Persona

by Amy Lunderman

  Opening her eyes, she stays perfectly still, afraid of what will happen if she were to look at him.

  “What?”

  “Your Persona, I can feel it. It makes mine feel like a bee hive buzzing around in my head.”

  This almost makes her gasp out loud, because that is almost exactly like his makes her feel. She has been wondering for a while if he felt the same, and now she knows.

  “I feel yours too, but it’s wrapped in cinnamon that swirls around you all the time.”

  She hears him sigh behind her, and move in closer still, until she can practically feel the warmth of him.

  “Really; you smell like freshly baked apple pie to me.”

  She half turns around, and he keeps getting closer to her. She notices that his eyes are violet now, making her gasp at the sight of them, as he is staring at her so intently. She can feel the loose waves of her hair tighten into curls and turn auburn as it rises.

  Smirking at her, he in response, his hair goes a deep brown. So slowly, he lifts his hand and caresses her hair.

  “You are so beautiful, Mo.” He says in a barely audible whisper.

  Gasping now, she can barely catch her breath as her chest rises and falls.

  “Why do you make me feel this way?” She asks, and not entirely sure what way she means either.

  “I don’t really know, but I do know that I’m tired of fighting it.” Liam says in a shaky deep voice.

  He closes the distance between them then, and with an intake of breath, she meets him halfway. They’re lips crash into each other, and she places her hands into the front of his shirt pulling him closer. He wraps his hands into her hair pulling her to him, making them both gasp into the others lips.

  With a speed that leaves her eve more breathless, he pushes them into the bookshelf behind her with a bang, which reverberates all the way down to her toes.

  The collision makes them both moan in response, as there is no space between them now. As one they deepen the kiss, and they open up for each other. Moira feels like she’s swimming in a sea of cinnamon, and he tastes like nothing she’s ever had before, like sweet and spicy at the same time.

  Her whole body is tingling with her persona, and she can feel his like static electricity across her body everywhere his body touches her own. She knows she should be afraid that his or even her teeth and nails could slide out and hurt the other; but at the moment she doesn’t care.

  Distantly, she hears the door to the library open but she’s so consumed that she can’t register anything. Liam pushes closer into her, making her pull him in using her hands still wrapped in his shirt front.

  When something crashes back into the door with a bang, Liam pulls away from her slightly leaving her gasping.

  When his eyes go from hazy, to confused, and then to alarmed, Moira follows his eyes, and finds Marty is standing in the doorway wide eyed.

  ***

  “Marty.” Moira says in an abashed whisper, her voice still husky from Liam kissing her a second before.

  Liam can actually feel Moira pulling away from him, even before she physically moves. He shifts his attention off of the startled looking Marty, and searches Moira for what is going through her mind.

  A thousand different emotions play across her face, and everyone tells him the same thing; that she feels guilty. Guilty for kissing him and for Marty witnessing it obviously and it makes Liam feel awful and stupid at the same time. He feels her pulse pick up, right before she steps out and away from him, so there is a good foot between them.

  She is still watching Marty, when he finally turns his gaze to the other boy. That’s when jealously rears its ugly head, and all he wants at that moment is to rush at him and tear him from to limb for interrupting. He doesn’t though, no, he just stands there to bear witness to something he should have seen coming.

  Moira is shaking now and takes half a step to Marty and this seems to take the other boy out of the shock he was in. He starts to back away turning his head from side to side, and at first he looks heart broken.

  But then he takes his eyes off of Moira for a second and they land on Liam and his eyes narrow into a glare before turning from a light green to a startling deep shade of emerald.

  Liam tenses and for a split second wishes the other boy would charge at him, so he could release his real feelings for the other boy. For a moment, Marty really looks like he’s going too, as his two toned dark hair becomes the blackest of black. But then he blinks, and shifts his attention to Moira.

  She takes another step towards him, with tears in her eyes and an apology just on the tip of her tongue. He doesn’t give her the chance, because his features darken, and rushes out of the room.

  Moira cries out then, and as Liam feels her apple scented persona reach a crescendo, she quickly runs after the other boy. She moves faster than normal and Liam knows she’ll reach him in no time at all and confess her undying whatever’s to him.

  That is something Liam is not strong enough to witness, or to even try to take a stand and stop her; and so he just stands there. He wants to turn his eyes from the sight unfolding in front of him, but he can’t, much like watching a car accident and it makes him sick to his stomach.

  He can feel his persona fading away from him, the closer Moira gets to Marty, and they are almost at the end of the hallway when he hears it; a sound so quiet, that he almost misses it, but he doesn’t.

  It’s a scratching noise, something similar to nails on a chalkboard or maybe on glass. It doesn’t sound very far away either, and in fact, it sounds very close to Liam. He has time to figure out what’s going to happen before it does, but he doesn’t have enough time to call out or move.

  The windows in the hallway are blown inward towards Moira and Marty, as bodies dressed in black come crashing in, while he stands frozen. When Marty and Moira both are hit from the side and crash into the opposite wall, Liam suddenly wakes up.

  His persona floods through him faster than it ever has before, and he runs for the hallway with a yell and his nails outward.

  As he runs, he notices that there are four bodies that came in through the windows and they are brandishing batons. Two of them are already attacking Marty and Moira with them, who were already stunned and surprised from being knocked into the wall. Marty doesn’t take long to figure out they are being attacked, and he is up and under his full persona hitting back at the person near him.

  The other one though manages to get a couple good hits to Moira, while she is still on the ground. She blocks one swing at her, and pushes them away, and it’s a surprise to Liam that the persona actually stumbles back a bit. When she is getting to her feet though, the person is already charging her and jabs her in her middle. She cries out from it and hunches over, and this throws Liam over the edge that is almost upon them.

  He is almost to Moira’s side, when the other two people notice him coming to her aid, and block the path. Liam finds this funny, like they could really stop him, because if anything it just pisses him off. With a smirk, he easily dodges them as they take a swing together at him, and before they can regain their balance he attacks.

  He swipes his clawed hands at the closest person and when he drops his baton, Liam quickly punches the guy and knocks him to the ground. As the guys lays out flat, Liam picks up the fallen baton and advances on the other one.

  This one, who watched the display, takes caution and they slowly circle one another in the small hallway.

  He tries to not pay attention to Moira and Marty, whom he can hear still struggling with the other two men, as he puts all his focus on the one before him. With his heightened vision, Liam can see the subtle way the man before him tenses as he moves, and he knows without a doubt he’s going to pounce.

  Before he even finishes the thought, the man rushes at him and swings the baton at him like a baseball bat. In a move much faster than his opponent, Liam lifts up him own baton and easily blocks the other man’s hit. The batons clang together from the force and Lia
m can feel it reverberating all the way down his arm, and so can the other man, so he uses it to his advantage.

  He uses all his weight and pushes the man off with the baton and manages to hit him on his masked covered face.

  The man falls to the ground with a yell, but Liam isn’t finished with him yet, growling, he’s about to jump the man and tear into him. Then there is a cry of pain, which draws his attention across the hall to Moira.

  She is in full person now too, and looks all of a fiery Goddess with her flowing red curls whipping around her; as she gets hit in the face with a baton and knocked back into the wall. Liam lets out a low heavy based growl, and slowly turns to the man that just hit her, who is pulling back his arm to take another swing at her.

  He tenses his legs and is about to rush to them, when he see’s something that makes him pause. It’s Moira.

  She was kneeling on the ground, but now she turns her head up to face the man before her, and she is smiling with blood sliding out of her mouth. In a move to fast for even Liam to really see, Moira lets out a blood curdling scream and leaps off of the floor and launches herself onto the man.

  They crash into the opposite wall, with her screaming and clawing into him the whole way. On the other side of them, he notices Marty also watching the fight while exchanging punches with the other man, with a look of horror on his face. He is definitely with him on that one, and he doesn’t even like the boy anymore. Liam is too shocked over what he is seeing to notice what is coming for him now; the guy he was fighting with is on his feet and rushing at him.

  Liam hear him at the last second, but it doesn’t give him enough time to do anything accept turn and catch himself as they fall to the ground in a heap. The man comes up punching him as soon as they land, and Liam manages to block him after the second hit. Holding the man’s arm in one hand, Liam uses his other to punch his face in rapid succession, until he falls backwards. Liam uses this momentum to jump to his feet, and with an animal graze, he leaps at the man this time.

  They fall into the opposite wall, and as they does Liam get his clawed hands into the man’s chest and pushes into him. The man screams as the hit into the wall pushes Liam’s nails into him deeper, and when he twists his hands just right, the screaming stops.

  Pulling himself free of the now dead man, Liam gets to his feet and surveys the hallway. His eyes land on Marty first, who is standing over a guy and holding him by his shirt with one hand and punching him with the other. Satisfied that he can handle himself, Liam searches out for Moira, since the blood is pumping into his veins to out of control to sense her at the moment.

  When he finds her though, his blood runs cold and all feeling leaves his body, but not from something bad. No, this girl seems to be able to handle herself, and by herself, Liam means her kick ass self.

  Somehow the guy that she launched herself at before is still trying to hurt her, stupid Liam thinks, as he punches at her now baton free. He gets in a hit that knocks her back into the wall, and before he can go to her again, she lets out a growl to match his own, and rushes the man. Instead of leaping onto him, this time she grabs onto his shirt from and digs her nails into him.

  Having a hold on him while he yells in pain, and in a move too fast for Liam to even keep up with, she spins them around and lifts the man off the ground. With a scream she releases the man, and he gets thrown into the wall right behind Liam, causing him to duck down before getting it.

  His head turns and follows the man’s movement, and he watches as he hits the wall with such a force that the wall cracks from the pressure; and so does the man’s body. As it falls to the ground a lifeless heap, Liam slowly gets to his feet and turns to face Moira.

  She is standing in the middle of the hallway breathing heavily, and with an intake of breath, he can sense the apple coated persona. The force of it inside his head almost brings him to his knees. She is staring at the fallen man, and instead of regret, Liam see’s justification in her eyes.

  He whole heartedly agrees with that, he just didn’t know what she was capable of. Neither did Marty, who is now getting to his feet, as the man he was fighting is now still on the floor. He looks at Moira like he’s never seen her before, and he has a moment to wonder what was really done to her at the time in the facility. Then she blinks, and her cold bright green eyes shift to him, and some life comes back into her.

  He is about to go to her as tears form in her eyes, but then the sound of more glass shattering at other spots in the house, followed by the screams of the others makes him pause. The three of them share a similar look, before they move as one and charge down the hallway and towards the sounds of another fight.

  ***

  As she runs into chaos, Moira can’t believe what is going on, and she feels like she is just a passenger as someone else controls her body. She knows that’s not true, but she still feels like it is. It scares her, to her core, to feel her hands slice into flesh and not stopping to care about what she is doing.

  She and the boys make it into the main living room, and find that there are more of the men dressed in black gear brandishing batons. There are more than there were in the hallway, at least over ten or so. Moira has no idea what they want with them, but she definitely isn’t going to stop and ask them.

  Her pulse spikes up for the hundredth time that night, and her persona jumps to a new level of humming in her body. For a second as she stands in the entrance of the room, looking in she feels unstoppable. That thought alone keeps her in place and not charging into the room.

  Marty and Liam aren’t so hesitant though, and with one look inside, they both run head first into the room. The others are already in the room, and she wonders if they have been fighting the men off at the same time that they have. Ray and Daisy are side by side and backed into a wall between three of the men. They keep making the mistake of jabbing at Daisy with their batons, which drives Ray over the edge.

  Together they look like the rising sun, all glowing shades of light from head to toe. Across the room is a ravenous Raven, whose hair is cascading around her shoulders in silky waves of jade black. Moira almost feels bad for the two men trying to hit her, since she is handling herself pretty well between them.

  To the right of the room is Gordon, and he looks the most startling to Moira. She has never really seen an adult using their persona, or one that never seemed like one of them before. He is fighting a handful of the men and is holding his own with them, much to their displeasure. He got a hold of one of the batons, and he uses it against the men’s own batons coming for him.

  It looks like a sword fight gone wrong, Moira thinks. When the boys jump into the fray, they split apart and head for the next couple of men that are heading their way; leaving Moira alone at the doorway.

  Liam looks like a barbarian warrior, to her from the way he runs and jumps before he launches himself claws outward at the closest man. He lands on him without problem, driving his nails into the man’s chest. They fall to the ground, and when Liam is already pulling his hands free and turning to the next guy, she realizes the man he attacked didn’t even scream.

  Marty on the other hand, is all punches and kicks, and Moira thinks he’s not exactly subtle in his attacks either. Never the less, they work for him, and he has one man knocked how and is already working on the next one. Moira can feel the tension and adrenaline in the room as if it was her own, and in a way it is.

  A hot coursing feeling travels along her skin and makes the hum of her persona feel like a tickle. Her vision goes red, and all she feels is rage, and very protective of every one of her friends.

  Never feeling stronger than at this moment, Moira doesn’t wait any more time, and charges into the room with a yell. The closest men to her are just two that seem to be observing the others, well too bad your mine now, she thinks.

  They barely turn to her when she is almost upon them, but then she doesn’t care either way, she is still going to take them down. She is close enough to touch the first man, when
he finally faces her and starts to swing his own baton at her, so she changes tactics. She spins away at the last second, and leaps at the man beside him that wasn’t watching her still.

  She launches herself onto his back, making him yell in surprise, and she quickly digs her nails into his face. He starts to fall forward and she senses the other man coming for her back, so in a cat like grace, she kicks off the man she is on. Spinning in the air, launches herself at the other man with a growl.

  She collides into him with such a strong force that they get knocked to the floor, and she sees her opening. Getting her hands on his head, she makes sure to push it down hard as they land. At first contact, his body jerks and goes still. In the back of her mind, she knows she should worry about hurting these men, but then she also thinks no freaking way; they started it first.

  Breathing heavily, but not even the least bit tired, she slowly gets to her feet searching out the next threat. The others are still busy and didn’t see what she did, and that makes her slightly better for doing it in the first place. Shaking her head, she dismisses these thought, they are just a distraction.

  Then among it all, she sees her next target. Some fool, who thought sneaking up on a busy Raven was a good idea, well not tonight she thinks.

  In a blur of speed, that she never thought possible for herself, she finds herself across the room and beside Raven in a heartbeat. The other girl’s eyes go wide at seeing her there out of nowhere, but she quickly goes back to kicking another guy rushing at her. Moira takes a moment to be impressed by her movement, and feels jealous for her tall stature and perfect kicking legs. Then there is the man that thought he could sneak up on Raven while she was distracted, he came to a startled stop when Moira appeared.

  Now though, he must have gotten his bearing, because he is advancing on Moira. She doesn’t even bother trying to pretend to be nervous; she just stands there and lets him come to her as she smirks. Oh yeah she thinks, come and get me.

  She is so wrapped up in the excitement of another fight, feeling the blood pump through her veins, which she doesn’t notice the front door open up behind her and Raven.