Azela

She sat bored at the back of the classroom, her headphones on full blast. People usually avoided her, even the teachers. She didn’t have a very good reputation, but she was famous throughout the school for her emotionless façade. Most people liked to play the game: ‘Who can get a reaction out of Azela?’ Of course no-one ever could. Azela had been in this state since her fourteenth birthday. The দিন that her whole life seemed to change.

She liked watching humans in all their innocence and ignorance. Ignorance really was bliss, but as soon as the secret was out, it was a battle for claws of information. It was her drug, but was something she never really could have too much of. She watched failing and new relationships, kindling friendships and other natural human behaviour. She could read their emotions and body language easily, sometimes even faster than they could themselves.

“Oh look, if it isn’t the ice princess.” Someone teased into her ear.
A hot breath whispered along the nape of her neck, teasing রাজহংসী bumps along her arm. Only one person could make her feel this way. Eli Carter. The school’s biggest jerk.

This time she tried a different approach.
“Who the hell do আপনি think আপনি are?” she stated camly, keeping her eyes firmly out the window watching the birds fly outside, wishing she could be with them.
“You work for my father, which means আপনি work for me.” She could feel the jerk smiling on her shoulder.
“Debateable.” She replied before getting up to make her way out of the class as the ঘণ্টা rang overhead. She was beginning to forget the fact why she kept her distance from Eli. Why she kept her distance from everyone in general. She could never be what anyone ever wanted to.

Azela looked back to see Eli surrounded দ্বারা his female admirers and smiled sadly. It would all add up. She told herself. One day, she would understand everything that was to be in this world, but until then sacrifices had to be made, and if one of them was Eli and her friends, so be it.
***
Azela walked silently to her পরবর্তি class. It was a routine that she did daily. The walk of shame she liked to call it in her head because everyone would be sneering at her. But her plaster covered face served her well. She had turned into one of the clones in those চলচ্চিত্র who acted without thinking, had no thoughts in all.

However, she knew that she would never let anyone influence her movements. After her mother’s horrific death, the scars still remained on her. She remembered her mother begging her step-dad to kill her. The words still haunted her and the final scream stuck in her memory. She wasn’t stupid enough to stick around, but sometimes she wished that she had seen what had become of her mother’s corpse. Sometimes she wished she knew why her step-dad had been after her. Sometimes she knew why her name was featured on perhaps all of the police’s notice boards. One thing was for sure, she couldn’t mess with people rich like Eli. She couldn’t mix with those who had high profiles and had connections everywhere. Azela only wished her mother had believed her when her step-dad first hit her, claiming she was ‘Satan’s daughter.’ But প্রণয় could be deceiving, and the worst weakness a human could have. It made people delusional. They only saw what they wanted to see, like there was a blanket cast over the real world. But stitched on the blanket were worlds dictated দ্বারা someone else.

But that was all in the past. She knew she couldn’t keep running away from it. No, she only wanted to be equipped with আরো knowledge when she finally faced it. But for now, nothing had seemed to come to light yet.

But for now, Azela was content with living at the elderly couple, The Thompson’s house. They were people whom her mother had trusted and were close বন্ধু with her. In fact, it was the old man who had first come looking for her. And from then they had established an easy-going relationship. But sometimes, Azela would see something in the old couple’s eyes. Something that hinted they knew আরো than what he was revealing