Persona

by Amy Lunderman

  Quickly Moira turns to face them and as she does, she can feel her persona rush through her body with a charge, she’s never felt before.

  By the time she is fully facing them and about to get to her feet, her vision is clearer and her hair has pulled free of the loose clip she had it in, and now hangs just over her shoulders in a mass of silky auburn waves. She is already feeling her teeth and nails sliding free of their prison, when she finally gets a good look at who they are.

  “Ease up there warrior princess, it’s just us.” Raven says, with a laughing lit to her voice.

  Daisy is besides her smiling to, though she seems slightly alarmed that Moira was about to jump them. So is Moira, who is still half standing and sitting. She deftly returns to sitting on the stool, since her legs feel like Jell-O to her now.

  “What’s with the attack mode, lady?” Raven asks, as she and Daisy take a seat on a stool, opposite her and Anna, minus the cows.

  Moira doesn’t know what to say, she feels oddly like she is in shock or stuck in a daze. Her persona feels like a living breathing thing to her at the moment, and for the life of her, she doesn’t know how to make it go away. She never had this problem before, if anything she was always the opposite. She was the epitome of control, but ever since she left the facility, she lost it.

  “You startled us, is all, right Moira?” Anna says confidently to the other girls.

  Moira finds herself nodding her head in agreement, and forces her body to relax or find its own Zen like calm. It takes a moment of deep breathes, but eventually she can feel it pulling away from her. And feeling it she does. It feels like a layer of her insides are being pulled along with it and back into its hiding place inside her. When it is finally fully leaving, she feels her hair fall loose down her back, and her vision dims a little.

  Letting out a deep breath and sitting up straight, she feels a twinge of tightness in her right side of her abdomen. Hissing out a breath, she grabs for her side and hunches over slightly. That’s when she remembers, the deep gash she had when she left the facility a couple nights ago.

  She doesn’t know what was done to her, but it looked like she was operated on, since she had numerous stiches holding her skin together. When she got her persona back at the barn shortly after escaping, the gash had healed, only leaving a thin red scar as proof that anything had happened.

  Feeling the twinge now, makes her afraid of what was done to her, and what is wrong with her now. It doesn’t exactly sit well with her that the only person she can get advice from is the same person she is running away from too. Not complicated at all, she thinks, not at all.

  The girls have been talking amongst themselves while Moira was in her own world, and when she finally hears what they are saying she doesn’t have to force out a laugh.

  “So Anna, is you brother seeing anyone?” Raven asks, none to subtly.

  “Really Raven, we just got here and already you have the hot’s for someone.” Daisy says in return giving the other girl a disapproving look.

  Anna Laughs despite the fact that it’s her brother they are talking about, and shakes her head in a no. This makes Raven brighten even while she glares at Daisy. Moira is about to ask where the rest of their group is, when they get interrupted by the boys walking into the barn. Thankfully, her persona stays under lock and key and she doesn’t go all Kill Bill on them.

  She notices that Liam is missing though, and then Jonathon informs them that breakfast is ready so they should go inside, before she can ask anything.

  Getting to their feet to head to the house, Moira also notices that Marty hasn’t really looked at her since they kissed the other night. He isn’t exactly ignoring her, but he isn’t talking to her either. She wonders if she is hurt by him shying away now, and if she is doesn’t that mean she likes him, likes him now?

  She doesn’t know. One thing she does know is that there is entirely too much pent up dram going around here, that she feels like she could explode. She just wishes he would talk to her. And people think they have problems, trying being me, she thinks.

  With a shake of her head, she follows the others towards the house with the smell of eggs and bacon on the air, and distantly a hint of cinnamon. She doubts there are cinnamon rolls in the house though.

  ***

  While loading up the truck with their belongings again, with the help of Ray and Daisy, Liam thinks back to earlier that morning. He walked into the kitchen with a confident strut intending to corner Ronny, Jon and Anna’s dad, into talking to him about their current situation.

  However, his strut came to a halt, when he saw Moira sitting at the kitchen table with Jon and Anna. He picked up on her apple scent as soon as his eyes land on her, and wishes he would have noticed it sooner. Not that he is trying to avoid her or anything, alright, so maybe he is, he surmises.

  It makes him feel a little guilty too, since it’s not really her fault. It’s more his than anything. Not that he’d ever say that out loud, it’s just his mind is too busy with everything to stop and confront things. And by things, he means Moira and the way he feels when he is around her.

  He feels like such a girl, thinking like this, but he can’t help it. It’s like a disease, that he can’t quite shake, and shake it off he does. In true Liam fashion, he doesn’t acknowledge her or the others, just Ronny. He manages to get the man to go have a talk with him, and he makes his way out of the kitchen with the feeling of Moira’s eyes on him as he does. He has the horrible image of himself sulking out of the room with his tail between his legs, and that analogy doesn’t make him feel any better.

  After some heated discussion, about the state of things with Bill, who really had no idea what was going on, Liam gets his hands on their new and improved passports. To say that he immediately got to work on them all leaving is an understatement.

  The others were just coming back inside to eat, when he went by them to the truck. Ray seeing the folder in his hands, assumed it was the paperwork and joined him back outside. And where Ray goes, Daisy follows close behind now. He can’t help but to feel a little jealous about them too. It must be nice to have such an easy and open relationship, he thinks. Though for reasons he doesn’t know, they do try to keep them being together a secret, not very well though. He wouldn’t point it out to them either, he’s not that cruel.

  The rest of their party stayed inside and munched on farm fresh homemade food, not that he blames them. He can’t remember the last time he ate a decent meal.

  Liam is just closing the back hatch of the truck, when his cellphone vibrates from his back pocket. Reaching for it, he has just enough time to see that it’s from Charles when he flips it open and answers.

  “Charles. Did you find anything about my mother yet?” He says without saying hello or for the other man to speak first.

  Ray and Daisy have stopped putting things in the back seat, or whatever they were doing, and come to stand by him looking eager.

  “That’s not why I’m calling Liam, I’m sorry.” Charles says hesitantly.

  By the tone of the other man’s voice, Liam gets nervous. This sparks his persona and his vision becomes clearer, making the others by him raises their eye brows at him.

  “There has been another broadcast, and since the place your at doesn’t have cable, I thought I better inform you.”

  “Just spit it out Charlie, please.” He says through clenched teeth and his hand tightens around the phone making it creak.

  “The pictures of your friends were released this morning, courtesy of their worried families.”

  “Shit.”

  Liam feels his scalp tingle, as his persona floods through him, and knows his sandy brown hair is probably now a deep chestnut. He feels his nails extend, and when the phone in his hand creaks even more, he eases his hold on it before he breaks it.

  “That’s not all either Liam. Raven’s aunt and Daisy’s parents went on the air begging them to come home and to turn Moira in. The parents of the boys have disappeared,
and the media are saying they could be involved with the rest of you too.”

  Before Liam can let out another oath, his mouth is filled with sharp and pointed teeth, so his words just come out in a hiss. He can hear Charles sigh, like he knows Liam is in full persona from anger. So he continues without much pause.

  “You should know this is going to make getting out of the state and through border patrol difficult. Just hang tight where you are, and I’ll work something out for you. Put my contacts to good use for once.”

  Liam nods his head, and then remembers that Charles can’t see him.

  “Right, keep in touch old friend.” He says in a garbled deep voice, which comes off with a slight lisp.

  Turning off the phone without saying goodbye, Liam quickly pockets the thing before he winds up breaking it. He relays what Charles told him to Ray and Daisy, who have been watching him in stages of alarm and are now very worried. That’s nothing though, by the time he finishes it Ray is in full persona holding a weeping Daisy in his arms. The other boy shines like an angry sun God, all light hair and eyes.

  It definitely makes Liam consider to never picking a fight with him, he thinks he might be a force to be recon with, all the good to have on his side though. Not feeling his persona abate, he heads for the house in a rush, with the others behind him like a storm cloud that wants to unleash its furry, or maybe their alarm. He gets a lot of that from them, as he should.

  Once inside, he makes his way to the kitchen where the carefree voices of the others are coming from, and it kill him to have to be the one to take it all away from them. As soon as they see him in the entrance of the room, all discussion ends, and he can smell Moira’s apple scent spike at the sight of him too.

  It doesn’t help matters, when Ray comes up behind him, forcing him into the room, and then they all see a still weeping Daisy.

  “Shit, who died?” Marty says, while getting to his feet.

  Raven and Moira’s eyes go large and get to their feet too, quickly followed by the rest of them as they approach Liam slowly. He doesn’t say anything for a moment, just trying to calm down enough to ease up on his persona, so that he can talk normally.

  But they take his silence the wrong way and look way too worried without knowing what is going on.

  “Oh God, nobody died did they?” Raven cries out rushing to Daisy, with a wide eyed Marty right after her.

  Sighing, he forces his persona down, and within seconds, he feels his nails and teeth retract. His eyes stay too clear though, and he’s not sure if his hair changed back, but his persona still hangs onto him.

  “No, nobody died.” He says with his normal somewhat deep southern twang voice.

  He relays what Charles told him to them, and by the time he is finished, they are in their own forms of upset. The hum of everyone’s persona hangs in the air of the small kitchen, and it makes the small space feel tighter. Wrapped around it all is the scent of strong apple pie mixed with a sweet cider.

  They are all crowding around him, debating what should and shouldn’t be done about the new problem. Except for Moira, who hovers at the back of the crowd, looking lost and afraid, while being all predator in her full Persona.

  They all argue with one another, that they can’t just turn over Moira. Suspiciously, he notices that Ronny and his wife Julie stay quiet over that matter though. They all wonder and worry over what their parents must have been told, to make them to make them beg for them to turn over Moira and come home.

  Liam wonders if the parents that are missing, aren’t really missing at all. Marty and Ray actually say this out loud, and it doesn’t make him any less tense about it.

  Thankfully regardless of what they think, Ronny and Julie offer for them to stay as long as they need too. Looks like he packed up the truck to soon, figures, he thinks. He graciously accepts, while Ray and Marty lead, the very upset Daisy and Raven out of the room. When Ronny and Julie lead their children after the others, Liam notices that he no longer picks up on Moira’s apple scent.

  When the kitchen is clear of everyone but himself, his fears are confirmed. Moira is no longer in the room. Feeling the hum of his persona again, like a live wire, he wonders where she went off to, because he can’t let her be alone.

  Not right now, not after what she just heard.

  ***

  On the brink of tears, Moira sits down on steps of the back porch of the house. She managed to leave the kitchen without anyone noticing thank goodness, or she would have cried in front of them all. That is something she refuses to do, the last time was bad enough.

  It’s barely afternoon, and already it’s warmer out than it would be back home. That’s Illinois for you, she thinks, or just possibly the Midwest. Being November, Moira is used to a chill that would normally sink into your bones, not the sun shining down and heating her up. She can only imagine what it’s going to be like once she gets to Montana.

  Correction, if she even gets to Montana. And the way her luck is going, she has the feeling she might never actually see what the West is really like. Everyone back in the house is arguing over her life at the moment, like she doesn’t even have a choice in the matter. Honestly, she’s not sure if she does either.

  After everything she has been through in her life, she wonders if she has the strength to go through more. Lately, she hasn’t a clue. All she really knows, or feels, is being bone tired. She just wants everything to end and go back to normal, or as normal as her life ever was.

  She wonders, if maybe she shouldn’t wait for her new friends to give her up. Maybe she should just suck it up and turn herself in. They would be better off without her anyway, and then they too could go home.

  It sounds good in theory, but she has the feeling that this is all just a trap for her. And once Fletcher gets her, who knows what he’ll do to the others. After all, they have all made a fool out of him, and if she knows anything, it’s that he doesn’t like to be made a fool out of. Well, she thinks, might as well sit here and let everyone else decide.

  Either way, it’ll be awful no matter who makes the decisions. This is one of those times, where she is off the hook, so to speak. Even sitting out here, she can still hear the others arguing, but then in the background of them, she hears another foreign noise.

  To her right near the bottom of the old wooden porch, she hears something crunching onto the hard ground towards her. Instantly alert, she can feel her persona rush into her quickly like earlier. When the crunching is almost on top of her, her vision is clear, her hair has risen, and her nails and teeth are pointed.

  She is about to get to her feet, when the intruder comes out of its hiding place of the porch. Abruptly she snorts out a laugh, and plops back onto the steps. The large black dog whines, and bows its furry head as it approaches her slowly now.

  Shaking her head at herself, she feels her persona sliding away easily and on it’s on without her having to concentrate.

  She does however; feel even more ridiculous for freaking over a dog than she did earlier over Raven and Daisy. This time it’s easier for her to reign in her persona though, and by the time the dog is at her side, she is her own person again.

  Head still bowed, the dog clambers up so that it is beside her on the steps. It goes right to nuzzling her hand on her lap, until she starts to rub her hands along the fur on its large head. Her eyes water when it whines again, and rests it’s head on her lap and closes its eyes.

  She is just thinking how much easier life would be if she were actually more like a dog, instead of just having the traits, when the screen door opens up behind her with a creak.

  The sound of it makes her jump, and in effect the dog, who goes about growling at the intruder. Moira is tempted to start growling herself. She was actually beginning to relax. That’s when the cinnamon smell hits her nose, and she knows that the second intruder is Liam.

  The closer he gets to her the stronger the cinnamon gets, and she doesn’t bother to turns around to address him. When he sits down be
side her, his scent is so strong, that it makes her persona hum beneath her skin as if it was still upon her and not dormant.

  “Hey, Mo.” He says softly.

  They sit in silence for a moment, before she realizes she should say something back to him. She is about to say ‘hi’ back, but the dog beats her to it, and picks up a growling bass that sends chills down her spine, even though it’s directed at Liam.

  “Easy pup, he’s a friendly.” Moira says as she grasps the dogs face in her hands and gently forces it to face her, and when it does, the growling ceases.

  “At least I think he is anyways.”

  Rubbing the dog’s fur, she glances at Liam when she says this, and he gives her a slight smirk.

  “I am a friendly. Honest.”

  She gives him a look, like she doesn’t really believe him, but she doesn’t tell him to get lost either. They fall into an almost comfortable silence, with her messing around with the dog, and him just watching her.

  She knows she should tell him what is going through her mind, since it has to be why he is out here with her. She figures he must be worried that she is going to do something rash. This coincidentally is what she was or is planning on doing.

  “I think I should turn myself in, before this all gets out of hand.”

  She spoke so quietly, that when he doesn’t say anything in response, she wonders if maybe she didn’t speak out loud.

  Glancing at him, he has his arms resting on his knees and is just staring straight ahead, lost in thought. So she continues, figuring he needs more to go on?

  “They already have my dad you know and might even have your mom. Fletcher clearly isn’t going to rest until he has me back, and I can’t let anyone else get hurt. Or worse.”

  He sighs, and then finally looks at her. The look he gives her makes her feel uncomfortable, or maybe a little too comfortable. It’s one her father used to give her, when he would swear he wouldn’t lose her ever again.