Shattered Sapphires

'Five more minutes...' Sapphire Dazzle stared at the clock hanging on the wall as the teacher droned on about maths, asking random students to answer questions.

"Sapphire!" the teacher turned to her.

'Oh, crap!'

"Please answer question 7," Sapphire knew she was in trouble, as she had not been paying attention at all. She glanced at the clock again.

'Less than a minute,' maybe she could stall until the bell rang. She looked down at her book, pretending to read the question. When it was not enough, she started writing false equations, hoping the teacher thought she was actually trying to solve the problem. She could almost feel the stares of the other students. This was not the first time she had avoided trouble like this. As careful as she was to not repeat the same strategy in the same class, most of the students in the maths class were also in other classes with her, and knew exactly what she was doing. All it would take to get her into detention was someone calling her bluff in front of the teacher. Fortunately for Sapphire, the bell rang before anyone could do so.

'Saved by the bell!' she thought as she left the class. She could hear the other students mocking her and laughing at her even as she arrived at the school's main entrance. They always did this when she found some way to get out of trouble. Unfortunately, before she could get to the exit, she ran into Vicious Brutality. He was widely considered the cruelest student in school.

"Sapphire!" he said, grabbing her by the arm. "I heard about what happened in maths,"

'No! Not him!' terror flooded her mind as she realized who had said that. She had gotten in trouble with Vicious before. He was so horrible that the only thing stopping her from punching him in the face was the fact that he would return the favor, and he was obviously stronger.

'So what if you can't punch him!? You have a knife in your pocket, so use it!' the dark and twisted part of her mind urged, trying to take over.

'It's just a small penknife. Besides, I don't want to hurt anyone, much less go to jail,' the kind and rational part argued back.

'If you don't fight back,  he'll just keep tormenting you! Besides, people like him deserve to burn in Hell!'

"That's the fifth time you've done that this month," he slammed her against the wall, hard. "It's time you learnt your lesson!" Vicious dragged her towards an open locker. "If this is how pathetic you are, it's no wonder your father abandoned you!"

The mention of her father was nearly enough to bring her to tears. He had left when she was five years old, leaving Sapphire and her mother's hearts shattered.

"It also explains why your mother is dead. I would kill myself too if my kid was as useless as you!" with that, Vicious pushed Sapphire into the locker, slamming the door behind her. "Good luck getting out. Nobody's even going to bother to let you out!" he said before leaving. Remembering the event that had effectively torn her personality in half was enough to make her cry. Sapphire's mother couldn't stand losing her husband, and had killed herself a few months later. Sapphire was unfortunate enough to hear her scream, and rushed to the kitchen to see what had happened. She discovered her mother lying in a pool of her own blood, with a bloody knife in her hand. The last thing she said before dying was:

"Sapphire...i'm so sorry you had to see this."

Even more unfortunate, it seemed her mind could not process what had happened and split itself in two, dooming her to spend half of her life and a kind and caring person and the other half being cruel and sadistic. However, even this was not enough to prevent the grief, and she had spent the entire night bawling her eyes out, just as she did now, trapped in the locker.

'Vicious...I will make you suffer...'

o0 The Next Day 0o

'Vicious...I will make you suffer...' that same thought had been running through Sapphire's mind without pause since the incident the day before. As she entered the gates to White Tail Academy, she noticed almost all the other students snickering and whispering to each other. She overheard a few of them and realized they were talking about her. 'One of these days, they're all going to regret it...'

As she started towards her Chemistry class, she tried to ignore the other students' jeering. It would all be for naught; most of the students were also in her maths class.

'Just ignore them, Sapphire' she entered the class filled with dread.

'Why ignore them when you can make them pay for what they've done?'

'If I do that, i'm no better than them'

While Sapphire's fractured mind argued with itself, she didn't even notice when class began.

"For the remainder of this class, we shall carry out an experiment," the teacher's words were enough to force Sapphire's opposite personas to calm down. Knowing there was going to be an experiment gave her an idea.

'This is my chance!'

'Oh no you don't! If you do this, we'll be in serious trouble!'

'I'll leave no evidence! Besides, chances are they won't survive long enough to realize what happened!'

'No!* Enough is enough! I won't let you do this!'*

'You are not in charge anymore!' and with that, what little kindness Sapphire still possessed was shattered, replaced by a twisted need for revenge. When all the other students huddled around the teacher, she saw an opportunity. The students were watching the experiment and the teacher was too busy explaining.

'Excellent!'

She took the chance to set up her own 'experiment' while nobody was watching, dark thoughts of how White Tail Academy would meet its end  flowing through her mind.

'A gas pipe. Perfect!' she grabbed the nearest string. 'Now all I need is...' she noticed a Bunsen burner on the table next to her. 'A fire!'

She finished setting up the weapon that would end White Tail Academy. Just at that moment, the teacher noticed what she was doing.

"Sapphire! Step away from the Bunsen burner!" he shouted. This only elicited a maniacal laugh from Sapphire.

"It's too late now!" she lit the Bunsen burner. Turning towards the window, she grabbed the nearest stool and smashed it. "You all deserve this!" she made a run for it,  leaving her class to its explosive demise. She barely made it out of the school grounds before the entire building went up in flames. Once the laughter had subsided, she realized just what had happened. The joy of finally removing one of her biggest enemies suddenly gave way to guilt faster than she could handle, and she burst into tears right there on the sidewalk.

'What have I done?'