I Became Her Monster

The night Mia was broken, I was there. I watched it all happen.

I even filmed it.

Eventually, the horror shattered her mind. She was admitted to Mercy General.

A few days later, her mother found me. She fell to her knees on the pavement in front of my apartment.

“Ethan,” she pleaded, her voice cracking. “Mia said she was going to meet you that night. The night she was… attacked. She said you were nearby. You must have seen who did it. Please.”

I looked down at the woman clutching my jeans, her body shaking with sobs.

Then I kicked her hand away.

“Sorry,” I said, my voice flat. “I didn’t see anything.”

1

Mrs. Miller sprawled back on the concrete, stunned.

“You’re lying, Ethan.”

Her voice trembled, but she bit down hard, refusing to let the tears fall. “Ever since Mia was admitted, she does nothing but clutch her pillow and whisper your name.”

“She says she saw you that night, standing at the end of the alley. She keeps asking why you didn’t save her!”

I pulled a cigarette from my pocket. It took three clicks of the lighter for the flame to catch.

“Look, I told you,” I said, taking a long drag. “I wasn’t there. Mia’s not… well right now. You can’t take her word for it.”

She scrambled to her feet, lunging for my arm. I sidestepped, and she stumbled, catching her balance at the last second.

“My daughter has always been honest. She’s never told a lie in her life! Even now, confused as she is, she wouldn’t make up something like that!”

My fingers tightened around the cigarette, the heat searing my skin. The sudden pain brought me back.

Of course, I knew better than anyone. Mia wasn’t lying.

The rain was coming down in sheets that night. I was waiting it out under the awning of the Quick Mart, and I saw them. I saw someone drag her into the dead-end alley next to the store.

“I was in my dorm all night,” I said, my voice hard. “I never went near that alley.”

I dropped the cigarette and crushed it under my shoe.

“Ethan, I’m asking you one last time. Who was it?”

Before I could answer, a car pulled up. Mr. Miller got out. He’d taken a bad fall when he heard the news about Mia, and he still walked with a heavy limp.

“You and Mia were together for two years,” he said, his voice strained. “She loved you. How can you watch her go through this and not even tell us the truth?”

Seeing him like that, frail and limping, felt like a stone in my stomach.

But I forced the words out. “I honestly don’t know, sir. If I knew, I would have called the cops myself. I wouldn’t be wasting my time here with you.”

“Wasting your time?”

His voice erupted in a roar of anger. He shoved me, hard. The force of it threw him off balance, and he crumpled to the ground.

Mrs. Miller screamed and rushed to his side. “David! Are you okay? Ethan, you monster!”

A small crowd was starting to form. Murmurs rippled through the onlookers.

“Isn’t that Ethan? He’s Mia Miller’s boyfriend, right?”

“I heard what happened to Mia. Something about a breakdown… So he knows who did it and won’t talk?”

“Jesus, what a coward. His own girlfriend gets attacked, and he won’t stand up for her? Then he pushes her dad over?”

Mia’s best friend, Chloe, suddenly appeared, pushing her way to the front. She pointed a trembling finger at me.

“Are you even a man, Ethan? Do you have any idea how many guys envied you when you and Mia got together?”

“She was the girl every guy on campus was in love with, and she chose you! How can you do this to her? Has your conscience been eaten by dogs?!”

A bitter laugh escaped my lips.

Of course, I knew they envied me.

At last year’s Founder’s Day ceremony, Mia gave a speech as the student representative. Every man in that auditorium was glued to her.

“What good is envy?” I shot back.

“You all saw how good she was to me. You have no idea what I did for her. Now that something’s happened, you all line up to point the finger. Do any of you have a clue what really went down?”

“It’s because you’re scared, isn’t it?” Chloe spat. “You’re afraid to piss off her attacker. I heard the guy comes from a powerful family. You’re afraid of what they’ll do to you, so you’re keeping your mouth shut.”

Her words hit their mark. A raw nerve.

I saw Mia again in my mind, curled on the wet asphalt after it was over, her clothes torn, her face a mess of rain and tears. The look of utter despair in her eyes as she grabbed my arm.

Mr. Miller, helped to his feet by his wife, was shaking with rage.

“You remember this, Ethan. You refuse to talk today? Fine. But I will search this entire city if I have to. I will find the man who did this. And when I do, I don’t know how you’ll ever face Mia again.”

“Do whatever you want.”

I turned to leave, but Chloe grabbed my arm.

“You’re not going anywhere! We already called the police. They’re on their way. Let’s see you tell your story to them!”

I yanked my arm free, sending her stumbling back. The crowd’s muttering grew louder, a chorus of “coward” and “bastard.”

I glanced toward the Quick Mart at the end of the street.

Next to it was the alley where her life fell apart.

Mia used to come here all the time. She’d stand right there by the entrance and call me.

“Ethan, I got you something special.”

Her smile back then… it could light up the whole damn world.

A dry, painful laugh scraped its way out of my throat.

Because I knew the truth better than any of them.

I was hiding everything.

2

“She’s my only daughter, Ethan.”

Mr. Miller’s anger had dissolved, replaced by a raw, aching despair. In front of everyone, the big man started to weep.

“Mia was always such a good kid. A straight-A student. Never gave us a moment of trouble.”

“And now? She’s in a psychiatric ward. Half the time, the only name she says is yours. The rest of the time, she just holds a pillow and cries. She doesn’t even recognize us anymore.”

“As her father… seeing her like this… I don’t even want to live anymore.”

The eyes of the crowd on me hardened with contempt.

Mrs. Miller sniffled, her voice thick with emotion. “The only reason I’m still going is to find out the truth. To find the person who did this and clear her name. Then, even if I die, I can face her in the afterlife.”

“You were with her for two years. Even if you have no feelings left, you can’t just stand by and let this happen without saying a single word of truth, can you?”

I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms.

Just then, my academic advisor, Dean Evans, arrived. After a quick briefing from Chloe, his face grew grim. He turned to me, his voice stern.

“Ethan, withholding information makes you an accessory. If the perpetrator gets away because you stayed silent, you could be charged with a crime. Do you understand?”

“You’re a university student. Do you know what a criminal record means? It’s a permanent mark on your file. Forget about grad school, forget about a decent job. It’s over.”

I met his gaze. “Dean Evans, if you think I’ve committed a crime, then by all means, call the cops.”

“When they get here, I’ll tell them the same thing I told everyone else. I didn’t see anything. What are they going to do to me?”

My defiance left him speechless, his expression darkening.

Mr. Miller, however, trembled with renewed fury. “How can you be so cold-blooded, Ethan? Mia is in the hospital, talking about you day and night. She says you were right there. She couldn’t have been mistaken!”

I let out another cold laugh. “Sir, with all due respect, your daughter doesn't even recognize her own parents right now. Can you really trust what she’s saying?”

“Maybe she was hallucinating. Maybe she saw someone else and thought it was me. If you really want to help her, you should be at the hospital, not here harassing me.”

My words detonated in the small crowd.

“Are you even human, Ethan? Mia’s in that state, and you talk about her like that?”

“Yeah, even if she’s not lucid, you don’t have to slander her!”

Mr. Miller’s face went white with rage. He lunged forward and slapped me across the face. The sting was sharp, electric.

“I’m going to kill you, you heartless piece of scum!” he roared. “Mia must have been blind to ever love you!”

The students around us murmured their agreement, that a bastard like me deserved it.

I stared back at them, a cold smile on my lips.

They didn’t give a damn about helping Mia. They’d always been jealous. From the day Mia and I got together, I’d heard the whispers in the hallways, the talk about how a guy like me didn’t deserve a girl like her.

This was their chance to tear me down, and they were loving it.

I took a deep breath and let the smile spread across my face.

“You think I wanted to be with her?”

“The truth is, I’ve wanted to break up with her for a long time.”

“She’s a goddamn curse!”

3

The moment the words left my mouth, the murmuring exploded into chaos.

Mr. and Mrs. Miller looked as if I’d just stabbed them, their faces drained of all color.

Mrs. Miller was the first to react, clawing at my hair.

“You ungrateful monster! How dare you! What did my daughter ever do to you but love you?”

“When you had that terrible flu, she stayed up all night making you broth from scratch! She knew your family didn’t have much, so she was the one helping you pay for things these last two years!”

Mr. Miller landed another punch, this one square on my jaw.

I stumbled back, my spine slamming into the brick wall behind me. A sharp pain shot through my back.

“I used to think you were a decent kid,” he seethed. “I was happy Mia was with you. Now I see I was blind. You call her a curse? You’re the one who’s an animal in human skin!”

I rubbed my aching back. As I started to form a retort, Mr. Miller’s eyes narrowed, a strange look clouding his features. It was a mix of suspicion and dawning horror.

He took a shaky breath, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous growl. “Ethan, tell me something. Was it because she wouldn’t sleep with you? Is that why you did it?”

I froze. I never imagined he would think that.

The crowd quieted, all eyes on me, waiting.

“Mia has always been… a good girl,” he continued, his voice thick. “Did you get angry because she said no? She went to meet you that night… and when you couldn’t have her, you took her by force!”

Beside him, Mrs. Miller began to sob, nodding frantically. “It must be! Oh, Ethan, you are a devil!”

“We already agreed. We were going to let you two get married right after graduation. How could you do this to her?”

I looked at them, a feeling of grim, hopeless absurdity washing over me. They would rather believe this insane theory than accept the simple fact that I hadn’t seen the attacker.

I fumbled for another cigarette and lit it.

“Married?” I let out a puff of smoke and a cold, cruel laugh. “Please. A girl like Mia? Even if you offered her to me for free, I wouldn’t want her now. She’s dirty.”

A dead silence fell over the street.

Every single person stared at me, their faces a mixture of shock and pure, unadulterated fury.

Mrs. Miller was shaking so violently I thought she would collapse.

But just then, a weak voice cut through the tension from behind me.

“Ethan… why are you saying that about me?”

It was Mia.

Hearing her voice, my entire body went rigid.

4

Everyone turned.

Slowly, I did the same. Mia was standing there, flanked by a relative and a doctor from the hospital.

She was so much thinner. Her cheeks were hollowed out, making her eyes seem huge and vacant, all their former light extinguished. A dark, bruised purple shadowed the skin beneath them. The oversized hospital gown hung on her frame like a sheet on a scarecrow, as if a strong gust of wind could carry her away.

The sight of her was a punch to the gut.

Mrs. Miller ran to her, sobbing, and threw her arms around her daughter. But Mia’s gaze was fixed on me. Tears welled up in her haunted eyes and began to trace silent paths down her pale cheeks.

Her voice was barely a whisper.

“Ethan… I loved you so much. I was so good to you. Why would you say that? Why would you call me dirty?”

I looked at her, and the words caught in my throat like gravel. I wanted to turn and run, but my feet felt nailed to the pavement.

Seeing my silence, her tears fell faster.

“That night… someone pulled me into the alley,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I saw you. I thought you would save me. Why didn’t you save me?”

She paused, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, a new wave of despair washing over her face. “And… I saw you. You were holding your phone. You were filming it.”

“Ethan, the proof is on your phone. Why won’t you just admit it?”

Her words were like gasoline on a fire. The crowd erupted.

“What are you still standing there for, you bastard? Hand over the phone!”

“Mia remembers the details! What else can you say?”

“He did it on purpose! He has the video and he’s protecting the attacker!”

I gritted my teeth, my eyes locked on Mia. It took all my strength to force the words out. “She’s talking nonsense! She’s mentally unstable. How can you believe a word she says?”

But the doctor accompanying her immediately stepped forward.

“Ms. Miller suffers from intermittent psychosis, not total delusion,” he explained calmly. “During her lucid periods, her logic and memory are intact. What she has just said has a high degree of credibility.”

The doctor’s words demolished my only defense.

Mr. Miller charged at me, his hands grabbing for my pocket. “Give me the phone, Ethan! Give it to me!”

I instinctively recoiled, pushing him away.

That was the signal. Several of Mia’s male relatives closed in, their faces tight with rage.

“You’re going to pay for what you did to Mia.”

A fist slammed into my face. I felt a hot, wet crack in my nose, and blood streamed down my mouth.

“Get him! Make him talk!”

“Beat the hell out of that bastard!”

More people surged forward. Fists and feet rained down on me from every direction. I curled into a ball on the ground, covering my head, my body screaming in protest. Every bone felt like it was about to shatter. Blood filled my mouth, metallic and salty. I tried to shout, but a kick to my stomach stole my breath, leaving me gasping in silent agony.

A pool of blood spread on the pavement beneath me. My vision started to blur at the edges.

Through the haze of pain, I saw Mr. Miller finally snatch my phone.

He grabbed my hand, forcing my thumb onto the sensor to unlock it.

But a moment later, as he looked at the screen, he froze.

The color drained from his face, leaving it a ghastly, bloodless white.

The crowd pressed in, desperate to see what was on the screen.

Suddenly, Mr. Miller snapped back to reality. With a guttural roar, he hurled the phone to the ground.

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