Chapter 2 2

Dinner was a study in exclusion. The dining room table was long enough to land a plane on, set with fine china and silverware heavy enough to be weapons. Elara sat at the far end, opposite Victoria. She had changed into a plain white t-shirt, the fabric thin and washed so many times it was almost transparent.

In front of everyone else sat plates of roasted duck with cherry glaze. In front of Elara sat a bowl of green salad. No dressing.

Tiffany picked at her duck. "The gala is tomorrow," she said, her voice light and bubbly. "I'm wearing the custom Dior. The fittings were a nightmare, but it's finally perfect."

She looked at Elara, waiting for a reaction. Elara sliced a lettuce leaf with surgical precision.

Victoria tapped her glass with a spoon. "Elara will attend as well. There are... obligations."

Elara chewed. She stared at the centerpiece, a massive arrangement of white lilies. She didn't nod.

"Does she understand English?" Tiffany asked, looking at Richard. "Maybe we need sign language."

"She understands," Richard said, not looking up from his phone. "She's just difficult."

After dinner, Elara retreated to the third floor. She had barely closed her door when it was shoved open. Tiffany stood there, the mask of the sweet sister gone. Her face was twisted in a sneer.

"Do not think," Tiffany hissed, stepping into the room and kicking the door shut, "that just because you have the last name, you get the life. You are a replacement part. A spare tire."

Elara stood by the desk. She watched Tiffany advance.

"These are my parents," Tiffany said, poking Elara hard in the shoulder. "My grandmother. My money. You are trash."

She shoved Elara. Elara stumbled back, her shoulder blade hitting the wall with a dull thud. Pain radiated down her arm. She didn't make a sound. Her face remained a blank canvas.

This lack of reaction infuriated Tiffany. She grabbed a glass of water from the nightstand and threw the contents into Elara's face.

"Say something!" Tiffany shrieked. "You freak! You mute idiot!"

Water dripped from Elara's eyelashes. She didn't wipe it away. She simply blinked, her eyes tracking a droplet as it fell from her chin to the floor.

Tiffany let out a frustrated scream and stormed out, slamming the door so hard the windowpane rattled.

Elara stood there for a full minute. Then, slowly, she wiped her face with the hem of her shirt. She walked to the door and engaged the deadbolt.

She went to her bed and lifted the mattress. Beneath it, tucked into a slit in the box spring, was a black tablet. It was a prototype, military-grade encryption she had salvaged and repaired herself. She sat on the floor, crossed her legs, and entered a twenty-character password.

The screen flared to life. She connected a small, homemade USB dongle-a Wi-Fi pineapple she'd constructed from spare parts-to bypass the family's commercial-grade firewall. It took less than thirty seconds to find the legacy port Richard hadn't bothered to update.

She opened a drawing application. Her fingers, usually clenched in fists or hanging limp, became fluid. They danced across the glass.

Lines formed. Shapes coalesced.

In ten minutes, it was done. A caricature in the style of grotesque gothic horror. It depicted a girl in a Chanel suit, but her skin was peeling back like rotting wallpaper. Underneath, she wasn't human. She was a mass of writhing maggots and gold coins. Her mouth was sewn shut with diamond thread.

Elara signed the corner: E-11.

She logged into a secure server, routed through three different countries, and posted the image to the underground art forum.

Caption: Welcome Home. FamilyValues

She hit refresh.

100 views.

5,000 views.

20,000 views.

Comments flooded in.

User_X: "E-11 is back! The queen has returned."

Art_Snob: "The texture on the skin... visceral. Is this a commentary on the bourgeoisie?"

Dark_Soul: "I feel this image in my teeth."

Elara watched the numbers climb. A notification popped up from a legal firm representing a major gaming studio. "E-11, regarding the rights acquisition for your recent character portfolio..."

She swiped it away.

She put on her noise-canceling headphones. She scrolled to a playlist labeled "NOISE." Heavy, chaotic industrial metal blasted into her ears, a wall of sound to keep the memories at bay.

Flashback. A basement. The smell of mold. Children laughing. A foot connecting with her ribs. "Say something, freak!"

Elara squeezed her eyes shut. Her hand trembled violently. She didn't reach for pills; she had no access to them here. Instead, she grabbed a charcoal pencil and a scrap of paper. She began to shade, counting backward from one thousand by sevens. 993. 986. 979.

The music pounded. The graphite snapped. The trembling stopped.

"Game on, Tiffany," she whispered to the empty room.