Persona (29 page)

Moira sighs, but doesn’t know what to say in response, so she turns on her stool to eye the girl. Anna had stopped working and giving her a slight wary smile.

For some reason, Moira is filled with the urge to cry. She doesn’t though, and instead she gives Anna her own wary smile, except it holds less forwardness than the other girls.

“Thank you for saying it, but I don’t feel very brave. If anything, I’m scared more than anything. Especially for my friends and family back home.”

Anna turns completely around now, so that she is facing Moira. She force’s Moira to still her hands from her work and turns her to face her.

“Don’t you see? That’s why you are brave. Even though you’re afraid, you don’t give up and turn back. That’s what I call being brave anyway.”

All Moira can do is stare at the girl with a soft wonder. She really thinks she is brave. It amazes her that anyone could think that about her, especially since she hasn’t done anything to deserve it.

Everyone else, her dad, Liam; they are the ones that have taken charge. Not her. She has just been a victim and left on the run. It makes her feel like a coward, but then here is Anna, thinking she is brave for it.

“I appreciate that, I really do. If only I could actually live up to it.”

“Don’t be hard on yourself, I have a feeling this is a start of something important that is coming. I just wish I could run away and not be afraid of who I really am.”

Now Moira is the one to take hold of Anna’s arms and force her to look at her and pay attention to what she says. The other girl’s eyes go wide, when Moira touches her.

“You shouldn’t be afraid of you are Anna. There is nothing wrong with us, none of us. It’s a shame that the people that did this to us, names us as monsters, when we aren’t. And don’t be too hasty to want to run away. You’ll miss your family, I know I do.”

Anna leans back with a wide smile across her face, which she is practically glowing. Moira doesn’t know why she is so happy, while she herself feels the hum of her persona from getting so worked up.

“That right there is what I mean. You don’t care what people think, and stand by your beliefs. That’s change on the horizon I think.”

Anna turns back to her cow and goes back to work, and Moira is left starring open mouthed at her back. If only Anna met her a couple months ago, she definitely wasn’t that sure of whom she was, and honestly she still isn’t. She is about to tell her so, when she gets interrupted by two shadows looming over her all of a sudden.

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.