Persona

by Amy Lunderman

  Dave brings him back to the present, as he shuffles through his and the others passports for him. He was just telling Liam, that he they are stopping next to see a friend of his Peter Nier in Milan, Ohio. They are alone inside for the moment, since the rest of them with the help of Pam, are loading the truck up with goodies for the road. That’s the exact word Pam used too, goodies, it makes Liam want to laugh. But he doesn’t, that wouldn’t be very manly of him.

  It’s not that long, before they are all standing at the truck and saying their goodbyes to the Stevens. For some reason, it makes Liam feel bad about leaving, like he doesn’t want to or something. He makes a note to come back for a visit one of these days, and it would be nice to actually keep it.

  The others are already inside the truck, when he makes his way to the driver’s seat. Pam stops him with a light touch to his elbow, and gives him a look of solace.

  “You kids be careful, you hear me? Tell your mother we said hello, and that she did good in razing you.”

  With that, she lets him go and turns towards to her house with Dave right on her heels. With a shake of his head, Liam hops in the truck, and wonders if it’s possible for them to be careful?

  Only when Liam is pulling the truck onto the interstate and heading in the direction of the border tolls leading to Ohio, does he realize who is sitting beside him. No it’s not Moira, it’s Raven, and she is giving his this strange look that makes him shift uncomfortably in his seat.

  Ignoring her looks, he glances up into the rearview mirror and checks out where the rest of them are planted. Ray and Daisy are alone and cuddled up in the middle seat together. That leaves Marty and Moira in the back together. Alone.

  For reasons he can’t explain, this sight makes him grip the steering wheel tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

  Shifting his eyes back to the road, he tries to ignore the way she lights up around that punk kid. He wonders if he is jealous. Maybe he concludes, but why, he doesn’t know. Her apple scent fills up the truck then, and fills his senses. All he wants in the world is for that to go away. All it does is confuse his, and he’s already pretty messed up about thing, he doesn’t need help.

  He forces himself to calm down, knowing it won’t help matters at all if he were to lose control of his persona. Besides, he thinks, he has no reason to be jealous anyways. Yeah right, a voice in the back of his mind tells him, keep telling yourself that buddy.

  He notices his eyes get clearer all of a sudden, and figures why the heck not, it’ll be better to see the road with. Yeah, me and red riding hood, Liam thinks as he shakes his head for the hundredth time that morning. He knows one thing for certain. He definitely can’t wait to be back home soon, he really has some questions for his father, and he better answer them too.

  This reaction to Moira and her persona is really beginning to bother him. The girl can’t stand him. He really doesn’t want to feel connected to her.

  They reach the border of Ohio in no time at all, much to Liam’s relief. He doesn’t know how much longer he can last in the car around her, if he doesn’t get a break soon. As per usual, the lines are beyond control and cars are backed up miles from the tolls. Some honk, while others actually get out of the vehicle to complain. Not Liam though, no need to draw any unwanted attention. Instead, they all sit in an uncomfortable silence, each one afraid of what will happen if they get caught.

  It feels like forever to Liam, before it’s their turn and they finally reach the toll booth. He pulls the truck to a stop and rolls down his window at the same time and faces the guard at the booth. The man is in standard ops uniform, completely unneeded for his line of work but whatever, Liam thinks. The man holds out his hand, and looks bored. Liam steadily hands over the folder with all of their passport identities.

  In the seconds it takes the man to look it over, Liam literally holds his breath and tries to stay calm. As if nothing is wrong, he then tries to appear bored with it all. It must have worked. Before he can get nervous again, the man in the booth hand him back the folder and waves him on.

  Liam doesn’t need any more confirmation. He rolls up his window and pulls the car out of there at a steady speed. He joins the countless others from the other booths, in racing back to the highway. When the tolls are nothing but a bleep in the rearview mirror, everyone in the truck lets out a collective breath they were all obviously holding.

  Liam chuckles softly to himself, and still tries to play it cool that he wasn’t bothered by a thing. Honestly though, he is seriously sweating like a pig, he makes a note to thank Dave when they get somewhere to stop.

  They just have a two hour drive ahead of them now, and Liam knows it’s going to be a long one. Especially if he can still sense Moira’s apple pie scent, he knows he’s in for a long ride with trying to stay in control. Thankfully, the others fill in the silence finally and he can just concentrate on what they say, instead of how she makes him feel.

  “Dude, you do know you can slow down now right?” Marty calls from the back of the truck.

  Raven turns in her seat with a glare as the rest of them chuckle at Marty’s comment.

  “Dude, you do know that you sound like a tool right? Liam can drive any way he wants, so lay off.”

  “Ooh, burn. Point for Raven, zero for Martin.” Ray says with a laugh.

  “Shut it Ray, you too Raven.” Marty says with a sulk.

  Ray then gets a smack on the back of the head from Marty who is only half playing around. He does roll his eyes at Raven though, and she returns it by sticking her tongue at him. Liam is trying not laugh himself, by the time Raven turns in her seat and winks at him.

  He has to admit this girl sure does have fire. Too bad he likes his girls with a mix of fire and ice. Or does he? Man he thinks, he really needs to get away from these guys. They must be rubbing off on him.

  “What do you think it’ll be like once we finally get to Montana?” Daisy asks quietly, once the laughter and bickering quiets down.

  “Hot.” Marty retorts.

  “Dusty.” Raven replies.

  “Safe?” Moira asks just as softly as Daisy.

  No one says anything for a while, and Liam can’t stop himself to looking back to Moira in the rearview mirror. She looks so lost, that it kills him to see it on her. He wants more than anything to make her feel better, but he’s not the one she turns to for comfort. It’s Marty. He takes her in his arms and says something quiet to her that he can’t hear. It must have been what she needed because she relaxes slightly, and so does Liam.

  For the rest of the drive, Liam doesn’t listen as the others talk back and forth. He does his best too, to not pay any attention to Moira and what she and Marty are talking about so heatedly. It’s all he can do to just stay in his lane on the road, and it pleases him to know they are almost to Peter’s apartment. This goes on for about an hour, and then the worst happens.

  Liam picks up on Moira’s apple scent again, but it’s not alone. He can also sense her persona like a wave crashing into him at full force, and his eyes flies up to the rearview mirror. What he sees is Moira upset over something she and Marty are talking about, and even from up here at the front of the car, he can see that her eyes have already changed to a beautiful deep emerald. He can almost see her hair shaking, as if preparing to change too.

  Then as soon as the feeling from her crashed into him, they are gone. Liam looks back to the mirror again, and see’s that she is being held by Marty now. He is calming her down, Liam realizes. He should be thankful, but he’s not. He can only feel an ugly shade of jealousy and it makes him sick.

  Now he can feel his own persona just under the surface, and he knows it wants to come out to play and maybe kick Marty’s ass or something. He’s really considering pulling over and fully changing and going for it, but then he sees salvation. The turn off for Peter Nier’s apartment building, there is a God, he thinks to himself.

  He careens the truck off the road and into the large parking lot of the apartments. He do
esn’t even really pay attention to what things look like; he just searches for the door that says 22. After what feels like a millennia, he finally parks the car right in front of the door he needs. He turns the car off right away and quickly opens the door to get out, before he does something stupid.

  “Stay here, all of you. This will be quick.” He grunts out.

  He slams the door closed behind him, not even waiting for anyone to reply. Squaring his shoulders, he tries to force himself to calm down before he reaches the apartment door. It bothers his though, that he could feel Moira’s persona reacting to his before he got out of the car. Or did he?

  Chapter Fourteen

  Moira has to take a deep breath and release it slowly, when Liam finally gets out of the truck. Now that his cinnamon scent is gone with him, she feels like she can finally breathe. She has the feeling they are really going to have to talk about why they react the way they do, to each other. Not that she wants to though.

  She is completely fine with never talking to him again. He pulled the truck into the parking lot rather quickly, and only now that they have come to a stop, can she take in their surroundings. For her first look at Ohio, she isn’t really all that impressed. Not that there is much to see though.

  The apartment building is a first floor complex, which pans out in a semicircle around the parking lot. There are maybe about fifty of them, and it makes the area look larger than it probably is. The others seem to be impressed by it, and Moira turns away from the window. When she sits back, she finds that Marty isn’t looking out of the window, he’s watching her instead. Seeing him watching her so intently, makes something stir inside her. She doesn’t know what it means though, and she is too confused of late to figure it out. She just knows, she is very grateful for him. He’s been so patient with her. Unlike some people, she doesn’t want to think about.

  They were talking about her father a little while ago, and she admits that she might have lost control slightly. She told him a little of what she and Liam talked about the night before. Rather than him getting upset over it, she did instead. It was like she was reliving the conversation, and all the feelings came back along with it.

  She could literally feel her bones shaking as her persona rushed up through her body. It was a painful couple of minutes as she had to rein it in. She did though, but not without consequences. The entire time, she could sense Liam and his overpowering cinnamon scent. It made her flush with her persona, and just barely blocked it down. Of course, she didn’t do it alone.

  Marty had calmed her down, just by taking her in his arms. She doesn’t know what it is about him, but he makes her feel almost normal. Like he’s her cure all, for all the drama running through her lately.

  While he held her in his arms, he kept telling her over and over, that her father was a tough guy and not to worry so much. Moira wants more than anything to believe in what he told her. She doesn’t see how she really can though, because Fletcher is a tough guy too and he could be doing Lord knows what to her dad right now. It doesn’t exactly sit well with her and her feelings. Marty tilts his head to the side and gives her a questioning look, like he’s trying to figure her out. Good luck, she thinks, she has been trying to figure that out for a while now.

  “What you thinking about ace?” He asks softly so the others don’t hear.

  “Just wishing we were in Montana already, you know the usual.”

  Moira gives him a reassuring smile and takes his hand in hers, giving it a gentle squeeze. This makes him seem less worried, and he sits back around and so does Moira.

  Closing her eyes, she tries to prepare herself for when Liam gets back into the truck. If he is still worked up, then she might react to him, best to get herself in order before having to deal with more nonsense.

  Distantly, she hears Daisy and Ray picking on Raven for crushing on Liam. For some reason hearing this, makes her open her eyes with a glare.

  “Oh come on Raven, I heard the way you stuck up for him. Fell pretty hard did you?” Ray asks with a snicker.

  Raven’s face goes beat red in a blush, but she just rolls her eyes at him.

  “Don’t pick on her Ray. It’s not nice to tease girls about the boys they like.” Daisy says with a smile to her voice.

  “Oh please will you two give it a rest. If it’s anyone that fell hard for someone, it’s you. We all see the way you are around each other. So quit acting like nothing is going on, when it so clearly is.”

  Raven is breathing heavily, by the time she is done. Giving Daisy and Ray both a glare, she turns around in her seat with a huff. They in turn blush deeply and scoot none too subtly away from each other. What Raven says is true then, they are together.

  Moira should have seen it coming she realizes. They have been pretty close since she has known them, but got closer since daisy was shot. It seems strange to her that they would want to keep it a secret. They shouldn’t have too. There isn’t anything wrong about it; to each their own, and all that.

  Moira has the unsettling feeling though, that she’s not completely comfortable with the idea of Raven liking Liam. Then of course she thinks that is ridiculous. Why would she be jealous, it’s not like she likes him or anything, does she? No. Absolutely not an option, no matter how good he looks without a shirt on. Her mental tirade gets interrupted with Liam walking back to the truck hastily.

  When he climbs into the truck then, Moira can’t help to think that he looks rather grumpy. It makes her wonder what happened inside the apartment and if everything is alright. She is about to ask him, but he interrupts her before she can. With his words comes the familiar scent of cinnamon spice, which makes her skin tingle.

  “It’s all set, we’re good to go.”

  He glances around to them all quickly, and he starts the truck. As he backs them out of the parking lot and back onto the road, she wonders if it’s her imagination or did he deliberately not look at her just then? It has to be, but it does make her curious though, since his scent is still strong to her senses.

  ***

  The only thing that kept Liam from losing control the moment he climbed back into the truck, is the knowledge that he’s going to be seeing a friend of his shortly. They are heading to Angola, Indiana next and stopping at his friend Charles’s house.

  It’s been a while, but it’s a small comfort to know he’ll be around someone that knows him, and no one knows him like Charles and his family. He tunes out the others as they quietly talk about things he doesn’t care for, and thinks back to the time he first met Charles.

  It was when he was a much younger boy, and would travel around with him mother. She was the starter of all the pack coming together, as a messenger of his father. She traveled through most of the Country for months, and he would go with her. It wasn’t an option either.

  His father pretty much already decided what Liam would do with his life at a young age. Not that he is complaining or anything, just noting that he never had a choice in the matter. Something good came out of all the travel though. He met new people and got to see how the other half lived. Out of all the people he met on his trips, Charles was his favorite.

  Back then Charles was a newly married army man, and was forefront in helping Liam’s family push they’re cause for better rights. Thanks to Liam, Charles became his father’s second, if you will. Though, he does put it out there that he prefers to be called Liam’s second and not Marshals. Liam never told his father this though, he might take offense.

  No man likes to see their son rise to more than him. At least his father doesn’t anyway. The way he heard it from Charles himself, he was a friend of his fathers at the beginning. Before anyone became ‘infected’ with the disease that is now known as Marshal Black Syndrome, aka. MBS. Among the infected though, they prefer to call it their persona, and it works for Liam.

  He never did get the whole story in how Charles was first ‘infected’, but he thinks it might have been his father doing the ‘infecting’. This would explain the sl
ight hostility between the men. None the less, he does have his own persona and sometime along the way he accidently ‘infected’ his wife Jolene. Not that she seemed to mind though.

  Charles has this way about him, which makes you forgive the worst of things. Like the fact that he refuses to talk to Liam’s father lately. It’s been a few years since he saw him last, and the word on the grapevine is that he added to his family, in the form of two sons. That must be a handful, Liam thinks to himself. He wonders if they are like Charles very open and blunt, or like Jo quiet and reserved. One way to find out and Liam accelerates the gas to get Angola faster.

  Remembering where he is going and who he is going to see, only offers a small distraction. Liam doesn’t completely succeed in trying to ignore the way Moira makes him feel. Admittedly though, for the last while things have been reserved. Meaning, he hadn’t picked up on her apple scent. Much to his relief, and he does his best to not see why by checking the mirror. One thing that helps in that department is Raven.

  The girl has been suspiciously quiet since he got back into the truck and he wonders why. It’s not like her to be so silent and not trying to antagonize one of the boys. He has to admit, that he does notice the way she keeps giving him these weird looks, when she thinks he doesn’t notice. Which he does of course, he notices everything, and it’s his curse.

  Instead of telling her to stop or ask what her deal is, he goes another route, ignoring that he noticed at all. To help out, he turns on the radio of the truck. At first some rock ballade blasts through the speakers and drowns out the voices of his passengers. Liam smirks as he finally has a moment of peace. It doesn’t last though and all too soon is the song ending.

  It’s replaced by a broadcast and he has half a thought of turning it back off before getting bad news. He doesn’t though and what he hears makes everyone in the truck as silent as he wanted them too before.

  “As I said before, the young woman that fled treatment is not working alone. It seems that she had accomplices in her escape and the names of them are as follows: Martin Thomas, Raven Parker, Daisy Grey, and Reynard Lewiston.”