A/N

This is a one-shot I decided to make. It really centers on Popuri. I don't know why, but I just had this sudden impulse to write something like this , so here is my attempt at it! Well, I really hope you enjoy this!

kisa-chan-2006

The guilty One

Popurri-The guilty one

I walked down the street in utter silence. While quietly reminding myself that I was an exile now.

It hasn't always been like this for me. I remember two seasons ago, right before they charged me guilty of a crime committed by someone other than me. That's when it happened; my life was forcefully pulled out from under my feet and ripped violently to shreds.

All it took was five minutes for the blame to be shifted to me, I was the only one suspected with murder, and I was the only one that had the guts to do what they think I had done. But what if they were wrong? What if I was the one who had actually tried to stop these series of horrendous events from occurring? But of course being the spoiled little girl, I had no say in the matter, none at all. So I'll tell you…since you're so willing to go out of your way to listen to my story.

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It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon, and Rick decided to take mom out for a picnic. We both decided that it was best if I stayed home and tended to the chores. So Rick and mom went out to the goddess pond while I was stuck home cleaning and eliminating all the other tasks I had been assigned to. A half-hour after they had left, I was in the middle of doing the dishes when someone was heard rapidly knocking on our door.

Drying my hands on a semi-soiled dishrag, I rushed over to the door, thinking that Rick had somehow forgotten some of Mothers medication, or something else.

Or maybe it was just little May asking to come over and play for a while.

While all these thoughts were forming in my head, I mindlessly opened the door and greeted the person with a forced smile, plastered onto my face. When I opened my eyes, I suddenly wished I hadn't, for standing there was Karen with a look of pure hatred forming on her pretty face.

I suppressed a shudder, and instead said in a giddy voice.

"Why hello Karen, what brings you here today? If you wanted to see Rick, I'm afraid he's not here right now…"

Karen answered me, while in the process giving me an icy cold glare.

"Well then pretty girl, where the hell is he? I have some unfinished business I need to settle with him and your mom. So if you don't want your face to be black and blue, I would like it if you told me where they were."

Now, almost everybody in mineral town knew that Rick had dumped Karen because he caught Karen red handed in the act of sleeping with Kai, who at the time was my boyfriend.

Knowing that if she found out where they had gone, she would do something bad to them, I kept my mouth tightly sealed.Well…I was pretty keen on being quiet until a knife was unexpectedly shoved against my throat. Unable to move, I stared ahead cowering like a little mouse right before the cat is about to pounce.

The knife was shoved closer to my skin, causing it to bleed a little bit. Karen looked at me and growled in a low voice.

"If you don't want you or your family to die, I suggest you tell me where they are."

Even though I was afraid for my own life, I shook my head in plain refusal. Making her growl in anger. She scraped the sharp object against my neck, making deep cuts where the knife had been. Fear took over my body, making me say things that I would deeply regret later on that day.

Squeaking in terror, I surrendered, telling her the whereabouts of Rick and mom.

"They're over by the goddess pond-pl-please-d—don't hurt them…please…"

Karen gave me a smirk and shoved me harshly on the ground, while wiping the knife clean with a piece of my dress that she had torn off.

"I think you just saved a life here Popurri."

And with that she triumphantly walked down the dusty road on her way to the Goddess pond. Dishes completely forgotten, I ran towards the Goddess pond, hoping, praying, and begging that my family was all right. The wind whipped across my face, streaking the tears across the pale surface of my creamy skin.

Reaching my destination, I breathed heavily, while cautiously walking toward the hot springs. Cold tears dripped down my eyelashes as I rounded the corner, my body shaking with apprehension in the process.

The sight I had seen there was not a sight I was meant to withhold. For in a matter of seconds, vomit was slowly dribbling its way out of the corners of my mouth and dripping off of my chin.

There right in front of my eyes, were the two mangled bodies of my Mother and my brother Rick.

Blood slowly seeped through the thin fabric of my mothers dress, leaving a puddle of fresh blood on the ground, while staining the grass surrounding her, a vivid color of dark red.

My brother's neck was torn and bent at strange angles. I knew from the sight of the two that they hadn't survived. I looked up at Karen, who had a look of pure satisfaction spread across her once dainty face. That's when I broke in half; earsplitting sobs filled the air, while great feelings of pain wracked my body.

I felt my anger towards Karen intensify with each second I sat there on the ground. Holding the remains of my mother, I was shaking her, asking her, pleading with her, if she could just wake up for one second so I could tell her I loved her.

But that second never came, for the next thing I knew, Harris the policeman was holding me back, then there came Manna slowly shaking her head, telling me that she had actually trusted me. Sasha and the other residents came to see the sight. Only to gasp and act frightened of me. Sasha came up to me and slapped me, yelling at me, tormenting me, accusing me, of killing my own mother, her best friend. I could only sit there and cry, I had no control of the situation. I just didn't understand. Why would Karen do that to them?

Unable to comprehend what was happening, I shouted for Karen, stretching my neck this way and that, just so I might catch a glimpse of the demon that had so brutally killed my mother.

Finally, after what had seemed like hours to me, Karen walked up, fake tears slowly running down her face, while secretly she held a smug grin, only visible to my eyes.

"How could you do this? I thought you were my friend…how could you go and kill your own mother just because she didn't approve of your boyfriend? How could you betray her like that?" This was all too much for me I broke down bawling. Only to discover no one would have sympathy for the girl who would kill her own mother.

That's how I became the exile.

I was only allowed to go to town if my food supply was running low. For the rest of my years I was sentenced to a lifetime of torture. People ignored me, made believe that I wasn't even there, that I had never existed. Pastor Carter once came to my house, just to tell me I wasn't allowed to step foot into the confessional. He said my sin was unforgivable, and he didn't want me near the children for fear that my sin should rub off on them.

I wasn't even allowed to go to my family's funeral. Instead I held a private memorial service with my friend Ann, who had snuck to my house early in the morning.

One month after Mothers and Rick's death, my father came back with a cure for Mothers illness. Only to be told that his very own daughter murdered them in an act of anger.

My father refused to believe me, foolishly believing Karen's lies instead. He totally disowned me, he shunned me, and worst of all he told me that in his mind I didn't even exist, that I had never been born into this world. Then he left, along with everybody else. Elli and my best friend Ann sometimes snuck a visit to my lonely chicken farm late at night when they wouldn't be caught.

But even those visits gradually faded away into a figment of my imagination.

I was alone, and I had to face it sometime, I would die alone, with no one to be by my side whispering words of love and comfort in my ears when I was on my deathbed.

For that is always how it always ends up for the sinner. Like it or not, I was guilty, I let my selfish feelings get in the way, in that moment all I thought about was that knife pressed up against my throat and how I was afraid to die. I didn't even spare a thought for my mother, whose fate had already been decided by her selfish daughter. It wasn't fair for her and Rick to die. I could have taken their place. But instead, I decided to save my life by telling Karen where they were.

I deserved to be locked away in my little house, overwhelmed with feelings of regret.

Isn't that how it always is for the guilty one?

A/N

So…was it good? Did it suck? Let me know so I can fix my mistakes. As you can see I love writing but I can't be a good writer unless my READERS give me constructive criticisms! Anyway, was it too gruesome? I rated it Teen for a purpose people! It's just that, I have some complaints in the past that said my story was too gory and gruesome. Well, please have pity! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this!

See you in the next one!

kisa-chan-2006