Persona

by Amy Lunderman

  He leans over to her and lightly brushes her tears away.

  “You don’t have to be sorry. Spencer is the one who will be sorry. I knew that guy was trouble.” He says through gritted teeth.

  Marty’s eyes change to a deeper green, and she knows he’s close to losing it from his anger. Slowly she peels one arm free, so she can grasp his hand on her cheek.

  “Don’t do anything Marty, alright? It’s not worth it, the damage is already done. I don’t want you getting into trouble over me.”

  He doesn’t say anything, just gives her a small smile and squeezes her hand before pulling away. The bell rings then, and class starts before she’s ready. She hopes Marty doesn’t do anything, but deep inside her she kind of hopes he does. Spencer pretty much deserves it. It makes her feel slightly less hollow to have Marty on her side, and that he’s alright with who she really is. But she still has the rest of the day and more friends to get through first.

  Chapter Eight

  By the time gym comes around, the whole school is talking about her. She hears the whispers and feels the constant stares wherever she goes. It takes all the strength she has left, to keep her persona at bay from all the stress. Somehow, she managed to make it through the locker room to change her clothes, and not attack any of the girls. Who were all watching her like a hawk the whole time.

  As soon as she gets into the gymnasium, she picks up on the cinnamon smell and inwardly groans. She doesn’t know if she can deal with Liam on top of everything else. It’s already hard to fight her persona around him on a good day, but today might break her. She contemplates turning tale and running, but then her eyes land on his from across the room. He was sitting on the bleachers, but at the sight of her, he stands up and starts towards her. The closer he gets to her, the stronger the smell gets, and the stronger it gets, the more notice she takes to feeling her skin tingle. Whining softly, she tries to keep in control, but then he’s standing right in front of her, and the expression he wears takes her breath away.

  His grey eyes look like deep storm clouds, and his jaw is tenses as if he’s trying to stay in control too.

  “I heard what happened Moira. I swear I’m going to kill that dickhead.”

  His eyes flash violet and she notices his hands are clenched at his sides.

  “Why do you even care?” She asks, really wanting to know.

  Before he can answer though, the rest of the class gather at the bleachers, including Spencer. Who is watching her with interest, not even trying to look guilty. Moira flinches under his gaze, and wants to run and hide. Liam turns around and glares at him for her, and not touching her back, he guides her to sit down the farthest from Spencer.

  The teachers, who are oblivious to anything going on among the students, inform them that they are starting tennis this week. They are to group together in pairs and team up against one another. Moira’s not sure how it happened, but she paired up with Liam and they faced off with Spencer and another girl. Liam’s cinnamon smell is like a comforting presence now, and she wraps it around herself like a warm blanket, as she ignores the looks Spencer is giving her.

  Half of the game goes all right and mostly because Liam takes the lead and hits most of the balls that come her way. But when it’s her turn to serve, she can’t ignore Spencer’s laughing eyes. She can feel everyone watching her again, and it all feel too much to bear. When she lifts the ball to throw it in the air, she sees Spencer say something to the girl while pointing to her, and they laugh together. Knowing they are talking about her, she finally snaps and lets her anger out of its hiding place inside her. Feeling her whole body vibrate with her persona, she throws the tennis ball into the air and hits it with the racket as hard as she can.

  The ball flies through the air so fast, Spencer doesn’t have time to move or to hit it, and instead it hits him squarely in the chest. The hit knocks him off his feet, and he slams onto the hard floor before Moira realizes she aimed for him. She doesn’t feel anything except for retribution, as she sees him laying still on the floor. She can hear the shouts of alarm throughout the room, and distantly realizes her persona had pushed itself out without her knowing or feeling it. Before she has time to wonder if she’ll get into trouble for this, Liam grabs ahold of her arm, sending shocks through his touch. She tries to pull away from the stinging static of his hand, but he holds tight and pulls her towards the girl’s locker room.

  Once they get inside, he spins her around to face him and grabs both of her shoulders and shakes her hard. The cinnamon smell grows to a new level of strong, that it feels like a weight pressing down on her senses.

  “You’re not allowed in here Liam.” Moira says distractedly through sharpened teeth.

  He glares at her now, and his eyes fully change from grey to a bright violet. As Moira gapes at him, his light hair darkens to a chocolate brown. The hands holding her shoulders get tighter and she can feel his sharpened nails dig in to her slightly. The electric feel of his skin on hers burns, but he doesn’t let her go.

  Through pointed teeth, he says, “Mo, you need to calm down. I can’t control myself when you’re like this.”

  Moira doesn’t know what he’s talking about, she is calm. But deep down she knows that’s not really true, since her persona is still fully alive in her. She feels weirdly numb though, and feels like her persona switched with her normal self. She can distantly feel her normal traits beneath her skin like a hum, but she has to concentrate to get them to feel stronger. That’s new, she thinks to herself.

  “Damn it, Moira. You have to be better than this. You’re going to be in serious trouble, you know that right.”

  Her eyes water and she feels like he’s punishing her for something he wanted to do just a while ago. Distantly, she knows she should feel bad for probably hurting Spencer, but he did deserve it. And then Liam grips her tighter, and she realizes he meant using her persona like she did in class.

  “You should prepare yourself for-” He starts.

  Before he can finish telling her what she should prepare for, the locker room door opens. With wide eyes, Moira sees the two guards that are usually stationed at the metal detector’s walk into the room towards her.

  ***

  As soon as the door opened, Liam had dropped his hands from her arms and quickly pulls back her persona. If she weren’t scared about what the guards were doing here, she might have been impressed with the speed in which he did it. As good as she is at using her Persona. She has never been able to do it that fast before. Unfortunately for her, she’s too out of it still to reign hers back in before the guards see her. Liam steps in front of her and fixes her with a worried expression.

  “I’m sorry Moira. If I’d known about you sooner, I wouldn’t have let you out of my sight.” He says under his breath, so the two men don’t hear him.

  Moira isn’t sure she heard him correctly, why would he want to keep an eye on her? She doesn’t get to ask him though, because the men finally reach her. She never really looked at them before, but they are both equally imposing, with their dark hair and eyes and large stature. One man shoves Liam aside as they approach her. She finally starts to feel really scared, so scared in fact, that her Persona slips back into her skin and leaves her shaking.

  Each one of the men, grab one of her arms and quickly haul her towards the door. She feels her eyes fill with tears, and tries to stop the sobs from slipping through her lips. As the locker room door closes behind her, Moira looks back at Liam. He’s standing in the same spot she left him in, with a look she can’t decipher on him. His eyes switch to violet again, as the door closes and then she is on her own. But she’s not really alone.

  The halls out here aren’t empty.

  All of the classroom doors are open, and the students poke their heads out to see what is going on. Since the principal’s office is on the other side of the school, Moira is forced to walk the halls with everyone watching her. She bites her lips in order to not scream, but her face burns bright in her emb
arrassment. As they go farther through the school, she eventually see’s Raven and Daisy among the gawkers. Moira has time to stare at them as she passes by, but they are both wide eyed with tears running down they’re faces.

  She gets pulled away from them by the guards, when all she wants to do is run back to them. How could everything go so wrong so quickly? She wishes it was the first week of school again, and she can just be honest from the start with them. She would give anything to not be here in this position right now. They are almost to the administration office, when she sees Marty and Ray step to the front of the crowd gathered at the doors.

  They both look intense and ready to attack someone. She feels almost relieved to see them, but she don’t want them getting into trouble for her. Ray looks like a shining angel bent on taking the guards holding her, and Marty looks like a dark demon. And yet neither have to use they’re persona to look like that either. When Marty’s eyes begin to darken, she shakes her head at him in alarm. He glares at her before he looks away, and the tears she was keeping at bay fall down her cheeks in waves. She looks away when Ray’s eyes begin to water. She doesn’t deserve to have such good friends, this is all her fault.

  The guards push open the office doors, and they haul her inside, and everyone from the hall disappears from her view. Once inside, she gets brought over to a row of chairs and shoved into one. She realizes that she’s never been in the principal’s office before, and thinks that it’s not as intimidating as you’d think. It’s bright and clean, and smells like flowers for some reason. There is a large desk along the back wall, and a couple closed doors throughout all with markers on them. The two guards take point on either side of her, like she’s run at any moment. She won’t though, no matter how much she wants too or should.

  The door marked Principal opens then, and two more men step out. One is her father’s age with grey hair and is wearing a tweed suit, and she thinks he might be the principal. The other man is much younger, and is finely dressed in a dark suit, and she thinks he looks like an FBI agent to her. With chills down her spine she wonders if he really is a Fed, and if he’s hear, for her. Both men walk towards her with the same dark look to their faces, and it makes her frightened. They both come to a stop in front of her.

  “Miss Warner, I hate to introduce myself at such a time, but I’m your principal Cooper.” Say the older man with grey hair.

  “And this is Agent Brendon House. He’s here to advise us on your situation today.” He says as he motions to the younger looking man.

  “If you’d be so kind as to follow me into my office, we can get things started.” He turns away from her then, not giving her a chance to say anything and makes his way towards the open door of his office.

  The younger man, Agent House, spreads his arm out and motions for her to follow Mr. Cooper. Numbly, she slowly pulls herself to her feet, feeling all of their eyes watching her intently. With squared shoulders and her head held high, she walks towards the office. She knows she’s not going to hear anything good, but she won’t let them see her bothered by all this.

  ***

  Once inside the office, Moira automatically feels overwhelmed by its small size. Mr. Cooper seems more imposing suddenly now that he is seated behind his large desk along the back wall. She doesn’t have the chance to pause at the door, to take anything in. Agent House is a startling presence behind her. He pushes her lightly at her lower back and she steps further inside the room. She has no choice but to take a seat in one of two chairs placed precisely in front of the desk.

  As soon as she’s seated, House swiftly closes the door behind them, and traps the other two men outside. Not that they’re large forms would even fit inside the room though, and she is glad they didn’t try. She already feels claustrophobic. When the door is shut, House comes around to sit in the chair beside Moira, and fixes her with a steady glare. Mr. Cooper is staring at her too, and she wonders if they are trying to wear her down or something. What the crack team, she thinks to herself.

  The lights are slightly dim in here, and she has to remind her self not to call on her persona so that she can see more clearly. She certainly doesn’t need any more complications. Mr. Cooper turns in his seat, and reaches towards the blinds that are draped behind him, and pulls on a long cord. When the blinds open and bright sunlight pour in, she realizes that the back wall in a large rectangle window. The room suddenly feels less small, and she takes a deep breath feel less trapped.

  “Why don’t we start with, the fact that I had numerous students come into my office about you, Miss Warner.” Mr. Cooper says turning back around, and draping him palms on his desk.

  Moira just stares at him with wide eyes, knowing he’s not asking her to speak. She can feel House’s eyes boring into her from her left side.

  “The first thing I did, was check our records to make sure if they were telling the truth. And do you know what I found?

  He pauses briefly, for effect she thinks, before continuing.

  “I didn’t find anything in your student file about you being infected at. So naturally, I had to call your parents. They quickly defended you of course, and your father being a Lt. General, I was inclined to believe him.”

  Moira feels her heart freeze inside her. They really talked to her father this morning? She can only imagine what is going through him mind right now, he must be so disappointed in her. Does this mean he’s coming for her? She hopes so, from the bottom of her being.

  “Your father is a very significant man Moira, and I took his word on the fact that the other students were lying about you.

  He pauses again, and fixes her with a serious glare.

  “This is why I take the matter, of you using your ability in class, as a very serious offense. You see, it’s a very serious that you and your father both, have lied about your infection. So I had to take matters in my own hands, and contacted the authorities.”

  He glances away and eyes Agent House, before turning back to glare at her. Moira is so scared now, she doesn’t know if she’s even breathing.

  “The young man you attacked in gym, admitted you tried to infect him, you know. That is a very serious crime, Miss Warner.”

  This sends waves of alarm through her, and she sits up straight with a gasp.

  “That’s not true! I never touched him, I swear it!” She cries out.

  “No need to get hostile, young lady. Your word is inconsequential at the moment, and this is for Agent House to decide if true or not.”

  Her breath hitches inside her throat. She half turns to find House watching her intently, as if gauging her reaction. Swallowing past a dry mouth, Moira sits back and stays quiet.

  “Since these accusations are very serious, Agent House here, will be taking you to the police station for questioning.”

  Moira looks down at her hands in her lap with a sigh. Of course she’s being arrested, it makes sense. Sometimes it’s so easy to forget the world she lives in. If it wasn’t her in this position she’d see this as an awful crime, misjudged of course but still a crime, in the eyes of the law.

  “You’re being charged on grounds of withholding your medical history of infection, and the intent on infecting another individual.” Agent House says clearly, from her side.

  All she can do is nod. There is no point in arguing now. It would do her no good, and she can use all the help in them thinking she’s not trouble.

  “Now, if you could please stand, Moira Warner.” House says.

  Moira turns to look at him, and he nods at her. So she does as he says and slowly and stiffly she rises to her feet.

  “Good girl.” House says, as he joins her on his feet.

  From behind his back, hooked to his belt, he unhooks a pair of handcuffs, and she realizes that they are for her. She doesn’t even bother showing a reaction to them. She just turns around as he reaches for her. With her back to him, he stealthily clasps the cuffs onto her wrists. She does notice that his touch is light, and he doesn’t make them too tight
on her. She doesn’t know why he would show her any kindness. Mr. Cooper is watching her carefully, and she tries to not let his see how scared she is, and it makes him smile at her.

  Agent House grasps her wrists and spins her gently around to face the door, and she lets him guide her out of the office. He doesn’t say anything else to Mr. Cooper, and neither does he. Moira hears the other man shuffle papers on his desk, and knows he’s simply dismissing them as no longer his problem. As she gets pushes out into the office, the two guards that brought her there are waiting for them. One goes for the main administrative door, and the other gets behind them, Moira thinks they might be flanking them in case she tries something. She won’t though, she feels even emptier that she did this morning.

  Her vision narrows down so that she feels like she’s moving in syrup, and everything is clear suddenly. The doors going out into the hall open wide and she sees that a much larger crowd has gathered. It looks like the entire school has come to watch her walk of shame, and it kills something inside her, not knowing there was anything left. She’s guided out into the hall, and they squeeze through the masses. The guard in front actually has to push some people back to make room. Up ahead near the school entrance, she sees familiar faces watching her. It’s Liam and Marty.

  Flanking around them are the others Raven, Daisy and Ray, and all of them hold the same haunted expression. Beyond them she sees her brother Damon, and the way he watches her so intently, she wishes they never started to get along. She can practically see the tension radiating off him, as he is holding himself back from running to her. She feels her eyes fill with tears at the sight of them, and wishes she could just run up to them and be safe. She wants nothing more than for them to push aside the men holding her captive, but it won’t happen though. She is too far gone, for any help for her now. She knows that. As they get closer to the door, Moira can sense the familiar scent of cinnamon, and she uses it to make her feel less afraid now. Liam looks away from her then, and she knows he has to pick up on something too. She sees him whisper to Marty as she passes by them, and his eyes go wide for a moment before he controls his expression.