "And leave Lila out of this!"

"I was winning!"

"No you weren't!"

"Yes, I was!"

"Nu-uh!"

"Lila! Who do you think was winning!" They turned around to face me but I was gone.

"Jeesh," Jax said. "how does she do that? She just disappears."

"Of course," Callie said with a proud look on her face. "We all know that Lila is actually a ninja. Where else would she go off to in the afternoons?"

...

I rode my bike down the street and towards the supermarket. I had learned in my past life how to disappear silently, so as to not witness things that would only make my heart ache even more. 

I shook my head. Don't think about it. Your new family loves you. They will come back to get you when they find out where you are. In the meantime, I have all of my friends at the orphanage to keep me company.

When I got closer to my destination, I saw that there were streamers hanging from the walls and that everyone seemed to be celebrating. I wonder what the occasion is. It should have been on the website. Or the news. Not just anyone could make an entire city celebrate for no apparent reason. Not that I would have been able to check, for we don't own enough money for a computer.

I continued to bike down the road, but got paler and paler the farther I went. As I passed, there were decorated posters on the walls saying, "Happy Birthday Ella!" and "Ella Reinhart!!!"

If I recall correctly, my name had been Ella Reinhart. I tried to convince myself that it was a coincidence. That there was a girl out there with my name and had enough money to blockade a city for her birthday. Then I paled, I could no longer deny the truth.  

I looked at the girl riding alongside my family on a float. They were at the very top of the parade, looking down on all of us commoners. There was my mother, almost identical to myself, standing alongside my father and a boy identical to him. It was quite obvious that he was my brother, maybe one year younger than I. Then I saw her. Standing out drastically from the rest, because of her plainness. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but the members in my family were gorgeous, while she... she was plain in every way. Dull brown hair and dark brown eyes, she did not any glaring flaw on her face, but neither did she have anything remarkable. The only thing amazing about her was... her family. Her family who were gazing at her with affectionate and kind faces, as if she was one of their own. She was one of them.

The realization hit me, just as hard as the truck that had claimed by life.

I was alone.

No one cares about me.

No one was coming to get me.

Before I knew it, tears started to stream down my face.

I was replaced.

it hurt

I knew it wasn't their fault, that their daughter was switched.

But knowing that it did not matter if it was truly me or not

hurt.

So, so much.

It is the same as before.

I am not special.

I could be replaced.

Why... am I alive?