Persona

by Amy Lunderman

  All Moira can think, is oh crap. That would make some sense as to why Fletcher always had a weird interest in her, even from an early age. When Moira was sent back to Fletcher, he did seem very excited to have her back, and maybe a little betrayed. All she has to do now, is try to keep away from him. Hopefully she can trust the people she’s with, and figure out what this cause is of theirs.

  ***

  Moira lies in the back of the truck, huddled into the leather cushions, and tries to figure out what made her trust Liam enough to go with him to Montana. Beside the fact that he have already saved her, but he also lied to her too. She knows deep down what happened to her mother and she isn’t really his or his father’s fault. But it still hurts her feelings that he’s so involved with all this stuff, and her pain wants justice. And right now, Liam is the perfect target for her to take her frustrations out on.

  After she got up off the floor earlier that night, it was made clear that they all needed to leave as soon as possible. Knowing that he’s right didn’t make her decide. It was the absolute trust that she has for her friends. Liam wasn’t the only one that walked into the room she was held, Raven was right beside him saving her. As Raven sits in the seat in front of her, Moira knows she can rely on her no matter what. She doesn’t know where she would be right now, if she hadn’t come through for her in the end.

  Beside her, is Daisy and Ray. They too make Moira feel safe and secure enough to know she can trust them. They risked their lives the night before to help her, and she owes it to them to at least get to where they are going. Daisy is always too positive, and Moira knows she should try to be that way. But the unknown scares the hell out of her, and there is a lot she doesn’t know.

  In the passenger seat up front, is Marty, and it makes her smile when she remembers when she first met him. Her first friend at the start of this hasn’t let her down yet, and she knows he never will. He seemed so antisocial and a little terrifying at the beginning, but she knows he’s not like that at all. In fact, he gives her strength that this might turn out all right. He is one of those people who won’t believe anything unless he has proof, and he agrees with Liam’s plan. That brings her to who is driving, Liam. Out of all of them, he seems the most who is affected by everything that has happened. He really truly is sorry that his father hurt her mother, and she can see it in his eyes. The violet of them, keep flickering in his reflection in the rear view mirror, as he pretends not to check on her.

  Moira wants to tell him that nothing is his fault, and thank him for saving her. But she can’t. She doesn’t even know anything herself, to trust him so blindly. She does know that she is nervous to meet his father, will he be like Fletcher, wanting to use her for his own means? Or will he be like Liam’s nature, kind and trusting? She thinks about Liam’s mother Paula, and has a sinking feeling she can’t rely on her. She doesn’t know why that is, she’s been nothing but helpful, but she makes her nervous.

  Paula had told them they won’t be able to get by the state lines with the tolls without the proper paperwork. So she had given Liam a folder with new identities for all of them. She tells them they will only work one time though, and they will have to get new ones. The she tells Liam that she has contacts in each state with the packs and they can get them the documentation they will need. She tells them with a sense of urgency that they will have to move fast though. She says she doesn’t know how long it will take the people that took Moira to know they left the state.

  In the end, Paula had switched cars with them, before they left, knowing her truck won’t be tracked like Liam’s might be. She assured them, that she’d get rid of his car, so that there aren’t traces of them. She had called and talked to her husband Marshall, and she told Liam that he’s expecting them. As they all piled into the truck, Paula pulled Moira aside. She told her that Marshall was very pleased that she was going with them, and looks forward to meeting her. Moira smiled and said her thanks to her, but deep down her admission unnerved her.

  She knows her anger at Liam is misplaced and her weirdness to his parents might be wrong. It’s not Liam’s fault his father did what he did, and it’s not really his fault what he did either. His dad is just as much a victim, as she was. But it still makes her mad that he hurt her mother, and made her what she is today. It doesn’t help that Liam had the plan of using her dad for information, and she was just a bump in the road. She feels like she’s been left out of things that are important, her friends know all about ‘pack’ business and she doesn’t. She feels like she’s a consolation prize, and no one really cares for her. She just wants to go home with her father and forget everything, but she knows she can’t and doesn’t know if she ever can.

  They reach the tolls and are terrified all the while waiting in line. They breeze through easily and Liam tells them they are heading to Erie to meet some fellow pack mates. The drive is seven hours so they should get comfortable. He looks in the rear view mirror and gives Moira a sad look, and her heart breaks. She holds firm to her anger though, no matter what happens in the next couple days, she doesn’t know if she can ever forgive him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Peter Fletcher sits at his desk in his narrow office, and taps his pen against the folder in rapid secession. He tries to think on, how he could have possibly gotten himself into this kind of situation. He could surmise that it might go back to something that occurred less than twenty years ago. Not that he would ever admit to that of course. He is a man of genius after all. And men of his stature don’t just go around and take the blame for problems they might have caused, even if they are true and in the wrong. No. Peter Fletcher isn’t the type of man to admit defeat. Especially not at the hands of a teenage girl, and group of renegade mutants that helped her to escape. He just needs to figure out how their halfcocked plan of theirs worked in the first place. Oh yes, he thinks. Daniel Warner, Moira’s unsubstantial father.

  This brings a smile to Peter’s face, and he stops the movement of the pen at once. There is nothing like the memory of a fresh torture, to lift a man’s spirits. He thinks, only a little of course, that he might have been a little rambunctious in questioning Daniel. But the man did deserve it. After all, he was the person to trick Peter into leaving the compound the night before. That of course, led to the man’s helpless daughter to escaping. Then Daniel made it all too easy for him to get caught, while his daughter fled with her accomplices. Never the less, he did what he had to do in questioning Daniel. He can’t very well let them get away with this sort of thing. Not to mention that Daniel lied about Moira’s true colors.

  Peter feels like he should have a claim to Moira. He did raise her from infancy after all. He should be the one to decide her comings or goings, even if it’s not exactly legal. But legalities have never been an issue for a man like him. It never has for the past twenty years, and he won’t let it now. He does admit, that Daniel is a loyal and devoted man. He is literally giving himself up for the life and safety of his young daughter. But Peter is a most determined man, and he has ways to make even the best of men, to break. That thought makes him smile wider. Oh yes he thinks. He will get the whereabouts of Moira from Daniel, even if it kills the man.

  His tirade of thoughts is interrupted with his office door being pulled open. This makes him look up and see his partner in crime Dixon Hetch walking in. Peter isn’t the sort of man to accept help from anyone, but if he had to choose the person, it would be Dixon. The man is like a replica of his own genius, but with military training instead of science. Peter takes in Dixon’s haggard appearance, and wonders if perhaps he should find a new partner; one that doesn’t let a problem wear him down. But he stops that thought process quickly. For a man to be working on a life sucking project for twenty years, it’s bound to leave him worn. Even Peter feels that way sometimes, but the trick is to not let anyone notice. He makes a mental note, to remind Dixon of that fact later.

  Peter places both his hands on the still closed folder on his desk, and gives Dixon a ste
rn glare.

  “What can I do for you General?”

  Dixon closes the door after he steps into the office and immediately crosses his arms and stands at command. Sometimes, Peter thinks, Dixon is a little too much of a military man, even when the situation doesn’t call for it.

  “The press has been stationed just outside of the post all morning. We need to explain to them what happened last night. They know we brought in a girl from the police station.”

  Peter sits back into his chair and crosses him arms over his chest. The chair creaks at his movements, and he thinks he should get a new one someday, but not now. Now, he needs to think of an excuse for all the shooting the night before. He hates having to explain himself. Especially to mundane people who have no idea the work he is doing here. This reminds him of the event that occurred almost twenty years ago and how he had to explain himself then too. Marshall Black, the first of Peter’s experiments had escaped and spread his infection like a disease. Peter was the one who had to explain to his bosses and the press how such a travesty like Marshall could have been created. He lied of course, but only to the people that needed to be lied too. Like the press. They are vultures that bite into any tall tale they can find.

  Marshall escaping, marked the beginning of all this and is where he found he would have a ‘daughter’ in Moira. With that thought, Peter sits up suddenly and gives Dixon a wicked looking grin. Dixon, for his good graces, doesn’t respond but with confusion.

  “All we have to do General is to fabricate another story resembling the one we used with Black many years ago.”

  It takes Dixon a moment to understand what he means, but when he does, he smiles to. Without saying another word, Dixon nods to Peter and quickly exits the small office. Peter sighs to himself once he is alone again, and places his hands on top of the folder once more. Staring down at it, he wonders how long it will take the population of their great nation, to turn on themselves. It happened before, and he knows it’s only a matter of time before if happens again. They just need the right push in that direction, and he is the right man to do the pushing.

  Peter finally opens the folder, no longer able to keep putting it off, and takes a long look at what is inside. It’s Moira’s medical file. He figures now is as good a time as any, to really get to know the daughter that betrayed him. What better way to do that, than to understand how her genes work. After all, he is the one that created them, even in their devastatingly beautiful monstrosity.

  ***

  Pulling his mother’s SUV into the driveway, Liam finally allows himself to relax. Not completely though, he doesn’t feel safe enough for that, but enough where he doesn’t have to stay so tense. He salivates in knowing they are getting closer to their destination, to his father, with every mile marker they have passed. It makes him slightly more comfortable knowing the others are still asleep, and he too can’t rest a bit before having to rush inside. Marty is up front with him, and he can hear the boy snoring in his sleep. Ray, Daisy, and Raven are in the middle seat, sleeping peacefully. And he tries not to think about Moira asleep in the back seat, all alone. Since she finally passed out a couple hours ago, he hasn’t picked up on her scent. This is a good thing in his book, since it kept distracting his driving.

  Liam thinks about how he hasn’t seen the people in the house here in a while, not since he was a boy. His mother usually deals with pack business, not him. He better get used to doing it himself though, he knows. He’s just lucky the people their coming to for help, are one of the nicer ones. As if the early dawn quiet of the suburban subdivision, isn’t enough of a clue anyway.

  He finds it somewhat funny that all the houses look the same and are still have that clean and new look. It must be a Pennsylvania thing, because it’s nothing like this in Montana. All of the houses are split-level types, and all in the same beige brown color with different tones of green shutters. He wonders if the entire state is like this, or if it’s just the town of Erie. He does know though, that it would be rude of him to just barge into the older couples home this early in the morning. Since it is still dark out, he decides to wait a bit.

  Turning off the trucks ignition, he is about to lay his head against the headrest with his eyes already rolling back to close. When Marty in the seat beside him sits up in alarm and stares wide eyed around the truck. Marty’s eyes land on Liam and then to everyone asleep in the back, and then out the windshield, before resting back on Liam with a questioning air.

  “What’s going on, where are we?”

  Liam gives him a bored expression, and closes his eyes for a moment. He wishes that anyone beside Marty was sitting up here with him. Not that the boy bothers him really, he is just an annoying little shit. Alright, he thinks, he does bother him some.

  “We’re in Erie. This is the pack member we’re supposed to meet up with.”

  Marty’s eyes go large and as he stares out the window to get a better look, he loses his shock and looks disappointed instead.

  “Seriously? This is where we’re getting pack help from? Isn’t it a little too Pollyanna, for people that are sneaking teen runaways out of the state?”

  This causes Liam to chuckle a little to himself. He too was pretty much thinking the same thing. But unlike Marty, he was expecting normalcy and not something that flashed secret ops here.

  “Don’t tell me you were expecting something dark and menacing? This is it, take it or leave it.”

  Marty seems to sulk a bit, and sits back into his seat, just staring out his window like a kid who got his favorite toy taken from him. Liam is about to tell him he shouldn’t expect the pack members to stand out, when Marty turns to him instead.

  “If this is the place we have to be, then why are we not in there?”

  Liam turns sideways and gives Marty a bored expression, like Marty should already know the reason why.

  “In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s not even light out yet.”

  “And?”

  “And, in most civilized societies it’s considered rude to awaken someone this early in the morning unless of an emergency.”

  Marty is the one to give Liam a bored look, except his holds a little more irritation to it.

  “This doesn’t constitute as an emergency to you? Dude, you do know we’re on the run right?”

  Liam snorts out a laugh and shakes his head. Leave it to Marty, he thinks, to have no patience what so ever.

  “I don’t hear any sirens, so I think we’re safe enough for now to wait for it to be light out.”

  Marty nods his head in agreement or maybe defeat and sulks back in the seat again. After a moment of silence, Liam is about to lay his head back and close his eyes. He gets interrupted by Marty again.

  “So the people that live here are pack members?”

  Sighing, Liam opens his eyes and realizes he’s not going to get a chance to rest. Glancing to Marty, he finds that the other boy is already staring at him, and waiting.

  “Yes, they are pack. They are one of five couples that are involved in the area, but are the most helpful.”

  “Five huh? That’s more than we have back home.”

  Liam stares down Marty and wonders if the boy really knows anything about the real workings of the pack. From the way he asked about it though, Liam thinks he doesn’t know much.

  “You have no idea how much more.”

  The truck is plunged into silence again, and Liam notices how Marty is trying not to say something to him again. He has to give him props for not TRYING to be irritating.

  “What is it? I know you want to ask me something, so shoot.”

  “Do you think Moira will be alright?”

  Sighing again, Liam doesn’t really know how to respond. He knew the other boy was bothered by something, but he didn’t think it was about her.

  “She’s a lot stronger than she lets on. I have a feeling she’ll be fine.”

  “Your right I know, it was just crazy finding her the way we did. You know?”

 
; Liam remembers stepping into that small dark room back at the facility and seeing her tied up to the gurney. The way she looked at him, all scared that he was the bad guy, is something that will be with him forever.

  “I know. But we got her out of there, and we just have to not let it happen again. And we won’t.”

  “We didn’t do anything. I just guarded the door. You’re the one that saved her. Thank you for that by the way.”

  “I might have been the one to carry her out, but it’s your trust she has. Not mine.”

  Marty turns to Liam, and gives him a haunted look. Or maybe it’s a look that says; under different circumstances I’d totally kick your ass for betraying us? Either way, it’s not exactly the friendliest of expressions.

  “What you did is kind of messed up, yeah. Just give her time, she’ll come around. She’s too much of a good person to hold a grudge.”

  Liam gives Marty one of his rare sincere smiles, and he can’t help but to think that maybe Marty isn’t such a tool. He is about to tell him so, when someone clears their throat softly from behind them. Both boys turn in their seats at the same time, to find a smirking Raven awake and watching them.

  “Pardon me, had something stuck in my throat. Would you like me to go back to sleep so you boys can have some more quality bro-mance time?”

  There is a quiet chuckle from beside Raven, and Liam turns to see that Ray is now awake too. His laughter stirs Daisy awake, who was asleep in his lap.

  “Shut it, eaves dropper.” Marty says, as he turns back around in the seat.

  This makes Raven and Ray both to cackle, and Liam can only shake his head. At least they are having a good time, he thinks. All the laughter and the others moving around must have startled Moira awake, because he can sense her all of a sudden. An apple cider scent rises in the air around him, and invades his senses. He doesn’t even try to block it out and instead breaths in deep.