Dance Moms - Lorelei

Chapter 17 : Purgatory

"You couldn't even save your friends!" her reflection smiled.

"Leave me alone!" Chloe cried, still holding Brooke's dead body.

"We cannot be apart! We are ONE!"

The school building collapsed under fire, turning the whole place into a field of flaming rubble. Behind the fallen walls Chloe could see bodies of students and parents, people whom she failed to save, all shot dead by the Cartels and buried under fallen bricks.

"Look at yourself! How pathetic you are!" her reflection said, her voice old and broken.

Chloe found herself looking at an old woman sitting on a wheelchair, her hair in a dirty white, her skin dried to the bones, her teeth yellow and unfilled, still in that golden costume. She was staring at an aged version of herself.

"You will die old and alone!" the old woman said. "Everyone will forget about you! You will live a pitiful life where no one aware of your existence! Everything your mother did for you went to nothing!"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!!"

Chloe charged into the old woman, but as she was reaching, she saw the woman's face turned to Paige. Guilt withdrew her attack, but Paige sent her fist forward, the powerful blow knocked Chloe to the ground.

"This is for using me as a human shield!" Paige flexed her hand, she kicked out her feet, sending Chloe rolling in the dust.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"Chloe cried.

She tried to climb back to her feet, but took another blow from behind, sending her face into the dusty earth.

"This is for taking my solo away!" Kendall stood, her eyes full of hatred. "You ruined the National for all of us! We could have won! I could be on the top of the Pyramid!"

A stabbing pain made her burst out in tears, someone stomped on her cast arm, so hard it cracked the plaster. She looked up along a pair of stockings, and the black and pink dress. Maddie was wearing a black hat, looking down at her with hands to her hips.

"You wanna be like me?" she asked tall and proud. "You'll NEVER be like me!!"

One by one, her old teammates showed up in the same costume. Chloe recognized it from the group dance when she dropped her hat, resulting the whole team losing the title.

Brooke, Mackenzie, even Nia was there, all cursing and kicking her from every direction, treating her like garbage. Chloe defending, crying, her heart crushed with guilt.

"You're a disappointment! I never should have sent you to dance class!" it was her mother, staring down at her in anger.

"No, Mom! I only wanted you to be happy!" Chloe sobbed, never had her mother screamed at her this way.

"If you didn't like dancing, why did you put me through this madness?? Do you have any idea how much money and stress I put into you?"

"I didn't..."

Christi slapped her before she could finish, so hard her ear rang. Her cheek was burning in pain, but her heart burns even more. Chloe broke down, holding in a fetal position, crying pitifully like a broken child.

"Look at yourself!" her mother scolded. "No one likes you. No one WANTS you!!"

Everyone she ever loved, past and present, of school and family, all began showing up to bully the sobbing girl. Chloe tugged herself into a little ball, shielding her head from the beating, her heart was burning, begging for them to stop.