"Berenna and I were very good friends; we've known each other since we were kids, and we both managed to get into Gotham University."
"She's a rich man's daughter, living in the affluent South District. As for me, I'm a native of the East District. Fortunately, my parents loved me enough to fund my studies, but ordinarily, I had to work as a flower boy; selling flowers to wealthy housewives for some allowance supplementing our home income."
"It was during one of the flower sales in the South District that I met Berenna. She was different from the other rich girls. She didn't despise me; she didn't shoo me away. She seemed a bit more mature than the others, understanding the difficulties of the less fortunate, so she would always buy all my flowers."
"We became very close friends, and it was her who encouraged me to study hard and get into university. Even though my grades were not as good as hers, I still managed to get into Gotham University. Moreover, I have recently earned a quite bit of money, which I sent back home, and we moved out of the East District."
"Berenna truly did help me a lot. She always secretly supplemented me, giving me all sorts of brand-new things, then making an excuse that she didn't like them. I was aware of all this...""
"I've always believed I was just envious of her but never jealous of her. However, a few days ago, for some unknown reason, I...I started to feel jealous of her, from the lovely dresses she wore to the gemstone ring on her hand..."
"When I heard that her fiancé, a guy named Thomas, had been imprisoned for murder, I couldn't help but feel a sense of schadenfreude. I thought her perfect life was about to be ruined, and I even began to feel incredibly happy...""
"This negativity consumed me; every late night, I would cry in agony thinking, 'how could I be such a person? How could I be so dark, when I was never before?'..."
"A few days ago, things started to get worse. I began to want to kill Berenna, and I couldn't wait even a second longer. I bought a knife, prepared the rope, and even thought through the location...""
"But then, I started to feel that something was wrong. I thought, 'I can't possibly be this kind of person.'" Even though Anjiele looked pale, her eyes were shining, and the scholarly aura around her started to reveal itself little by little. This explained why she became the physics professor's capable assistant."
"I started to reason things out. When Berenna and I first met, the disparity in our family conditions was greater, and I was younger and more immature. If there were a time for me to feel jealous, it should have been then."
"But, since getting into university, my supervisor treated me well, often provided me subsidies, and even let me partake in some mob-invested industries. I started to earn some extra money, and my financial situation began to improve. I even managed to save up a little, giving me some financial freedom."
"Anything that Berenna ever had, I am starting to have now. I can afford to buy the dresses, and even the gemstone ring, it's just that I never really liked those things."
"Moreover, as I gained more and more knowledge, I learned how to think rationally, think analytically. I realized I didn't need to feel jealous over who wore a new dress or who had a new gemstone ring, like the rich housewives in the affluent areas do. A new research achievement was much more significant to me."
"When I realized that something was off, I began to fight against these emotions, but they were far more powerful than I ever imagined. I didn't have the knowledge to escape this whirlpool and believe me; I tried my best..." As Anjiele was speaking, she clung tightly to the bedsheets, tears rolling down her cheeks. She appeared utterly hopeless."
"Perhaps, I've genuinely gone mad, a kind of madness that won't ever go away..."
"So you started to harm yourself and tried to get yourself admitted into a mental institution?" asked Gordon.
Anjiele shook her head and said, "No, that day, I'd already taken up the knife and other things, ready to kill Berenna; I'd completely lost control over myself...""
"But then, my supervisor came to me, saying that there was a teaching tool he urgently needed from the storage room and he asked me to fetch it. I fought the urge to first go and do the deed, but it kept lingering in my mind...""
"So, I took the knife with me to the storage room, thinking that I'd go through with the murder once I was done fetching...""
"But once I entered the storage room and saw the tools and the equipment that once educated me, I regained some sanity. I thought that I couldn't ruin Berenna's life, nor my own. There wasn't such a thing as a set fate in this world...""
Anjiele gritted her teeth and said, "So, I began fighting it; it was a powerful beast. I had to kill it to protect both of us...""
"I saw it! I'm sure I really saw it! It was a devilish beast, a killing maniac...a horrifying monster, and it was black...""
Shiller rapped the bed rail hard, the resonating crisp noise interrupting Anjiele's illusion. She lay in bed, gasping for air, sweat and protruding veins coated her neck. She stared rigidly at the ceiling, appearing utterly catatonic.